Drained battery. Broken 3-wire VIOFO hardwire kit or other issue ?

Should probably measure the voltage at the fuse you tapped into.
Are values different from fuse and battery measured?
I connected the hk3 power cable to the main cable from the battery to the fuse box.
 
I'll take measurements from both tomorrow
 
I measured the voltage from the battery pole
The voltage at the HK3 will be a little lower, also when the HK3 turns off the battery voltage will increase a little because it has less load.
 
measure the voltage at the same point as where you have connected the red wire and where you have connected the ground wire
 
OP let us know how you make out when you replace the battery
Well...I have replaced the battery a while back, but just recently I bought a new multimeter, because I lost the previous one. So I'm only been able to test stuff this week.
What I found out is that it's incredibly hard to test HK3 with brand new battery, the discharge just takes too long. The camera did not power itself off yet without my help. I need to let the car sit parked for 24h but I haven't had the chance to do this yet.
Right now after 12h the battery is at 12.3v (while the cutoff is set at 12.4v). When I unlock the car ,the battery voltage decreases to 12.2v and when I do the lights and radio on I get 12.15v and the camera finally shuts down after 2 min or so.
Now I need to reproduce this while the car is locked. Basically my assumption is that when I set the cutoff at 12.4v, it will cutoff the power at around 12.175v but I need to verify it.
 
I would like to see this thread continue,
 
Well...I have replaced the battery a while back, but just recently I bought a new multimeter, because I lost the previous one. So I'm only been able to test stuff this week.
What I found out is that it's incredibly hard to test HK3 with brand new battery, the discharge just takes too long. The camera did not power itself off yet without my help. I need to let the car sit parked for 24h but I haven't had the chance to do this yet.
Right now after 12h the battery is at 12.3v (while the cutoff is set at 12.4v). When I unlock the car ,the battery voltage decreases to 12.2v and when I do the lights and radio on I get 12.15v and the camera finally shuts down after 2 min or so.
Now I need to reproduce this while the car is locked. Basically my assumption is that when I set the cutoff at 12.4v, it will cutoff the power at around 12.175v but I need to verify it.
In my measurement, I saw that when the luggage door is open (luggage lamp is on) or the one of the other doors is open (interior lamp is on), the battery discharges more quickly. Even the camera screen is on accelerates the discharge.
That's why I tested it after making sure that all the devices that draw current were turned off, except for the camera.
 
Hi folks, I've joined the forum specifically to comment on this thread. I found the information in the thread really helpful, so thought I'd add my experiences with the HK3 hardwire kit in the hope that it might be helpful to others. In summary, I've tried 2 of the hardwire kits and have found both of them to cut off the power to my A129 Duo at around 12.2v, instead of the 12.4v as per the setting I've selected with the switch on it. It's annoying, but I'm relatively happy with the A129 and the hardwire kit overall for the price, so I'm keeping them in the car. Here's more detail if you're interested:

I bought the A129 Duo a couple of weeks ago and fitted it in my car using the HK3 hardwire kit.

At the weekend, having left the car sitting for a couple of days, I decided I'd do a quick check to make sure it was cutting off the power to the camera at the 12.4v I'd set. I looked in the car window and saw the camera's recording power light was still on. So I reckoned the battery must still have 12.4v or more. As soon as I opened the car and got into it I got my multimeter out and put its leads onto the power to the camera from the fusebox and to the grounding point. I was surprised to see it reading 12.0v, however at that point I checked the camera again and saw it had now switched off. At this point too my interior lights switched off and on checking the voltage again it had went up to around 12.2v (probably because the camera and the interior lights had stopped drawing power by then). I then turned the ignition switch on (not starting the engine, just turning the 'accessories' on). The camera turned on and started recording in driving mode. The voltage reading at this point was 11.9v (probably because the interior light and camera were drawing power again, as was the car heater). I then switched the ignition off and the camera went back into parking mode (if it's relevant, I've got it on the 5fps mode) and the voltage slowly went back up to 12.2v. Also, much to my relief, after about 90 seconds the camera switched off. I was happy that the camera was switching itself off, but not so happy that it appeared to be doing so around 12.2v and not at 12.4v as per my setting. So I thought I'd have a search on the internet to see if other folks were having similar issues and that's when I found this thread. After reading through it all, I decided to order another HK3 hardwire kit as I thought my original one might be faulty, or indeed this 12.2v cut off might be what many of them do. I've now received it and tested it too:

