DOD 470W doesn't charge battery when on

BobW

New Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2015
Messages
13
Reaction score
1
Location
Wilmington, NC
Country
United States
Dash Cam
Mini 0805
Just bought a 470W as a replacement for one of several highly unreliable Mini 0805's that I have. After the 470W rode around in the vehicle for a few days, I decided to bring it in the house and download some video. I was surprised to find it ran for maybe a minute on it's battery.

Concerned that maybe I got one with a bad battery, I called DOD tech support. After explaining the observations and my concern, the support guy asked an odd question. "How long did you charge it" I explained it's probably been powered for like 6 hours while driving. His next question was a bit of a bombshell. He wanted to know how long I charged it with it powered, but turned off. The answer was that I hadn't.

So, he went on to explain that the battery isn't charged when the unit it turned on - AT ALL. It only charges if powered, and turned off. So, I started down the path of if it's not charging when turned on, what about the fact that it runs for a minute or so after the ignition is turned off. It's got to charge to make up for that bit of discharge. He said it doesn't, and if you go through enough cycles of shutting the car off, and never take the time to "charge" the camera by powering it, but having it shut off, that the battery will eventually die completely. He started quoting current output from the 12 to 5 volt converter as being about an amp, and that there's not enough current available to run the camera and charge the battery. This is pretty much what I observed where 5 or 6 hours of driving didn't charge the battery.

This just seems like a really bad design given what these things are used for.
 
he's either ill informed or it's a serious design flaw, neither of which is any good
So, I charged it for two hours via a USB . cable with it turned off. I then turned it on, and messed with the menus often enough to keep it awake. It stayed alive for about 10 minutes.

Then, I charged it for two hours with the 12-5 volt converter with it turned on and recording. Figured not enough oompf from a USB power supply, and with the actual converter, it's what reality is. Disconnected cable from converter, and powered up. Messed with menus to keep it awake. It died after about a minute and a half.

Seems to be something to the info he gave.
 
Odd. My old Dud, er, Dod LS300W would charge the "infernal" battery with camera on or off. The power indicator LED would show red when powered off and charging, magenta when powered on and charging, and blue when fully charged and on. You'd think the manufacturer would set them all up the same as far as power and charging.
 
So. Just bought it. Seems to have decent video day and night. Should I ditch and give it back to Amazon? If so - and I'm opening a can of worms - what has good day and night video, runs reliably (The Mini series isn't it. GPS works 1/2 the time, and they stop recording to card periodically), and charges the battery during intended use?
 
So, I charged it for two hours via a USB . cable with it turned off. I then turned it on, and messed with the menus often enough to keep it awake. It stayed alive for about 10 minutes.

Then, I charged it for two hours with the 12-5 volt converter with it turned on and recording. Figured not enough oompf from a USB power supply, and with the actual converter, it's what reality is. Disconnected cable from converter, and powered up. Messed with menus to keep it awake. It died after about a minute and a half.

Seems to be something to the info he gave.
So, I have re-read this post a few times and I think I'm still a little confused. The LS470W will charge AND record while driving around. It will charge faster if you have it plugged in, but not on. Since this is a battery camera, lasting 10 minutes while unplugged seems completely normal. To last the 10 minutes, I assume it was fully charged. That's actually a good amount of time in the dash camera battery world. Most probably don't even last that long.
Were you actually missing any files? Were any corrupt?
You stated you charged it for 2 hours with it turned off, it then lasted for 10 minutes while unplugged. Sounds normal.
You stated you then charged it while on and driving around for about 2 hours, then then lasted about 1.5 minutes while unplugged. So it did charge the battery, just not fully. I would expect that it would charge the battery much slower when you are actually using the camera.
I think that maybe there was some confusion/misunderstanding with the support rep at DOD. Maybe I'm missing something?
Of coarse, this may be a mute if you have already returned it.
 
Back
Top