Power Charging Kit (With Parking Guard Signal)

@Rayman.Chan

Normally the 2 hour parking mode is OK for me, and my journeys are long enough that the powerbank will normally store more power than it uses, so normally the powerbank will stay around 70% full.

Sometimes I want to record for longer, maybe all day, but it is difficult to change the timer mode from 2 hours using the small switches when it is installed under the dash or under the seats. It would be nice to have a big button or switch we can press, maybe on the end of a cable so that it can be put in a convenient location, to say - ignore the timer, keep the camera on until the powerbanks are empty. Also sometimes I don't need to record at all, maybe the car is in the garage with no lights and recording is pointless, better to keep the power so that I can record all day tomorrow.

Maybe a 3 position switch - Camera Off | Timer | On
 
If you received the free empty powerbank with your charging kit, you could do the same as me and transfer the 18650 cells from your old powerbank to the new one.
It only works if your old powerbank has 18650 cells (a magnet will stick to it), or lipo and you do some soldering.
I abandoned my free one due to it taking 6 minutes to start quick charging if completely empty, that's not much good for a 10 minute journey, but if you are using the 2 hour setting and not emptying it every time then it would work fine, in fact it charges faster than one Tqka because it will accept power from both USB-C and micro USB simultaneously and charges at about 28W, the Tqka will only charge at 18W, but two charge at 36W.
My powerbank doesn't have 18650 cells in it. I'm still happy using it for occasional parking mode on occasion - it lives in my centre console next to the USB ports for my front & rear cameras so I can swap the cables easily.
 
It would be nice to have a big button or switch we can press

Indeed just a "big" rotating knob with distinct clicks, so all turned anti clockwise is 2 hour next click 4 hour and so on.

I would probably only use 2 hour setting, but it would be nice to have the option to change to a longer period if one should feel for that one day.
 
where can I get the device in this picture ?thanks.vlcsnap-2018-07-20-21h48m05s762.png
 
It is all prototype now as far as i know.
 
guys, if you want to get a new power bank, for this charging kit or normal use, it is better to order a USB-PD type. it will be better if the input power higher, 36W, 45W or even higher. (I ever seen a DIY 100W input power bank here).
At least a QC3.0 power bank is needed for next years. (normall 18W input)
more input power rate means short re-charging time. A 20000mAh power bank is around 70Wh, divide by recharging rate for example 36W then you get 90% capacity after 2 hours recharging. But if it is 72W rate then you get 90% after 1 hour recharging!

our target is cram the power bank quickly when vehicle driving (cooling condition), but keep cigar lighter socket safe!
usually the power rate of cigar lighter is 120W and the fuse is 15A (MAX power 12*15=180W). Of course some vehicle have a higher rating.
 
90% after 1 hour recharging

(y) some times you forget how power hungry some things cam be.

I am already tapped into the cigarette circuit, i an actually also tapped into the head unit 12 V supply, and i have a single fuse piggy backed in the fuse box for my 12 V expansion in the back of my car.

I have huge Auto fuses ( 200 A i think ) and Power splitter from my car audio days, and a good length of 1/2 " power wire, think i need a battery insulator and a second battery in the back of my car.

51KGIZwnJNL.jpg

IMG_20180721_042324.jpg
 
please consider the wire thickness at the same time, not only fuse rate.
the wire configuration is already there, if you want higher power rate, you may need to replace the cables also.

here is a wire thickness VS AMPs for your reference, we always use it here.

AWG---wire thickness---section---res----rated----MAX___AWG---wire thickness--section---res----rated----MAX
AWG.jpg
 
guys, if you want to get a new power bank, for this charging kit or normal use, it is better to order a USB-PD type. it will be better if the input power higher, 36W, 45W or even higher. (I ever seen a DIY 100W input power bank here).
At least a QC3.0 power bank is needed for next years. (normall 18W input)
more input power rate means short re-charging time. A 20000mAh power bank is around 70Wh, divide by recharging rate for example 36W then you get 90% capacity after 2 hours recharging. But if it is 72W rate then you get 90% after 1 hour recharging!

our target is cram the power bank quickly when vehicle driving (cooling condition), but keep cigar lighter socket safe!
usually the power rate of cigar lighter is 120W and the fuse is 15A (MAX power 12*15=180W). Of course some vehicle have a higher rating.
I think a powerbank with 72W charge rate is not safe in a car, that is a lot of energy for starting a fire, much better to have 4 powerbanks with 18W charge rate.

Also "90% after 1 hour recharging" is very fast for a lipo battery, it will not have a long lifespan, maybe only 1 year if used every day, replacing them every year will get expensive. If you want your batteries to last a long time then a 3 hour charge is much better, with the battery 50% full after 1 hour, you then need double the capacity but it will give a much longer life.

