Nextbase not charging whilst hard wired?

[HarleQuinn]

Hi,

it's not powered constantly. It auto powers on and off with the cars ignition but it looks like parking mode is draining my battery.

 

[jokiin]

my comment was in reply to this question

However can I get round this by using a live fuse so there is constantly power to the dashcam

It auto powers on and off with the cars ignition but it looks like parking mode is draining my battery.

parking mode uses the cameras battery to wake up the camera which of course will drain the cameras battery

 

[HarleQuinn]

OK so should I either not use parking mode at all or connect the dash cam to a live fuse?

 

[DashcamDPR]

is it G sensor parking mode, or motion detect?

 

[HarleQuinn]

G sensor, I have turned it down to lowest setting but it didnt help

 

[jokiin]

OK so should I either not use parking mode at all or connect the dash cam to a live fuse?

Don't connect to a live fuse, it will just keep running, not something you should consider doing with a camera that has an internal battery

 

[HarleQuinn]

Ah, I see what you mean now.

It would just constantly be powered on because of the live fuse, it wouldn't start and shut down when it detects motion?

Ideally I wanted it to have parking mode on but draw power from the car when it auto comes on and shuts down when the G sensor sets it off!

 

[jokiin]

They don't work like that unfortunately

 

[HarleQuinn]

Ok, now I know!

Looks like it is a no parking sensor operation for me then. Not a huge issue but in the past our car has been bumped twice when parked in various places and we never knew who did it. Would have been a great feature but I don't want to have to charge daily

 

[jokiin]

Probably more practical for someone that drives a lot so that the battery has more time to charge while in use

 

[HarleQuinn]

That makes a lot of sense to be honest, our short urban driving really doesn't give it much charge time!

 

[Nextbase Support]

You can Hardwire onto a permanently live fuse with the 412GW on the latest firmware: if there is no movement detected by the G-Sensor it will power the unit down into standby mode waiting for movement again.

This is a feature of the latest firmware's 11.7 and above.

 

[HarleQuinn]

OK that is an interesting development! I will reply again soon with current fuse fitting and advice on where to move it to

 

[Nextbase Support]

It won't kill your car battery as there is a protection unit on the hardwired kit, yes let us know when you get it all sorted.

 

[Zokko]

I’m having a very similar issue with my Nextbase 512GW hardwired using the Nextbase kit - in a Mazda MX-5 (Mk3.75).
It operated just fine for about a month, when powered via USB off the cigarette lighter socket. Hard wired it in - using a fuse that is only live when ignition is on - and found that it consistently looses charge.
I have G sensor turned off and parking mode turned off.
After fully charging - out of the car - the battery will last 30+ minutes with the screen turned on.
Put a fully charged unit in the car and it works fine. Battery indicator shows as ‘charging’ during a 15 minute drive, recording all the way.
Return to the car after a day at work and the battery indicator will be showing only 2 bars.
Same driving and use pattern the next day and it is down to one bar.
Next morning it is switching on and off and on and off as it does when the internal battery has too little power.
I seem to be getting 5.1v at the camera connector when ignition is on.
Any suggestions please?

 

[Ralph2]

How did you hard-wire your unit? If it previously worked from a USB source (via your cigarette lighter socket) then you needed to replicate that by adding a cigarette lighter female socket from your hard wire source (fuse) and the use the USB adapter setup you previously had / used.

 

[Zokko]

How did you hard-wire your unit? If it previously worked from a USB source (via your cigarette lighter socket) then you needed to replicate that by adding a cigarette lighter female socket from your hard wire source (fuse) and the use the USB adapter setup you previously had / used.

Hi Ralph2, thanks for your interest.
I hard-wired it using the kit supplied, by Nextbase, specifically for the purpose. It goes straight to the fusebox where it is connected as a piggy-back onto the 'Acc' fuse. All voltages show that it is live when switched on at the ignition and off when switched off.
What I am thinking of doing is going back to powering it from the cigarette lighter socket again for a few days and see if I still have the same issue.

 

[Ralph2]

Looking at the kit supplied by Nextbase it has a built in voltage converter so there should be no reason it does not work.. unless it is defective. Are you actually able to detect ~5 volts at the mini plug itself? Off hand that would be tricky to do given the size of the plug, I would be concerned about shorting out between the exposed wires.

 

[Zokko]

Yes - 5.1v measured across the last and last but one pins. Multi-meter with fine point probes.
12v between the bullet connector and earth point.

 

[Zokko]

Update - for anyone interested.
I swapped back to charging from a USB cable via the cigarette lighter adapter and immediately the camera charges like expected. No further issue over having enough charge or apparently loosing charge.
Have now gone back to the fixed wire feed, but moved the piggy-back to another fuse. I was taking it from a 7.5A 'Acc' fuse and the camera was showing as charging, but I have now changed it to a 15A 'Aux' fuse. It also is switched rather than always on, but so far (since yesterday) I have not seen any loss of charge on the camera.
Despite what it says in the Nextbase user instructions, perhaps not all fuses are equal - at least on a Mazda.
I'll post a conclusion once I have done my regular short commute for a couple of days - a period which would have seen the camera out of charge.