Camera restarting on car start up issue

Adamrwood

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I have the A129 DUO and I'm a driving instructor. When pupils stall and restart the engine, the camera would restart and take 20 seconds or so to start recording again. Not ideal when we're at risk of being rear ended.

To try and help this I bought a powerbank that supports pass through charging. That way I can leave the powerbank charging whilst I'm driving and most times the camera will continue recording. Occasionally it will still restart.

The main problem I'm having though is sometimes the restarting the engine will freeze the camera and I could be driving round for hours and the lights will still be on showing the camera working but it has actually frozen so isn't recording and needs to be turned off at the power and restarted to get it working again.

I've checked my fuse box with a voltmeter and was thinking of hardwiring both live cables to permanent live to see if this corrects the problem. However, both the permanent live and ignition live drop to around 10v when starting the car so I'm guessing that would have the same problem.

Has anyone else found a way to prevent the camera restarting/freezing whilst the engine is restarted? I've also had it freeze after getting home and turning engine off without restarting.

Maybe I need a different power bank or there is one specifically designed for dash cams?

Any help appreciated
 
If you are using the HK3 hardwire kit then it will not shutdown because of 10 volts unless it stays at 10 volts for 90 seconds, which will not happen when starting an engine,

So you just need to find a fuse that stays on while starting the engine, but turns off when parked.

For example, the electric window fuse stays on until you open a door on many cars, although it may turn off while cranking. The ECU fuses generally stay on for 4 minutes after turning the engine off for emissions control reasons, and they are needed while starting the engine so will not turn off while cranking.
 
Interesting. So the reason it restarts when I'm using the cigarette lighter is because that restarts when cranking? Assuming I can find a fuse that doesn't restart when cranking then I shouldn't have the issue? It's the ECU safe to piggy back from? Would I need the permanent and ignition live to not restart when cranking or just the permanent live?
 
I haven't got the hardwire kit yet. I was wondering whether buying the official 3 wire hardwire kit would solve my problem I'm getting using the cigarette lighter.
 
Normally the cigarette lighter is turned off while cranking to provide more power to the starter motor.

All fuses should be safe to piggy from, but I would go for a 10 amp or above fuse if possible just to make sure there is plenty of power available without overload.

You need both to not turn off, but a permanent live shouldn't turn off anyway since then it wouldn't be permanently live!

I haven't got the hardwire kit yet. I was wondering whether buying the official 3 wire hardwire kit would solve my problem I'm getting using the cigarette lighter.
Having a hardwire kit means that you can plug it into something that wont turn off while cranking. The 3 wire kit is the better kit and has a low voltage cutoff which you really want for parking mode. If you don't need parking mode at present then you can connect power and ignition wires to the same fuse which should switch off when the car is parked, but not when cranking. In your case it seems that you want to find a source that stays on until the car is locked up rather than when the ignition key is turned to position 0 since I guess your learners are quite likely to do that even if not necessary.
 
I prefer to leave it running constantly rather than use parking mode as I'm a little worried about the sensitivity of it picking things up and potentially missing something. I do want it running whilst it's parked during the day though. I plan to turn off the cam overnight whilst parked in the garage and then turn it back on in the morning.

I'll order the hardwire kit and try connecting both to same permanent fuse. If it's permanent and doesn't restart when engine starting then, as you say, it shouldn't restart the camera. Maybe a little trial and error will be involved to find the right one if they do restart.

To be honest, I didn't check the cigarette lighter fuse to see if that power dropped lower than 10v. I just found any live that was both ignition and permanent as watched for voltage changes when I started engine. The cigarette lighter may even drop to 0 when I turn engine over. I'll have to check. That way I'll know for sure how to avoid the restart.
 
I suggest wiring the HK3 properly and using the Low Bitrate Parking mode, then it wont loop over video you may want as easily. If you are parked then low bitrate is enough since there is very little movement in the image and it doesn't need many bits to record zero movement!
 
Thanks for the advice Nigel. Much appreciated.
 
I've just tested the cigarette lighter fuse and that did drop to 1v when starting car so clearly that is cutting power as you said. I have spare fuse slots that only drop to 10v so will it be best to use a spare slot opposed to tapping into an existing slot to prevent any problems with the other system I tap into?

Also, the piggy back fuses I found are 32v. I'm assuming that's a maximum voltage and will work fine with 12v?
 
Spare slot is best if it does what you want, then there is zero risk of overloading anything.

Voltage rating is the maximum value, it just needs to be higher than required, required is 16V, the car may reach 14.6 for a while after starting the engine, thus 12v rated is no good.
 
Thanks. One last question. Sorry, I'm a newbie at this. The lowest amp fuse I have is 5a. Will this be OK or do I need a lower one?
 
The fuse is there to protect the wiring, and the HK3 apparently has 7.5A wiring, so a 7.5A fuse or less is fine.
Most people use a 5A, you should not use the 15A fuse that some fuse taps come with.

A129 is unlikely to ever use more than half an amp.
 
Thanks. I won't bother you any further. HK3 on order and will be here tomorrow. Should be a pretty quick job now as I know which fuses I'm plugging into.
 
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