Insides of BlackVue B-124 (DIY 11,852 mAh @12.8v / 151.7 W/h + extension battery for under $50?)

Another question, how does the neo 6 achieve a higher charge rate?

Is it because it uses more smaller capacity cells (1500mAh) rather than the cellink b (3200mAh)
 
EsQueue said:
@Qubi the issue that I had taking the DIY route was actually getting a correct way to charge these batteries and to charge them at a practical speed. There are plenty of charging options but you'd have to drive the car for as many or more hours that it would take to discharge. I ended up using the Egen charger as it charges fairly quick and it automated. The only thing is that the capacity sucked so I went with what I built here and on reddit.

The problem with those batteries is that they require a special charger and I'm sure that you haven't seen the price. $1,440.00 for their PSL-BTP-121250 battery which they claim is 125 Ah. Keep in mind that I can get over 60 hours on a battery on a dual camera setup. with a little less than 18 Ah. The only DC-DC charger I can find that can safely charge these LiFePO4 batteries using a car's alternator is https://www.renogy.com/12v-dc-to-dc-on-board-battery-charger/ chich costs $130 just for the charger. The unfortunate thing is that it that it charges at 20 Amps which might be too much for many batteries to handle. Maybe you should look into getting 4 3.2v prismatic cells on Aliexpress. If you got 4 3.2v 100Ah prismatic LiFePO4 cells and ran them in series with a BMS of your choice, you can save lots of money.
Click to expand...


I found these batteries. vivaenergi.dk/solcelle-webshop/LiFePO4_batteri/12V-20ah-lithium-bt . It has 20ah and 256Wh capacity, can be charged on peak 20A (10A is recommended), have BMS with bluetooth (and App). Do you think it would not be enough from the cars fusebox to charge it? Use a relay from from ACC fuse when the car is running to charge and when it is not so the cameras getting power from the battery itself. The dual cam takes 3.4W/unit and I have 2, so it would be enough for around 35-37 hours of parking mode.
 
I currently have my cellink wired up to an unused 10A circuit on my fuse box.

I am trying to learn more about LifePo4 charging but there is not much information out there.

Also most LifePo4 chargers are lower current and mains voltage.
 
joe384 said:
I currently have my cellink wired up to an unused 10A circuit on my fuse box.

I am trying to learn more about LifePo4 charging but there is not much information out there.

Also most LifePo4 chargers are lower current and mains voltage.
Click to expand...

That is the thing I don't understand. I wanted to build my own battery pack, with some cells and BMS. Use the hardwire kit from the dashcam, so no buck converter needed. I didn't know that I also need a DC to DC charger. The battery pack would be from 32700 liFePO4 cells (4s2p) powered from the fusebox 15A slot, plus ACC for the parking mode.
 
Qubi said:
That is the thing I don't understand. I wanted to build my own battery pack, with some cells and BMS. Use the hardwire kit from the dashcam, so no buck converter needed. I didn't know that I also need a DC to DC charger. The battery pack would be from 32700 liFePO4 cells (4s2p) powered from the fusebox 15A slot, plus ACC for the parking mode.
Click to expand...
While you can just connect the battery to be charged directly by the vehicle's alternator, I wouldn't recommend it. Both batteries charge using constant current than constant voltage CC/CV. The car then floats the voltage after charging is complete which is what's bad for LiFePO4 batteries. You will also undercharge your LiFePO battery a bit as they require 14.6 - 14.8 volts to fully charge. It will work but the floating will shorten the life of the battery by a lot. Some batteries say that they are automobile safe so I assume that the BMS somehow disconnects while floating.

https://batteryuniversity.com has lots of information of battery types.
 
What about some smaller component?#Aliexpress US $7.97 34%OFF | DC-DC 20A High Power Adjustable Constant Current Buck Converter Buck Module Constant Voltage Charging Module https://a.aliexpress.com/_TzQuC

How does then Cellink batteries work in the same principle?
 
Qubi said:
What about some smaller component?#Aliexpress US $7.97 34%OFF | DC-DC 20A High Power Adjustable Constant Current Buck Converter Buck Module Constant Voltage Charging Module https://a.aliexpress.com/_TzQuC

How does then Cellink batteries work in the same principle?
Click to expand...
The cellink and B124 takes the lower car voltage and boosts it up to the voltage that the battery needs. That's a buck converter and only lowers the voltage. Perhaps this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_1,searchweb201603_55 may be better. I don't see why it wouldn't work. There is always a gamble purchasing from these guys as the language/ google translate barrier but that seems like it would work well.
 
