Power Charging Kit (With Parking Guard Signal)

[Rayman.Chan]

we are researching on how to make a faster re-charging,
the 6.5 hours recharging for 20000mAh power bank is something insufferable in this case

 

[Harsh]

Silly me, didn't turn the power strip off (engine off), timer works and is accurate.

 

[Nigel]

we are researching on how to make a faster re-charging,
the 6.5 hours recharging for 20000mAh power bank is something insufferable in this case

Most quick charge USB powerbanks take 18W charging power, a 20000 mAh powerbank contains 75Wh, so it can not charge faster than 75/18 = 4.2 hours, and LIPO batteries always slow down the charge rate towards the end so 5.5 hours is probably the fastest possible.

2x 20000 mAh powerbanks should charge at 18 x 2 = 36W, and should be 50% full (20000mAh total stored) in just 2 hours.

I guess you could have a 4 powerbank version, 18 x 4 = 72W, 20000mAh total stored in 1 hour, which is almost as fast as a Cellink Neo, we could use cheaper 10000mAh powerbanks for that and it would still store 20000mAh in 1 hour.

I think for a lot of people, using 2x 10000mAh powerbanks with the current Charging Kit will be acceptable, with the current Charging Kit we can charge them to 50% full in 1 hour and it is a much cheaper solution than buying a Cellink Neo. For most people it will not give 24 hour recording, 1 hour only gives 12 hours recording, but many people do not need to record over night, only during the day, so it will be acceptable as a cheap solution.

The other way to improve record time is for the camera to use less power, the Blueskysea B1W uses about 33% of the power the 0906 uses, maybe the 0906 is not the best camera for parking mode!

 

[Nigel]

Silly me, didn't turn the power strip off (engine off), timer works and is accurate.

I knew there was something simple wrong, but didn't think of that one!

 

[kamkar]

18 hours in your setting

Indeed, 18 hours are the last thing i tested and i have not gotten around to reset dip switches to 2 hours

 

[Rayman.Chan]

the most power bank we have here is Xiaomi 10000mAh and 20000mAh for test.
here we have some other power banks but too many brands and models on market we can't test one by one.

Xiaomi 10000 and 20000mAh will have best compatibility for now

 

[Harsh]

4 hours is also accurate.

 

[TonyM]

I received my test kit this week. I have an Aukey 20,000mAh powerbank and a RAVPower 22,000mAh. When used on their own with a camera, the Aukey needs its power button to be pressed to deliver power to the connected cameras. However the RAVPower starts delivering power as soon as a device is plugged in.

I first tested the Kit with both powerbanks attached, and with 2No B1W cameras attached to the Kit's outputs. With 12v power ON, both cameras were running and both powerbanks were charging. However when I cut the 12v input, everything stopped.

So I tested it again with just the RAVPower attached. With 12v power ON, again both cameras were running and the powerbank was charging. When I cut the 12v input, the powerbank immediately switched to power output and both B1W cameras continued recording. Turning the 12v power bank on, the powerbank went back into charge mode and the B1Ws continued recording. This was with the car stationary, engine off but 12v circuit on. The left switch was in the DOWN position.

I moved the setup to the front of my car for the drive home so I could keep an eye on it. Same Kit switch settings, same powerbank. Outputs to A129 and Mobius 1. Turning on the Kit with its little button, both cameras started recording. When I turned on the diesel engine, the powerbank started charging, the A129 restarted, and the Mobius 1 attempted to restart but froze with solid red light. I unplugged the Mobius 1 from the Kit and plugged in a Mobius Maxi, which started recording so there was definitely power going to the M1 previously. When I arrived home after 30min the powerbank was still charging, and both A129 and Maxi were recording. However everything stopped when turning off the engine.

It appears that the Kit / powerbank behaves differently when receiving steady 12v power switched on/off, compared to 12v power with possible interruptions when starting or stopping the engine. Further testing needed....

 

[Nigel]

I received my test kit this week. I have an Aukey 20,000mAh powerbank and a RAVPower 22,000mAh. When used on their own with a camera, the Aukey needs its power button to be pressed to deliver power to the connected cameras. However the RAVPower starts delivering power as soon as a device is plugged in.

I first tested the Kit with both powerbanks attached, and with 2No B1W cameras attached to the Kit's outputs. With 12v power ON, both cameras were running and both powerbanks were charging. However when I cut the 12v input, everything stopped.

So I tested it again with just the RAVPower attached. With 12v power ON, again both cameras were running and the powerbank was charging. When I cut the 12v input, the powerbank immediately switched to power output and both B1W cameras continued recording. Turning the 12v power bank on, the powerbank went back into charge mode and the B1Ws continued recording. This was with the car stationary, engine off but 12v circuit on. The left switch was in the DOWN position.

