Drained battery. Broken 3-wire VIOFO hardwire kit or other issue ?

[Nigel]

So what you are saying is that the hk3 did not cut off the power for you in parking mode when using 9v battery? You are confirming my suspicions about the design flaw with this. I'm not happy about this.

Im curious if the hardwire kit for street guardian works like this too. I bet both were never tested with initial voltages below the cutoff point.

They are more complicated than you would initially expect, for example they have timers to delay shutdown to avoid use of the central locking turning it off by temporarily reducing voltage while the motors operate.

So I'm not sure if there is actually a problem. If there is and the problem can be reliably replicated then it can be reported to Viofo and they will fix it. But although my 9V test is reliable, it is not a problem because it is not designed for use with 9V batteries.

I do think your problem is that your battery is not operating correctly, but it would be good to understand why the HK3 doesn't behave as desired in this circumstance.

 

[Airborne]

The battery is long due to be replaced correct. If and when you change the battery make sure they check that it is charging. Then you can go back to the hard wire kit.
You mentioned the battery is 10 years old. When they are that old they start acting funny. Just my 2 cents. I will be watching this thread, I am curious about the end result. My cigarette lighter in my Tacoma, the truck needs to be on. Good luck

 

[valkyrie]

If the HK3 provides pass through voltage at anything below the selected cut off voltage there lies an underlying problem with the HK3. It should not pass voltage when the input voltage is below the selected voltage cut off.

If set to 12V it should not pass voltage when the source voltage is 0-11.99V and at 12V start supplying power at the output.

 

[Jaqb]

If the HK3 provides pass through voltage at anything below the selected cut off voltage there lies an underlying problem with the HK3. It should not pass voltage when the input voltage is below the selected voltage cut off.

If set to 12V it should not pass voltage when the source voltage is 0-11.99V and at 12V start supplying power at the output.

Excactly, this is my issue with HK3. I'm still wondering if I have a broken unit or is this just how HK3 works. (my theory being that it doesn't cut the power if the initial voltage is below cut-off point)

 

[valkyrie]

Excactly, this is my issue with HK3. I'm still wondering if I have a broken unit or is this just how HK3 works. (my theory being that it doesn't cut the power if the initial voltage is below cut-off point)

Would be easy enough to test if someone had a adjustable voltage power supply. I don't have a good one and my HK3 is already installed in my truck so to many obstacles for me to test mine.

 

[JustResurrected]

I have a very similar problem as @Jaqb.
I've set HK3 to cut off at 12V, turned on buffered parking mode and left my car on Sunday evening and haven't used it until today.
Checked the battery voltage today without starting a car and there is 11.86V and camera is still running in parking mode so something's wrong there. Voltage like this is not good for a battery especially if it was winter.
I'm 100% sure I've connected everything correctly so there is a very big problem with viofo hardwire kit

 

[valkyrie]

I have a very similar problem as @Jaqb.
I've set HK3 to cut off at 12V, turned on buffered parking mode and left my car on Sunday evening and haven't used it until today.
Checked the battery voltage today without starting a car and there is 11.86V and camera is still running in parking mode so something's wrong there. Voltage like this is not good for a battery especially if it was winter.
I'm 100% sure I've connected everything correctly so there is a very big problem with viofo hardwire kit

It's not uncommon to have an accuracy of +/- 5% with cheap electronics. Set at 12V that could put you down to 11.4V if my math is correct, before cut off if that's the case. I don't see anywhere Viofo states HK3 accuracy though so IDK. Really need someone with a good variable voltage power supply to test the HK3. I have an old homemade bench power supply I may try to rig up at some point if no one else responds. Kinda worried it's a design that impacts all HK3's.

 

[Airborne]

I hope you are wrong about the hard wire kit, especially after hiding cable in the moldings etc. was no fun. I have mine set to the highest cut off,I do not want my battery going below 12 volts with winter coming. Have you guys tried changing your settings on the hard wire kit?

 

[Airborne]

OP let us know how you make out when you replace the battery

 

[Airborne]

It's not uncommon to have an accuracy of +/- 5% with cheap electronics. Set at 12V that could put you down to 11.4V if my math is correct, before cut off if that's the case. I don't see anywhere Viofo states HK3 accuracy though so IDK. Really need someone with a good variable voltage power supply to test the HK3. I have an old homemade bench power supply I may try to rig up at some point if no one else responds. Kinda worried it's a design that impacts all HK3's.

Go for it, I would like to know

 

[valkyrie]

Go for it, I would like to know

I did a little testing today and was not getting cut off until between 9.0V & 8.5V when HK3 was set at 11.8V cut off. I'm going to do more thorough testing tomorrow since I'm now more concerned about it and will report back later.

