Garmin Cameras + External Batteries Question

ms_uk

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Hi Everyone

I'm new to this forum and this is my first post here. My setup is 2x Garmin Dashcam Mini + Cellink Neo 6 Battery hardwired to the car battery.

I just installed this all yesterday and it's working fine but I've realised I need the Garmin Parking Mode cables to use the parking mode feature.

Now as I understand it those cables are designed to be hardwired directly to the cars battery, but I'm looking for a solution to use this with the external battery I have (Cellink Neo 6) so I can have the cameras hooked up to it but still use the parking mode.

Does anyone have any ideas? I think it should be applicable to any Garmin camera not just the mini which I have.

Cheers

M
 
if you have the cellink Neo you need the three wire output cable and you can connect to any three wire hardwire kit and it will behave the same was as it would wired to the vehicle
 
Hi, thanks for the quick reply.

Do you know in that case how I could connect it to both cameras at once?
 
if you have two cameras and two hardwire kits they would both wire to the same three wire output on the Cellink Neo, no different to connecting two hardwire kits with fuse taps to the same circuits on your fuse panel
 
Thanks again for the quick reply.

Sorry if this is an obvious one. Once I have the 3 wire output cable how do I actually connect that to the parking mode cable?
 
Thanks again for the quick reply.

Sorry if this is an obvious one. Once I have the 3 wire output cable how do I actually connect that to the parking mode cable?
solder and heatshrink would be the preferred option to splice the cables together
 
Right I am with you. I was hoping it would have been simpler haha as I am no expert but I guess I will just have to bite the bullet.

Thanks very much for the help, much appreciated.
 
I wanted to follow up with this.......

Ms_UK, do you have an update? Does it work to splice the two cameras into the one battery, as Jokiin suggested??

I messaged BlackBoxMyCar.com and they said that it would NOT work, though they could NOT tell me why. They said that they confirmed it with the manufacturer as well. They said I was welcome to try it and return the battery, but they said that it was an error on their website and they DO NOT support Garmin at all, much less attaching two of anything to the Neo. They said that they will remove Garmin from their website. They said that Garmin has NEVER been tested with their battery.

They also said other strange things, such as "Garmin isn't a major player in the dash cam world," which was a bit of an eyebrow raiser, since I think that they LITERALLY own the trademark for the phrase "Dash Cam." (LOL! Is there a bigger player than Garmin?!?! LMAO!)

Anyway, I'd like to know about your experience and how all this worked out for you. How is battery life? How is the Parking Mode? Do you get a lot of false readings with the motion sensor on? Are you happy with this combo set up?

I'm doing the same thing as you, but my front-facing camera is the Garmin 56, and I'm debating getting the Neo Extended battery pack as well. (They say it's a solid 30 day return policy, so why not?!)

Anyway, many thinks in advance!

Best,

Brian
 
Hi Brian yep so basically my setup has been working pretty well for me so far. What I ended up doing with the Cellink Neo 6 was using the plug and play 12v cigarette lighter output, then a 12v to 2 USB adapter plug and then plugging both cameras USB cables into that directly.

I am not actually using any parking mode feature but simply leaving the cameras on all the time - the cameras have a feature that automatically logs and saves an 'incident' separately from the continuous recording which gets overwritten periodically.

Overall the battery lasts 30 to 40 hours between charges which is plenty for my needs - the only time I dont have footage is when I dont use the car for more than 2 days, but this probably means I am at home where I park off street anyway.

The cameras automatically sync up their footage with each other and has features such as picture in picture front/rear etc so all that is very handy.

My only complaints are that the footage is accessed via the phone app and this app can be a bit slow and the camera tends to record incidents when there are none (haven't had an actual one yet).

These are pretty minor issues though, overall I'm happy with the setup as the cameras are very discreet and barely noticable, it was overall relatively low cost and I'm covered whenever I really need it I.e. when I'm away from home.

Cheers and all the best
 
The cameras automatically sync up their footage with each other
This i have heard before, but not found any actual evidence for this feature, but if the are on the same power circuit and are the same cameras, their boot time should be the same and they would appear to be in sync.
But the cameras talking to eachother to sync up i can not verify.
 
This i have heard before, but not found any actual evidence for this feature, but if the are on the same power circuit and are the same cameras, their boot time should be the same and they would appear to be in sync.
But the cameras talking to eachother to sync up i can not verify.
I can verify that this works automatically for me. They create their own wifi network and connect to each other through that (that's also how they connect to your phone to use the app).

To be fair I cant tell if they are connected to each other or if the app takes the video from both and syncs them up there but either way the end result is the same.
 
If you use multiple cameras it is nice if they are in sync, something i have battled for many years myself using several different cameras.
Luckily most editing software's today have a auto sync feature, so you dont have to do it manually.

I know for instance with gopro cameras you can link up several cameras for creative recordings, but i have never heard about it in dashcams, and when i first heard about this i think in relation to the Garmin mini i looked at their home page, and no mention of a nifty feature like that,,,,,, which surprise me cuz if it is real it is damn smart and something i would personally push if it was my cameras i was selling that had such a unique feature.
 
