Nextbase GW522 problem.

[blue-boy]

I just bought a new one of these with some money my son gave me for Christmas. I have it all fitted now both front & rear, looks a tidy & small camera & pleased how it looks.

I have been to the Nextbase website & could not see a contact email for customer service so thought I would try on here as I have seen Nextbase support on some of the threads I have read. Not really had much time with it yet to get it all set up with my phone etc but I am having a basic problem. I charged it as per instructions for minimum 2 hours, I put all the leads in the car & connected it to an ignition controlled circuit in the fuseboard. I took the camera from the house & plugged in the rear camera & then pressed it into the holder on the windscreen. The camera came on straight away after plugging it in but was met with a low battery & shutdown a few seconds later, I took it off the car & recharged it again. after a couple of hours I plugged it back into the car & same problem. Have I got a faulty camera ? I have the intelligent parking on but fear if my car was bumped the camera would not come on because the battery is permanently flat.

I left it in the car last night in the garage & it did shut down when I turned of the engine so its all wired in ok. I got into the car this morning & pressed the on key on the camera before starting to be greeted with a low battery & shutdown a few seconds later so ongoing problem.

I did a bit of research before buying the 522 & from what I saw the battery should last about 15 minutes or so before shutting down, I think 15 seconds for mine, do I need to return it as faulty to the place I bought it (Amazon) or is there something else I have missed to get this battery charging.

Any help or advice much appreciated & thanks in advance.

 

[Kremmen]

The main function of the battery is to retain enough power to close down/terminate properly the current file being written. The battery should not be considered to be the only source of dashcam power.

 

[blue-boy]

So it should not be considered good enough to catch a bump on my car when parked then, maybe I need to rewire it to a permanent supply & incorporate a switch so I can isolate it when its in my garage.

 

[Nextbase Support]

I just bought a new one of these with some money my son gave me for Christmas. I have it all fitted now both front & rear, looks a tidy & small camera & pleased how it looks.

I have been to the Nextbase website & could not see a contact email for customer service so thought I would try on here as I have seen Nextbase support on some of the threads I have read. Not really had much time with it yet to get it all set up with my phone etc but I am having a basic problem. I charged it as per instructions for minimum 2 hours, I put all the leads in the car & connected it to an ignition controlled circuit in the fuseboard. I took the camera from the house & plugged in the rear camera & then pressed it into the holder on the windscreen. The camera came on straight away after plugging it in but was met with a low battery & shutdown a few seconds later, I took it off the car & recharged it again. after a couple of hours I plugged it back into the car & same problem. Have I got a faulty camera ? I have the intelligent parking on but fear if my car was bumped the camera would not come on because the battery is permanently flat.

I left it in the car last night in the garage & it did shut down when I turned of the engine so its all wired in ok. I got into the car this morning & pressed the on key on the camera before starting to be greeted with a low battery & shutdown a few seconds later so ongoing problem.

I did a bit of research before buying the 522 & from what I saw the battery should last about 15 minutes or so before shutting down, I think 15 seconds for mine, do I need to return it as faulty to the place I bought it (Amazon) or is there something else I have missed to get this battery charging.

Any help or advice much appreciated & thanks in advance.

Hello,
The Series 2 Cameras have an internal lithium ion battery for emergency uses, such as the loss of power during an incident. This will allow the camera to continue recording to the end of the clip before switching off. This internal battery has around 10-15 minutes of battery life. However with the Rear Camera added, the battery life is drastically reduced due to the additional power draw. This is usually 1-3 minutes if fully charged.

If you intend on using Parking Mode on your camera, then we'd instead recommend using a Hard Wire Kit, not the Cigarette Lighter Cable. The Hard Wire Kit will allow the camera to draw nominal current from the car's battery, preventing the cam's battery from being drained. The Hard Wire Kit has an in-built voltage cut off which protects the car's battery from being drained below 11.2V. We'd recommend using a Permanent Live fuse.

I'd recommend performing a battery test to check whether your 522GW's battery is fully functional:

1. Unplug the Rear Dash Cam (if applicable) and remove the Dash Cam from it's windscreen mount.
2. Take the Dash Cam indoors and remove the SD card.
3. Using the USB cable provided in the box, plug it into a mains power supply (2 Amp recommended), make sure to plug the cable into the body of the camera, not through the car mount.
4. Go into the Dash Cam menu and make sure that Parking Mode is turned off (if applicable), if Parking Mode is enabled, this will affect the test.
5. Leave the camera on charge for 4 hours (or more) with the camera turned on. When fully charged, the blue charging LED should turn off.
6. Unplug the power cable, the camera should shut down.
7. Turn the Dash Cam on (using only battery power) and time how long it takes for the battery to run out and the camera to shut down.

Please note:
After performing this test, your Dash Cam will need to charged again, before reinstalling in your car.

The battery should last for 8+ minutes during the above test.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[blue-boy]

I carried out the above & got about 11 minutes after unplugging the camera & plugging it straight into the car for the test. It was not recording while I did the test as the card was still out of the camera.

I have recharged it last night for about 7 hours & switched it off this morning around 7am. Been out all day but when I switched the camera on which I had left in the kitchen in the warm it was already one bar down on the battery indicator, after about a minute it lost another bar. I had parking turned off as well. Certainly dont think it will last 11 minutes on 1 bar. Looks like it needs to be on permanent charge to get 11 minutes or so of footage if supply is lost.

I have it on an ignition controlled fuse but now will wire it into a permanent supply via a switch so I can turn it off when its parked in the garage, I don't sometimes use the car for several days as have use of my van as well.

