Parking mode - what are my options?

[Banbuk77]

I would like to install a dash cam primary to have a recording in case there is an accident.
I would like 2 channel, discrete (no screen), wifi, automatic switching to parking mode and all other goodies so that I could install it and forget about it.

I would also like it to record when the car is parked. Not that I am in a feud with a neighbor , but I park on the street in a city so it might be helpful.
So I started reading about possible solution (motion or radar detectors, G sensors, 1 frame per second recording, etc) and I realize that in my situation I won't be getting a full use of it.

Ideally I would like the camera in parking mode to activate when a person someone is approaching the car from any direction but not to be triggered by a passing car (since that would mean constant recording).

I have the following questions:
1. Motion or radar detectors: the car is parked on a busy street. Will every passing car set off the motion detector? In which case the camera will be recording all the time. Will someone walking on the sidewalk next to a car trigger the recording? If I set the sensitivity to 'low' - can it miss someone scratching the car?

2. How will it behave in a parking lot? Will every passing person or a car trigger the motion detector?

3. I am thinking about either setting it to make pictures every second - will that use much less power? Will it capture a license plate if someone hits my parked car at night?

4. In any case, how long will the camera be powered before the main battery goes below 12.4 v it shuts down?
If it is going to record even for 3-4 hours - that would cover me in parking lot and covering first 4 hours parking on the street - should be good enough for me since I really don't want to spend extra 300-400 on an external battery.
Another problem with external battery is that very often I don't drive for a week (except moving the car for street cleaning twice a week) and even the Cellink battery won't provide enough power to last that long. Moving the car for street cleaning (5-10 minute drive) will be enough to charge the main battery , but not enough to fully charge the external one.

So what is my optimal solution? Should I just use the main battery and let it record for several hours until it shuts down?

Or should I still invest in the external battery and let it record for 2-3 days?

As for the dashcam looks like Thinkware F880 Pro has everything I need.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[jokiin]

motion detect varies between too sensitive and records everything, or not sensitive enough and misses stuff all the time, if you want to capture someone walking up to the car it would need to be that sensitive that it would basically never stop recording

 

[Nigel]

And 1 image per second is too slow, a lot can happen in a second in an accident. 5fps is much better and still only 1/6th of the normal rate.

4. There are a lot of factors involved, from how efficient the camera is to what time of year it is.

"Secondly, I sometimes don't drive for a week and even the Cellink battery won't provide enough power to last that long. But I do move the car for street cleaning 2-3 times during the week (5-10 minute drives) so that will be enough to charge the main battery , but not enough to fully charge the external one."

If you are only doing a 5 minute drive and are using a Cellink then the approximately 80 watts it uses will be 80 watts not going into your main battery, might be an issue in winter, especially with a smaller car with limited alternator power.

 

[Banbuk77]

If you are only doing a 5 minute drive and are using a Cellink then the approximately 80 watts it uses will be 80 watts not going into your main battery, might be an issue in winter, especially with a smaller car with limited alternator power.

I didn't think of that.
Is it possible to wire the batteries in such a way that the car battery is charged first and the external one is charged only after the car battery is fully charged?

In any case, looks like going with an external battery seems like too much hassle (and $$$) for not much of a benefit in my particular case. Using a car battery for about 2-4 hours of recording at a time should be enough for me.