Hello all, new to this here. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Background info: We just got a new SUV (BMW X3). Currently, we live in the NYC area and park our car in an indoor public parking lot. So, recording when parking would be required. We will mostly use the car during the weekends.
My car has 360 cameras, but from the YouTube videos I saw, the quality of the recordings is pretty low and it does not work when parking.
We plan to have a 2-channel setup. And since we park a lot, I assume we need an external battery pack.
So our questions are
- What are the recommendations (cam + battery) you will give based on our use case?
- In our case, since during the week, the car would be parked. I am aware Thinkware has the Radar Module which can significantly extend parking. Is that the only brand that has this feature? Also, does the Radar module work for any existing Thinkware dash cams both front and end direction?
Thanks again!
For 5 day parking duration consider outdoor surveillance camera, if that is not an option for whatever reason, then maybe you can provide external power in to the car while parked, if that is not an option, then it is still possible to run DashCam on parking for that long (5 days) as follows:
You need to know which brand DashCam/Parking Mode you are going to use and corresponding parking power consumption.
(All that info is available in Product Reviews and Tests here on this forum)
Then you can calculate required usable Battery capacity
For example, Viofo 229Pro 2ch DashCam on low-bit-rate parking mode, the power consumption is about 2ch x 2.5W=5W (see the ref. link in the previous post)
(I like low-bit-rate parking mode for reliability and because it is continuously recording including sound, so nothing will be missed).
For 5 days, the usable Battery capacity required would be 5days x 24h x 5W = 600Wh
That is too much for any dedicated Battery, including extensions, and will cost you like a half of your car
The solution is Power Station:
You can get relatively chip, LFP battery based refurbished EcoFlow River 2
Pro on eBay (currently $279), with 768Wh rated capacity.
The Usable capacity would be roughly 768Wh x 0.8 = 614Wh
At the end of 5 day parking, EcoFlow River 2 Pro would be basically empty, and during weekend you will need to drive long enough (4-8h min, based on your charging rate/connection) to fully recharge it for the next 5 days of parking.
You also can take it home and recharge it there if you do not drive that much.
Using 2x EcoFlow River 2
Max, rated at 512Wh (401Wh usable) each, and swapping them in the middle of the week (with plenty of margin), would be another and maybe even better option, you will always have, one, fully charged power station available at home.
It is quite easy and basically plug and Play installation.
Check this thread for more info how Power Stations work for parking.
First, thanks to the members of this forum for posting great reviews and comments to help people like me choose the DashCam that suits their specific needs. Now, I want to share my project here and maybe help people, who do not want to mess with a car battery and fuse box but are hesitant to...
dashcamtalk.com
