A129 Pro or Plus and will they drain my car battery when parked overnight?

[smithdean]

View attachment 54660
We had a little snow last night. This is what I found out in the morning. The snow melted at where the dashcam is mounted. I installed Viofo 3-Wire Hardwire kit but definitely set the parking mode OFF. I knew if the parking mode is on it will drain battery so my intension was only use it when I need it! But now it looked like even if the parking mode is off, A129 plus still uses significant amount power. I will consider install a mechanic switch or something. Any suggestions?

Are you saying your parking mode is set to off and your dashcam is installed inside the windshield and yet you woke up to a dead car battery in the morning?

 

[Johnc]

Are you saying your parking mode is set to off and your dashcam is installed inside the windshield and yet you woke up to a dead car battery in the morning?

I didn't say that. All I said (or trying to figure out) is when park mode set to off, the A129 plus still uses some power. But it shouldn't kill the battery if the cut of voltage is set correctly on hard wire kit.

 

[smithdean]

I didn't say that. All I said (or trying to figure out) is when park mode set to off, the A129 plus still uses some power. But it shouldn't kill the battery if the cut of voltage is set correctly on hard wire kit.

I didn’t know the dashcam uses power even when the parking mode is off! And the car engine is off . If that’s true then I have to watch my car cos I hate finding a dead battery . I had this happen on my brand new car when I had my insurance mileage tracking pulse device plugged in on cars’s OBD port. Also why does snow matters when your dashcam in installed inside the the car windshield?

 

[Johnc]

I didn't know that either. That's why I was a little surprised when I saw the snow melted a hole on my car's windshield. lol. The snow melt on one spot means there was a heat source under the glass at that spot. That heat source was the dashcam. And if the dashcam is generating heat, it means it's using power somehow.

But this only happens if you use the 3-wire kit. If you use 2-wire kit or cigarette charger, the power will cut off completely when you stop the engine.

 

[DToX9]

These dashcams use some type of resistor instead of a battery - correct?
I'm betting on collected heat retention slowly dissipating over several hours...

 

[Nigel]

I didn’t know the dashcam uses power even when the parking mode is off!

I have just measured the power consumption of a GPS mount, = 0.123 watts.

That is a tiny amount, and far less than your car alarm system, key fob receiver, clock, radio, etc. will be using.

So nothing to worry about, unless you often leave your vehicle undriven for multiple weeks at a time.

I'm a bit surprised that can melt snow, but snow is a good insulator so the heat can get trapped underneath it and build up.

It is possible that the heat is coming from the air in the car, the black plastic case of the camera may be absorbing a lot more heat than the windscreen glass alone, and is transferring it into the glass through the mount.

 

[smithdean]

I had anker battery dashcam . Not good at extreme heat but fine at extreme cold and snow when it is 10 F or Zero here in Chicago

 

[Johnc]

I have just measured the power consumption of a GPS mount, = 0.123 watts.

That is a tiny amount, and far less than your car alarm system, key fob receiver, clock, radio, etc. will be using.

I was just thinking about doing that but it's still cold outside. haha. Thank you Nigel! That eased my nerves.

 

[Leonauto]

I have just measured the power consumption of a GPS mount, = 0.123 watts.

That is a tiny amount, and far less than your car alarm system, key fob receiver, clock, radio, etc. will be using.

So nothing to worry about, unless you often leave your vehicle undriven for multiple weeks at a time.

I'm a bit surprised that can melt snow, but snow is a good insulator so the heat can get trapped underneath it and build up.

It is possible that the heat is coming from the air in the car, the black plastic case of the camera may be absorbing a lot more heat than the windscreen glass alone, and is transferring it into the glass through the mount.

Yes, I got similar results here when measuring the current consumption (0.126 W, only this is for the Viofo A119 V3, but there is hardly a big difference).

Spoiler

If we recalculate this for a 12 Volt car battery, then it turns out about 10 milliAmps, while the alarm consumes at least 22 mA (0.264 W)

PS: we also had a similar situation when it snowed 🙂

Spoiler

 

[HonestReview]

View attachment 54660
We had a little snow last night. This is what I found out in the morning. The snow melted at where the dashcam is mounted. I installed Viofo 3-Wire Hardwire kit but definitely set the parking mode OFF. I knew if the parking mode is on it will drain battery so my intension was only use it when I need it! But now it looked like even if the parking mode is off, A129 plus still uses significant amount power. I will consider install a mechanic switch or something. Any suggestions?

Normal if parking mode is running. Imagine some juice still flows to camera even if powered off.