Possible faulty battery - doesn't store any charge after 10 months of use

mveloso

New Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2019
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Location
Coimbra
Country
Portugal
Hi,

I hope to get some help from this community, regarding the battery issues of my device.
I own a 70mai Pro, Midrive D02 (v1.0.5) + GPS module Midrive D03, bought on November 15, 2018, from LightInTheBox platform and delivered in January 2019.

On my first trials, at home I, realized the device wasn’t able to work for more than 5 minutes without needing charge again. At that time, I didn’t consider an issue, since the dashcam would be connected to the vehicle power source.

After a few months of use, every time I turn off the vehicle ignition I get a message instructing me to connect the device to a power source – meaning, the battery doesn’t have any charge, although it was connected to a power supply for the previous hour.

Currently, if the vehicle is parked for more than a day, the device doesn’t even store the date, and must be reset every time I turn on the ignition. If a event (like a collision) takes place when the vehicle is parked, the camera do not registered because it doesn’t store any power – and, in fact, recently there was a collision with my parked vehicle and the dashcam was useless to identify the cause because it didn’t recorded any event.

This seems to be a faulty battery. I’ve contacted the seller (LightInTheBox) which claims the warranty is void – they only provide 30 months warranty, which, for me, it’s ridiculous providing only 30 days of warranty. They instruct me to contact 70mai, which I did using the help@70mai.com and servicecenter@70mai.com contacts. Until now, I haven’t received any reply.

Is this a known issue? Is there battery replacements available?

Best regards.
 
running 5 to 10 minutes on battery is typical of any camera with an internal battery, the cameras are intended to be powered by the vehicle
 
If you are in the hotter parts of Portugal it's entirely possible that the battery has reached the end of it's life. I've had a cam battery die in 2 months of summer heat, yet a different cheaper cam's battery is still doing well after 1 1/2 years with two summers involved. The EU may have longer warranty requirements but I don't know how you would work that out if they do.

Phil
 
running 5 to 10 minutes on battery is typical of any camera with an internal battery, the cameras are intended to be powered by the vehicle

Thanks for the input, I understand that. However, the device currently don't work even 30 seconds without charge, with around 6 months of use.
If a device is design to detect parking collision, like this one, it must assure some power source (internal battery) to operate. Right now, the device is unable to store any information when on parking mode.
 
If you are in the hotter parts of Portugal it's entirely possible that the battery has reached the end of it's life. I've had a cam battery die in 2 months of summer heat, yet a different cheaper cam's battery is still doing well after 1 1/2 years with two summers involved. The EU may have longer warranty requirements but I don't know how you would work that out if they do.

Phil

You're right, batteries don't work well under high temperatures.
I don't live or work on the hotter regions on my country, and most of the time the vehicle was parked on the garage or under a shade.
 
Thanks for the input, I understand that. However, the device currently don't work even 30 seconds without charge, with around 6 months of use.
If a device is design to detect parking collision, like this one, it must assure some power source (internal battery) to operate. Right now, the device is unable to store any information when on parking mode.
parking mode and internal batteries do not go together, companies still make them for whatever reason, they're destined to fail though
 
parking mode and internal batteries do not go together, companies still make them for whatever reason, they're destined to fail though

That's an interest thought. Parking mode demands resources, namely, g-sensors and a energy source, that the device should provide. I really believed that 70mai Pro would deliver a quality product.

Any dashcam built to operate with parking mode should integrate a internal lasting power source and be able to cope with the environment challenges that a vehicle must deal with, specifically sun exposure and heat.

Makes no sense to sell a dashcam that fails after some months by simply being used normally, this is, being placed on a vehicle shield and receive some heat and sun. It's almost like if a watchmaker builds and sell a beautiful watch for diving but advising that we cannot get water on it.

And I believe that the parking mode is a very useful feature. A few days ago would be very helpful if it had worked to identify who crashed in my (and my neighbors') vehicles.
 
Last edited:
Any camera built for parking mode should not use an internal battery, it's only going to lead to early failure of the camera
 
@mveloso The amount of electricity needed to run a dashcam for an extended period of time precludes that from being provided within the cam itself- the battery technology of today would make for a too-large cam. The main function of a cam's battery (and of supercaps too) is to allow it to properly close the last file without it being corrupted. It's secondary function it to allow a short period of continued recording should power be lost in a crash. Supercaps cannot yet provide enough energy to do this.

Some years ago all dashcams had a battery, and it was known then to be problematic but no other solution was available. Supercaps were eventually developed to the point where they became the viable alternative which was needed. Now all of the better dashcams have supercaps instead of a battery, but older models and some of the cheaper ones too still have the battery along with it's problems. It has also been long known that dashcams do not fare well in high heats, and that they shouldn't be more exposed to direct sunlight than is absolutely necessary so that the heat levels can be kept low enough for them to function.

With all mass-produced products you will get a small percentage of failures- this goes for batteries too. My own 2-month battery failure (with a different cam) was probably a bad battery from the start, and I think your cam has the same problem. If you can source the correct battery and solder it in yourself a fix is cheap and easy. You might be able to convince the seller or manufacturer to repair this under warranty instead. Either way any battery-equipped dashcam is going to eventually need a battery replacement as they do wear out in time.

Given the low cost of a dashcam and the current level of technology it's not realistic to expect more from them. Supercaps last a lot longer and that is why all the better cams now use them- not only for customer satisfaction but also because of fewer warranty returns. I'm truly sorry you've had problems with your cam but you are expecting more from them than they can deliver, especially at the price point you're at. If you can't manage a battery replacement I'd suggest trying a better cam which uses supercaps, maybe using this one as a rear cam for as long as it still functions.

Phil
 
@SawMaster Thanks for your inputs. I understand and agree with you. I understand that the battery on a dash cam should provide energy necessary to finalized some tasks, not to suporte the recording itself for long periods of time. And for that, super capacitors could be the best solution. But hat removes interesting and useful functions such as parking surveillance.
 
Back
Top