Garmin 66W with parking cable causing battery drain

dangerousdriver77

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I 01C47BCC-3207-4082-B43F-5466268CB686.jpeg38314DA1-5713-48E3-B12E-E3855AB7823C.jpegC23A6884-6BFA-4A56-8178-5B0CB524D996.jpeg38314DA1-5713-48E3-B12E-E3855AB7823C.jpegC23A6884-6BFA-4A56-8178-5B0CB524D996.jpeg01C47BCC-3207-4082-B43F-5466268CB686.jpegrecently purchased a Garmin 66W with a parking cable and after getting it all set up and happy with it I had one issue when I when to start my car a week later and found the battery was absolutely dead!

The AA came out and managed to get me started and identified a small drain which turns out to be the Garmin. Then I noticed a strange thing, where each day the Garmin will record for 10 hours plus at random times of the day, but usually the morning. It saves the file in the unsaved files folder, but despite having tried parking mode off and there not being any reason for the activation where it begins recording I have been at a loss to figure out why this is happening. I contacted Garmin and there were no help at all and just advised me to turn parking mode off and that was that! This as I mentioned did not work and I am still getting the daily activations which of course will flatten my battery.

My car is a 2020 Ford Focus and the parking cable jumper is set at 12.3V which is what the car requires to start.

Can anyone suggest anything as I do not have any ideas?

Merry Christmas!!
 
Something is not right. The parking mode doesn't save videos in that folder.
I would suspect your install is not correct and camera is just always recording.
 
Something is not right. The parking mode doesn't save videos in that folder.
I would suspect your install is not correct and camera is just always recording.
Exactly, the camera is not being activated because of impact or motion. It’s just starting up randomly and then recording always for 10 1/2 hours!

Even after turning parking mode off completely it was still doing it!

Tonight I’ve changed the permanent and switched fuses, so we’ll see if that works?! ‍♂️
 
Exactly, the camera is not being activated because of impact or motion. It’s just starting up randomly and then recording always for 10 1/2 hours!

Even after turning parking mode off completely it was still doing it!

Tonight I’ve changed the permanent and switched fuses, so we’ll see if that works?! ‍♂️
Had any luck with anything lately?

I also have a Garmin 66w installed with parking cable, two wires - one to ingnition the other to battery feed and currently a dead battery!
New battery at great expense being fitted tomorrow. I’m tempted to simply only have the ignition feed active once the new battery is fitted to avoid the constant drain from the battery feed.
However before doing this I shall continue to waste my evening trolling the internet for a solution that I’m beginning to think does not exist!
TIA
 
Best advice is by a decent camera because that one isnt.
 
Best advice is by a decent camera because that one isnt.
Too late for that!
Although so far I’m happy with the Garmin features etc. Once I’ve cracked the battery issue it’s happy days.
I new battery might simply be the issue in that it’s a fault car battery rather than the camera although I doubt it. Any ideas?
Brother has a nextbase and he is facing the same issue of battery drain.
 
You will have to do some troubleshooting.
First of all, is the camera and parking kit installed correctly?
Second, is the camera recording? If it is, is there something that constantly triggers recording?
Also, what is the battery discharge prevention voltage set to?
Lastly, is the battery in a good shape?
 
Regarding installation I am presuming so, done via auto electrician. Believe two feeds, ignition from entertainment system and constant battery feed from lumbar support. Although done via fuse board so that’s simple enough to check/change. Secondly camera records on motion so stop starts recording if that makes sense. I’ve not checked the battery prevention setting, but default is 11.7v I believe and this wouldn’t make the battery fully flat even if it is low. I may perhaps change this to higher, see if this works....
Battery hasn’t been changed since I’ve had the car around 12months. But never had such warnings flag up until installing the dash cam. Car is currently at the garage for a new EFB/AGM Battery.
If all else fails I will find and unplug the battery feed although not ideal, it might be the only option.
 
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