Cigar power constant or switch?

DashCam11

Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2017
Messages
137
Reaction score
8
Country
United Kingdom
In my car I have 2 cigar lighters, one is powered on all the time strangely, the other is switched with the ignition.

I'm after a dash cam, and also want some sort of parking mode. The parking modes I've seen, on DC's I'm looking into, seem to activate off a bump/G-sensor, and use a battery. This seems fine.

However should I not just plug the DC in took the permanently powered cigar lighter and let it run? I'm happy to buy a large SD so it's enough time for parking up?

Thanks
 
Dashcams draw very little power, someone may be able to pop in and tell you roughly how little, and leaving them plugged in usually causes no issues. Theres a recent thread regarding one being left plugged in for 8 days completely uninterrupted due to the owner forgetting to unplug when going away, and his battery voltage was still showing over 12 when he got back

I left my rear cam plugged in to my perma-live cig lighter overnight once (my front is a switched hardwire) and was expecting issues the next day, there were none. but I try to avoid it if I can. my car's garaged at home and in a relatively secure carpark at work. if it's parked anywhere during the day I do leave plug-in cams plugged in if I'm only gonna be a short time, like doing my big-shop
 
I can only speak for ours of course but I imagine majority to be around the same figure: 250mA
 
You could fine run the camera off the always on socket, but you just wont have discharge protection if it is not a part of the camera itself ( some have this feature ), so if you forget to unplug it and park the car for the weekend then Monday it might be problematic to crank it.

I dont have much experience with parking mode in dashcams, on my old Lukas it automatic went into parking mode, i assume after it had not detected any activation on G - sensor.

Parking guard modes are most often G - sensor trigger or motion detect trigger, needless to say motion detect will create a lot of event files if you park in a location with a lit passing by, and event files are normally locked so the dashcam cant overwrite those to create room for new files, so you can fill your memory card with event files and so not have nay room for regular driving files.

Some / most i think have a feature so you can assign so and so of the memory card to each function, so if you have a 64 Gb memory card you can set aside 20 Gb of it for event recordings and then use the rest for normal recordings.

You can also just record normally all the time if you dont park longer than your memory card can hold, problem then is when you get back to your car you will have to spot it being dented, and if you dont and drive on for the rest of the day or a couple of days then the event itself might be overwritten or at best it would be one hell of a job searching thru all the footage to find the event.
 
However should I not just plug the DC in took the permanently powered cigar lighter and let it run? I'm happy to buy a large SD so it's enough time for parking up?
My Camaro is always on, and this is what I do. I always figured more footage is better then not enough footage. However kamkar1 does make a good point.

You might want to look into a camera with a pre-buffered parking mode because cameras that use a parking mode based only on motion detection can miss important parts of what happened. Like the camera might only start recording after the car in question has bumped your car and is now leaving.
 
Prebuffered parking mode are indeed the shinnizzle dizzle, for sure what you will want for parking mode.
 
Prebuffered parking mode are indeed the shinnizzle dizzle, for sure what you will want for parking mode.

So recording a buffer beforehand you mean? I agree. Surely this would need a constant supply then?

Sounds like Roav for example only records after a bump, which as you imply may be too late then, not sure how long processing takes to start recording. Or with a big enough SD (they are cheap enough now), could power all the time?
 
Yes all parking mode need to be wired in to a constant supply, at the moment it seeem like the cameras with prebuffer give you 10 seconds from before the trigger event, but this should be fine.

Non buffered cameras when the camera finally start to record you might just see the back of that kid on the skateboard exiting the frame as he pass from one side to the other of the frame and key the hood of your car as he pass.

With prebuffer you will get his face no problem as you will get the whole event even from before it started so you will get him come into frame do his evil deed and then pass out of frame again.
 
I may be wrong.. But I am under the impression that the camera is recording "ALL" the time just so long as it is powered. When in "parking" mode the software has the ability to stop "saving" the recorded data when and if.. it detects no movement.. either of the camera or in the image recorded.. thus saving space on your SD card.

