BMW 3 series F30 - Which dashcam and what power issues

[LeedsJim82]

Hi

I have now had 3 separate dashcam systems installed to my F30 and all have had various issues, the latest being with the blackvue power magic pro set to turn off after 6 hours, I'm getting a battery discharge warning when I get back to my car. It has always started but I'm worried this is a problem long term.

So, anyone with a BMW... what dashcam are you using, especially interested in those using one with parking mode... how have you powered it? Any issues with the battery?

I ideally want a system to work with parking mode, but if I could get a system to run for a couple of hours after the ignition goes off I'd be happy with that. Problem with wiring is the front cig lighters are always live.

Considering the Thinkware F770 if there's any chance a BMW driver has one of these and can offer any advice.

Thanks in advance.

Jim

 

[H-R]

I had an E89 Z4 and now have an X1 F48 on order. Modern BMW cars (as well as many other brands) use intelligent battery monitoring, whereby a sensor between the negative pole of the battery and the chassis (speak minus pole of the 12 volt supply) constantly measures current drain and the temperature of the battery terminal. The board computer knows if there was current drain after turning off the ignition which was above and beyond the car's own battery loads, hence the battery discharge warning whenever the accumulated discharge exceeded a preset threshold. That does not necessarily need to be a big concern if you know the reason for this (as you run your camera, you know the cause), and see it more as a feedback rather than a serious warning of an imminent breakdown.

When the car is left parking (for longer periods of time) then there is some clever power management software doing its thing by shutting down more and more power draining devices in various stages over time (from minutes to days). As a point in case, I once had the following experience:
After a lengthy break of 2 months in which the car wasn't driven, I approached the car with the remote, it wouldn't react. Using the door handle sensors (convenience access) didn't work either. Me thinking that battery must be stone dead. Opened the car with the key, no dome lights! Yes, that battery is dead alright. Turned the key and against any expectations the car cranked briefly and started just fine. Clever power management at its best!

So coming back to your question: to overcome the battery warnings from the car's board computer you would have to go DIRECT off the battery terminals, using an inline fuse of course (say 5 amps), and not via the usual 12 volt supply cables. Doing so would bypass the battery power drain monitoring (not to confuse with battery voltage monitoring which would still work as usual).

On the other hand, instead of using a delay timer such as your power magic pro, it might be better to use a battery voltage switch, and set it to a conservative 12.2 volts (cutoff point). Many of these products have a 11.8 volts cutoff, which in my view is too low for regular car batteries (deep cycle ones could deal with this better). My BMW battery is rated at 75Ah, if your dash cam draws (an estimated 2 amps, which I think is erring on the high side, especially when operating in parking mode), then 6 hours worth of running would draw 12 AH, or around 13% of the full capacity. That should still be plenty to crank and start the car. But you might still see the board computer warnings whenever you enter the car.

 

[LeedsJim82]

Thanks so much for the extensive reply, this has really helped me understand what was happening. For now I have no dashcam in the car, too many issues with it not just the power issue, so still looking for a system, thanks again!!

 

[gngan]

F30 here too but I am only using Git1 as dashcam which doesn't have parking mode.