After fitting the new HK3, and not having the chance to leave the car sitting unused, I decided to run the battery down quickly (from the 13v it was at) by sitting in the car with the interior lights on and the outside lights on too. This meant the battery voltage dropped pretty quickly, around 0.01v every 10 seconds or so. I sat watching the multimeter intently and the camera turned itself off at approx 12.16v (I say approx because I had to keep moving myself around to be able to look at the multimeter and then back to the small light on the camera tucked behind my mirror!). It's worth keeping in mind though that the camera seems to run for around 90 seconds after the power has been cut to it (probably as the capacitor is running down during that time?), so that would mean it actually switched itself off around 12.25v (i.e. the battery was losing about 0.01v every 10 seconds approx, so the 90 seconds running time would equal about 0.09v). I then decided to re-wire in my original HK3 that I'd got a couple of weeks ago and see what results I got with it. I took the car for a fairly long run to get the battery back up to almost 13v. After that I did exactly the same test as I'd done with the new HK3 - I kept the interior and exterior lights on and, watching the multimeter intently, the camera turned itself off at around 12.15v (again, because of moving back and forward between the multimeter/camera, it might've been 12.16v or 12.14v).

So, it appears that the 2 units I've got are both turning the camera off at around the 12.2v mark. I say 'appears' because I think my testing isn't good enough to accurately catch exactly when the HK3 is cutting power to the camera. It could well be that it is actually turning off the camera when the battery hits 12.4v. In any case, even if it is turning off at 12.2v instead of 12.4v, that's less than a 2% variation and for the price, I reluctantly have to admit that's ok. I'd rather it protected my battery more and I saw it turning off when my multimeter was nearer 12.4v, but all said and done, can't really complain for the price imho. I am still slightly nervous that it doesn't turn itself off one day and drains the battery, but life's too short to dwell on that :)

Hope this is interesting/helpful. Cheers.
 
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I have been shutting my Camera off when it is in my driveway. I had some similar things happening to mine.
i live in N.E. Pa. and in the winter I have better tender attached to my battery, My truck sits in the driveway for days and that has my battery sitting at 11.75. Since I attached my battery charger I no longer have issues. Also it is good that it cuts off early as to not drain your battery.
I have these battery tenders on my Quad, and garden tractor also without any issues. Good post Starcel
 
Hi folks, I've joined the forum specifically to comment on this thread. I found the information in the thread really helpful, so thought I'd add my experiences with the HK3 hardwire kit in the hope that it might be helpful to others. In summary, I've tried 2 of the hardwire kits and have found both of them to cut off the power to my A129 Duo at around 12.2v, instead of the 12.4v as per the setting I've selected with the switch on it. It's annoying, but I'm relatively happy with the A129 and the hardwire kit overall for the price, so I'm keeping them in the car. Here's more detail if you're interested:

I bought the A129 Duo a couple of weeks ago and fitted it in my car using the HK3 hardwire kit.

At the weekend, having left the car sitting for a couple of days, I decided I'd do a quick check to make sure it was cutting off the power to the camera at the 12.4v I'd set. I looked in the car window and saw the camera's recording power light was still on. So I reckoned the battery must still have 12.4v or more. As soon as I opened the car and got into it I got my multimeter out and put its leads onto the power to the camera from the fusebox and to the grounding point. I was surprised to see it reading 12.0v, however at that point I checked the camera again and saw it had now switched off. At this point too my interior lights switched off and on checking the voltage again it had went up to around 12.2v (probably because the camera and the interior lights had stopped drawing power by then). I then turned the ignition switch on (not starting the engine, just turning the 'accessories' on). The camera turned on and started recording in driving mode. The voltage reading at this point was 11.9v (probably because the interior light and camera were drawing power again, as was the car heater). I then switched the ignition off and the camera went back into parking mode (if it's relevant, I've got it on the 5fps mode) and the voltage slowly went back up to 12.2v. Also, much to my relief, after about 90 seconds the camera switched off. I was happy that the camera was switching itself off, but not so happy that it appeared to be doing so around 12.2v and not at 12.4v as per my setting. So I thought I'd have a search on the internet to see if other folks were having similar issues and that's when I found this thread. After reading through it all, I decided to order another HK3 hardwire kit as I thought my original one might be faulty, or indeed this 12.2v cut off might be what many of them do. I've now received it and tested it too:

