RavenPanther
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 5
- Country
- United States
I'm a new member here, but I've been watching the forums and main site, plus other places, for a long time!
I finally got my first dashcam, a G1W-CB, a few weeks back. I purchased This off of Amazon with it, and currently have it hardwired into an "always-on" source in the fusebox. The problem is, when I start my car, the power cuts to allow the starter to turn over, thus turning the camera off; however, the black-out is so short, the camera won't restart on its own. Also, as an aside, the battery protector no longer works or sends power to the camera. I think the quick, repeated blackouts have fried it.
Now, normally I'd just manually turn the camera on after starting the car. But at some point, I plan on having an SG9665GC on my back window, as well. This obviously won't be acceptable in that case. So I'm looking for some way to hold power in the small interim that the car needs to start. I've looked into making some sort of capacitor setup (I have a little soldering and electrical component experience), but it honestly seems like too much of a hassle, so I started looking into batteries. I live in Arizona, so standard powerbanks and the like just simply won't survive for long down here. I thought about putting in a second car battery, but there's not a lot of space in my car. So I found these two items:
Cellink-B
LUKAS LK-530-12v
I'm not sure which one would be best for me. The Cellink would technically only be Accessory-On, but the battery on it should last long enough that my car could sit overnight (or even a day or two?) running off of its own battery. However, the Lukas is a brand that I've heard of around here, and would be always-on. It would be wired to be Always-on, and cutoff the battery if it got too low, giving 8-9 hours of power for the camera. The thing I'm worried about with the Lukas is, how fast does it switch from car-powered to battery-powered? If there is any gap, even a short one, my camera will once again shut off and not turn back on under its own power. Also, Cellink is much more expensive. Though I do understand, you get what you pay for.
I'm also open to other suggestions. My requirements: The camera must ALWAYS be powered. The power source should protect my battery from dropping too low (a 12.4v cutoff is ideal), though if the item's battery is large enough, I can just hardwire it to an ACC slot. I also need it to last, ideally, 24 hours, from some combination of car battery + item battery. My car rarely goes longer than two days without use at any given time. It's much more common for me to leave it sitting for a day or less. Sometimes it'll only get 10 hours of rest between work days. My commutes, however, are generally short. Usually no longer than an hour at any given time, though I do take many start-stop commutes, such as a 20-minute drive, shutting off for 20-40 minutes, then back to another ~30-minute drive. Meaning there are a lot of starts (loss of power for a second or two) and lots of times where the ACC-powered devices won't be getting charged, and when they do charge, it may be for short bursts. So of course, in those cases, I'd need a battery that could withstand that kind of abuse. The device should also be able to power two cameras, either a G1W-CB + SG9665GC, or two SG9665GC's.
Edit: Lasting 24 hours is more of a "want" than a need. I almost always park my car in the garage, so I don't necessarily need it to be running then. However, I do occasionally have times where my car sits i a parking lot for 12+ hours, and I do need the camera powered during times like those.
Edit 3: Fixed the links!
I finally got my first dashcam, a G1W-CB, a few weeks back. I purchased This off of Amazon with it, and currently have it hardwired into an "always-on" source in the fusebox. The problem is, when I start my car, the power cuts to allow the starter to turn over, thus turning the camera off; however, the black-out is so short, the camera won't restart on its own. Also, as an aside, the battery protector no longer works or sends power to the camera. I think the quick, repeated blackouts have fried it.
Now, normally I'd just manually turn the camera on after starting the car. But at some point, I plan on having an SG9665GC on my back window, as well. This obviously won't be acceptable in that case. So I'm looking for some way to hold power in the small interim that the car needs to start. I've looked into making some sort of capacitor setup (I have a little soldering and electrical component experience), but it honestly seems like too much of a hassle, so I started looking into batteries. I live in Arizona, so standard powerbanks and the like just simply won't survive for long down here. I thought about putting in a second car battery, but there's not a lot of space in my car. So I found these two items:
Cellink-B
LUKAS LK-530-12v
I'm not sure which one would be best for me. The Cellink would technically only be Accessory-On, but the battery on it should last long enough that my car could sit overnight (or even a day or two?) running off of its own battery. However, the Lukas is a brand that I've heard of around here, and would be always-on. It would be wired to be Always-on, and cutoff the battery if it got too low, giving 8-9 hours of power for the camera. The thing I'm worried about with the Lukas is, how fast does it switch from car-powered to battery-powered? If there is any gap, even a short one, my camera will once again shut off and not turn back on under its own power. Also, Cellink is much more expensive. Though I do understand, you get what you pay for.
I'm also open to other suggestions. My requirements: The camera must ALWAYS be powered. The power source should protect my battery from dropping too low (a 12.4v cutoff is ideal), though if the item's battery is large enough, I can just hardwire it to an ACC slot. I also need it to last, ideally, 24 hours, from some combination of car battery + item battery. My car rarely goes longer than two days without use at any given time. It's much more common for me to leave it sitting for a day or less. Sometimes it'll only get 10 hours of rest between work days. My commutes, however, are generally short. Usually no longer than an hour at any given time, though I do take many start-stop commutes, such as a 20-minute drive, shutting off for 20-40 minutes, then back to another ~30-minute drive. Meaning there are a lot of starts (loss of power for a second or two) and lots of times where the ACC-powered devices won't be getting charged, and when they do charge, it may be for short bursts. So of course, in those cases, I'd need a battery that could withstand that kind of abuse. The device should also be able to power two cameras, either a G1W-CB + SG9665GC, or two SG9665GC's.
Edit: Lasting 24 hours is more of a "want" than a need. I almost always park my car in the garage, so I don't necessarily need it to be running then. However, I do occasionally have times where my car sits i a parking lot for 12+ hours, and I do need the camera powered during times like those.
Edit 3: Fixed the links!
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