 

[JustResurrected]

I changed the value of HK3 to cut off at 12.4V and left my car for another night without using it so it was about 11.8V on a battery when I left it.. Checked a few minutes ago and there is 11.68V and camera is still running in parking mode

According to your theory about accuracy it should cut off at about 11.78V.

I'm really starting to worry about this hardwire kit because I don't want to destroy my battery.

 

[Nigel]

I changed the value of HK3 to cut off at 12.4V and left my car for another night without using it so it was about 11.8V on a battery when I left it.. Checked a few minutes ago and there is 11.68V and camera is still running in parking mode

According to your theory about accuracy it should cut off at about 11.78V.

I'm really starting to worry about this hardwire kit because I don't want to destroy my battery.

How do you measure this voltage?

Eg. multimeter across fuse box terminals, measured by car and displayed by OBD reader, disconnect battery from car wait 1 hour and measure across battery terminals with precision multimeter (the correct way)...

 

[JustResurrected]

How do you measure this voltage?

Eg. multimeter across fuse box terminals, measured by car and displayed by OBD reader, disconnect battery from car wait 1 hour and measure across battery terminals with precision multimeter (the correct way)...

I've opened the hood yesterday and left it for a whole night to not affect the voltage by opening the door in the morning. I measured the voltage directly on the battery terminals with a multimeter.

 

[Nigel]

I changed the value of HK3 to cut off at 12.4V and left my car for another night without using it

It does seem that after connecting the HK3 to power, the car should be started and run for a minute so that the battery reaches 13v+.
It is not clear from your posts if you did this?
Normally this would not be an issue since you would only connect it to power once...

 

[joe384]

I've got my Hardwire Kit set to 12.4v - I've never had issues starting the car on the occasions I just leftparking mode run all weekend.

However, one time when parking mode shut off I measured at the battery terminals and it was showing 12.0v

I've also noticed the ODB voltage read out is out by about 0.5v

The voltage seems to vary quite a lot depending on where I measure it, also I noticed yesterday when I went to my car at lunchtime (went inside but didn't start the ignition) the dashcam powered down after a few minutes.

I don't think this is any fault of the kit, I think my car just does lots of odd stuff with the electrics.

When I get chance I think I will put a volt meter on the fuse and record what happens when I lock/unlock the car etc. The car has lots of different lights that go on and I'm not sure of the logic but it would for sure have an effect on the voltage reading.

 

[JustResurrected]

It does seem that after connecting the HK3 to power, the car should be started and run for a minute so that the battery reaches 13v+.
It is not clear from your posts if you did this?
Normally this would not be an issue since you would only connect it to power once...

I've connected the camera and hardwire kit about 2 weeks ago and used the car many times so the voltage was certainly above 13V and so it was on Sunday when I left it...

 

[valkyrie]

More testing today and here's my results.

My method in testing was to start at 13V and start lowering the input voltage. The HK3 uses 3 wires Red (hot), Yellow (sense) and Black (ground) and initially requires a voltage to be applied to the yellow (sense) before passing voltage. So all tests were started at 13V and Sense wire referenced at that voltage then removed.

Oddly it didn't seem to matter where I set the HK3 cut off as all shut down between 12.0V -12.5V initially.
But if I again referenced the Sense wire to the voltage at the point where it shut down, (using 12.2V HK3 test as example) input voltage set at 12.3V and Sense referenced it would pass voltage again, but did not ever shut down as I lowered input voltage until I aborted testing at 7.1V

This leads me to conclude that if the battery has good voltage the HK3 will cut off. However if the battery is low on voltage and the Sense referenced (turning on ignition) it could stay active and just continue to deplete the already low battery.

 

[Nigel]

More testing today and here's my results.

My method in testing was to start at 13V and start lowering the input voltage. The HK3 uses 3 wires Red (hot), Yellow (sense) and Black (ground) and initially requires a voltage to be applied to the yellow (sense) before passing voltage. So all tests were started at 13V and Sense wire referenced at that voltage then removed.

Oddly it didn't seem to matter where I set the HK3 cut off as all shut down between 12.0V -12.5V initially.
But if I again referenced the Sense wire to the voltage at the point where it shut down, (using 12.2V HK3 test as example) input voltage set at 12.3V and Sense referenced it would pass voltage again, but did not ever shut down as I lowered input voltage until I aborted testing at 7.1V

This leads me to conclude that if the battery has good voltage the HK3 will cut off. However if the battery is low on voltage and the Sense referenced (turning on ignition) it could stay active and just continue to deplete the already low battery.

In summary, if you turn the ignition on then you must start the engine or the low voltage shutdown will probably not work!

 

[valkyrie]

In summary, if you turn the ignition on then you must start the engine or the low voltage shutdown will probably not work!

Kinda, a concern to people that have older batteries or run down their battery playing the stereo at the lake then turn it off and go to sleep. Wake up to have a dead battery because the HK3 was active all night.