After fitting the new HK3, and not having the chance to leave the car sitting unused, I decided to run the battery down quickly (from the 13v it was at) by sitting in the car with the interior lights on and the outside lights on too. This meant the battery voltage dropped pretty quickly, around 0.01v every 10 seconds or so. I sat watching the multimeter intently and the camera turned itself off at approx 12.16v (I say approx because I had to keep moving myself around to be able to look at the multimeter and then back to the small light on the camera tucked behind my mirror!). It's worth keeping in mind though that the camera seems to run for around 90 seconds after the power has been cut to it (probably as the capacitor is running down during that time?), so that would mean it actually switched itself off around 12.25v (i.e. the battery was losing about 0.01v every 10 seconds approx, so the 90 seconds running time would equal about 0.09v). I then decided to re-wire in my original HK3 that I'd got a couple of weeks ago and see what results I got with it. I took the car for a fairly long run to get the battery back up to almost 13v. After that I did exactly the same test as I'd done with the new HK3 - I kept the interior and exterior lights on and, watching the multimeter intently, the camera turned itself off at around 12.15v (again, because of moving back and forward between the multimeter/camera, it might've been 12.16v or 12.14v).

So, it appears that the 2 units I've got are both turning the camera off at around the 12.2v mark. I say 'appears' because I think my testing isn't good enough to accurately catch exactly when the HK3 is cutting power to the camera. It could well be that it is actually turning off the camera when the battery hits 12.4v. In any case, even if it is turning off at 12.2v instead of 12.4v, that's less than a 2% variation and for the price, I reluctantly have to admit that's ok. I'd rather it protected my battery more and I saw it turning off when my multimeter was nearer 12.4v, but all said and done, can't really complain for the price imho. I am still slightly nervous that it doesn't turn itself off one day and drains the battery, but life's too short to dwell on that :)

Hope this is interesting/helpful. Cheers.
I'm slowly coming to the same conclusion as you did. I still need to determine the cutoff point more accurately but at this point I think my cutoff point is closer to 12.3 than 12.2 when set to 12.4.

What I learned from testing the voltage is that you have to lock the car with you inside (with the car keys, not with any lock button you might have in your car) and wait 5-10min if you want to measure the voltage correctly. (because you want to know what voltage the camera had when the car was parked)

Like in your example, you said the camera was still running after couple of days and apparently because you unlocked your car the voltage dropped to 12.0v. (and the camera switched off) Before you unlocked the car the voltage might have been much higher, that's why the camera was still running.

Right now I'm testing like this: When I go to my the car and I see the camera has stopped running (which doesn't happen often) I lock the car with me inside and start to measure the voltage from the cigar lighter socket (my camera is connected to this fuse) during the next 5 to 10 min I'll see the voltage rising. After it stops I note the voltage and the I check the logs in the camera using the app. In the app I can see at what time the camera has stopped recording by looking at the timestamp + duration of the last recorded video.

One time I have managed to measure the voltage only 2.5h after the camera stopped and it was 12.27v

If I get lucky and manage measure the voltage closer after the camera shut down I'll let you guys know.
 
I'm slowly coming to the same conclusion as you did. I still need to determine the cutoff point more accurately but at this point I think my cutoff point is closer to 12.3 than 12.2 when set to 12.4.

What I learned from testing the voltage is that you have to lock the car with you inside (with the car keys, not with any lock button you might have in your car) and wait 5-10min if you want to measure the voltage correctly. (because you want to know what voltage the camera had when the car was parked)

Like in your example, you said the camera was still running after couple of days and apparently because you unlocked your car the voltage dropped to 12.0v. (and the camera switched off) Before you unlocked the car the voltage might have been much higher, that's why the camera was still running.

