Parking Battery-Power Station, 3X capacity and 3X cheaper than dedicated options + extra functionality

[Shiwarrior]

@forcefed and would be rude of me not to mention @GPak as you both have done this thread a big favour and a lot of work, so thank you
as it all goes over my head, I've come down to 2 choices, but your "ecoflow River 2 Max (or pro) route looks the better option as i need to charge my dashcam battery up faster when driving as i only do short journeys

the other route i was thinking about was to sell my Blackvue B130 X battery, replace it with a Cellink and a cellink EXT, charge the EXT up at home and plug it in when I've got the day off the following day, but that wont give me much hours in parking mode still and i will only have the EXT charged up, so wasted really


Just need to understand how i would connect the ecoflow up to my camera and car so
1. would charge when i start the engine
2. switch to parking mode when ignition is off

so another words , identical to how i have it now but a different power bank instead !

 

[forcefed]

Just need to understand how i would connect the ecoflow up to my camera and car so
1. would charge when i start the engine
2. switch to parking mode when ignition is off

1. use the included ecoflow 12v cig adapter and connect it to a port in the trunk, hopefully you have one if not you'll need to add it to a switched 12v fuse somewhere in the trunk, also you'll need a dual 12v port for another 12v cig charger in step 5 https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0BRFXGLXR
2: take out the 5v regulator from the parking mode cable
3: extend the positive and negative wires with 20awg wiring to a usb connector plug and connect it to the ecoflow's usb port https://www.amazon.com/gp/B08ZKM1QR6
4: take the yellow acc wire from the parking mode cable, take another spare usb connector plug and connect the acc cable to the positive part of the usb cable and connect the negative from the usb cable to the negative wiring in step 3
5: plug that usb cable with the yellow acc wire into a usb port on 12v cig charger from step 3, this is why you'll need a dual 12v port
6: if you park in a garage and don't need parking mode set the ecoflow to auto shutdown after 30 minutes of inactivity and turn off the camera before leaving the car

 

[Shiwarrior]

looks like my Blackvue battery is going back, when they installed it , the installer told me he had put a 2A fuse in, (after trips back and forth) ended up with a 7.5A fuse (10A is too much and would blow the Blackvue battery)
and i think its blown again, so I'm going to the shop tomorrow and asking for a refund on it, so i won't have parking mode from then on.
so this looks like the only way its going to work in my car i think (until i replace the car)

 

[forcefed]

looks like my Blackvue battery is going back, when they installed it , the installer told me he had put a 2A fuse in, (after trips back and forth) ended up with a 7.5A fuse (10A is too much and would blow the Blackvue battery)
and i think its blown again, so I'm going to the shop tomorrow and asking for a refund on it, so i won't have parking mode from then on.
so this looks like the only way its going to work in my car i think (until i replace the car)

7.5a is too low, should have 10a.

 

[GPak]

looks like my Blackvue battery is going back, when they installed it , the installer told me he had put a 2A fuse in, (after trips back and forth) ended up with a 7.5A fuse (10A is too much and would blow the Blackvue battery)
and i think its blown again, so I'm going to the shop tomorrow and asking for a refund on it, so i won't have parking mode from then on.
so this looks like the only way its going to work in my car i think (until i replace the car)

Since per B-130X spec:

• If the battery is plugged to a 12V auxiliary power outlet, it will draw 5A (90 minutes to full charge).
• If the battery is hardwired to the vehicle’s fuse panel, it will draw 9A (50 minutes to full charge).

If it is in power line, then it should be about 10-20A range

I am assuming installer added 2A fuse in output line to DVR (I am not sure if it is required), however the fuse s/b about 1.5x-2x of the max rated current, in this case no more then 5A standard fuse, since output current limit is 2A, see attached

 

[Shiwarrior]

thanks

 

[PykeOPATHIC]

Hi Guys.

