Need advice, want 24/7 recording but have short commutes.

[viciouslancer]

I drive a 2016 Honda Civic Coupe and have
Z-Edge S3 Dual https://www.amazon.com/gp/B06WGR8XWRiTrontics ITB-100HD (driver side view)
Blackvue DR-400G HD (passenger side view)

I've been looking at Cellink and such, they seem a little pricey and can only last ~12hrs on a full charge. I imagine if I only make a few 15-20 minute trips through the day, this wouldn't top up the battery enough?

I was looking at a 2nd car battery, but do not know how to implement this properly/safely nor do I know where to store another large car battery.

What would you guys suggest? Is it really safe to constantly charge/discharge these Li-ion batteries in the car heat? I don't want them to explode. I live in Canada.

I want an automated setup that doesn't require me to manually charge the batteries outside of the car.

 

[DashcamDPR]

are you away from your car for 24 hours at a time??

If you're in your car every day, maybe get a handful of powerbanks and swap them over as needed, I can't think of a way to avoid manual charging as you say.

given that not many memory cars fit that amount of time on them, you don't really need a power source to outlast them in my opinion

that all makes sense in my head...

Battery dashcams are prone to short life expectancy but i'm not sure whether or not they carry on working as normal when connected even if the battery is crap, but on constant 24 hours I doubt that'll be a good thing to do

I occasionally leave my cams plugged in for upto an hour or so in a car park, my front cam is a supercapacitor though, had no issues with my rear cam, interior cam (my profile pic over there) is constantly on a small powerbank feed when I'm in the car. Tucked away in the corner of the work's car park or in my garage overnight I don't have them on.

 

[viciouslancer]

I guess when I park in the garage at home, I don't need them on, but there doesn't seem to be an automatic way to shut them off.

My day is basically.

9am drive to work (15-30mins)
5/6pm drive home (15-30mins)
Add a couple more short trips in the evening for shopping/other activities.

I want the cameras to be recording when not at home, so this is about an 8hr window while parked at work. I imagine this would drain the Cellink, and my short commute home wouldn't charge it up (even if I left it off at night in my garage at home) for the next day.

 

[niko]

2nd sealed battery in car boot connected to main battery via solenoid.

 

[abarth]

my day is much like yours and my 3+ year old battery is still healthy running 2X cameras on motion detect and connected to power via multi safer BDP. it almost never hits low voltage cut-off while I'm parked at the city garage.(I have it set for 11.8v, a bit too low for those in colder climates). the only days it will cut off is on the weekends when I don't have to commute but my home security cameras will take over monitoring duties at that point.

 

[viciouslancer]

my day is much like yours and my 3+ year old battery is still healthy running 2X cameras on motion detect and connected to power via multi safer BDP. it almost never hits low voltage cut-off while I'm parked at the city garage.(I have it set for 11.8v, a bit too low for those in colder climates). the only days it will cut off is on the weekends when I don't have to commute but my home security cameras will take over monitoring duties at that point.

This sounds doable, I should look into motion detect on these cameras or perhaps some new ones, but not looking to spend

What cameras are you running?

 

[viciouslancer]

2nd sealed battery in car boot connected to main battery via solenoid.

If going this route, would my short commutes be able to charge the secondary battery?

 

[niko]

If going this route, would my short commutes be able to charge the secondary battery?

Depends on you car alternator amperage.

 

[Dashmellow]

Depending on your needs, circumstances and budget, some people opt for a dual battery management system like those used in RVs. I think this is what @niko is talking about but I know some of these have relays and monitoring displays and other features and they will isolate the second battery during discharge. Commuter trips would probably keep the second battery topped off.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0026JCNJE

 

[abarth]

This sounds doable, I should look into motion detect on these cameras or perhaps some new ones, but not looking to spend

What cameras are you running?

currently SGZC12RC in the hatch and viofoA119 in the front.