A129 3-wire kit

[jokiin]

had you started the car after setting it up for this test?

 

[kevindd992002]

Yes. I made sure to start and stop it so that parking mode is initiated.

 

[jokiin]

where and how are you measuring the voltages?

 

[kevindd992002]

where and how are you measuring the voltages?

I'm measuring the voltages in two places:

1. Hot side of a constant voltage fuse in fuse box
2. Battery terminals themselves

I'm measuring them using a Fluke (industrial grade) voltmeter.

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[jokiin]

You need to measure it where you have tapped it, voltage at the battery will be different

 

[kevindd992002]

You need to measure it where you have tapped it, voltage at the battery will be different

Yes, but the hot side of a constant voltage fuse in the fuse box will be very close to the voltage that the camera is receiving. I just can't reach the metal part of the tap itself because of how it is oriented but I will look for a way to do it. Although, I'm fairly certain that the difference is not that much. Like I said, I'm already measuring 12.2V on the fuse box and 12.3V at the batt terminals. The cutoff voltage is 12.4V.

Naturally, the batt voltage is higher because there is minimal resistance at that probe point. I put that merely as a reference. The important voltage in my test is the one I got from the hot side of one fuse in the fuse box.

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[kevindd992002]

@jokiin

So I tested this again. I left the dashcam running in parking mode overnight. When I checked the voltage (this time my probe point is directly on the fuse tap wire that's connecting to BAT+ on the dashcam) it was 12.3V, and again my cutoff voltage is set to 12.4V. The dashcam never turned off. To be sure, do you recommend waiting for the battery to drain up to 12.2V before I conclude that the hardwire kit is the culprit here?

@viofo

I'm really hoping you can chime in the discussion here. Thanks.

 

[Nigel]

I think you are being too accurate, 0.1V is not very much and not something to worry about. Find out when it does turn off, currently we have no idea if the cut off is working at all, or if it is just 0.2V out from the value your multimeter is measuring, and maybe your Fluke is incorrectly calibrated - has it had it's annual calibration?

The good news is that if your battery still holds 12.3V after powering the camera all night, then the battery is in pretty good condition.

 

[kevindd992002]

I think you are being too accurate, 0.1V is not very much and not something to worry about. Find out when it does turn off, currently we have no idea if the cut off is working at all, or if it is just 0.2V out from the value your multimeter is measuring, and maybe your Fluke is incorrectly calibrated - has it had it's annual calibration?

The good news is that if your battery still holds 12.3V after powering the camera all night, then the battery is in pretty good condition.

Yeah, I'm not worried about the values actually. What I'm trying to achieve here is to know if the cutoff voltage works or not. And what caused the battery drain in the first place. My gut tells me that the cutoff did not work and since my car stayed in the dealer for a couple of days without being driven daily for an hour or so (like I normally would), it got discharged.

You got a good point about the calibration. No, I've had this for a couple of years now and it never experienced a re-calibration. I wasn't even aware that it needed and if it is capable of being calibrated. Are all Fluke meters calibratable?

That'a good news indeed. At least this experience gave me a heads up and taught me to do regular charging with the battery charger that I bought to extend battery life.

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[Nigel]

You got a good point about the calibration. No, I've had this for a couple of years now and it never experienced a re-calibration. I wasn't even aware that it needed and if it is capable of being calibrated. Are all Fluke meters calibratable?

The professional Fluke meters can all be calibrated, and should be if you are working on something critical like aircraft.

For hobby use there is no point, they will normally stay plenty accurate enough, I was just making the point that your meter may not agree with the volt meter in the hardwire kit.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the hardwire kit has an offset so that after turning off the camera, and the battery voltage has then increased a bit due to the lower current draw, the battery measured at the battery terminals will then be at the set point. But maybe jokiin would have mentioned that if it was the case. To measure accurately how full a battery is, it should be left disconnected with no current draw for a few hours; in the car with the radio, clock, alarm, ECU (including OBD) systems all operating, the battery voltage will always be a bit fuller than the volt/%full tables show, so there is no need to worry about 0.1V.

 

[kevindd992002]

The professional Fluke meters can all be calibrated, and should be if you are working on something critical like aircraft.

For hobby use there is no point, they will normally stay plenty accurate enough, I was just making the point that your meter may not agree with the volt meter in the hardwire kit.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the hardwire kit has an offset so that after turning off the camera, and the battery voltage has then increased a bit due to the lower current draw, the battery measured at the battery terminals will then be at the set point. But maybe jokiin would have mentioned that if it was the case. To measure accurately how full a battery is, it should be left disconnected with no current draw for a few hours; in the car with the radio, clock, alarm, ECU (including OBD) systems all operating, the battery voltage will always be a bit fuller than the volt/%full tables show, so there is no need to worry about 0.1V.

Right. But again, my point is to know if the cutoff voltage is working. If it is set to 12.4V and my voltmeter measures 12.0V and the camera still doesn't turn off, do you still account that for error tolerance? I mean at what point can we say it isn't working. I'm not worried about a mere 0.1V. I'm worried of it not working as intended.

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[Nigel]

If it is set to 12.4V and my voltmeter measures 12.0V and the camera still doesn't turn off, do you still account that for error tolerance?