I have a Viofo A229 Pro 3Ch. Parking mode eats up a lot of my car battery which I know will result to its faster wear and tear. I'm considering to get an external battery for my dashcam but I don't know which to choose. My goal is to have parking mode run for at least 12 hours.

Since not all manufacturers are able to ship to my country (Manila), the only options I have are Blackvue B-130x and Powercore 6200LFP. The B-130x is a lot more expensive than the 6200LFP but I can't find any reviews about the 6200LFP.

I really need your inputs about which battery pack to go for before I place an order. Thanks a lot!

 

[forcefed]

Hi Guys.

I have a Viofo A229 Pro 3Ch. Parking mode eats up a lot of my car battery which I know will result to its faster wear and tear. I'm considering to get an external battery for my dashcam but I don't know which to choose. My goal is to have parking mode run for at least 12 hours.

Since not all manufacturers are able to ship to my country (Manila), the only options I have are Blackvue B-130x and Powercore 6200LFP. The B-130x is a lot more expensive than the 6200LFP but I can't find any reviews about the 6200LFP.

I really need your inputs about which battery pack to go for before I place an order. Thanks a lot!

Completely different topic to what we're doing here, if price is a concern then do what we did and use a power station, start from the first post.

 

[GPak]

We are in the middle of the winter and here is my winter update.

Up to this point my system of two Necespow N150 Power stations + two Viofo Mini 2s was working grate, for this long (over three month) I never needed to recharge Power stations at home… well, until now.
For the last few days temperature here was dropping below -3°C at night, and as expected, LFP battery performance suffers in cold weather conditions, both, capacity-wise and not being able to charge at sub-freezing temps.
This morning I started the car and there was No power to one of my dash cams, one power station was empty.

So, for the winter operation, I may need to recharge PC once in a week or two, at home, if temperature stays this low for prolonged time.

Also when N150 is fully discharged it will not power Dashcam right away as ignition turned on, and charging starts. It takes N150 about 10-15 minutes for initial charge to accumulate before it starts powering dash cam.

This forced me to re-visit Relay/UPS integration which we discussed back in posts #70-7,1 and which I re-tested a couple of month ago with the new UPS I found but never integrated. It allows to bypass PS and power the dash cam directly from the car, when engine is running, hence if PS is not working for whatever reason (heat or cold, empty or simply broken), dash cam will still work, when engine is running and powering ACC .
I have couple of videos on UPS and dual charging testing and will post them next.

On a side note, N150 battery capacity bar indicator is not accurate at-all for Dashcam trickle draw (I will update my post #4 to add that info). It is probably based on voltage reading only, and since LFP discharge voltage curve is close to horizontal and the dashcam draw is so low, with virtually no voltage drop, the bar indicator is basically useless.

It would be good to know @forcefed if the Ecoflow indication is any better, and how Ecoflow performs in cold weather conditions in general.

Lastly:
(Spoiler Alert – because of cold temperature shortcomings of LFP battery, I am testing DIY, LTO battery pack for Dashcam, will start new thread on it, in a few days, hopefully)

 

[forcefed]

So the temp here is around -10c and the ecoflow obviously doesn't charge at that temp, it starts to charge once the internal temp is +2c.
In my morning 15 minute drive it doesn't charge but in my afternoon one it does start to charge near the end of my drive. I have the rear seats down and rear heating set to max to increase the temp in the trunk. If I take a few longer drives it does charge back up to full so I haven't had to take it inside to recharge yet

 

[GPak]

Nice! Thank you for an update.

And yes, definitely better indication of battery status, and it is great to have an app.
We just need to see how it will do in hot summer days and we can declare it as the best power bank/station for dash cam.
I think it is worth to spend a little more for Ecoflow River 2 series PS and get those features, plus it is available in 256, 512 and 718Wh capacity and up to 200W charge rate to cover basically any parking needs.