Yes I agree there. It's not something I was expecting to have but a very nice feature in the end.
 
Got it.

I was hoping to preserve the Parking Mode feature (if you are getting 30-40 hours on full-power, imagine what you'd get in parking mode!? a week? more?!!!!)

(BTW - the people at Garmin are WORSE than the people at BlackBoxMyCar, as far as not answering questions. In their response to me they said numerous things that are factually incorrect about their Dash Cams! Not very encouraging, indeed!)

Based on my research, some logic, and the ability to return the Neo within 30 days for any reason, I'm going to do some experimenting. (I will keep everyone posted on this.)

1) I'm going to install everything with their Parking Mode Cables and set it all up to spec to make sure that it works.

2) I'm going to simply insert the Neo into this equation to see how it functions. If perfectly, then GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3) If I have problems, then I will remove the Voltage cut-off box from the Parking Mode Cables and see how THAT functions! If I can't get THAT to function, I'll likely go back to #1 and just leave it there.

Your set up sounds nice, but there are occasions when I'd like the motion sensor option and not just an "incident," which for the moving car mode, will be MUCH less sensitive than Parking Mode. Regardless, I'll have 30 days to figure it all out.

The biggest question that I have remaining is this (and if there are any techies who might know the answer, please respond here!):

Will the Voltage Cut-Off feature of the Parking Mode Cables cut-off the Neo before it is completely drained, while thinking that it is the regular car battery?
If so, can the Voltage Cut-Off simply be removed from the line for this to function correctly and allow the Garmin Web Cam to fully drain the Neo?


If anyone knows the answer to this, please post your experience.

Oh, and one other question, though I basically already know the answer:

Can two Garmin Web Cams be attached to one Neo battery?

Thanks, everyone! Once we get this solved, this will be the ONLY available answer on the internet for this! LOL!

Best,

Brian
 
Will the Voltage Cut-Off feature of the Parking Mode Cables cut-off the Neo before it is completely drained, while thinking that it is the regular car battery?
If so, can the Voltage Cut-Off simply be removed from the line for this to function correctly and allow the Garmin Web Cam to fully drain the Neo?
I'm not familiar with these products, but I suggest not removing the voltage cut-off since it is probably also a voltage converter and removing it will kill the camera. I guess the voltage cutoff will never operate, the battery's internal one will operate first, but don't actually know.
 
I'm not familiar with these products, but I suggest not removing the voltage cut-off since it is probably also a voltage converter and removing it will kill the camera. I guess the voltage cutoff will never operate, the battery's internal one will operate first, but don't actually know.
Nigel,

Since this will be drawing from the OUTPUT of the Neo (rather than the car battery directly) would such voltage conversion be necessary?

Brian
 
Nigel,

Since this will be drawing from the OUTPUT of the Neo (rather than the car battery directly) would such voltage conversion be necessary?

Brian
I believe the Neo outputs 12 volts and your camera will run on 5 volts, but I'm not 100% certain on either. I think internally the Neo batteries are more like 16 volts and it has a conversion down to 12 volts so the 12 volts will be stable, but if it matters then do check before you blow anything up!
 
SOLVED THIS! (In theory!)

The Cellink Neo's output remains above 11.7v until just before it dies (like at 1%, or so). So, the voltage cut-off box in the Garmin Parking Mode Cable will NOT negatively affect things, as long as it's set to 11.7v (lowest setting).

As a side note, the factory setting for the Garmin Parking Mode Cable of 11.7v WILL ABSOLUTELY DAMAGE YOUR CAR BATTERY OVER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After speaking with several experts, the setting MUST be changed to 12.3v (highest setting) if you are going to hardwire this into your car's battery directly. Of course this will lose some of the operational time in the Parking Mode, before it is shut off, but it will maintain a healthy car battery. So, if you are just using Parking Mode for short duration, set it to 12.3v and you will get the functions you'll need, without hurting your car. If you get a battery like the Neo, set it to 11.7v to ensure that the Neo discharges completely before the Garmin being shut off. (Also, note: to get full advertised operation times, you will need an Expansion Battery Pack for every additional camera added to the car.)

Now, this is all theoretical..............

I will reach back out once I have tested everything myself, but this could be as much as 2-6 weeks from now.

Thank you all for all your help so far!

B
 
As a side note, the factory setting for the Garmin Parking Mode Cable of 11.7v WILL ABSOLUTELY DAMAGE YOUR CAR BATTERY OVER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To be accurate, any setting will wear your battery out over time, you will get more use at the lower settings so will wear the battery out faster. As with any battery, they have a lifespan after which they must be replaced, if you are going to use them then you must accept that cost. The amount of wear increases if you take them too low, so the normal recommendation is a cut off at 11.8 volts for an AGM type battery and 12.2 for a standard car battery. The 12.3 volts they recommend will mean that some older batteries will only provide parking mode for a few minutes even though they are perfectly capable of many hours!
 
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