Parking mode - motion detection

[bigHUN]

F770 dual cam in audi A4 2017 b9, about 6 months old loaner.
Finally I made the Parking mode work and the very first day checked all the files was putting in their respective folder, continuous or parking, also recording detected motion and when I slap the car door or trunk.
Now, this last weekend I was doing some modding with my OBD11 and how I sit in the car I just hear "recording stops do to a low battery power"...and that was about maybe 10 minutes after I turned the engine OFF.
Checked in the camera recorder setting the voltage was set to 12.3 volts, so I lower it to 12.1 volt. I know what some would say that is coming dangerously close to fry the battery, but for two months I was struggling to make the Parking mode work it was just recording continuously anyway,,,
Back to 12.1 volt, the camera still disconnects withing first quarter hour, and every time I turn ON the car ready to drive the F770 starts booting.
I don't think this is right.
Any comments?

 

[flip9]

Get a voltmeter and check the voltage on the battery terminals and compare with the F770 voltage reading

If there's a difference of more than 0.1v between the battery terminal voltage and the F770 voltage then you have a poor connection or resistance point somewhere.

If the readings are the same then your battery is just weak.

 

[Dippy]

If the car is not actually parked and locked then there will be one or more systems in the car (e.g. lights) drawing current, and the battery voltage will quickly reach 12V or below, triggering the dashcam shutdown. This is even more true in the case of modern batteries designed for stop/start and regeneration. These gel batteries are designed to operate at partial discharge because that is what happens during frequent stop/start cycles. They are also designed to quickly charge through regeneration which a lot of modern cars have now. The problem is that on a day-to-day basis they may only have around 12.3-12.4V on switch off so parking mode doesn't last too long. Only after good charging (and so not much if any use of stop/start) will they be up around 12.6-12.7V.

On the positive side such batteries do tolerate deep discharge more than the older liquid acid designs. There is no harm in setting the threshold to 12.1V as long as the car starts again after a proper switch off (i.e. genuine parking mode where the dashcam records for a matter of hours, so the battery voltage drops slowly. But don't expect a lifetime of 5 years with these batteries.

 

[flip9]

If the car is not actually parked and locked then there will be one or more systems in the car (e.g. lights) drawing current

Good point. New cars have courtesy illumination, the headlights stay on for a short period after you get out of the car. This will definitely sap the voltage down.

If this is the case just use the timer cut off instead.

 

[gpb]

Checked in the camera recorder setting the voltage was set to 12.3 volts, so I lower it to 12.1 volt. I know what some would say that is coming dangerously close to fry the battery, but for two months I was struggling to make the Parking mode work it was just recording continuously anyway,,,
Back to 12.1 volt, the camera still disconnects withing first quarter hour, and every time I turn ON the car ready to drive the F770 starts booting.
I don't think this is right.
Any comments?

Yes, you're incorrectly assuming the battery's open-circuit voltage is the same as when it is under load.

The open-circuit (aka resting) voltage for a typical lead acid battery is below 12V when it's nearly discharged. However, your car battery is essentially never in an open-circuit condition. The various car electronics keep drawing a little power even when it's off, and your dash cam likely draws around 0.4A itself. This means your battery is always under load and thus the voltages can easily drop below 12V even while the battery has substantial charge.

I set my dash cams to an 11.8V threshhold. My truck with F770 has been running that way for six months now with no issues.

 

[tabetha]

I set my voltage to as low as it will go, there is very likely even on a new car to be more than 0.1 Volt loss between battery and cam, just be aware of where you connect it, if it is something that goes through a BCM, body control module as is the norm these days these BCM's manage timer functions like interior light, headlights off in case left on etc, a lot of these circuits will see a very small residual voltage/current if you are sure of what you are probing use a test light, tiny residual currents will show as good with a DMM but not enough to light a 4 watt test light, this would say they are dead, power window supplies/fuses are a good source of power. I have left my car for a few days and it still starts perfect, as far as I was aware even when set to 48 hours park record it will shut off if voltage drops too low, and you cannot set it to voltage only, is that correct ?

