BI-750 BlackBoxMyCar Battery

[SawMaster]

Thanks @SawMaster! I'll probably be picking up the BlackVue 900X.

Not a bad choice if it suits your needs There are other cams which will use less power during parking, but it's a small factor in comparison to all the rest.

Phil

 

[Blade_Beam]

So I've been spending a little while playing with the BI-750 now getting ready for the review.


The battery is rated for up to 70C (158F).

By comparison, the Cellink Neo is rated for up to 65C and the B-124X is rated for up to 60C.

The BI-750 does have some additional safeguards in place to slow down charging as it approaches the limit and eventually shut off to prevent damage from overheating. I haven't tested it myself, but it does look like the higher heat tolerances and the additional safeguards are great since you plan on running it in hotter climates.

As far as the battery itself, a couple quick notes as I'm working on the review:

The larger 25% capacity does translate into 25% longer record times compared to the B-124X/Neo.

View attachment 54566

Also here's a couple test results with different dashcams and settings on the BI-750. (All dashcams set to motion detection and buffered impact detection.)

View attachment 54564
Interestingly it looks like the DR900X uses a little more power than the DR900S.

As far as recharge times, I'm having an issue getting it to draw 6A per input or 12A total when running dual charging inputs. The most I can get is 5A/10A when hardwired. I've been talking to BBMC and ItsCell about it to see what it takes to get to the full 6A/12A charge speeds. At dual charging 10A speeds, the battery fully recharges from dead in 44 min which is great. If I could get it to 12A, that should drop it down to around 37 min.

Overall I'm liking it. The battery is thinner, but a little longer. The longer length prevents me from directly swapping it in place of my existing battery packs unfortunately, but I am liking the larger capacity, dual USB ports to power my WiFi hotspot, and recharge speeds that are comparable to my Cellink/Blackvue batteries.

Vortex Radar,

I don't know if you ever figured out the input amps or not, but I wanted to let you know that the manual does address that. It took me a minute too, but you need to use the B+ (Car battery) wiring to get 6A/12A otherwise you are limited 5A/10A through the dual accessory connection. I'm going to contact BBMC again to see if the that input cable is available now or not, last I had contacted them, it wasn't. It would be nice if it was considering I've got 2 cars both using the BI-750, one has the extended battery too and I only infrequently take drives longer than 30 minutes, so it's difficult keeping a full charge. I'm still trying to figure out how to jerry rig a set up that lets me plug a battery charger in to charge while the car is in the garage while allowing me to still charge while driving.....

Side Note: Love your review of the Escort Redline 360c

 

[Vortex Radar]

Vortex Radar,

I don't know if you ever figured out the input amps or not, but I wanted to let you know that the manual does address that. It took me a minute too, but you need to use the B+ (Car battery) wiring to get 6A/12A otherwise you are limited 5A/10A through the dual accessory connection. I'm going to contact BBMC again to see if the that input cable is available now or not, last I had contacted them, it wasn't. It would be nice if it was considering I've got 2 cars both using the BI-750, one has the extended battery too and I only infrequently take drives longer than 30 minutes, so it's difficult keeping a full charge. I'm still trying to figure out how to jerry rig a set up that lets me plug a battery charger in to charge while the car is in the garage while allowing me to still charge while driving.....

You know what? You're totally right. I missed that too and am very surprised to see that only the car batt cable supports the full 12 amps.

They sent me that cable as well for testing. I'm not sure if it's available yet either, but I know it wasn't initially.



I don't have an easy way to pass through my vehicle's firewall, but I'm curious if we couldn't simply hook the main 12A batt cable to a 15-20A fuse in our fusebox and have it work just the same.

I can give that a whirl and see if I'm able to reliably pull the full 12A.

Side Note: Love your review of the Escort Redline 360c

Thanks! I've been meaning to do an updated video review at some point, especially with all the recent changes and improvements.

I'm working on finding a good video editor to help me ease up my load and get through my existing backlog of reviews I wanna do. Assuming one of the people I'm trialing now winds up being a good fit, I'd like to do an updated review of that detector.

 

[DashCamUser123]

I purchased the Bi-750 and BE-750 recently to use with a Viofo A129 Duo original. I use the cig-lighter and the BBMyC's spliced 3-wwire cable that comes with the Bi-750. My intention is to use the 2 ACC cables to charge the batteries via the car's fuse box for faster charging.

After using the batteries for about a month, I find that the A129 Duo will run for at least 30 hours in parking mode using just the one battery, Bi-750. I set parking mode to auto detection (event detection?) so the cameras will record once motion detection is activated by movement. I set motion detection sensitivity to Medium. This is an estimated runtime as I have not run the battery to empty yet. My longest parked time duration is about 20 hours and the battery still shows a lot of time left. Maybe 50%. I think the runtime also depends on the ambient temperature where you park your car. Also, how often the motion detection is triggered causing a write to the memory card. I expect less runtime in the very cold winter months here in eastern Ontario, Canada.

