DT MI
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- Joined
- Oct 10, 2014
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- Location
- Michigan
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- Dash Cam
- More than my wife thinks I need.
It's a slow, lazy day today so I got to thinking (which is always dangerous in my case ) - that plus we are considering buying a new vehicle in the next few months so I have a real world interest in this.
With the prevalence of stop/start technology in new cars increasing as a result of CAFE standards in the US (and possibility other countries as well - I don't know) I see some less-than-interesting side effects for users of dash cams.
The issue is when the vehicle automatically restarts power is usually interrupted to all accessory outlets/circuits during the restart. This short term power cycle can cause issues with dash cam function in a number of ways:
1) Cam shuts down and does not restart
2) Cam shuts down and restarts but corrupts one or more files
3) Cam shuts down and restarts normally but misses a 'few' seconds where nothing is recorded
4) Cam resets itself to factory settings (I specifically had this happen to one of mine when I turned the ignition on/off/on/off/on in a short period)
5) 'Parking mode' may be inadvertently started/stopped
Other issues could arise as well but these are the ones that come immediately to mind.
Most of these problems would likely happen with capacitor based cameras because they initiate a shutdown as soon as power is lost while, to the best of my knowledge, most battery based cameras either delay, or can be set to delay, shutdown for some period of time after loss of power and if power is restored operation continues normally.
Now for the big question - what can be done to preserve normal dash cam operation during the stop/start cycle? A few of my thoughts for openers:
1) Turn off the stop/start function in the vehicle. Downside is it's not possible with all vehicles and pretty much defeats the purpose of having it.
2) Increase the size of the capacitor to allow the camera to operate normally for some short period of time (5 seconds?) before going into shut-down mode.
3) Add a supplemental battery to capacitor based cameras. Kind of defeats the advantages of using a capacitor in the first place unless it's possible to tap into the button battery some (most?) cams have to maintain date/time.
4) Use only battery based dash cams but replace 'volatile' batteries with something more stable.
5) Power dash cams only from an 'ignition on' circuit versus 'acc' circuit. Downside to this is it would pretty much mandate hard wiring of all cams and be a major PITA with multiple cameras.
I would think that dash cam manufacturers would have a significant interest in this issue given that US market penetration is in it's infancy, and if cameras don't function reliability with the emerging auto technology it will only get worse instead of better.
With the prevalence of stop/start technology in new cars increasing as a result of CAFE standards in the US (and possibility other countries as well - I don't know) I see some less-than-interesting side effects for users of dash cams.
The issue is when the vehicle automatically restarts power is usually interrupted to all accessory outlets/circuits during the restart. This short term power cycle can cause issues with dash cam function in a number of ways:
1) Cam shuts down and does not restart
2) Cam shuts down and restarts but corrupts one or more files
3) Cam shuts down and restarts normally but misses a 'few' seconds where nothing is recorded
4) Cam resets itself to factory settings (I specifically had this happen to one of mine when I turned the ignition on/off/on/off/on in a short period)
5) 'Parking mode' may be inadvertently started/stopped
Other issues could arise as well but these are the ones that come immediately to mind.
Most of these problems would likely happen with capacitor based cameras because they initiate a shutdown as soon as power is lost while, to the best of my knowledge, most battery based cameras either delay, or can be set to delay, shutdown for some period of time after loss of power and if power is restored operation continues normally.
Now for the big question - what can be done to preserve normal dash cam operation during the stop/start cycle? A few of my thoughts for openers:
1) Turn off the stop/start function in the vehicle. Downside is it's not possible with all vehicles and pretty much defeats the purpose of having it.
2) Increase the size of the capacitor to allow the camera to operate normally for some short period of time (5 seconds?) before going into shut-down mode.
3) Add a supplemental battery to capacitor based cameras. Kind of defeats the advantages of using a capacitor in the first place unless it's possible to tap into the button battery some (most?) cams have to maintain date/time.
4) Use only battery based dash cams but replace 'volatile' batteries with something more stable.
5) Power dash cams only from an 'ignition on' circuit versus 'acc' circuit. Downside to this is it would pretty much mandate hard wiring of all cams and be a major PITA with multiple cameras.
I would think that dash cam manufacturers would have a significant interest in this issue given that US market penetration is in it's infancy, and if cameras don't function reliability with the emerging auto technology it will only get worse instead of better.