EsQueue said:
That's a buck converter and only lowers the voltage.
Click to expand...
The one you linked is also a step down only, in fact it is probably the same except for a missing switch.

It would charge fast enough with a 2S battery so wouldn't need a step up, and then you can then step up on discharge if needed. 2S battery is a bit safer than the 4S in the Blackvue.
 
Nigel said:
The one you linked is also a step down only, in fact it is probably the same except for a missing switch.

It would charge fast enough with a 2S battery so wouldn't need a step up, and then you can then step up on discharge if needed. 2S battery is a bit safer than the 4S in the Blackvue.
Click to expand...
Wow, I read the title and quickly skimmed through. I should have added that some sellers that are just plain liars and deceptive to that list of way it is a gamble to purchase from them. They say step up in the title..... If you look at the reviews, it is all from people who believed the title.

You are right about stepping down to 2s then stepping up to required voltage being an easier circuit. As for being safe, both pose virtually the same risks if things go absolutely haywire as 4s2p has the same power rating as 2s4p for example. In the event of a short from the output then the 4s will release more energy quicker but If one isn't building a properly protected battery, it should be completely avoided. I avoid the use of converters on the output as much as they are just another efficiency loss. It is also another failure point.
 
The thing is. The liFePO4 cells are 3.2V so the 4s2p (or 4s3p etc) the way to go only(depends, how big of a capacity needed)

The cells from AliExpress also cheap, but also as ****ty as I can see from half of the buyers reviews.

The prismatic cells what I saw at least(that still fits the budget) were 10ah. So I could also do a 4s1p battery pack, but what would be the charging time?

I would love if somebody who did something similar, could help me and the others out with the right components and scheme. I want to build one, without throwing out the the whole thing after a week:) or burning down my car...
 
Qubi said:
The thing is. The liFePO4 cells are 3.2V so the 4s2p (or 4s3p etc) the way to go only(depends, how big of a capacity needed)

The cells from AliExpress also cheap, but also as ****ty as I can see from half of the buyers reviews.

The prismatic cells what I saw at least(that still fits the budget) were 10ah. So I could also do a 4s1p battery pack, but what would be the charging time?

I would love if somebody who did something similar, could help me and the others out with the right components and scheme. I want to build one, without throwing out the the whole thing after a week:) or burning down my car...
Click to expand...
The charger you linked to was rated at 20A, but suggests you limit it to 15A, maybe you big cooling fans to use 20A.
So for a 1S battery, you can charge it at 3.7 volts (average) x 15 amps = 55.5 watts, so if you want to put 111 Ah into it then it will take 2 hours.
For a 2S battery you double the voltage, and the charger can still manage 15 amps, so to put the 111 Ah in will take half the time = 1 hour.
For a 4S battery it is going to take 30 minutes.

You should make sure that your cells are capable of taking the 15 amps, generally means you want a 15Ah battery or higher, so for your 10Ah cells you will need to reduce the Amps down to 10, which will extend the charge time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

I prefer to use 1S since then the cells can't go out of balance and it doesn't matter if you are using cheap 2nds quality cells, or more likely with some of these cheap websites they will be recycled Toyota Prius battery cells with widely varying capacities, the more cells you put in series the worse the balance problem becomes.
 
Nigel said:
The charger you linked to was rated at 20A, but suggests you limit it to 15A, maybe you big cooling fans to use 20A.
So for a 1S battery, you can charge it at 3.7 volts (average) x 15 amps = 55.5 watts, so if you want to put 111 Ah into it then it will take 2 hours.
For a 2S battery you double the voltage, and the charger can still manage 15 amps, so to put the 111 Ah in will take half the time = 1 hour.
For a 4S battery it is going to take 30 minutes.

You should make sure that your cells are capable of taking the 15 amps, generally means you want a 15Ah battery or higher, so for your 10Ah cells you will need to reduce the Amps down to 10, which will extend the charge time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

I prefer to use 1S since then the cells can't go out of balance and it doesn't matter if you are using cheap 2nds quality cells, or more likely with some of these cheap websites they will be recycled Toyota Prius battery cells with widely varying capacities, the more cells you put in series the worse the balance problem becomes.
Click to expand...

