ECOFLOW and Viofo

mentadent said:
I never get more than 12 hours with my 250 Wh of Powercore. I should use a multimeter to see if my car is sending enough current to it. Or give up this quest.
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Something seems “off” here…. My EcoFlow River 2 is 256Wh and it provides ~40hrs of parking mode for a two channel setup. I’m curious to see what you learn about power draw with a USB meter. You should be getting several times more battery life from that battery unless your battery is old and has diminished capacity or your camera draws a huge amount of power (which might signal some other type of problem).

This seems like it is worth further exploration.
 
@EricSan I have ordered a multimeter. I have also installed a temperature logger on the dashcam, and one in the cabin of the car, to see if it is a temperature issue.
 
I'm curious to hear what you learn about power consumption out of your EcoFlow. I have found the output meter on the EcoFlow to be reasonably accurate (at least until my USB-A ouptut circuit fried from too much heat). You should get equal voltage/power readings at both ends of the power cable.

Edit: where did you find a temp logger? I've been looking for one on and off for a little while now. Never found anything that I liked...
 
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EricSan said:
Edit: where did you find a temp logger? I've been looking for one on and off for a little while now. Never found anything that I liked...
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There are quite a few on Amazon, although not all are suitable for our likely usage requirements. Many are single use cold chain temp monitors for example. Nevertheless, there are some that look very interesting for dash cam users wanting to monitor car cabin temperatures.

This Bluetooth model caught my eye because of the small sensor module, phone app and long time data capture.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B07TK22DQQ

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=tempi.fi

temp_monitor.jpg
 
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Yours works far better than mine for standalone use.
 
Dashmellow said:
Seems to be in the same price range as the one I posted.
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It feels funny to characterize it as "yours" since it's only something I found on Amazon and don't own so I don't know all that much about it. Maybe you can talk more about your experience with the one you have and explain how you are using it and what you mean by stand alone use.
 
app and things yours can sync to app mine needs thing
 
mentadent said:
app and things yours can sync to app mine needs thing
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I see that the user manual on yours is 86 pages and seems rather complicated. "Mine" is likely more simple but I wouldn't know because not owning one it's all theoretical.

Whatever the case may be I can see that a temperature logger module + app could be very useful. Now you've got me wanting one. :)
 
I was looking at temperature loggers as well but I was hoping for ones with probes I could attach directly to the dashcam body. Most are meant to be room temperature loggers for smart homes so are quite bulky. I guess some of the smaller ones you could just stick to the dashcam.

Also @mentadent I didn't realise you could link BLE devices to the Teltonika trackers.. I was thinking about getting a 4G FMC920 as my current one is only 2G. Definetely worth a look :D
 
So this morning I stripped a USB C power cable and wired its power and ground wires into the Viofo hardwire cable and everything seems to be working great.

IMG_6445 Large.jpeg

It's amusing to see the display max out at 99 hours with the A229 Plus. Speaking of which, has anyone started to compile a list of how long different dashcams / parking modes last with the battery?
 
Powercore have a list part-way down
https://www.power-core.co.uk/products/6200lfp-hw.html
But I have their power bank + expansion power bank and I barely get 6 hours with A139 Pro 3 camera. But I have some diagnosing to do because I might have a miserly smart alternator or something.

Govee Meat Thermometer might be good if you are looking for a temperature sensor with a probe.
 
Vortex Radar said:
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It's amusing to see the display max out at 99 hours with the A229 Plus. Speaking of which, has anyone started to compile a list of how long different dashcams / parking modes last with the battery?
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The useful capacity of EcoFlow River2 for dash cam applications (low power consumption) is about 192Wh, which is exactly twice as much as 96Wh for most popular dedicated batteries.
So if there is such a list for dedicated batteries, we can simply double the parking time for EcoFlow River2.
 
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I tested the wiring diagram (Post#26) with my necespow N150 Power Station, see the video below.
Basically it works if PS stays On all the time.
But N150 has some specifics, like it automatically turns off after 12 hours and I can't change it.
So it took me 12 hours to notice that if the PS is set to turn off after a certain amount of time the USB-C to 12-15V cable will not turn On the next time the PS comes back to life with a charge, requiring a USB-C unplug/re-plug routine to activate, and this is inconvenient and unacceptable in my opinion.
In this case, I am better off using a USB-A 5V to 12V converter, which does not require USB-A to unplug and re-plug.
These two converters I tested, provide 12.13V and 12.25V accordingly and they work.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0C1C848DD
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0CNNSSTW5
As a added benefit, this also frees the only USB-C port, which I use to charge PS (necespow N150 charges at 65W using USB-C and only 24W with 12VDC)

I am not sure about EcoFlow, it may work with USB-C cable differently not requiring unplug/re-plug, also I think you can set EcoFlow to prevent from turning off at some time limit, or turn off "Eco" mode, but not sure.
Otherwise USB-A 5V to 12V converter should work with EcoFlow as well.

 
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Vortex Radar said:
So this morning I stripped a USB C power cable and wired its power and ground wires into the Viofo hardwire cable and everything seems to be working great.
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Have you wired it like in post #26 then and ACC wired in as well?

Would be interesting to know if the the battery is run down and then power is re-applied do you need to press the power button (someone had this issue with a powerbank not sure if it was this one or another, quite a few battery threads ATM)
 
joe384 said:
Have you wired it like in post #26 then and ACC wired in as well?

Would be interesting to know if the the battery is run down and then power is re-applied do you need to press the power button (someone had this issue with a powerbank not sure if it was this one or another, quite a few battery threads ATM)
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Yep, exactly.

It does automatically restart when power is reapplied to a dead battery. However, it doesn’t start providing power to the dashcam immediately. It seems like initially power is used to first start charging the battery before power is then also supplied to the dashcam.

It can take 60-75s for the dashcam to power on after starting your car up. Then it takes time for the dashcam to boot up and begin recording. With the A229 Plus, this can translate into nearly 2 minutes passing between when you power on your vehicle and when recording begins.

I was concerned initially if things were working properly, cables were all connected well, etc.
 
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