Ultimate Dash Cam Battery Pack Comparison

GPak said:
I don't see the on/off button on the Powercell 8.
Is Bluetooth always on? Or the USB-A port?
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Now I guess there is a possibility that the bluetooth portion could have been draining it slowly over the course of a week. I guess we will see if the IVOLT Xtra which also has a bluetooth app drains or not. The Viofo i turned the power button off. So that would not have a fair load I guess. But it is also pre production so I can not take it seriously.
 
So without power on/off button on the PC 8 and assume no auto time-out, which would be difficult to implement due to the need for very low power draw support for dash cams with LPID or Radar mode, then the Bluetooth is always on, and it will draw some power when in standby/scan mode.

Likewise, if USB-A is always on, it will also draw power due to the 12V to 5V conversion, just like the HK cables do when the dash cam is off.

Although this draw is very small, it can still make a significant difference to the readings.
This is because the LFP voltage curve is fairly flat, so a small change in voltage will show a significant difference in battery state of charge.
(Assuming only the voltage V is used for the readings, and not an Ah or combination of both).
 
So i do not know if the bluetooth is always on. I am not an engineer.
 
After 24 hours of last use, open the PC8 app on your phone, if it connects to the battery, Bluetooth is on.
Likewise, plug something into the USB-A port to check if it works.
 
GPak said:
After 24 hours of last use, open the PC8 app on your phone, if it connects to the battery, Bluetooth is on.
Likewise, plug something into the USB-A port to check if it works.
Click to expand...
They both will work. They are supposed to
 
Without an OFF button - yes! unless we are missing something.
How can we store it, say, for six months, if we don't want to use it?
 
GPak said:
Without an OFF button - yes! unless we are missing something.
How can we store it, say, for six months, if we don't want to use it?
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There is an on off switch. But most people wont do that.

Say someone has a weekend vehicle.

They park in garage. Turn dash camera off. Next weekend they start vehicle up and drive 5 minutes to the store. What kind of charge is left over when sitting for a week
 
GPak said:
How can we store it, say, for six months, if we don't want to use it?
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If you leave a LiFePO4 battery empty for six months then it is most likely dead, permanently!
 
Updated with results of IVOLT XTRA and Viofo battery pack.
So far it seems all the bluetooth and app enabled battery packs are discharging at a quicker rate.
Screenshot 2025-07-28 at 5.51.12 PM.webp
 
Nigel said:
If you leave a LiFePO4 battery empty for six months then it is most likely dead, permanently!
Click to expand...
Exactly!
Storing an LFP battery in a discharged state for a long time will likely damage the battery.

If we leave the PC8 on, it will discharge to empty in about a month.
However, if it is off, then the capacity loss is due to the LFP self-discharge which is about 3% per month, depending on conditions, so theoretically it should be about 80% after 6 months.
 
SafeDriveSolutions said:
Updated with results of IVOLT XTRA and Viofo battery pack.
So far it seems all the bluetooth and app enabled battery packs are discharging at a quicker rate.
View attachment 83356
Click to expand...
Were the Iroad Max 8 and 70may turned on or off?
They should have been turned on for a fair comparison.
Both have USB ports, so I would expect some discharge.
 
GPak said:
However, if it is off, then the capacity loss is due to the LFP self-discharge which is about 3% per month, depending on conditions, so theoretically it should be about 80% after 6 months.
Click to expand...
Just by sheer coincidence today I pulled down a prototype BP100 I was testing in January / February from my closet.
Before I put it away for storage in February I fully charged it to 100%, and turned it off.
Today, (6 months later) I connected the APP, and it said 97%.
I put it on slow CLA charge, and it fully charged in about 7 minutes, based on when it stopped drawing current, (not according to APP).
I’m dying to take this prototype apart to photograph the guts, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to take it apart without damage it.
All the other packs a took a part to photograph were a piece of cake, (PC8, B-130X, 70mai).
I think Viofo really does not want me to take it apart. Lol
I have (2) 70mai packs I also put away for storage in February under the same conditions, but they have those four green status LED’s for (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) for battery life.
 

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I think the 97% displayed in the app is probably a bit inaccurate, we know that the displayed charge level is often not very accurate.
7 minutes of charging to 100% is about 8% of the approximately 90 minutes it takes to charge from 0% to 100% with the CLA (if I remember correctly).
So the remaining charge was probably close to 92-93%.
The best way to determine the remaining charge (Wh) is to test the capacity in the usual way by discharging the battery.

The 3% self-discharge for LFP cells that I mentioned is the worst case.
Rather, it is in the approximate range of 1% to 3% depending on the cell quality, age, usage, environment, and other conditions.
So the BP100 self-discharge seems to be in that range, close to 1% to 1.5% per month.

Frankly, with batteries nothing is really precise, too many variables involved, so I always use words like: about, approximately, around, close to, up to, etc.

It would be very interesting to watch a teardown video of batteries and dash cams.
 
GPak said:
I think the 97% displayed in the app is probably a bit inaccurate, we know that the displayed charge level is often not very accurate.
7 minutes of charging to 100% is about 8% of the approximately 90 minutes it takes to charge from 0% to 100% with the CLA (if I remember correctly).
So the remaining charge was probably close to 92-93%.
Click to expand...
Except that the last percent charges slower than the previous 99%, so it maybe wasn't too far off...
Depends a bit on which firmware was in it though, this was an earlier one that hasn't been used for a while, so maybe you are correct.

As you say, the only way to know is either to discharge it to empty and find out how much comes out, or charge it to full and find out how much goes in.
 
I used my Power Cell 8 app's discharge meter to plot Percent Discharge at two different temperatures 23°C (73°F) and 7° C (45° F) for 60 hours, and added data collected by the one and only @Chuck McCoy on his PC8.
The PC8 was connected to an HK4 Hardwire kit and to an A229 Pro which was powered OFF.

My 23°C results agree closely with Chuck's although I don't know his test temperature.
I like @SafeDriveSolutions test method better because it doesn't rely on the potentially inaccurate app meter but rather uses the real world discharge time of an actual dashcam.

In any case, my data indicates temperature is a big factor in long term self discharge rate, at least for my PC8.

screenshot_811.webp
 

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Chuck McCoy said:
Just by sheer coincidence today I pulled down a prototype BP100 I was testing in January / February from my closet.
Before I put it away for storage in February I fully charged it to 100%, and turned it off.
Today, (6 months later) I connected the APP, and it said 97%.
I put it on slow CLA charge, and it fully charged in about 7 minutes, based on when it stopped drawing current, (not according to APP).
I’m dying to take this prototype apart to photograph the guts, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to take it apart without damage it.
All the other packs a took a part to photograph were a piece of cake, (PC8, B-130X, 70mai).
I think Viofo really does not want me to take it apart. Lol
I have (2) 70mai packs I also put away for storage in February under the same conditions, but they have those four green status LED’s for (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) for battery life.
Click to expand...
Any news or new info about the commercial release date of BP-100?
 
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