Right now I'm testing like this: When I go to my the car and I see the camera has stopped running (which doesn't happen often) I lock the car with me inside and start to measure the voltage from the cigar lighter socket (my camera is connected to this fuse) during the next 5 to 10 min I'll see the voltage rising. After it stops I note the voltage and the I check the logs in the camera using the app. In the app I can see at what time the camera has stopped recording by looking at the timestamp + duration of the last recorded video.

One time I have managed to measure the voltage only 2.5h after the camera stopped and it was 12.27v

If I get lucky and manage measure the voltage closer after the camera shut down I'll let you guys know.

Ah, that's a good idea, I'll try that if my camera has turned itself off before I get in the car. I'll post again with my results if I get the chance.
 
Ok, I was able to leave the car unused for a couple of days and when I went back to it the dashcam had turned itself off. The results this time suggest my A129 Duo turned itself off at 12.34v, or perhaps even nearer 12.4v! That's weirdly higher than what my testing last week suggested (around 12.2v cut off). But a higher cut off (i.e. nearer the 12.4v I've selected on the HK3) is better than a lower one for me! Here's the detail if you're interested:

I looked in the car window at 230pm and saw that the dashcam had turned itself off. Good. I went in the car and connected the multimeter. It showed 12.16v (this was with the interior lights coming on automatically). I locked myself in the car and, with the interior lights turning themselves off, I measured the voltage going back up. After half an hour it had went up to 12.34v. I think it had pretty much stopped going up at this point as it had taken 10 minutes to change from 12.33v to 12.34v. Who knows, it might have went up a bit further had I sat there longer but I had to go at this point. So, the good news was that the camera had apparently cut itself off at 12.34v at the lowest.

I also checked the SD card to see when the camera had actually switched itself off. It turned out it had turned itself off at 1145. So that's a cut off 2 hours 45 minutes before I looked in the window at 230pm. Therefore, it looks like my A129 is switching itself off somewhere close to the 12.4v I've set.

To clarify, my car battery increased to 12.34v half an hour after I went into the car and locked it up. It might have increased a bit further if I'd been able to sit there measuring it longer. Also, the camera had turned itself off 2 hours 45 minutes before I went into the car. I've no idea what the normal drain rate of the battery is, but surely if I'd measured the battery voltage 2h45m earlier it would've been higher than 12.34v.

So, I'm happy that the HK3 appears to be turning the camera off relatively close to 12.4v. It seems weird compared to the approx 12.2v that my 'forced quick battery drain' testing last week suggested. I'm not an electronics engineer, but this 'go in the car after the camera has switched itself off and see what the voltage goes back up to' testing seems logically more accurate to me.

Anyway, enough waffle, this latest testing makes me more comfortable that the HK3 is doing it's job relatively well. Of course based on what the other guys have found out earlier in the thread, I'm still concerned that the HK3 will drain the battery at some point. But for the timebeing at least, for me personally the A129 Duo / HK3 seems a good buy for the price and life's too short to dwell on it possibly failing at some point :)

If it does fail I expect I'll be back here with an angry face emoji. Haha.
 
I do not trust the hard wire kit and the reason I have a battery charger hooked up. These cars and trucks today with timed power, doors lock themselves after a certain time etc. it is hard to place all the blame on the hard wire kit. Some guys think they have it hooked up correctly but some times this is not the case. OP good post and thanks for sharing
 
Yes, whenever I sit in my car I always hear lots of electrical and mechanical noises, it is always doing stuff - very difficult to see if the HK3 is working well.

I have been running my HK3 for months set at 12.4v and I've never had a problem with the car not starting though.

I have bought a battery charger/charger anyway to make sure the battery is topped up from time to time.
 
If you don't want to sit in the car while writing down observed voltage values from your multimeter, you could put the dashcam into low bitrate parking mode and point the camera lens at the multimeter and a wrist watch. Then enjoy your day or evening and watch the video the next day.
 
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