Just installed a N5 in my car

I think there's quite a lot of evidence that 11.6v is way too low if you don't want to reduce the service life of the battery. Normal car starter batteries are designed to supply high currents to start the car, not to be discharged too much. E.g.:

www.ecosoch.com

Curious Case of 50% Depth of Discharge for Lead Acid Battery | EcoSoch

Lead acid battery should be discharged only by 50% to increase its life" - is an oft used phrase. This means that we should cycle them in the 100% to 50%
www.ecosoch.com www.ecosoch.com

Maximising Battery Life - Century Batteries

www.centurybatteries.com.au www.centurybatteries.com.au
 
o yeah on the internet of information you will find many nuggets, of various substance, some could be solid or even gold, other much softer and foul smelling.
 
Video of my N5 taking a picture on its own, and the picture of me not really getting it, but at least prove my hand was not on the event button.

 
Karagandinez said:
The Internet is teeming with this information and in each article the data is different.
From personal experience: Discharging the battery to 11.8V does not harm him. Tested on lead-acid and AGM batteries.
At the moment, a lead-acid battery is installed which is 6 years old and no problems have been observed.
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Fascinating. Is your battery regularly discharged to the 11.8v cut off (Vantrue use 11.6 I think)? Or is the car usually used before it drops to 11.6/11.8v? Is it an AGM battery?
 
Each manufacturer has wire kits for the parking mode of their dash cams.
Vantrue is no exception.
 
kamkar said:
yes that is the new kit, it can be used with any parking guard mode in ( i assume ) any Vantrue system, but of course once the low voltage cut off or the timer limit selected is reached it will turn off the camera.

You do not have to use the timer of course, you can just use the low voltage cut off, and then get how ever many hours that will give you ( depending on battery size and state / charge of course.
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It seems this is a missed opportunity. If the timer just delayed parking mode then you could have full recording for x hours and then move to Collision Detection parking mode (which consumes very little battery). So you would still have some protection after the timer expired until the battery voltage became too low.
 
As i recall my car read 12. 5 or 6 volts after being parked overnight with no parking guard.
Now as i run parking guard on 70mai Omni and / or Vantrue N5 my gauge read 11.8 volts the next day, as none of the two have the higher cut off values i would prefer.
Or that is it for sure do when the N5 system have been on parking guard, TBH i have not checked what volts are after overnight omni parking guard, but the camera are still on the next day cuz it pan around when i enter the car.
Having the N5 on overnight with motion detect, both cameras was " dead " the next day.

Using 12.2 volts for cut off, and timer ( 3 hours ) i have never really seen any dip in the voltage as the 3 hours are nothing.
I would not like to be in a place where i feel parking guard for as long as my battery will allow is needed, then i think i would prefer to move to a better place or park in a better place.

IF ! i was in such a place, i would add a charge / battery splitter like campers have, and then a AGM battery dedicated to dashcam use.
Or maybe a dedicated dashcam power pack with 1 - 2 additional packs to extend the time it can work.
But both of those scenarios are probably more than i would like to spend my meager pension on.

wibbly said:
then you could have full recording for x hour
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That would not work as running regular continuous recording are not advised as it generate the maximum heat inside the camera itself, that is why there are things like Low bitrate or time lapse for parking guard, A : to generate as little heat as possible and B: to have as little as possible parking guard files.

So running regular recording for X hours on a sunny day, well that will just increase the chance that your system shut down due to high heat, probably even before a very delayed parking guard set in.
AND ! only a few systems are able to automatic boot up once it have cooled down,,,, like very very few systems can do that. the norm is heat shut down = permanent shut down until you start your car again.


Okay i know in Denmark and the UK those blue skies and 25 - 30 deg C summer days are not frequent, hell this year we Danes havent even had just 1 day with 30 deg C.
This past July here the wettest one on record, even if we have not had any catastrophic ammounts of rain, then we still had 2 X the norm for the month.
 
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kamkar said:
That would not work as running regular continuous recording are not advised as it generate the maximum heat inside the camera itself, that is why there are things like Low bitrate or time lapse for parking guard, A : to generate as little heat as possible and B: to have as little as possible parking guard files.
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That is a good point. I'm not sure it makes that much difference though. In my review I measured, for example:
  • Normal recording mode ~ 750-820 mA
  • Motion detection parking mode ~ 710 mA
However, it does say to only use Collision Detection parking mode in the summer. That's just 9mA!

Does anyone know what the hardwire kits consume themselves? I guess they pull some mA even after the battery cut-off voltage has been reached, or time has been exceeded.
 
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Yes the N5 i think deep sleep and so when it wake up to record it do not have any buffer from before the trigger, at læeast i do not hear any ding / bong in my G-sensor triggered recordings.
 