Today (colder temps overnight) I had the car parked in an underground garage for about 17 hours using the two batteries and the IT's Cell app said I had about 54% runtime remaining. Once again, I do not know how accurate the IT's Cell app is.

I find the IT's CELL app to be not too accurate when two batteries are connected. Using the one battery, Bi-750 the app would show 30 hours of runtime to depletion. Adding the BE-750 to the Bi-750, the app fluctuates from 48 hours to 32 hours on the app once I am parked. I would expect to see 60 hours or double the runtime of just using the one battery. I have been told by a BBMyC tech advisor (when you call their tech help line) that it's a known issue with the app. The app does show capacity at 15,000 with the extended battery connected to the Bi-750.

To really test the true runtime and not the numbers the app is showing, I would need to let the battery run until it is depleted. I won't do that until I have connected the batteries using the 2 ACC tap-a-fuse so I can then recharge the batteries more quickly. Keep in mind, ambient temperature of the surrounding area is likely to affect runtime. The colder it is, the lower the runtime (my experience as a wildlife photographer (hobby) between December and March in eastern Ontario and a known issue with lithium-ion batteries in general - although the Bi-750 is a lithium phosphate battery which is safer for the more extreme temperatures found inside a car (hot days in summer or cold days in winter here in eastern Ontario).

Overall, I am quite happy with both the Bi-750 and BE-750 so far. Wish the IT's Cell app was more accurate when using the 2 batteries together. It's only been a month so will update this review once I have used it for a number of months including during our winter months.

To lower temps inside the car on very hot days, I use a window shade. It doesn't block the front camera but the reflective side of the window shade may reflect more heat onto the front camera. To avoid doing that, I will place some tape over that spot of the window shade. I have tint on my car windows so that will help to keep temps inside the car a bit less hot. I also find the trunk temps to be much cooler than the cabin temps on a hot day. Not sure if the cables (probably not) of the Bi-750 are long enough to place the batteries in the trunk. Don't think the cables especially if I use the 2 ACC cables are long enough but I haven't actually measured it yet. Just a thought for those who experience very hot temps where they live. I don't have that extreme temperature issue much where I live. As mentioned, the car window tinting and windshield shade all help to keep temps lower on hot days.

Wish: If Viofo can in a future firmware, separate or mark the Parking Mode videos so I can tell them apart from the regular driving videos. Will make it easier to know which videos to erase and which ones to review later.

 

[SawMaster]

Thanks for the comprehensive report @DashCamUser123

It seems this is the best dashcam battery set-up commonly available so far and it will be good to know the full runtime when you get it hardwired. Also the cold weather performance.

When arranging a window shade don;'t 'trap' the camera between the shade and the glass- lots of heat build-up there. Many folks cut a notch in the shade for their cam. Might not be an issue in Ontario but is an important point in really hot climates.

Phil

 

[DashCamUser123]

Thanks for the tip. I will be sure to check the area where the windshield shade meets up with the A129 front camera. I got this link from BBMyC showing the different runtimes with several different dashcam models. I was told the results are based on auto-event detection Parking Mode. Note the lower runtime using the new A129 Plus Duo and Pro Duo vs the A129 Duo original.

Bi-750 vs Cellink Neo with different dashcam models in Auto-event detection in Parking Mode.

 

[bitcore]

@Vortex Radar & @Blade_Beam , did you ever resolve your low charging current issue?

I currently have dual charging set up, but it frequently seems to either: A) "forget" I have a 2nd ACC connection or B) only charge at a max of 5A even when the app says ACC1+ACC2 charging. I find this odd - is it only measuring current on one input, or is this an app bug? One comment in the google play store seems to say the same about charging current only being ~4A.

Through some research, the B+ connector from BBMC that enables 12A charging uses an AMASS XT60i-F connector, which is all you really need to fabricate your own. It's gold plated and accepts 12AWG. You'll need to solder cables onto it. The $40 that BBMC wants for it after sale of the BI-750 is simply too much, IMO

 

[Vortex Radar]

@Vortex Radar & @Blade_Beam , did you ever resolve your low charging current issue?

I currently have dual charging set up, but it frequently seems to either: A) "forget" I have a 2nd ACC connection or B) only charge at a max of 5A even when the app says ACC1+ACC2 charging. I find this odd - is it only measuring current on one input, or is this an app bug? One comment in the google play store seems to say the same about charging current only being ~4A.

