DVR Parking Mode and additional batteries

[Linas.P]

As you might have seen I had some issues with vandals recently. I have DVR with "Parking Mode", which works on basis of g-force/sound and motion detection. Actually, works quite well as far as I have tested, but the camera itself only has a capacitor and even if there would be a tiny Battery that won't last an hour.

Option 1: I can hardwire it.... but there are issues with that 1. acid batteries are not meant to be cycled 2. even if I disregard that I might end up with a flat Battery. I know there are Battery protectors, but they kind of defeat point of parking mode. The question here - how long would you think the Battery would last with a simple "hardwire and forget approach"? 

Option 2: is to buy those fancy ... or to be specific "that" fancy Cellink B pack... but it is £169 and claims that it gives only 24 extra hours. which is nowhere near sufficient for me. Anyone have experience using something similar?

I have tried using 10000 mAh Battery bank, but it annoys me because it is "smart" i.e. it does not charge while being charged itself and does not charge automatically without turning it "on" and it seems it sometimes gets confused with low power consumption parking mode and turns off by itself to preserve energy (very useful). When it work it gives ~12-14h of parking mode footage thought. Really my goals is to have parking mode for 3-5 days which doing rough estimates on how long battery bank last would require ~ like 100000 mAh, Cellink B has 76000 but not sure why it last only 24h.. (maybe I should get Tesla for this kind of thing and just tap into main Battery :D)

[J Henderson]

I have a similar dashcam setup to the one you describe - parking mode with motion sensor etc and just installed it 2 weeks ago in the "hardwire and forget" fashion.

 

I too was concerned about how much of a drain it would place on the Battery if left parked-up for a while but so far so good.

I think the longest I've gone without running the car is approx 3 days and like I said, the car's been fine and I always park with the camera facing the entrance of my driveway where passers-by etc are potentially triggering the camera quite often.

 

I really should check my recordings to see just how often the camera logs an "event" but assuming none at all, leaving the car for a couple of days with the camera on standby has been fine and my Battery is still the OEM one. 😊

 

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[Linas.P]

Does your camera record anything in mean time? i.e. mine does like a time lapse (1,3 or 5 seconds) if nobody triggers it and if there is trigger it records 3 minutes of video, then time lapse again.

[J Henderson]

I do have the time-lapse option but have it disabled in favour of the motion-detection mode based on a YouTuber's recommendation.

Like I said I'll need to review my footage to see how useful it is but as I understand it, the camera is in a state of readiness at all times until it decides something is worth recording and then saves a clip.

 

I believe it works because I noticed when I got in my car last night that the camera's LCD screen was already illuminated. Meaning it had obviously detected me walking in front of the car and had recorded it.

 

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[C Mclean]

Check out the Powermagic Pro, hooks up to the 12v Battery and you can adjust it to turn off at a certain voltage so you don't get a flat Battery.

[Linas.P]

20 hours ago, C Mclean said:

Check out the Powermagic Pro, hooks up to the 12v battery and you can adjust it to turn off at a certain voltage so you don't get a flat battery.

Yes I have look at it, but I it just simply turns off the camera when Battery gets to certain voltage and I want it running.

Anyways I am going o try to hardwire it tomorrow as I don't have plans to drive it over the long weekend and it is going to last, for ~3days then it will be good enough for me.

@J Henderson - what DVR do you have?

[J Henderson]

I have the Viofo A119S. Which is like a new & improved version of the popular A118 from a few years ago. Was around £100 including optional GPS module, Polarising filter and Hardwire kit.

I wanted it hardwired into something that's "always on" so chose to tap into the keyless entry system circuit.

[J Henderson]

@Linas.P, just checked the footage on my SD card and the parking mode works like a charm. It's actually way more effective than I thought it would be as very little movement is needed to trigger the camera into recording, and the field of view the camera has is surprisingly far-reaching. I had a number of clips saved that were caused simply by a small bird flying in and out of a tree about 20ft away from my car. 

Knowing that the car can be left stationary for at least a couple of days with a camera this active makes me very happy. 

[Linas.P]

That sounds good. I might as well try leaving just sound/movement sensor and not time lapse, which I guess will use less power.