Rain ( normal amounts ) trigger G-sensor ( setting 5 which is high i think )


I have now changed to the default #3 setting for sensitivity.
 
I finally ran into the "N" series button issue, and it is clear what have been made wrong.

1: The use of a glue not suited for the task.
2: The lack of a anchor profile on the metal magnet that hold it all in place.

Now to me it look as if the magnet have been painted, so this in itself should mean it is fairly free of grease.
So to be that can not be the problem.
Vantrue should have scuffed up the glue side before gluing / before painting using a 60 grit sander / grinder, this would enlarge the surface for the glue ( or paint which i am most familiar with ) to hold onto, what we in the surface treatment game call a anchor profile.

Looking closer just now the glue dont seem to have let go of the metal part, but rather the plastic part, this could probably be alleviated by using a bit more glue as the plastic part are fra from flat and even.

IMG_20230908_171104.webp


I will proceed to remove the glue on the metal part using a file, and then i am going to try my trusty old shoe goo on the 2 parts.
Not ideal but from my experience with the stuff it should be fine for something like this with very little mechanical forces acting upon it.

iu
 
kamkar said:
Video of my N5 taking a picture on its own, and the picture of me not really getting it, but at least prove my hand was not on the event button.

Click to expand...
I noticed you had some 'thundering bass' going on. Makes me suspect there's an issue where the camera is misinterpreting some audio input as a command to take a photo. I'm experiencing the same with an S1-Pro I'm testing.
 
No thunder here, just 4 factory door speakers.
As a guy that once ran 3 12 " woofers each fed 500 Watts, that was thunder, and i am still amazed i have no hearing loss.
 
Regarding memory cards and the N5, this is where i am as of now, where i am ready to but a new one in the camera tomorrow.

Sandisk high endurance - OK
Sillicon Power 3D nand ( brown ) - not OK
Kingston canvas go plus - OK
Kingston canvas select plus - OK
Adata High endurance - OK
 
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kamkar said:
Regarding memory cards and the N5, this is where i am as of now, where i am ready to but a new one in the camera tomorrow.

Sandisk high endurance - OK
Sillicon Power 3D nand ( brun ) - not OK
Kingston canvas go plus - OK
Kingston canvas select plus - OK
Adata High endurance - OK
Click to expand...

I am considering the Kingston Canvas Go! Plus 512gb for my new (yet to arrive) Viofo A229 Pro. What is your level of confidence in this card?

thanks
 
I do not have any 512 GB cards to test with, so not sure what to say here.

In general i can say that the kingston cards seem to work in a lot of dashcams, but the canvas go are one of my newer cards so haven't run it in very many cameras so far.
As they are in the cheaper end a kingston might very well be the first 512 GB card i pick up.
 
I have been using the SanDisk Max Endurance 256 gb with zero issues and it is only slightly more expensive than the Kingston GO Plus at 512 gb. The Kingston have
a slightly better read/write spec and must be formatted exFat. I will get the Kingston GO! Plus in 512 gb from the Kingston site to avoid clones.

Will let you know if I have any issues with the card.
 
pricerunner on cheap 512 GB cards here, price / pris in DKkr is 20.7 to 53.3 USD in the picture.

I only have the high endurance card from sandisk in 256GB, never gotten around to getting the MAX one
I am contemplating getting the kingston react in 256GB , even if it is a very old card, or at least the series is, the react was one of the first 64GB cards i got, and back then it cost more than the 512 GB version do today.
Mind you a dashcam also killed it fast, and also the PNY i also got back then,. but both was replaced and i still have the react card, the PNY one died again but at least i got a OK service life out of the replacement, but almost died the first time before i got to fill them just 1 time.
But that was something like 10 years ago.

512GB.jpg
 
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I ordered the Kingston Canvas GO! Plus 512gb from Kingston and their sale price, today, was USD 48.99 or KR 343.02. The Kingston site on Amazon ( US ) has the card for
52 USD as I recall, and, the MSRP is around USD 75.

I prefer to buy memory from the manufacturer ( SANDISK, WD, Kingston ) or from their Amazon store as this keeps me clear of the clones. I tend to wait until there are sales or
I do a price hunt as you have shown in your graphic.
 
I of course only look at local stores, or actually some time a German shore also sneak in somehow, i have also gotten cards via Official and even unofficial sores on Amazon Germany ( Denmark too small potatoes to have a Amazon )
The 64GB PNY i had that died ultra fast was from a not official store, but the replacement card did come directly from PNY them self ( EU office )

But i prefer B&M stores i have to say, and even if Denmark have a top 5 worldwide sales tax ASO, then often its not much to be saved anyway going to another country ( EU or not ) with your purchase.
 
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