Next base 312gw battery life.

Demag

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Hello first post. I bought the Next base last week and it's my first dashcam. I charged it from a phone charger to set it up and the battery lasted 2 or 3 minutes which I found surprising. Also while charging it got quite warm.
Does anyone know what the normal battery life would be on this cam as surely it should be greater than 3 minutes.
Thanks.
 
Hi, this is what nextbase state when first charging the dash cam up:

The battery will only receive charge when the iN-CAR CAM is connected to power, please reconnect the car adaptor and leave the iN-CAR CAM turned on.
Charging takes approximately 90 minutes and a full charge is indicated when the BLUE (charging) LED goes out.

Hope this helps?
 
If you look at the options on most nextbase they have a few timer options to shut down after power lost, I know on my 402 there was a 5 minute option, trouble is it would not last 5 minutes even after being fully charged driving for hours, it is normal for the cams to get warm, I have 5 nextbase in family, all rubbish constant problems, constant repairs, constantly unreliable the biggest problem is ?, BATTERIES, charging circuit cooks the batteries, I had 4 in a year
Best option is to put it on the shortest shut down time, if it runs out of battery power and therefore can't shut down correctly it will kill the last stored segment, ie the one you need having been involved in an accident, it is the prime reason I bought a dashcam that uses capacitors not batteries, the thinkware F770, hardwired it also protects with it's parking mode.
I wouldn't even give away my nextbase as I don't want the comeback should the worst happen and they have no footage
 
Thanks both, to be honest tabetha I was reading an article (can't think where) and it said the 312 was the best dashcam in the UK for the money right now so I bought one. The first thing I found was it wouldn't recognize two different memory cards, neither of which were Sandisk, so I bought another one, a Kingston and this time it worked. I haven't had it in the car yet as I don't know whether to ask for a refund or go ahead and try it.
I read so many reviews from so called experts my head was spinning. We're going out tomorrow so I might try it and see how I get on. I'll let you know what happens.
 
They, nextbase are great WHEN they are working, sadly problems occur over time, with batteries being cooked the most favourite, reviews are all well and good, magazines etc get a brand new cam to test, surprise surprise it works as it should, they never test say 5 YEARS old versions. I have 3 x 101, 1x 202lite, 1 x 402g, there are features I love about them, but having spent recently £250 on a thinkware F770 and viewing footage yesterday of night driving, it isn't even worth sticking the nextbase to the screen imo.
Personally I like the 202lite the best as it can last for around 50 minutes on battery power when new and uncooked, so long as you are aware of the issues at least you know what to look out for, if it acts funny shutting down with funny screens battery is getting duff usually first sign. One thing that is better about the nextbase I found was they worked with ANY sd card, my F770 won't and thinkware don't make larger than 64GB!!
I had major troubles with sandisk, a certain cam maker refuses warranty claims if used with sandisk cards!! I always liked and found to be great the SAMSUNG EVO sd cards
 
The service I got was also excellent out of warranty, but most other cams need no regular maintenance, duff batteries will affect cam working way before it becomes apparent, WHY do you think they offer free out of warranty fixes, WHY do they send a spare battery, WHY should the customer need to maintain the cam, the piss poor charging circuit cooks the batteries, if only they would put as much effort into getting product right to start with ?
 
battery life of around 5 minutes is about right, the battery is not supposed to be used to record while driving but more as a backup. This will go down to seconds the longer you have it as the batteries in these cams degrade so fast
 
Well I used it today and guess what, no gps! So the video quality is quite good but there's no indication of speed whatsoever. I had a look on the NB website and they say 6 minutes is good for a battery but with no speed indication if I hit something I have no proof of speed. I've contacted the seller first off to see what they'll do. Now I've read some of the downsides of these things I'm hoping I can get a refund as according to this site the Viofo A119S is a good cam and has an accumulator rather than a battery for a similar price.
 
Apparently it's the mount that is gps and not the camera. The seller is sending a new one out in the post. Fingers crossed.
 
Tbh, I have my 402G hardwired into a permanent live circuit. I'm not sure whether or not this would help with battery life/reliability.
The intended purpose of the battery is purely as a back up in the event of loss of power supply in an accident. This would be less of a risk if wired into a permanent live circuit as opposed to a cigarette lighter socket (which 9/10 times is only live with ignition or engine switched on) ....... only my personal thoughts ! :)
 
Good luck with what the seller thinks, unless things have changed massively with nextbase every one I have seen has GPS in the camera body.
 
Hello @Demag
The GPS receiver is located in the mount, has this been resolved now? Are you getting a GPS lock?
 
The new unit hasn't arrived yet, hopefully tomorrow.
 
I received the new mount today and just tried it in the car. I connected the power lead to both positions, I.e. camera and mount. The satellite image in the bottom right of the screen continued to flash on and off which I think indicates no signal. I even held the camera out of the car window in case the car itself was causing the problem. I left the power on for 5 minutes each time which I would have thought would have been enough to get a signal. A shame really I was hoping it would work but I will contact the seller.
 
Do you have a heat reflective screen ?, some cars do and this can severely interfere with dash cam GPS and sat nav signals so I was led to believe seems logical!!
 
Well testing today I held the cam through the driver's window for 5 minutes with no luck. I have a Garmin satnav that always gets a signal and if I use Waze on my phone that gets a signal.
 
Just to round this discussion up, I returned the 312 to the seller who was very good about it. I was offered a choice of a new dashcam or a refund, I chose the refund which was done very quickly so I can't fault the seller at all.

A few days ago I ordered a new Viofo a119 GPS through Amazon uk. It arrived midday today and I just took it out to the car for a quick look. I attached the GPS mount and powered it up, I had to go into the menu to set the time and date and turn GPS on. Once done I exited the menu and the GPS immediately got a satellite lock and the mph icon appeared on the screen. That was all I wanted, I haven't done the full installation as it was way too hot in the car, maybe over the next day or two.

See you in the Viofo forum.
 
You were lucky, Halfords gave me the runaround and denied anything wrong with the dashcam and I'm now just out of warranty even though I went in twice when it was in warranty about the same Blue Light and Low Battery warning. Wouldn't bother to spend the money on another Nextbase if the battery only lasts a year and if there is a problem both Halfords and Nextbase fob me off with "That's what it is meant to do". My 312GW was hard wired by Halfords and Parking mode switched off so it's not that causing the low power issue.
 
Hi @NeilT

I think I overheard my colleague on the phone to the Halfords store earlier today.

We told them to pass on that you can contact us and liaise with us direct.

Pop us an email please: support@nextbase.co.uk
 
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