Through some research, the B+ connector from BBMC that enables 12A charging uses an AMASS XT60i-F connector, which is all you really need to fabricate your own. It's gold plated and accepts 12AWG. You'll need to solder cables onto it. The $40 that BBMC wants for it after sale of the BI-750 is simply too much, IMO

Honestly I haven't run the BI-750 in a little while. I put my testing and review on hold for a bit while waiting to hear back from engineering and I've been working on higher priority videos. Since then the BI-750 has been discontinued due to parts issues with the semiconductor shortage and so I'm not sure how much time and energy to continue putting into it now. It's a weird place to be...

 

[bitcore]

Ah, understood. Thank you for the reply

 

[SawMaster]

Hadn't considered that "chipageddon" could affect this. Cellink needed the competition and the BI-750 was very promising

Phil

 

[Vortex Radar]

Here's my updated record time testing, adding in the U1000:


Very impressive results with the U1000 for sure.

I posted this earlier, but the BI-750 does give me ~25% longer record times than the Cellink Neo / B124x as advertised.


In terms of recharge times, I had some issues getting it to reliably charge at different speeds and with different inputs. I wanted to eventually get the 12A recharge speeds going, but never got to that point.

Testing at 10A though with dual 5A inputs, it looks like it took about 43 min to fully recharge. I'd periodically check the app to see how it was doing while charging and it looks like the app's estimates were pretty accurate.

 

[bitcore]

Awesome data. Thanks for collating this!
I'd love to see Viofo A129 Pro duo in time lapse 10fps mode, if you still have that setup! First hand example, auto event detection at it's maximum sensitivity missed a hit and run in a parking lot on my sports car with less than 1500 miles on it - completely ruined the bumper cover and was the exact thing I wanted to capture with a dashcam. I'm now firmly in the "record something all the time no matter what as long as you have battery" camp.

Did you have to change anything to get actual the actual 10 amp dual-charging to work? No matter what settings I apply, it seems, the max I've ever seen is 8 amps, and now it only does 4 amps? It takes 1.6 hours to fully charge mine. It's not overheating. Very strange.

 

[DashCamUser123]

Update on BlackBoxMyCar Bi-750 (main battery) and BE-750 (Extension battery) chained together. I have been getting runtime or time to discharge from 30 hours and up on the ITs Cell app. I was expecting the app to say 60+ hours. It never did that on the app. Until today.

Why today? We have a very warm and humid day in Ottawa, Ontario. The ITs Cell app said battery temp was 28*C. Normally the temp is around 12*C to 17* C reading in the app. So, it seems the ITs Cell app takes into consideration the battery temp when it calculates runtime or estimated time to discharge. Tonight the app said I had 74 hours to 66 hours runtime. It never went down to 30 or 44 hours, etc. Finally, I am seeing the expected numbers in the app. I'll wait for a cooler day to see if the numbers drop back down.

Oh well, the Bi-750 battery is being discontinued.

 

[bitcore]

Oh well, the Bi-750 battery is being discontinued.

Oh, wow, where did you hear this from?

 

[DashCamUser123]

I got this bit of heads-up. Bi-750 likely not being continued but a new battery is in the works with similar specs. I'm speculating but kind of makes me think it will be an improvement on the Bi-750. I'm thinking it is more than just a chipset availability thing with the Bi-750. I am speculating once again, whatever new battery is coming out this year, will be an improved battery. Hopefully, even more capacity.

 

[DashCamUser123]

Thanks to Vortex Radar for doing the tests and finding out that just using the 2 ACC does not give you 12 A. I wouldn't even know how to test for this but glad people much more knowlegeable than me are able to test it. I will have to look at the advertising again to see if it says you will get the 12 A using only the 2 ACC tap-a-fuse.

 

[bitcore]

Thanks to Vortex Radar for doing the tests and finding out that just using the 2 ACC does not give you 12 A. I wouldn't even know how to test for this but glad people much more knowlegeable than me are able to test it. I will have to look at the advertising again to see if it says you will get the 12 A using only the 2 ACC tap-a-fuse.

It says so in the manual. I just switched to the B+ connector, I had to order an AMASS XT60i-F connector (only a few $ on eBay) and solder it myself (positive goes to the square side, negative to angled side, acc in the middle), and the best I've ever seen via the Bluetooth app was 75W at 14v, which equates to about 5A. Using 12 gauge wire, which is less than a foot long. My car "smart charges" it's battery, so normally system voltage is held around 13.5v, and I'm normally seeing 65W. It's about 15-20W more than dual acc taps, so I guess it was worth the effort for about an hour of parking time more after only a 25 minute trip.
I want to try messing with the settings again, and should probably try a reset, but I'm a little disappointed so far. I would hope to see at least 100w, which isn't even 10A @13.5V!

Still, this unit works and is better than others from what I've read, so I'm still happy with it.