I moved the setup to the front of my car for the drive home so I could keep an eye on it. Same Kit switch settings, same powerbank. Outputs to A129 and Mobius 1. Turning on the Kit with its little button, both cameras started recording. When I turned on the diesel engine, the powerbank started charging, the A129 restarted, and the Mobius 1 attempted to restart but froze with solid red light. I unplugged the Mobius 1 from the Kit and plugged in a Mobius Maxi, which started recording so there was definitely power going to the M1 previously. When I arrived home after 30min the powerbank was still charging, and both A129 and Maxi were recording. However everything stopped when turning off the engine.

It appears that the Kit / powerbank behaves differently when receiving steady 12v power switched on/off, compared to 12v power with possible interruptions when starting or stopping the engine. Further testing needed....

I believe it only works properly if you use a powerbank with a Quick Charge / PD input (PD output only is no good)(Normally these have one or more USB-C connectors), the older USB2 powerbanks generally turn off as soon as charging power is lost.

With a Quick Charge / PD powerbank it will charge each powerbank at 18W (total 36W) instead of 10W for a USB2 powerbank.

I'm currently testing with a pair of TQKA KA023 10000mAh powerbanks which appear to work perfectly and run my B1W (Using Parking Mode) via the charger for 56.5 hours when full, or about 28 hours from a 1 hour charge. A typical dual camera will be about half those times. One good thing about these powerbanks is that they charge at full speed from empty, unlike the free powerbank which charges at only 2W for the first 6 minutes because it completely drains the cells and they need to build up some voltage again before they can be quick charged.

 

[TonyM]

OK. My RAVPower 22000mAh powerbank is just a USB2 device, with max input 12W.

Like I said, it did work as expected when simply plugging and unplugging the supplied power cord into my car's 12v socket. Something different seemed to happen when turning the car engine on/off.

 

[TonyM]

I'm currently testing with a pair of TQKA KA023 10000mAh powerbanks which appear to work perfectly and run my B1W (Using Parking Mode) via the charger for 56.5 hours when full, or about 28 hours from a 1 hour charge. A typical dual camera will be about half those times. One good thing about these powerbanks is that they charge at full speed from empty, unlike the free powerbank which charges at only 2W for the first 6 minutes because it completely drains the cells and they need to build up some voltage again before they can be quick charged.

Would you recommend the TQKA KA023?

 

[Nigel]

Would you recommend the TQKA KA023?

I'm still testing them, a bit early to fully recommend them but so far it seems like a very nice powerbank at a reasonable price.
Given that a full discharge from full takes 56 hours testing is taking some time.

Positive issues:

• It quick charges at full speed (18W) from empty unlike many powerbanks.
• Nice small size.
• Appears well made.
• Two of them seem to cooperate with the charger and discharge one at a time which improves efficiency over discharging in parallel as the previous pair I tested appeared to do.
• It says on the side: "Designed by Welsky in the United Kingdom / Made in China", not too sure what that really means but Tqka powerbanks seem to have a reasonable reputation so far and it does seem nicely made.

Negative issues to consider with the KA023:

• It is only 37Wh (10000mAh) so will slow down its charge rate at about 1 hour 20 minutes. If you regularly drive for longer than this each day then you might prefer a larger powerbank to get faster charging and maybe 24 hour a day parking mode, if you normally drive for less than 1 hour 20 minutes then there is no advantage to a larger powerbank and you will have to use eg 2 hour parking mode to cover supermarket trips, or if you want to cover 8 hour parking at work then you will need to turn the camera off overnight.
• It doesn't appear to disable charging when below freezing, which could be very bad for the lifespan if used in winter, however I haven't found any powerbank that does! For the winter I will add a thermostat to the power supply, or maybe Rayman could add "freeze protection" to the charger? Lithium powerbanks should not be quick charged below 5°C.
• I can't open it up so don't know if its quick charge from empty is because it doesn't completely empty the cells or if it just ignores the rules for charging lipos, I guess it doesn't fully empty the cells, you only need to leave about 0.5Wh capacity in the cells to be able to quick charge from empty, it would be a sensible design decision for a quick charge powerbank.
• Because it is quite a small powerbank and the quick charge supplies USB power at 12volts instead of 5volts, its internal charging circuit gets a little warm when charging, so the cable end of the powerbank needs decent ventilation or other cooling, not a problem but something to be careful of when installing. Lithium powerbanks should not be charged above 45°C so maximum ambient temperature for these is about 30°C, OK in the UK but in some places you might want to install a cooling fan for charging. For discharge with just a dashcam connected there is no issue as long as you don't mount them in the roof since they should work from -40°C to 65°C ambient temperature and even 80°C is just a reduction in lifespan, not a failure or dangerous. For UK climate mounting them with the powerbanks arranged on top of each other but with the cables at opposite ends means that they keep each other warm, which in normal UK temperatures is actually good for the powerbanks.

