Does Voltage Cutoff Function When Car is Running?

[knapp9]

I'm trying to contribute with helpful advice to a post on a Subaru (a car I own) owners web site about installing dash cameras. Someone there said they would avoid using the parking mode voltage cutoff setting when hardwiring a dash camera because it would also cause a dash camera to shutoff if the battery voltage dropped below that setting when the car is operating. I've never, ever heard such a thing before and wanted to check here if that is true. My understanding that a dash camera properly installed to run in parking mode fashion will only shutoff when a preselected voltage (or time limit) setting is reached when the car is OFF, not when the car running (even if the battery voltage happens to drop then for whatever reason). In other words, the voltage cutoff setting is bypassed when the car is turned on.

Do I understand this correctly?

 

[Nigel]

It almost certainly won’t if you use a three wire hardwire kit, may do with a two wire.

Might be helpful to know your brand, then someone can give an accurate answer…

 

[knapp9]

The person who said this did not reference a brand. They simply made the broad generalization that a camera will shutoff when driving if the battery voltage reaches a hardwiring kit's cutoff setting, which was 12.2 volts in that discussion. The original poster asking for parking mode advice was having a Momento M6 brand dash camera installed, and was concerned about having the camera drain the battery overnight. Based on what I know of this brand, the M6 camera only comes with a 3-wire hardwire kit, and no 12V adapter plug in.

 

[Nigel]

Momento M6

Not exactly a recommended camera on this forum. My guess is that they are using a 2-wire hardwire kit, in which case the hardwire kit doesn't know when it needs to ignore low voltages, so will shut off a short while after seeing low voltage.

In a conventional car, the voltage will normally be above 13 volts while the engine is running, so the low voltage cutoff will never operate while driving, however in some modern vehicles, the alternator and separately the engine can be turned off at times for emissions reasons, and then it is quite possible for a cutoff to occur. I think still unlikely, since in most cases the alternator would get turned back on before the hardwire kit timed out, but maybe some cheap hardwire kits have very short timeouts for low voltage, and maybe some vehicles have longer timeouts for battery charging.

If you want to do the job properly, use a 3-wire hardwire kit, with an ACC input so that it can ignore the low voltage cutoff while the ignition is turned on.

 

[Ralph2]

I guess I would question the camera running in parking mode while the car is running. Likely to run out of fuel before the battery goes flat... if, the battery charging system is working properly.

 

[psuh89]

M6 uses a 3-wire hardwire kit.

I own both an Outback and M6 but never had this issue... You'd only be worried about the battery reaching the selected threshold in parking mode since the battery should be well above 12.2V if it's running. Supposedly you can also select a lower battery level to help address that issue.

BTW, Momento's newest dashcam, M7, uses the built-in radar during the parking mode to help conserve the car battery.

 

[Nextbase Support]

I'm trying to contribute with helpful advice to a post on a Subaru (a car I own) owners web site about installing dash cameras. Someone there said they would avoid using the parking mode voltage cutoff setting when hardwiring a dash camera because it would also cause a dash camera to shutoff if the battery voltage dropped below that setting when the car is operating. I've never, ever heard such a thing before and wanted to check here if that is true. My understanding that a dash camera properly installed to run in parking mode fashion will only shutoff when a preselected voltage (or time limit) setting is reached when the car is OFF, not when the car running (even if the battery voltage happens to drop then for whatever reason). In other words, the voltage cutoff setting is bypassed when the car is turned on.

Do I understand this correctly?

Hello,
There's two different type of fuses in a vehicle- switch live fuses and permanently live fuses.
A Switch Live Fuse provides power to the ports only when the car's ignition is turned on. When the car is switched off, the ports will also be turned off and the camera will not receive power.
A Permanently Live Fuse will provide power to the ports at all times, whether the car's ignition is on, or off. You'll be able to identify this as the camera will be permanently on. The Hard Wire Kit will allow the camera to draw nominal current from the car's battery, preventing the cam's battery from being drained. The Hard Wire Kit has an in-built voltage cut off which protects the car's battery from being drained below 11.2V. If you want to use Parking Mode, we'd recommend using a Permanent Live fuse position, and then enabling Parking Mode on the camera.

For Parking Mode, if the camera is completely still for five minutes (the car is parked), then the camera will 'hibernate' in Parking Mode. If your car is bumped and the G Force sensor registers movement then the dash cam will automatically turn on, record for 30 seconds and then shut back down again. If you are unlucky enough to be hit twice in a row then the dash cam would automatically record again and capture both events. Here's some more information about Parking Mode:
https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/dash-cam-features/parking-mode/

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support