DIY: Scheme extension battery pack parking mode

W VANDA

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Hi,

I would like to extend my car battery with some more power,
just to be safe,
sometimes I park for a very long time in a parking lot and then its necessary to have some extra power.
I had already some people who drove against my car without leaving any note ☹

I made up next scheme to provide my dashcam with power.
Is it logical or did I forget some things?

I’m a lot on the road, so the extension pack has time to recharge.
+/- 60h a month.

Idea:
When the car is running the dashcam need to be powered by the alternator and the extension pack needs to charge.
When the car isn’t running, the power first need to come from the extension pack
When the extension pack is drained/dropped under a certain voltage, the power needs to come from the car battery.
When the car battery dropped under a certain voltage, the dashcam needs to shut down.
When the car starts, everything has to work again (automatic voltage controllers)

Cost: +/- 70€
worktime: +/- 2h

Dashcam
VIOFO A119 V3
256GB
+/- 0.35Ah usage
= +/- 41h extension runtime
(7.2Ah *2/0.35Ah)

Visio-DASHCAM schakeling-page-001.jpg
 
Last edited:
I'd recommend an AGM battery since it will regularly be heavily discharged, those small lead acid batteries are for emergency power, not meant to be discharged regularly, they should also have ventilation for safety to avoid hydrogen build up and an explosion, AGM is safer.

And take into account the power consumption of your low voltage cutoff boards.

How fast does that charge controller charge the battery? Or is it just a switch and the battery can take as much alternator power as it likes?

Good to see you included some fuses, since the battery is capable of discharging 210 amps, probably more into a short circuit, 2.5KW of heat can easily start a fire.
 
A nice solution (y) If an AGM battery isn't available then I'd look for either a tube-ventable battery (like motorcycles and lawn tractors use) or an SLA battery. Most ideal here would probably be a deep-cycle battery designed for RV use, but size and fitting will become a big problem.

I think there would be a limited but solid market for a "one-box" design where the buyer would need only to hook up the chosen battery, one wire to always-on power, one wire to ignition-on power, one wire to ground, then the power cable to the cam(s). That would be simple enough for nearly anyone to do, and the "box" could be set up specifically for the battery the buyer wants to use to keep the charging/discharging fully in spec. Might even be able to integrate a small remote folding solar panel to extend runtimes. You'd still have issues with computer-controlled car power schemes which are becoming more commonplace, but otherwise I think it would sell easily to those needing more than the powerbank-based solutions currently on offer.

Phil
 
The camera uses 350mA? In that case it might be worth looking at adding a solar panel.
 
The camera uses 350mA? In that case it might be worth looking at adding a solar panel.

Eventually I'd like to incorporate solar into an independent power system for my cams. My old long workvan certainly has enough unused roof-space for that!

Phil
 
Eventually I'd like to incorporate solar into an independent power system for my cams. My old long workvan certainly has enough unused roof-space for that!

Phil
You could easily have a big enough panel to power the cameras 24/7 on that, a flexi-panel glued on the roof would be easy to install and invisible from below.
Easiest and cheapest to use it to charge the main van battery instead of having a seperate system. Best to use a charge controller to get most power out of the panel, cheap ones only cost a few $.
 
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