Potentially a lifepo4 powerbank is a better choice than lipo, mainly because they can charge at full speed until full, but there don't seem to be many about except the type used for jumpstarting cars and they tend to be either very expensive or very cheaply made. I would rather have a well made lipo that has been well tested and thus proven safe, if the charge rate when nearly full is an issue then getting a larger powerbank is maybe a better choice.

I'm still thinking a 4 powerbank version of the charger might be a good idea since that would give 24 hour parking mode with a dual camera given 1 hour charging per day and 4x 10000mAh powerbanks, however the current 2 powerbank version with 2x 10000mAh powerbanks should be sufficient for a lot of people, certainly those happy with the 2 hour parking mode setting which is all I really need and only requires a 10 minute charge per journey to keep the powerbank around half full.

My main concern is the apparent lack of temperature protection for charging these powerbanks, but that can be easily solved by sticking a thermostat on the power supply to the charger, or maybe Rayman can add some temperature protection to the charger.

Note that there are several versions of the Tqka powerbank that look the same, the KA023 has a quick charge input, some of them are quick charge outputs only, we don't need the quick charge output but we do need the input.

 

[TonyM]

I'm still testing them, a bit early to fully recommend them but so far it seems like a very nice powerbank at a reasonable price.

Thanks for the helpful advice. Like you, I only really need the 2 hour setting for short parking duration when I'm dropping off or picking up kids at school, or for shopping trips where the car is left in high risk areas. I'm not so worried about longer duration parking on the driveway or parked at work.

My daily drive to/from work is about 30min, so at 18W I can store 9Wh. I would plan to use the kit to power my 2x B1W side cameras, that's about 2W consumption, so I can theoretically get 4.5h recording which is more than the 2h I would need.

 

[Rayman.Chan]

new version and improving

 

[TonyM]

The left switch was in the DOWN position.
Further testing needed....

Update: With the left switch in the UP position, the kit with RAVPower 22000mAh appears to be working just fine with the 2x B1W.

 

[Nigel]

Update: With the left switch in the UP position, the kit with RAVPower 22000mAh appears to be working just fine with the 2x B1W.

Interesting, not sure why that makes a difference, be interesting to see if it works reliably.
However, it is still a 10 hour charge to fill it so most of the capacity will never get used, and if it spends most of its time nearly empty because it doesn't charge fast enough then it is not good for the lifespan of the lithium cells, the extra speed of 1 or 2 smaller quick charge powerbanks makes a big difference to the usefulness of the charging kit.

new version and improving

View attachment 40137

6.3 * 12 = 75.6, matches my suggestion of a 4x powerbank version...
Unfortunately there is a big hole in my image, just where the interesting bit is!
Hope the lucky cat does his job well

 

[TonyM]

Interesting, not sure why that makes a difference, be interesting to see if it works reliably.
However, it is still a 10 hour charge to fill it so most of the capacity will never get used, and if it spends most of its time nearly empty because it doesn't charge fast enough then it is not good for the lifespan of the lithium cells, the extra speed of 1 or 2 smaller quick charge powerbanks makes a big difference to the usefulness of the charging kit.

Agreed. I'm starting by testing with what I've got. I may go for one of those 10000mAh TQKA powerbanks soon.

 

[TonyM]

Update: With the left switch in the UP position, the kit with RAVPower 22000mAh appears to be working just fine with the 2x B1W.

So it was working, but stopped again.

 

[Harsh]

As VIOFO added the boot delay setting to both the A119 and A119S, tested the A119S with delay set to 5 seconds (default), boot delay on the GC is also set to 5 seconds (default), the A119S doesn't turn off as seen with the A119 in the previous video.

1:05 onwards I started cutting power (ignition off) much faster and at 1:25 when the power is cut at 2 seconds after the previous restore (ignition on), the A119S went off but restarted and resumed recording.

 

[Nigel]

I'm starting by testing with what I've got.
So it was working, but stopped again.

If you received the free empty powerbank with your charging kit, you could do the same as me and transfer the 18650 cells from your old powerbank to the new one.
It only works if your old powerbank has 18650 cells (a magnet will stick to it), or lipo and you do some soldering.
I abandoned my free one due to it taking 6 minutes to start quick charging if completely empty, that's not much good for a 10 minute journey, but if you are using the 2 hour setting and not emptying it every time then it would work fine, in fact it charges faster than one Tqka because it will accept power from both USB-C and micro USB simultaneously and charges at about 28W, the Tqka will only charge at 18W, but two charge at 36W.