If the parking is turned off but someone hits the car I take it that nothing would be recorded is that correct. Does this G sensor thing which gets more sensitive when power is off turn the camera back on in the event of a shunt while parked.
Not had chance to get my head around the camera yet but sure it will be ok in the long term.

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hello,

An 11 minute battery duration means the battery is correctly operating. Was the rear camera plugged in when you left the camera for 12 hours?

If Parking Mode is turned off, the camera will not record when the car is off.
The G-Sensor setting only refers to the sensitivity of the G-sensor when the car and dashcam are turned on. This does not change the sensitivity of Parking Mode footage.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[blue-boy]

The 11 minute test was done by taking the newly charged camera & putting it into my car with no sim-card so not recording & rear camera unplugged. The last charge was indoors, I charged it overnight 7 hours & took it off the charge lead at 7am, I left the camera indoors all day & then turned it on when I got home, nothing plugged into it & it had been off all day with parking off as well, it lost 2 bars in a couple of minutes. I dont think 1 bar would last 9 minutes.

The 522 has been hardwired into the car using the Nextbase kit to an ignition controlled fuse, as I said earlier I think I will have to put it onto a permanent supply thats controlled by a switch so when its in the garage it can be switched off. I suspect if I switch it back on without the permanent supply the battery will be flat or only last a minute or so. No good if I was to leave it overnight parked somewhere & it got bumped, dont think there would be enough power to record the event hence why I will feed it permanently.

 

[blue-boy]

Little update on the camera & if its working ok or not. fully charged the battery yesterday for 4 hours indoors. I put he camera back in the car last night, plugged everything back into it but it was not switched on & parking was turned off.

Went to the car this morning & tried turning the camera on from the switch on the camera before trying to start the car, it would not come on at all as battery is dead. Is this correct ? I started the car & the camera came on using the car battery.
Pulled the car out of the garage onto my drive & turned off the engine, camera immediately started buzzing saying low battery then shut down. Dont seem right to me with a brand new camera.

Looking for some advice here if possible please.

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hi,

I'd recommend calling us directly on 02920866429 (UK) and we can go through all the troubleshooting with you in one go.

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support

 

[blue-boy]

I called the above number & got through to technical. No real answer but was advised to try a couple of things.

Charge camera in the house for 4 hours & leave in the house overnight, I did this & switched the camera on in the kitchen in the morning & battery lasted 17 minutes. It was not recording or connected to anything.

I recharged the battery for 4 hours but this time put it into the holder in my car, parking was turned off & I did not plug the rear camera into the device & left it overnight. I switched the camera back on in the morning & it lasted for about 30 seconds before warning low battery & then switched itself off, the camera was not recording & the rear camera was not plugged into the device.

From the above I can only think either there is something wrong with the cradle discharging the battery or the battery does not like the cold of my garage overnight. Going to recharge it again indoors now then put it on the seat of my car & see what happens in the morning if the battery is flat or not.

 

[blue-boy]

I charged the battery left it on the car seat overnight & again switched it on in the morning. Lasted a few seconds before switching off. Fed up with all this by this time so sent it back to Amazon for credit.

Amazon very good & credited me once I had put it into the post on their prepaid post label.

I reordered a new 522 from Amazon which I received after a couple of days, had to pay another £20 because the January offers were over & Amazon said they cant replace it & will credit money back to my account only, dont seem to have any issues with the battery now & stays charged even after being left in the car with everything plugged in, may not last that long still but it is staying charged with something. I stayed with Nextbase because I already installed the rear camera & really did not want to have to run another cable thru the headlining & also lose the £59 I paid for the rear camera plus the hard wire cost as well.

I have switched the hardwire connection to a permanent live but have installed a switch so I can turn it off completely if my car is in the garage for a few days without being used.

I have put Parking mode to on so I can just leave the camera on while driving & then parking it in town. Only thing I noticed last night was that on my journey into town the screen stayed on showing the video shots while driving. Will have to check the settings on the camera but with parking turned off the screen went off after a couple of minutes but now stays on, do I need to leave Parking off for normal driving then select it when I park the car.

 

[Decking]

In theory no, the settings are there to save you having to reset every time you park up in town. But I cannot understand why you went to the trouble of fitting a separate kill switch, with the car parked in the garage, and set to park mode, the 522 goes into hibernation after 5 mins.

 

[Hey Hoser]

Maybe extra kill switch is for assurance the car battery does not get run down in case dashcam does not hibernate properly?

 

[blue-boy]

My garage is not that big & I have a Freelander 2, there's enough room to squeeze by it but sometimes if my Mrs. or I am carrying stuff either of us could bump the car, not enough to damage it but could set the camera off recording & dont want that to happen. Just belt & braces from me because thats how I am.

 

[Decking]

My garage is not that big & I have a Freelander 2, there's enough room to squeeze by it but sometimes if my Mrs. or I am carrying stuff either of us could bump the car, not enough to damage it but could set the camera off recording & dont want that to happen. Just belt & braces from me because thats how I am.

Good point

 

[Nextbase Support]

Hi,

If you want the screen to turn off whilst you're driving, you'll need to enable Screen Saver. This will then turn just the screen off after 30 seconds of recording- which may be the setting you previously had turned on?
1) Turn the Dash Cam on
2) Stop it recording (by pressing the red circle)
3) Go into Settings (the button in the top left)
4) Go into Setup settings
5) Scroll across to ‘Screen Saver’
6) Enable the Screen Saver here

Kind regards,
Millie
Nextbase Technical Support