Need battery powered camera with motion sensing for parked car?

[chmcke01]

A friend of mine told me his wife has been having some issues at work with someone messing with her car while parked at work. Most recently they wrote stuff on it with a sharpie and keyed it. Their car has the power plugs that turn off when the car is off and they want to avoid having to hard wire if they can so something that could be used with a battery would be best. Traffic in this location is not a lot so were wanting to do motion detection with enough battery and storage to run for the 8-9 hours she is normally parked at work.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SawMaster]

Welcome to DCT @chmcke01

Most cams use 5VDC via a USB converter, and those can be powered by a "hardwire kit" (HWK) which is tapped into the car fusebox. This also switches most cams between parking and driving modes automatically for you. Based on the car battery size and condition, and the cam being used, you might get 8-9 hours runtime thought the usual is about half that (or less) before the HWK low-voltage protection kicks in and stops the cam from draining the battery so much the car won't start.

Another solution is to use a powerbank of adequate size to run the cam when parked. Use only good quality ones as any Lithium battery technology can be a problem in a hot car parked in summertime. The best way for this is to have 2 powerbanks and have one charging at home while the other is in the car ready to go. Some are purpose-made for this use like the "Cellink" device.

If you've got a big enough car battery and are willing to lose a good bit of it's service life you can power a cam without a HWK or any form of low-voltage protection. I run a 2-channel cam this way recording normally and continuously, but my van has a very large battery and is never parked for more than 10 hours before I take at least a 30 minute drive which recharges the battery. This does void cam warranties but using parking modes won't. My guess is that I'm losing 15%-20% which for my battery works out to somewhere around $0.25 per day; a price I'll happily pay for my cam's constant protection.

Hope something in this is workable for you and that the vandal(s) get their due!

Phil

 

[chmcke01]

Welcome to DCT @chmcke01

Most cams use 5VDC via a USB converter, and those can be powered by a "hardwire kit" (HWK) which is tapped into the car fusebox. This also switches most cams between parking and driving modes automatically for you. Based on the car battery size and condition, and the cam being used, you might get 8-9 hours runtime thought the usual is about half that (or less) before the HWK low-voltage protection kicks in and stops the cam from draining the battery so much the car won't start.

Another solution is to use a powerbank of adequate size to run the cam when parked. Use only good quality ones as any Lithium battery technology can be a problem in a hot car parked in summertime. The best way for this is to have 2 powerbanks and have one charging at home while the other is in the car ready to go. Some are purpose-made for this use like the "Cellink" device.

If you've got a big enough car battery and are willing to lose a good bit of it's service life you can power a cam without a HWK or any form of low-voltage protection. I run a 2-channel cam this way recording normally and continuously, but my van has a very large battery and is never parked for more than 10 hours before I take at least a 30 minute drive which recharges the battery. This does void cam warranties but using parking modes won't. My guess is that I'm losing 15%-20% which for my battery works out to somewhere around $0.25 per day; a price I'll happily pay for my cam's constant protection.

Hope something in this is workable for you and that the vandal(s) get their due!

Phil

Thanks! I will look into the cellink battery and will also further discuss the option of the HWK. What camera would you recommend to record this vandalism? They are primarily looking into motion sensor because the parking lot isn't usually very busy and they are worried that what they are doing wouldn't jar the car enough to activate one of those sensors that detect dings and crashes in the parking lot.

 

[comadose]

There is so much demand for something like this. If any manufacturers are listening, you know what we want!

 

[JohnnyMnemonic]

I use a Cellink Neo Battery with 2 expansion modules hooked up to my A129 and it can power the system for around 55 hours while the vehicle is parked. For 8-9 hours of power while at work, just the main unit would work fine but keep in mind it takes around 1 hour and 20 minutes to fully charge the pack from 0% if powered off a 12vdc source within the vehicle so it's something to keep in mind depending on how long the commute home is after work is over.

I like keeping the camera on full recording while parked because if you read on here long enough you'll see people who got screwed relying on parking mode motion detection when it was needed.