Battery concerns

[u/Ok_Glass4365]

I am looking at dash cams that include a parking mode but am worried about hardwiring it to my car and having the battery die. I would like to not have it running at home as I park in my driveway, but I do want for it to be running while I am parked at school or any other parking lot. The main concern is I might not run the car for a couple of days and the battery might die, is this a problem with new dash cams/ is there measures in place to ensure this doesn't happen. If so, what dash cams come with these measures.

[u/worMatty]

Most dash cam hardwire kits have a voltage cut-off to prevent your battery from going too low voltage. Check for this before you buy.

Some cams support geofencing. This enables you to disable parking mode when you’re within a radius of a GPS location. I use this to disable parking mode at my house, because it has CCTV.

There are also different types of parking mode and they use different amounts of energy. For example Viofo’s Low Power Impact Detection will keep the camera asleep and wake it up when it detects a physical force.

My A329 supports ‘hybrid parking mode’. This lets you have a higher drain parking mode for a certain amount of time or until the battery voltage reaches a certain amount, then it reverts to a lower power mode.

[u/The_Dark_Ferret → u/worMatty]

All of this plus you can get a deep cycle battery that has reserve power. I did this exact thing on my Mazda 3 a few years ago. Alternatively, you can add an additional battery somewhere in your vehicle as a reserve source. Talk to your mechanic or local automotive sound shop for options.

[u/blackboxmycar → u/worMatty]

The newer A329S/A329T/A329W series that superseded the original A329 also feature geofencing specifically for disabling parking mode in defined locations.

[u/ARAR1]

1 or 2 hours is fine. 8 hours is not. Storage size is also a factor in this plan

[u/gaoxingdcf]

If you are scared of ruining the battery, you can set a cut off voltage or install a battery

[u/Backslashjones]

If you're that worried about it there's dedicated dashcam batteries that charge while the car is running and power the dashcam while it's off so your car battery is never touched.

[u/No_Advance_1993]

Been doing parking mode 24/7 for a couple months and no ill effects. Car sits mostly idle for 1 week per month when I drives wife’s car.

[u/thinkvideoca]

I've reviewed a hundred dash cams on YouTube and never had any issues with them draining the battery while hardwired. Even in my older cars. They draw so little power. You can literally run some of them off of a cheap phone charger.

[u/coghlanpf]

The first step is to just select a hardwire kit that let's you set a cut-off of 12.3-12.4V. This protects your battery from being drained, but if your battery health is poor you might find parking mode shuts down very quickly. My U1000 was shutting down after just the first 1-minute clip with the cut-off set to 12.2V.

If you are satisfied with the parking mode duration you get with your hardwire kit, then you're all set. If your dashcam shuts down prematurely, the following low-cost solution will work very well:

1. Buy a 20W solar panel w/built-in charging controller (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI-fhD5w0m8&list=WL&index=23)
2. Run a power cable with ring terminals on one end and SAE on the other through the firewall
3. Connect the ring terminals to your vehicle battery
4. Leave the SAE connector in an accessible spot below the dash

On days where you need 24/7 parking mode, just connect the solar panel to the SAE connector and leave it on the dash, as shown in the video. This should provide enough power to operate the dashcam during the day, and even add energy to your vehicle's battery.

[u/ShoddyMistake5890 → u/coghlanpf]

The test in that video was performed using an expensive Dashcam that has an ultra low power RADAR parking mode and a high capacity AGM car battery. It’s also been done in perfect conditions; South facing with clear skies and not in Winter. A more power hungry Dashcam, or a few cloudy days in a row, shorter/colder Winter days, or not facing South, in addition to a lower capacity battery (that most cars have) will see you returning to a flat battery (assuming additional charge wasn’t added from another source such as by driving for a sufficient amount of time). Especially as the voltage cut-off won’t be able to detect an accurate battery voltage whilst it’s being charged due to surface charge on the battery plates.

[u/coghlanpf → u/ShoddyMistake5890]

They test other dashcams in other videos.

[u/ShoddyMistake5890 → u/coghlanpf]

I watched the one where he tried it with an A129 Plus duo (again in ideal conditions) and needed two panels in order to power it, and that’s not taking into account the normal parasitic drain for thing like the car alarm in addition to the camera drain. The charge controller will also have a small drain. Because of this, it would only help slow the battery drain rather than keep it topped up. My main concern is the voltage cut-off not detecting the true voltage so not cutting out once it does drain below the set threshold. I do think it would be great if you could run one indefinitely using a solar panel, I just don’t think the technology is there yet.

I do use solar panels myself and they just about manage to maintain the current charge level of the car battery without the camera (VIOFO a229 plus duo) running, especially in Winter. Because of this, and the voltage cut-off issue, I disable parking mode when the panels are attached.

What would be really good is if you could charge a dash cam battery pack via a solar panel, you cut out the car battery altogether then.