$300 Blackbox battery vs $25 Amazon battery bank

My PowerCore is still going after something like 5 years. Not as long as the 'coming soon' for their LTO battery though 😛

Hopefully someone will jankwire a way to get this powerbank working for car use.
 
Vortex Radar said:
Have you had some fail after 2 years? I just went to go check, and I got my B-124 back in 2018 and I'm still running it to this day, lol.
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No, I have not. Others have, mileage always vary...there are few absolutes when it comes to power packs. A successful pack always starts with quality cells, that are IR (internal resistance) matched. I suspect that most owners lack the knowledge about the packs that many DCT users here have. If DCT members really, really want to understand LiFePO charging and discharging they should visit one of the DIY forums for solar power, there is a wealth of knowledge there.

I have no issue with any power bank as I know how to treat them and I know what I should realistically expect from them. I also understand there are manufacturing technical specifications that are the 'ideal' spec and there are the 'real life' specifications. My issue is with comments like this:

"The storage temperature is really a specification for pre-sale storage, so that when delivered to the customer within 6 months of manufacture, it still has "100%" capacity."

That comment is somewhere between ambiguous and incorrect in some circumstances. Lithium Ion batteries are expected to be air shipped with a SoC of %30, this is to reduce fire; there are of course some exceptions and rules, and ground carriers tend to not give it much thought, as far as SoC. However, raw batteries on a cargo plane from Asia to the U.S. are expected to be at %30 SoC. There are various exceptions for power banks and equipment that have installed batteries or batteries in the ship pack. Storage temps are the same regardless of SoC or ownership.

No power bank customer should ever get a new power bank that is at %100 SoC (realisticly %95) as that indicates improper storage charging of the battery. Storage charge for LiFePO is between %50 and %80. If you are going to store a power bank or similar for a number of months you are better to charge to, or discharge to around %50. For 3 or so months, then something between %50 and %80 is fine.
 
mentadent said:
My PowerCore is still going after something like 5 years. Not as long as the 'coming soon' for their LTO battery though 😛

Hopefully someone will jankwire a way to get this powerbank working for car use.
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I consider PowerCore to be several steps above what is currently offered by others. Would love to have one but they would not ship or sell to a U.S. customer. I could have gone to other methods to get one but then what would I do if I needed warranty?
 
dashcams said:
LFP battery so no fire risk and fast 100 watt charging. Easily get 100W in 1 hour drive and with a Viofo mini 2, it consumes about 3 watts, 24 hours x 3 about 75 watts. Anyone else have any comments on this? Good battery and implementation or bad? It's one third the cost of the blackbox battery
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Interesting, I didn't know there were any LifePO4 powerbanks, just jump starters etc.

Does it have a blip in output power when it receives or loses input power?
 
Running into an issue here. I got the Viofo A229 pro. It keeps on cycling on and off. I just opened the box. Battery came with about 50%. Plugged into a temporary 65 watt PD.... I guess I have to email the battery company. Camera worked fine without it.
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dashcams said:
Running into an issue here. I got the Viofo A229 pro. It keeps on cycling on and off. I just opened the box. Battery came with about 50%. Plugged into a temporary 65 watt PD.... I guess I have to email the battery company. Camera worked fine without it.
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Like others have pointed out here, it doesn't have a switch to tell it to stay on when the dashcam enters parking mode so guessing this is what the issue is here 🙁
 
Plugged on the other side and it works. I'm not sure why you would want a switch. I just want it to record 24/7. Car on or off. But Viofo enters parking mode automatically after it detects the car hasn't been driven and saves motion only. I think it shouldn't matter if power bank has a switch for this to work. I'll keep testing.
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The specs from earlier don't match this. Seems like it can be stored in temperatures up to 140F.
I'm confused...
I'll need to figure out what the temp in my other car can reach, I might want this for my second car. I put this one in my Tesla where I always have cabin protection on so it never goes above 100.
In my other car, I could maybe mount it externally and away from water. Maybe inside a partially closed box so it can vent heat but keep water out
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Crime happens. Last week I got an estimate for $2800 from a hit and run. Good thing Tesla sentry got everything I needed. But the Viofo dashcam turns off when parked because no power stays on when parked. So now I got dual security. And different angles. And of course better quality.
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Can you explain in more detail what happens? There are lots of quirks like PD and non-PD and other things that we have had experience with that we might notice.

Separately, when you plug in power to charge the battery, does it turn off the output, even for a moment?
 
What happens is when I plug in the charger it will keep turning on and off the dash cam infinitely. But when I cross cross the charger input and output to dashcam, it works without any issues. I can turn off the charging, and turn it on. Camera stays on forever until the battery bank goes empty. It's just that for some reason it won't work when the dash cam is plugged in on the same side as the charger. It does work fine when not charging.
 
dashcams said:
What happens is when I plug in the charger it will keep turning on and off the dash cam infinitely. But when I cross cross the charger input and output to dashcam, it works without any issues. I can turn off the charging, and turn it on. Camera stays on forever until the battery bank goes empty. It's just that for some reason it won't work when the dash cam is plugged in on the same side as the charger. It does work fine when not charging.
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Yeah something wrong with your powerbank then , I remember I had a ZMI powerbank that I used maybe four years ago with pass through charging and it worked just fine with a Viofo A119 V3.
 
dashcams said:
. It's just that for some reason it won't work when the dash cam is plugged in on the same side as the charger. It does work fine when not charging.
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Is that what the text printed below the sockets is telling you?
(The camera uses to much power to plug them in on the same side.)
 
There is something strange on that powerbank saying try not to use two inputs at the same time on the same side, kind of strange.
 
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