Let me get it right...

More batteries parallel, faster charging? More batteries and therefore higher capacity, but still will charge faster?
So you are saying that if i build a 4s2p (lets say 32700 with 3.2V 6000-7000mah if the battery actually can deliver that kind of capacity, and not just some cheap-o secondhand Prius battery) pack, it will charge slower than a 4s3p, or 4s4p even though the capacity is higher (doubled or tripled). That being said, if the batteries have much difference in capacity/ cell, than there is a risk from BMS side, that the balancing will be not that efficient as a 4s1p or 4s2p...

Does somebody know how does Egen (producer of Cellink and blackvue batteries) could do the upgrade of Fast and rapid charging?
- What component to use for the DC to DC?

What would be the most efficient battery cell to use? size(18650,32700-32650 etc) / capacity (1500mah, 3000mah,6000mah or even bigger ones prismatic cells (i found 10ah-25ah that still in the budget)
- I am asking that from the charging perspective connected to the capacity?

What would be the ideal BMS board for each setup, what criteria have to be fulfilled?

Is there any other component that there is necessary to build a dashcam pack? If the parking mode required to be hardwired. So to not stress the car alternator, to be safe and not stress the battery pack (the cells getting the right voltage and still have a fast charging). Any relay to communicate the ACC and not get any voltage back to the car battery (for example my car have AGM battery and start/ stop function, so when my car engine stops but everything else is working, not happening any funny / fuzzy stuff with the electronics)

I hope i am not missing anything here, and not that hard to "digest" these question.

Keep in mind i have nothing to do with electronics, beside it is a hobby project to:
- save some money (the cellink neo 6 costs 115$ from the producer, meanwhile we have to pay 310$+ retail)
- get the best solution for my setup (if i want to run the cameras more than 25 hours so i just put more cells in parallel) :)
 
Qubi said:
Let me get it right...
Click to expand...
If you put the cells in parallel, you are effectively creating a bigger cell, the voltage does not change, the mAh add up.
If you put the cells in series, you are creating a higher voltage battery, the voltages add up, the mAh does not change.
In both cases the power stored is the same, you measure power in Wh. Watt hours is equal to Volts x Amp hours.

Your charge rate is limited by the either the Amp capacity of the charger or by the Amp capacity of the cells, depending on which is smallest. If you increase voltage then you get more power into the cells for the same Amps.
So if you are limited to 15A charging by the charger, the 4x higher voltage of a 4S battery back allows 4x faster charging.
But if you are limited to 10A charging by the cells, the 4x higher amp capacity of a 4P pack will allow you to charge 4x faster, except that you are then limited by the 15A charger.

Charging cells at below their maximum charge rate will extend their life, so more in parallel is good, the only real reasons to increase the number in series are that high Amp chargers are expensive and tend to get rather hot.

If you put cells in parallel (1S) then you can just set the charger to charge them until they are full (4.2V), simple.

If you put them in series and they don't have identical capacities then the smaller ones will fill up first, and you must stop charging when the smallest one is full, that needs extra monitoring circuitry and becomes complex but must be done for safety. If the cells are very close in capacity then you can use a balancing circuit that will give some protection to the cells from over charging and then you my get away with not monitoring every cell voltage, but this reduces safety, especially when as cells wear out and lose capacity at different rates because some are being fully charged every time while others are only being partly charged due to their higher capacity and thus wear out slower.

Get it wrong and you can cause a fire, so make sure you know what you are doing if you chose to DIY, and remember that car interiors are not fire proof or even fire retardant, they are only built to give the occupants time to escape before the vehicle is destroyed, assuming that the occupants are fully conscious - that is seconds not minutes!
 
My other idea is:

LiFePo4 battery like this (check picture) and set a battery isolator from the main battery (check picture 2). So the charging and the separation is solved. 20ah (massive amount of parking time, but it can be 12ah or higher depends what i want). it can be charged up with 20A (15A would be on the safe side),

But how to solve the parking mode so the camera will know when the car is stopped? Is it enough to get the ACC wire(s) run to the fuse box? (in my case i have 2 dual dashcam system with 2 separate hardwire kit.) not cheap, but much cheaper than a Cellink or blackvue battery pack)
 

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Esqueue you did a great job building your own expansion battery, i really appriciate your work.