 

[bigHUN]

I am mechanical inclined and absolutely not electrical and most likely it would be just unbelievably hard to teach this old dog new tricks...
The accessory fuse is shared with MMI (multimedia interface) and goes off with locking the car, and the other constant fuse had an empty spot (not planned to have a fuse there just a single fuse leg connected) so I just use it
anyway, Q's:
1. I can measure voltage at the battery terminal noproblem but how can I see on camera side what Volts, to measure in the connector or the camera itself showing somewhere what it reads?
2. I remember seein something like 48 hrs/24 hrs slider in the app, would that be that parking record you talking about?
3. Would that be a better solution me taking the car to electrician guy to investigate the fuses and options or can I diy with my basic electrical knowledge?

 

[tabetha]

Use a metre and put on each contact on the plug that inserts into the cam, as there isn't any load to talk of, I measured around 380ma, it also shows on bottom of "live" when connected to phone via wifi.
Yes there is indeed a timed record, I think the max time it can be on park record is 48hrs, regardless of voltage setting
If unsure as you appear it would be safer/less hassle to just pay someone to hook up the wires, care needs to be taken as circuits in electronic devices can be fried costing lots of serious money to put right, there is a miriad of electronic things in cars, olderr cars were much better in this respect

 

[gpb]

1. I can measure voltage at the battery terminal noproblem but how can I see on camera side what Volts, to measure in the connector or the camera itself showing somewhere what it reads?

The F770 displays the voltage within the recorded video. It might be a setting to turn it on, I don't remember, I just know my F770 displays the voltage.

2. I remember seein something like 48 hrs/24 hrs slider in the app, would that be that parking record you talking about?

The F770 has two parameters that govern how long it will stay on in parking mode before turning itself off. One is a voltage threshhold, the other is a delay timer. 48 hours is the maximum delay settable as I recall. It turns it off when either triggers.

3. Would that be a better solution me taking the car to electrician guy to investigate the fuses and options or can I diy with my basic electrical knowledge?

Only you can answer that one. With an engineering mindset, automotive electrical connections are pretty simple to pick up. In terms of figuring out the best places to tap into constant and switched power, I'd suggest going to an enthusiast forum for your particular vehicle and searching for a DIY write-up for hardwiring a radar detector or dashcam. Such a writeup ought to show good spots to pick up the requisite power.

 

[Dippy]

The electrics we are talking about here are pretty simple. flip9 raised the possibility of a bad connection but unless you are really electrically incompetent I'd suggest that is unlikely because a bad connection would usually result in the dashcam switching intermittently rather than systematically causing the voltage detection to trigger early.

Exactly how have you connected the dashcam wires to their respective points? If you have used "add-a-circuit" type fuse taps then did you have to crimp the connection? Please don't tell me that you wrapped the wires around the fuse legs - don't underestimate the risk of electrical fire in cars. The biggest chance of bad connection is the ground wire. Usually this is to chassis and not all screws will provide a good ground. Usually there is a suitable screw in/near the fuse box and it will likely be the type that looks like it has an "integrated" washer.

Again I go back to your comment: I was doing some modding with my OBD11 and how I sit in the car I just hear "recording stops do to a low battery power"
Usually when you are sitting in a modern car, even with the engine off, there will be active circuits because the car has detected that you have not left it. Under these circumstances the parking mode will not last long - 10 minutes sounds completely normal, especially if the battery was not fully charged (see my earlier description). Have you actually measured how long parking mode lasts under the "true" condition of parked and locked?

You can only really know how low you can set the threshold voltage by experimentation, and have jump-start facilities available.

Thinkware set a maximum of 48 hours for parking mode. All you can do is reduce it. However I suggest that you have no chance of getting near 48 hours with a B9 A4.

 

[Maddog1974]

We usually recommend 12v to customers in the UK and so far no one has shouted at me so it seems to be OK. I agree about the Batteries on stop start vehicles i think they are Calcium based so not as good for small loads they are designed for regular starting mainly. That said we have fitted loads as a company to stop start vehicles and again no one has complained. I do know that stop/start cars do need a fair bit of driving to keep the battery Full, often after being parked with a dashcam running the stop start won't work for 30-40 minutes until the car is happy with the battery level.