Do I need to hardwire my Vantrue N1 Pro to use parking mode?

StarBlocked

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I recently got a Vantrue N1 Pro to with a recently purchased RV. I was excited to use the parking mode, but I'm not sure the best way to do that. I'm totally new to all this, although I've tried to do a ton of reading, so please forgive any stupid questions.

I don't really understand why I would need to hardwire the N1 Pro to use the parking mode. First, the camera itself has a battery. Since it's using a motion detector instead of recording nonstop, the power draw shouldn't be too high, right? On top of that, doesn't hardwiring to the battery drain the battery exactly the same as plugging into the cigarette adapter? Or is the problem that the cigarette adapter turns off when the car is turned off?

I've also thought about plugging it into one of the outlets that's connected to the house battery, so that it only drains the house battery (which should then be recharged once I start driving). For example, this camera has two charging options: the cigarette adapter cord plugs into the windshield suction cup mount, or the micro USB data cord plugs into the side of the camera itself and can provide charge if I connect it to a wall charger.

However, I'm so new to all this that I'm afraid anything I choose will be a mistake. How do I figure this out?
 
recording or not the camera use close to the same amount of power, but if it is motion detect it will probably be recording close to all the time anyway, of course depending on how much motion there is where you park.
In general it don't take much or large moving objects to set off motion detect, but of course if you park facing a wall there will not be much motion for the camera to capture.

Your cameras battery are not really for recording, its there to finalize the current recording in case of a event where power get cut, the battery are probably lass than 500 mah in size.

First of all if you are going to use parking mode you need a BDP ( Battery Discharge Prevention ) this are some times build into the cameras ( 12 V models most often i think )
Otherwise you need to have that was part of a hard wire kit, this is for setting a cut off battery voltage so you dont resk not beeing able to start your car.

Also you have to know how the camera enter parking mode, some cameras like the lukas i had did so by the G-snesor, so it it was enabled after a few minutes of the camera not detecting any vibrations it changed to parking mode, and so this meant i could use the provided power source only the ciggerette plug in my car was not the always on kind so i would have needed a hardwire kit and BDP to tap into my fuse box.

But today most cameras being 5 V USB powered the use of 3 wire hard wire kits are the norm it seem, wit these kits you have a shared negative wire + a always on +12 V and then +12 V ACC which are only live when the car is on, ans so the ACC wire determine if the camera go into regular recording mode or parking mode.
 
Welcome to DCT @StarBlocked :)
Look in your Vantrue owners manual to be sure, but I don't think it needs a 3-wire hardwire kit to switch into parking mode; my N2 Pro automatically does that when the cam no longer sees the motion involved with driving. If it does need a3-wire kit to go into parking mode let me know please.

If "motion detect" works well enough to suit you while parked, it will activate when you're driving giving you the constant recording you want then but be aware that it takes a few seconds between first detecting motion then starting the recording. You could use the RV battery to power the cam for a couple days or perhaps more, as it's a deep-cycle type which won't be harmed doing this. It's controller may already have a low-voltage shut-off (probably does) but if it doesn't then you'd want to either use a BDP or unplug the cam when parked for longer times without charging. Your owners manual or dealer should have that info. If you use the vehicle starting battery for power you definitely want a BDP.

With the Vantrue mount, it doesn't matter whether you run power to it or to the cam unless you have the GPS mount, in which case you will want to power through the mount only so the GPS will function. You can tell which mount you have as the GPS mount will have "GPS" engraved on the locking lever while the non-GPS mount has no writing there.

One thing I should add: I would use at least a 64GB card to maximize the recording time. Vantrue cams will overwrite the locked files which are written during motion detecting when that section of the card fills, and that can lose the earlier recordings which may be the ones you need.

Phil
 
Yes, you need to hardwire it or connect it with a power bank, if you want to use the parking mode, for the capacity of the built in battery is really small and only for remembering the settings. For dash cam is supposed to run day and night, sometimes may be exposed under the sunlight. It is not safe to built a large-capacity one there. As to the dash cam, you have to keep it charged while using anyway.
 
parmode without hardwre (so only with internal battery) only works with collision detection
motion detection works when hardwired
 
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