I have a B124+B124E which give me 12600mah 12AH or around 40-48 hours of battery life depending on camera modus.
Im charging them at home with a 10A siggarete charger + xt60 cable every 2 days when im parked for longer periods.
I can use a bigger capacity as im mostly parked for a longer periods of time, I travel to work with public transit but while im a way my car has suffered from vandalism a many of times, ranging from keyed scratches in the windshield+windows to the sides. to the whole car being smeared with dogs extrements damaging the paint. Parking somewere else wont help because the neighbor who dous it will just search were my car is parked in the village i live and do it again, its not a question of if but just when she will do it again. She did it to other people there cars to she has some serous psychological problems but we need to collect evidence to stop it once and for all.
The Blackvue 750s 2Ch kit i bought so far did a great job preventing that from happening since the police told her she has to stop but it has to be recording at all times.

adding another B124 will only add around 6AH or 20 hours of recording time yet costing around €250,- or €500,- for double the size i currently have.
the B20 and Neo 9 dont sell in my country.

Since i lack the experience to build my own pack and im worried about battries that could turn my car in a torch i would really appriciate your advice on buying a prebuild Lifepo4 pack as an expansion.

These are 2 options i found so far which could boost it to around 5+ days:

Turmera 21AH 32700 Lifepo4 Pack I think i will have to find a suitable enclosure for this one

20AH 12,8V lifepo4 Prebuild NRG pack it comes with a suitable enclosure but i need to add a XT60 cable.
 
I found http://www.allbatteries.com/ but they do not ship to the netherlands.

I have held off buying an extension battery for the moment as I am not sure what is best.

If I buy a cellink neo 9 I can use my cellink B as an extension battery, but I would need to run new wiring, but I would get faster charging.
If I buy an extension battery for my cellink B then I am still stuck with the same charge rate, but it would be a cheaper upgrade
 
Thank you for your link. I see they ship from germany so in theory i should be able to order one of theres.
Im a bit careful now that the corona the crisis disrupts postal packages, i might hold off until it all blows over.
If i were to add a xt60 plug to one of those lifepo4 models would that work in both charging connected to the b124e without turning my car in a torch?
www.all-batteries.de

LiFePo4 Akku NX LiFePO4 POWER UN38.3 (409.6Wh) 12V 33Ah M6-F

Kaufen LiFePo4 Akku NX LiFePO4 POWER UN38.3 (409.6Wh) 12V 33Ah M6-F (AML9135) zum besten Preis auf All-batteries.de.
www.all-batteries.de www.all-batteries.de
www.all-batteries.de

LiFePo4 Akku NX LiFePO4 POWER UN38.3 (230.4Wh) 12V 18Ah M6-M

Kaufen LiFePo4 Akku NX LiFePO4 POWER UN38.3 (230.4Wh) 12V 18Ah M6-M (AML9134) zum besten Preis auf All-batteries.de.
www.all-batteries.de www.all-batteries.de
 
I am not completly sure but I think it would work. I would rather someone more knowledgeable confirm it though!
 
joe384 said:
Could you just put an xt60 connector on this battery and use it as an extension?

www.allbatteries.co.uk

Lithium iron phosphate battery UN38.3 (96Wh) 12V 7.5Ah F6.35

Order your Lithium iron phosphate battery UN38.3 (96Wh) 12V 7.5Ah F6.35 (AML9131) at an unbeatable price from Allbatteries.co.uk.
www.allbatteries.co.uk www.allbatteries.co.uk

It has a BMS built in, it says max charge current 7.5A, my cellink b is set to 7A

I did find some 26650 cells that you can buy with tags but once you buy 8 + BMS + some kind of housing it's almost as much as this battery.
Click to expand...
@joe384
Did you manage to see whether adding xt60 can work?

I'm thinking of attaching one of these smaller battery pack (like you mentioned) to cellink neo6 and let it be charged by the car battery together with the neo6.

I wonder whether it will work.



Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk
 
torribianche said:
@joe384
Did you manage to see whether adding xt60 can work?

I'm thinking of attaching one of these smaller battery pack (like you mentioned) to cellink neo6 and let it be charged by the car battery together with the neo6.

I wonder whether it will work.
Click to expand...

No I didn't buy the battery in the end, I am still using my cellink B on it's own.
 
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