Your dash cam is very much like your smart phone in camera mode.. the image on your smart phone is there in real time. Only when you opt to take a picture or hit record does the smart phone actually save the image.. the same thing is happening in your dash cam but instead of your finger making the choice it is the software "normal" or "parking" that makes the choices.

To get back to the original question.. how much more power is required to save data as opposed to just run the camera is an unknown but likely only a small portion. But.. the camera is drawing current.. of which there is a limited supply. Your battery "may" be strong enough to restart your car if you leave your dome light on.. for a day.. perhaps a couple of days.. But.. Same as with leaving your camera plugged in.. as they say.. your mileage may vary.
 
Correct the sensor is on but you are not saving to disk as much and it uses less power due to that. I would think it would be safe to say that it would not drain you car battery for days in parking mode.

I am going to stat looking around and see if there is any official exaptation on this.
 
Correct the sensor is on but you are not saving to disk as much and it uses less power due to that. I would think it would be safe to say that it would not drain you car battery for days in parking mode.

I am going to stat looking around and see if there is any official exaptation on this.
@jokiin has said on a number of occasions that the difference is power usage when writing/not writing to the SD card is minimal because all other processing is still happening.
 
@jokiin has said on a number of occasions that the difference is power usage when writing/not writing to the SD card is minimal because all other processing is still happening.

not surprising really. I still would think it would run for days. but I have nothing to back that up.
 
Yes in parking mode the camera are still recording so to say, but it is just not saving anything before a trigger event, the power use are the same in parking mode and regular recording.
At least with cameras that prebuffer i think there are no way around it, other cameras you might be able to do some form of suspended state with a even lesser power use, but then it will take some time to wake up and get going with recording.

Some action cameras with 1 button power and start record ( working sort of like a dashcam ) they can power up and start recording pretty fast.
But it is not a avenue i would walk with dashcams, for a CCTV camera it might be fine to have a PIR sensor wake up a camera and start recording.
 
I may be wrong.. But I am under the impression that the camera is recording "ALL" the time just so long as it is powered. When in "parking" mode the software has the ability to stop "saving" the recorded data when and if.. it detects no movement.. either of the camera or in the image recorded.. thus saving space on your SD card.
I think the correct term should be "filming ALL the time". Like when you stop recording manually and the camera is just filming. Recording always imply writing to the card. ;)
 
I would think it would be safe to say that it would not drain you car battery for days in parking mode.
There is a whole industry developed to save your battery at a minimum level (with enough "juice" to start your car) to be used with always on appliances. Go without at your own peril. All batteries are not equal.. some may provide enough power and have reserves after weekend.. some might not after only one night. Best at least.. to belong to an auto club that provides boosts.
 
If you were worried, could you not have the cam plugged into a power bank to supply constant power & have the power bank plugged into your switched power socket?
(I'm not an expert on these things)
As @Ralph2 said "All batteries are not equal.. some may provide enough power and have reserves after weekend..some might not after only one night. "
I have noticed a worrying trend with car manufacturers, the modern small cars (the ones with short 'noses' tend to have installed pathetic batteries.
Not sure if it's them being cheapskates or what but the batteries seem to be 'just' meaty enough to crank the engine maybe a couple of times, with little in reserve - my original battery (1.9jtd engine) was identical to the one in my son's 1.2 litre petrol & only lasted 3 years. My new battery is twice as meaty - almost double the cold crank amp & normal output.
My dad's new Honda Civic would just survive a week with barely enough power to turn the engine, fortunately, a good engine 'caught' immediately.
 
...
I have noticed a worrying trend with car manufacturers, the modern small cars (the ones with short 'noses' tend to have installed pathetic batteries.
Not sure if it's them being cheapskates or what but the batteries seem to be 'just' meaty enough to crank the engine maybe a couple of times, with little in reserve...
Likely a combination of cost and weight savings - cost savings during manufacturing and a few pounds/kilos less weight for 'better' fuel economy to keep government agencies happy.
 
Back
Top