If it was set to 12.4, and I left it recording overnight, then, keeping things simple, in the morning I would expect to find it no lower than 12.4, however I wouldn't worry about 12.3.
How low it dropped overnight is of no concern, even if it reached 11.8V.

But, I feel that we are being asked to make a judgement without knowing the facts! Even the basic facts like does it ever turn off? Without knowing the facts you can't make a proper diagnosis, maybe something is stopping it turning off, like receiving a short pulse of 12.6V once per minute because of ECU activity which doesn't show up on your meter.

 

[kevindd992002]

If it was set to 12.4, and I left it recording overnight, then, keeping things simple, in the morning I would expect to find it no lower than 12.4, however I wouldn't worry about 12.3.
How low it dropped overnight is of no concern, even if it reached 11.8V.

But, I feel that we are being asked to make a judgement without knowing the facts! Even the basic facts like does it ever turn off? Without knowing the facts you can't make a proper diagnosis, maybe something is stopping it turning off, like receiving a short pulse of 12.6V once per minute because of ECU activity which doesn't show up on your meter.

Sorry if I'm not understanding it. Why wouldn't be a low voltage of 11.8V for an overnight drop in voltage be of any concern? If the cutoff voltage is working, then in the morning I would expect the voltage to be near 12.3/12.4V and the cameras turned off. Am I missing something here? What other purpose is the cutoff voltage other "cutting off" voltage/power to the cameras?

I mentioned in my very first post about this issue that it never turns off. I'm not sure how that was missed as I keep on repeating that part. I agree, we need facts before making an accurate judgement but what I'm asking is what other tests do I need to do to get to the bottom of this? As for the pulse idea, yes that won't be measured by a simple voltmeter as you need an oscilloscope for that. So does that mean I won't be able to test the functionality of the hardwire kit?

 

[Nigel]

We don't know if it turns off or not, maybe they left the radio on overnight, or the boot light, or headlights on overnight!

How about you set it to 12.2 volts and then run it until it turns off, turn the head lights on if you want it to be a quick test, and if it really doesn't turn off then to avoid damaging the battery, I suggest terminating the test when you have measured less than 11.6 volts at the battery terminals for over 3 minutes, then recharge almost immediately. If it does turn off, then leave it for an hour and then measure the voltage at the battery terminals and compare that with the 12.2 volt set point.

 

[kevindd992002]

We don't know if it turns off or not, maybe they left the radio on overnight, or the boot light, or headlights on overnight!

How about you set it to 12.2 volts and then run it until it turns off, turn the head lights on if you want it to be a quick test, and if it really doesn't turn off then to avoid damaging the battery, I suggest terminating the test when you have measured less than 11.6 volts at the battery terminals for over 3 minutes, then recharge almost immediately. If it does turn off, then leave it for an hour and then measure the voltage at the battery terminals and compare that with the 12.2 volt set point.

I'm not referring to what happened when my car is in the dealer. I'm referring to what I'm observing during my tests now. It doesn't turn off.

Why not leave it at 12.4V instead because that will make it turn off faster? Do you have a specific reason to set it to 12.2V for testing?

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[Nigel]

I'm not referring to what happened when my car is in the dealer. I'm referring to what I'm observing during my tests now. It doesn't turn off.

You said "My gut tells me that the cutoff did not work".

I don't consider that to be adequate evidence for us to work out what the issue is, or even to work out if there is any issue!

 

[kevindd992002]

You said "My gut tells me that the cutoff did not work".

I don't consider that to be adequate evidence for us to work out what the issue is, or even to work out if there is any issue!

I did but I'm more concerned on my testing results rather than finding the root cause of why it drained. The latter is just secondary. What's important to me now is I can see for myself that the cutoff works with the proper testing procedure and expectations.

So why 12.2V and not 12.4V?

 

[Sergiosmvc]

I have the same problem but inversed. I've 12.1v - 12.2v checked on fuse tap with 2 different multimeters with cutoff on 11.8v and it cuts power to the cam.

I'm not in the mood to disassemble the hardwire kit and test on adjustable power supply...


kevindd992002:
silly question: are you sure that yellow cable is connected to right fuse?
If the yellow cable is connected on a fuse that has constant power the cutoff not work.
I use that hack to prevent my cam turns off.

 

[kevindd992002]

I have the same problem but inversed. I've 12.1v - 12.2v checked on fuse tap with 2 different multimeters with cutoff on 11.8v and it cuts power to the cam.

I'm not in the mood to disassemble the hardwire kit and test on adjustable power supply...


kevindd992002:
silly question: are you sure that yellow cable is connected to right fuse?
If the yellow cable is connected on a fuse that has constant power the cutoff not work.
I use that hack to prevent my cam turns off.

I'm a 100% sure that I got it wired correctly, that is yellow wire to ACC and red wire to BAT+. If you get them inverted, parking mode won't work anyway because the camera won't receive constant voltage when the engine is off and it won't signal the camers to go to parking mode (the only purpose of the ACC voltage).

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[Sergiosmvc]

I am not saying that you inverted the red with yelllow cable. But the yellow and red cable connected both the constant power circuits.

In that way the hardwire kit will not cut the power to the cam and the parking mode will work by gps instead ACC signal