With a 2 powerbank charging kit:
  • For 2 hour parking mode with 2x 20 minute drives per day you need 1x 18W powerbanks,
  • For 4 hour parking mode with 2x 20 minute drives per day you need 2x 18W powerbanks,
With a 4 powerbank charging kit:
  • For 8 hour parking mode with 2x 20 minute drives per day you need 3x 18W powerbanks,
  • For 24 hour parking mode with 2x 20 minute drives per day you need 4x 18W powerbanks (Total 72W charging power, 20000mAh charge in 1 hour).

Good quality 18W 10000mAh powerbanks are easy to buy and reasonably cheap because it is the most popular size, and it is easy to add more if you want to upgrade.
 
I dont think thats fast, though the 18650 batteries as far as i know dont have the same charge rates as my RC batteries.

I am never in a hurry so i just charge with 1 C, so my main 3000 MAH RC batteries get charged with 3 A, but i could safely charge them with up to 5C / 15 Amps
I think most if not all 18650 batteries can handle 1 C charge, so with 8 - 10 of them 2500 mah in parallel the power bank you can hit them with a fair amount of amps.

I always charge my 18650 batteries with 1 A and my 26650 batteries with 2 A, and my 18650 batteries are 2500 - 3000 and 3400 mah and my 26650 batteries are 4300 and 4500 mah, so in general i am very nice to my batteries.

If i could i would charge all my batteries with 2 A but then my charger can only do 2 at the time, so thats not going to work with 18650 as i have most of those 26650 i just have 5 of.

Most of my batteries are INR ( lithium manganese nickel ) LG HG2 / Sony VCT5 & 6 / IMR Efest 4200 mah 50 A high drain & keeppower 4500 mah also IMR as i recall
 
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I've found an issue:

When the powerbanks are empty and I start charging it always charges at about 36W (18W for each powerbank), however if the powerbanks are half full then it puts about 10W into 1 powerbank for 5 seconds, then swaps to put 10W into the other powerbank for 5 seconds, then swaps back to charge the 1st powerbank for 5 seconds and does this sometimes for 1 minute, sometimes continuously, and sometimes it just charges at about 40W.

Doesn't happen with the free powerbank, that always charges at full speed, but it does it with the TQKA KA023 powerbanks. Could be a powerbank issue but they always charge at 15W if I charge them from the free powerbank and if it was just the powerbank causing it then it wouldn't keep switching between the two. I wonder if they are charging too fast, when around 60% full they seem to take about 42W when maybe they should only be taking 36W.
 
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Indeed just a "big" rotating knob with distinct clicks, so all turned anti clockwise is 2 hour next click 4 hour and so on.

I would probably only use 2 hour setting, but it would be nice to have the option to change to a longer period if one should feel for that one day.
I've found that if you have it on 2 hour parking mode and remove the charging power then it turns off after 2 hours,
but if you turn the power switch on the Charger off and then on again, after 2 hours it turns off and after another 1 minute turns back on, so you can leave it set to 2 hour mode but record all day, well apart from missing a minute after 2 hours!
 
I have now tried this kit with 3No powerbanks, with varying degrees of success.

Aukey 20000mAh:
Charges at 5V/2A from the kit, but switches off when car engine is turned off.

RAVPower 22000mAh:
Charges at 5V/2.4A if powerbank output is not connected back into the kit
Charges at 5V/0.8A (4W) when the output is connected into the kit
Switches OK between charge and power output when simply turning 12V socket on/off, but does not like power fluctuations with engine on/off

OMARS 10000mAh PD: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B07CLPQ5TKCharges at 5V/2.4A if powerbank output is not connected back into the kit
Charges at 5V/0.6A (3W) when the output is connected into the kit (both microUSB and USB-C inputs do the same)
Switches OK between charge and power output with engine on/off.
So this is the only one that functions correctly for me, but that low 3W charge rate means that my 30min drive to/from work is only enough for 2hrs parking with 2x B1W cameras. I don't know why the charge rate drops so much, but since my RAVPower also drops the charge rate I figure it must be an internal protection measure on some powerbanks? I was going to buy the TQKA, but went for the OMARS at the last minute when it came up on a lightning deal.
 
I have now tried this kit with 3No powerbanks, with varying degrees of success.

Aukey 20000mAh:
Charges at 5V/2A from the kit, but switches off when car engine is turned off.

RAVPower 22000mAh:
Charges at 5V/2.4A if powerbank output is not connected back into the kit
Charges at 5V/0.8A (4W) when the output is connected into the kit
Switches OK between charge and power output when simply turning 12V socket on/off, but does not like power fluctuations with engine on/off

OMARS 10000mAh PD: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B07CLPQ5TKCharges at 5V/2.4A if powerbank output is not connected back into the kit
Charges at 5V/0.6A (3W) when the output is connected into the kit (both microUSB and USB-C inputs do the same)
Switches OK between charge and power output with engine on/off.
So this is the only one that functions correctly for me, but that low 3W charge rate means that my 30min drive to/from work is only enough for 2hrs parking with 2x B1W cameras. I don't know why the charge rate drops so much, but since my RAVPower also drops the charge rate I figure it must be an internal protection measure on some powerbanks? I was going to buy the TQKA, but went for the OMARS at the last minute when it came up on a lightning deal.
Currently there is a special offer on the tqka - £12.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B079FPMCNF
Make sure it is a KA023 though, there are other versions that look identical but either don't have PD or only have PD on the output, we need it on the input.

