dash cam on a hardwire kit with parking mode on drained car battery

[peterc325]

hardwired a Viofo A119 mini 2 dash cam to my 2010 acura mdx (tech version) with a viofo hk4 hardwire kit to the fuse box on the driver's side, and set the battery protection option to 12.4V.

dash cam was added with a viofo hk4 hardwire kit to the fuse box on the driver's side, wired yellow to ACC Socket and red to passenger's power recline which is constant power. dash cam records fine but my car wouldn't start after a week of being parked in driveway. had to jumpstart my car, i suspect it's because i had parking mode on and it drained the car battery (parking mode setting between auto event detection and time lapse 3fps but still noticing battery drain).

now i turned parking mode off and unplug the dash cam when not using my car to prevent battery draining. any idea what could be the main culprit to it draining car battery? i think i had the hardwire done right by watching many different installation instruction on youtube. appreciate any feedbacks.

 

[LateralNW]

hardwired a Viofo A119 mini 2 dash cam to my 2010 acura mdx (tech version) with a viofo hk4 hardwire kit to the fuse box on the driver's side, and set the battery protection option to 12.4V.

dash cam was added with a viofo hk4 hardwire kit to the fuse box on the driver's side, wired yellow to ACC Socket and red to passenger's power recline which is constant power. dash cam records fine but my car wouldn't start after a week of being parked in driveway. had to jumpstart my car, i suspect it's because i had parking mode on and it drained the car battery (parking mode setting between auto event detection and time lapse 3fps but still noticing battery drain).

now i turned parking mode off and unplug the dash cam when not using my car to prevent battery draining. any idea what could be the main culprit to it draining car battery? i think i had the hardwire done right by watching many different installation instruction on youtube. appreciate any feedbacks.

It's possible, I believe, that the hardwire kits can keep running under the selected voltage setting.
It seems to be a problem if the wiring has been disturbed or if the battery voltage resumes, but the hardwire kit doesn't recognize it.
I have only been able to trick it in certain tests. I've done the testing on a workbench, not in a car.

Another possibility is parasitic drain, which means the circuit is using power all the time.
If your car has an ECU, it is always drawing some current to keep its settings or, in my car's case, the radio frequencies to detect if I have pressed the unlock button on my fob.

Many people don't notice this as a problem because they drive their car every day, so the battery gets recharged.
If you have an old battery, you might see the problem even if you drive the car every day.

Personally, I would like to see hardwire kits completely cut off the power to the car to prevent this current draw.

Cheers.

 

[peterc325]

It's possible, I believe, that the hardwire kits can keep running under the selected voltage setting.
It seems to be a problem if the wiring has been disturbed or if the battery voltage resumes, but the hardwire kit doesn't recognize it.
I have only been able to trick it in certain tests. I've done the testing on a workbench, not in a car.

Another possibility is parasitic drain, which means the circuit is using power all the time.
If your car has an ECU, it is always drawing some current to keep its settings or, in my car's case, the radio frequencies to detect if I have pressed the unlock button on my fob.

Many people don't notice this as a problem because they drive their car every day, so the battery gets recharged.
If you have an old battery, you might see the problem even if you drive the car every day.

Personally, I would like to see hardwire kits completely cut off the power to the car to prevent this current draw.

Cheers.

thanks for your response. yea surprised hardwire kit wasn't doing its job and didn't cut off the power draw at battery protection setting but let the car battery drain.

i think my car (2010 acura mdx) has an ECU since it remembers driving position settings. i don't have low battery problem now that i've unplugged the cam when not using the car.

could the parking mode setting (auto event detection or time lapse 3fps) be the cause of the drain? what parking mode setting should it be set to with parking mode on to prevent battery drain?

or could it be i happen to bought a defect hardwire kit since battery protection setting didn't kick in to prevent battery drain?

 

[Panzer Platform]

appreciate any feedback

Welcome to the club.
If you have the capability, I would “bench test” the hardwire kit outside of the car to determine if it’s functioning properly, or defective.
-Chuck

 

[peterc325]

Welcome to the club.
If you have the capability, I would “bench test” the hardwire kit outside of the car to determine if it’s functioning properly, or defective.
-Chuck

Thanks Chuck. what's involved in this "bench test". any instruction or video on youtube i can follow is appreciated

 

[Panzer Platform]

Thanks Chuck. what's involved in this "bench test". any instruction or video on youtube i can follow is appreciated

I thought you would never ask. lol
Here's a video from Robert aka @rcg530 on this forum;

 

[Nigel]

could the parking mode setting (auto event detection or time lapse 3fps) be the cause of the drain? what parking mode setting should it be set to with parking mode on to prevent battery drain?

The hardwire kit should cut the power to the camera when the low voltage limit is cut, so a drained battery can not be the camera's fault, whatever the settings. However, you could set the Parking Duration Timer to ensure that you never record for more than ?? hours after parking, which will work as a backup to the low voltage cutoff.

Check that you have a good GND connection to the hardwire kit, sometimes people connect them to plastic, and that sometimes doesn't work too well, but can sort of work if the electricity finds a route though the screw.

Having connected the hardwire kit, make sure you start the engine for a short while before leaving it, you should hear the camera enter parking mode. If the hardwire kit never sees the voltage go above the low voltage cutoff, maybe it won't turn it off, because it never drops passed the limit.

 

[KANNINA 2.0]

Not out of the realm of possibility that the voltage cutoff isn't working, but are you *sure* that the accessory socket is switched power and not constant hot?

 

[peterc325]

I thought you would never ask. lol
Here's a video from Robert aka @rcg530 on this forum;

thanks for the video, won't be able to replicate that without all the tool haha

 

[peterc325]

The hardwire kit should cut the power to the camera when the low voltage limit is cut, so a drained battery can not be the camera's fault, whatever the settings. However, you could set the Parking Duration Timer to ensure that you never record for more than ?? hours after parking, which will work as a backup to the low voltage cutoff.

Check that you have a good GND connection to the hardwire kit, sometimes people connect them to plastic, and that sometimes doesn't work too well, but can sort of work if the electricity finds a route though the screw.

Having connected the hardwire kit, make sure you start the engine for a short while before leaving it, you should hear the camera enter parking mode. If the hardwire kit never sees the voltage go above the low voltage cutoff, maybe it won't turn it off, because it never drops passed the limit.

yea, i will look for the option to not record more than certain # of hours.

could be a possibility that the camera just kept recording and never entered parking mode with car completely turned off, causing the battery drain. will check that out to ensure it is not still recording with car off.

 

[peterc325]

Not out of the realm of possibility that the voltage cutoff isn't working, but are you *sure* that the accessory socket is switched power and not constant hot?

yea, the yellow ACC wire was added to ACC Socket fuse, which i tested it with a multimeter with car off to ensure no voltage detected. perhaps i may have the fuse tap in the wrong direction.

 

[sblvro]

I have the lithium battery of my mclaren 750S drain totally from the parking mode of my blackvue 970X 2ch, infrared, despite the trickle charger being plug in. The drain from the blackvue was too much for the tender to compensate? any advice? I just adjusted the parking mode to turn off at 12.5V and added a timed 1 hour to turn off. With the blackvue turned off in parking mode, will it turn ON quickly if there is an impact trigger?

 

[rcg530]

With the blackvue turned off in parking mode, will it turn ON quickly if there is an impact trigger?

With it powered down (off), there won't be any detection of an impact event in that situation.