 

[GPak]

Here is an update on Baseus 288Wh power station:

Basically it is working just fine, but there are a couple of issues I’d like to point:

• I got it because 140W charge rate via USB-C PD3.1 port, however that is exactly the feature which is not working. I tried 3 different 140W cigar adapters, including Baseus brand directly from Baseus, occasionally it will work but mostly PS goes to over-power protection mode and you will need to recycle/turn OFF/ON to get out of that mode. (interestingly from the wall PD3.1 charger 140W works all the time, although really it is 128W).
• 100W charge rate works fine but the charger has some kind of “smart” algorithm, based, I guess on state of the charge, temperature, etc. constantly adjusting change rate.
• App shows power IN/OUT and % of charge state - good, but the issue is that when you leave the car and Bluetooth disconnects then after some time you come back to car Bluetooth seams reconnected but app is showing nothing. You need to recycle Power station i.e. turn OFF/ON for app to work.

 

[EricSan]

@forcefed, I presume your EcoFlow still provides power at -10c? I’ll probably finish up my hardwire install at the end of the coming week when temps are predicted to be near 50F. I have everything I need (thanks to everyone here), just waiting on more comfortable temps for working in the garage.

 

[forcefed]

@forcefed, I presume your EcoFlow still provides power at -10c?

Yup no issues with power draw at those temps.

 

[GPak]

... re-visit Relay/UPS integration which we discussed back in posts #70-71 and which I re-tested a couple of month ago with the new UPS I found but never integrated. It allows to bypass PS and power the dash cam directly from the car, when engine is running, hence if PS is not working for whatever reason (heat or cold, empty or simply broken), dash cam will still work, when engine is running and powering ACC .
I have couple of videos on UPS and dual charging testing and will post them next.

As promised here is the video and the basic schematic on background for how to integrate UPS/Relay module for True Bypass/Decoupling of ACC and Battery power to DVR.

When ACC is ON: ACC is charging the Battery and also ACC is powering DVR (Battery is not powering DVR)
When ACC is OFF: Battery is powering DVR (parking)
This is good as described in posts #70-71, but also good because of no matter if the battery is completely dead for whatever reason, DVR still gets power from car ACC when ignition is ON and is fully functional in normal recording.
The UPS module shown in this video works well with Viofo Mini2 (both 12V or 5V) but for some reason it does not work with Viofo A229 Plus
A229 Plus (and I guess Pro also) is annoyingly very slow DVR to start, and to switch from normal recording to parking and vice versa.

Next I will post videos for 3 different 12V setup’s using a better but a little bigger and a little pricier UPS module, with 7 millisecond switch, that works with Viofo A229 Plus (works with 12V and 5V system).
Also, couple of this videos show Dual Charging setup.

 

[EricSan]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the video for the 12v setup. I haven't yet performed my hardwire install, so your timing is excellent!

 

[GPak]

Next I will post videos for 3 different 12V setup’s using a better but a little bigger and a little pricier UPS module, with 7 millisecond switch, that works with Viofo A229 Plus (works with 12V and 5V system). Also, couple of this videos show Dual Charging setup.

Here are the videos:

 

[GPak]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing the video for the 12v setup. I haven't yet performed my hardwire install, so your timing is excellent!

Looking forward to see your setup.

 

[EricSan]

I'll have to play around a little with the wiring configuration and see how I can incorporate a relay. I just haven't sat down to draw it out yet. The EcoFlow units automatically turn on the 5v USB ports when they receive a 12v charging input, but the 12v output ports need to be enabled manually or with the app each time the unit turns on. It won't remember this setting and it doesn't go to sleep by itself when the 12v output is turned on. I have an iPad for the app, but don't have an iPhone and since I don't always have my iPad in the car, I'm most likely to do all of the wiring from the 5v USB ports that turn on and off automatically.

 

[EricSan]

@GPak, what's going on with the red and black wire loops on the input side of your relay in your third video above? I'm referring to the wires that loop up above the relay that don't appear to be direct 12 inputs. I marked them with the yellow arrow. Are they connected to anything, or did you just loop them with a zip tie to keep them out of the way?