My two are still working well. With the 2 hour timer they stay around 50% full and charge at about 42W total, even though the specs say 18W. So to get enough charge for the 2 hours needs less than 10 minutes charge time per journey. (Running an A129 dual camera, not in parking mode.)
 
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OMARS 10000mAh PD: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B07CLPQ5TKCharges at 5V/0.6A (3W) when the output is connected into the kit
Are you testing it from fully empty? Because you cant charge a lithium battery at more than trickle charge until it reaches a certain voltage. The TQKA banks never discharge it below that voltage so can charge at full rate from "empty", my other banks start off slowly, like at around 3W.
 
Are you testing it from fully empty? Because you cant charge a lithium battery at more than trickle charge until it reaches a certain voltage. The TQKA banks never discharge it below that voltage so can charge at full rate from "empty", my other banks start off slowly, like at around 3W.
No, I was testing it at about 90%
It would charge at around 11W from a desktop charger or from the charging kit in the car. But that dropped to 3W when I plugged in the return cable from the powerbank to the charging kit. The power draw from my desktop charger remained at 11W if I plugged the powerbank's output to a mobile phone (possible pass-through charging?) so the drop to 3W was specific to using this charging kit.
 
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Exist any simplest solution? I mean, that some powerbanks have passthourgh function, so, when I add powerbank between CL adapter and camera, it can work, no? Yes, I cant set delay time, but if power bank have power for 5h of recording, than will be discharged, so camera will stop. After power, power bank start charging and camera start recording.
 
Exist any simplest solution? I mean, that some powerbanks have passthourgh function, so, when I add powerbank between CL adapter and camera, it can work, no? Yes, I cant set delay time, but if power bank have power for 5h of recording, than will be discharged, so camera will stop. After power, power bank start charging and camera start recording.
Some of the USB2 powerbanks provide pass through and can be used, but with USB2 it takes 10 hours to charge a 20000mAh powerbank which is too slow to be much use for parking mode. I've not found a USB PD (quick charge) powerbank that supplies the camera with power while charging, they just turn the camera off and then turn it back on when charging power is removed.

Also, a lot of powerbanks are designed to charge phones and then turn off once the phone is full and not using much power. These can turn off when supplying a camera that doesn't use much power so can't be used for parking mode. A camera I am currently testing uses virtually zero power until its radar sees something moving in front of the car and then records until there is nothing moving again. All powerbanks I've tried turn off when powering that, however the Megtech Power Charging Kit keeps the powerbanks running so I can get a months parking mode! I think the powerbanks still turn off because there is no power being used, but the power charging kit restarts them to keep the camera supplied.

The Megtech Power Charging Kit is really just a clever charger, if you don't use it then you still need a charger capable of quick charging a powerbank, a normal 1 or 2 amp charger will not provide the 45 watts of charging power that I am getting from the Megtech Power Charging Kit. Presumably it will cost a little more than a standard charger but maybe not too much more. It also provides the pass through power to the camera so that the powerbanks don't need to.
 
Proper Li charging goes through two stages, starting with "constant current" (CC) which is essentially a trickle charge, then when the cell or battery reaches a point where it is safe to boost that, it begins charging in "constant voltage" (CV) mode. So during the first part of charging, the voltage is essentially unregulated. Since devices need a constant 5v at the USB port, to make a "pass-through" system the charging power has to be split off with one side charging and the other side providing 5v constantly. It is not truly "pass-through" but resembles that, for if charging input power is stopped, the system instantly hooks the battery to the 5v USB output through a "boost converter" that brings it up to the proper voltage for seamless operating. These systems give the USB port priority to a set limit, giving whatever is left to battery charging. If you use the USB port, charging will slow.

As you can see this is a pretty complex operation and requires extra parts and extra engineering which must increase costs. Rather that paying that extra, most people just go worth the simple power banks or the ones made for dashcam use which automatically switch over without having to plug a cable in elsewhere. For a fully discharged high amperage LiIon cell, charging can take several hours at the optimum rate, and still well over an hour when pushed as hard as it is safe to do. AGM battery technology would be better for us, but it is bulky, more costly to implement, and nobody makes it as a plug-and-play system like they do with power banks.

Same as with our cams, there is always a compromise to be made somewhere and perfection an unattainable goal.

Phil
 
What happened to this project?

Are any of the testers still using the charging kit?
 
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