Power consumption

[Winnie Bago]

For those of us who leave their camera permanently powered it would be very useful to know the power consumption. This can easily be determined using a $1 USB power monitor such as this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/321519161850
I'll start the ball rolling for my own Nextbase 402G :-
Fully charged & recording: 0.36A x 5.00V = 1.8W
Charging & recording: 0.51A x 5.00V = 2.55W

If other people could record their measurements for their dashcams during reviews then it would help us make future purchasing decisions!
Thanks.

 

[jokiin]

that is more useful if you are powering your camera from a USB powerbank, you want to measure the 12v draw of the power supply to know what effect it has on your car battery

 

[Winnie Bago]

My limited experience is that most cams are 5V powered, and a separate 12V to 5V adaptor is used to produce that 5V.
It would be interesting to measure both the consumption of the cam itself (i.e. on 5V) and also the 12V consumption of "random adaptor" + "dashcam under test".
By subtracting the 2 measurements, we would get a figure for the efficiency of the 12V-5V adaptor itself.
There are of course many 12V-5V adaptors available, with their own losses and inefficiencies (the one I have cuts off at 11.8V to avoid flattening the car battery).
This way perhaps we could build up a separate set of efficiency measurements for the adaptors.

 

[jokiin]

none of the converters are 100% efficient so the power draw at the battery is greater than you are measuring via USB

 

[Winnie Bago]

none of the converters are 100% efficient so the power draw at the battery is greater than you are measuring via USB

Agreed. Which can also be measured as per my previous post, but is more difficult for the layman. Measuring the 5V draw is a good and easy starting point.

 

[jokiin]

the 5v values don't accurately represent what's happening at the car battery

 

[Winnie Bago]

All you need to do is add on the power wasted in the adaptor. My 402G dashcam uses 2.5W. My 12V-5V adaptor when powering the same dashcam uses 3.5W.
The power wasted by the adaptor is therefore 1W. The total consumption to the car battery is 3.5W. It's not rocket science.
By measuring both the 5V dashcam and 12V dashcam+adaptor power consumption, we can get an idea of which dashcams use least power, and which adaptors use least power. Most people won't be able to measure the 12V consumption, but can easily measure the 5V consumption as described previously.

 

[jokiin]

Not hard to measure the 12v, just need a multimeter

 

[kamkar]

A multimeter with a better than .1 accuracy.
Though i generally use cheapo multimeters muself too for mucking about, but i cant be bothered with digging out my lab stuff from long time storage.

 

[Winnie Bago]

Here is the power consumption for my new Blueskysea B1W (no GPS).
Wifi on, recording: 1.7W
Wifi off, recording: 1.4W
So this is the current leader for power consumption! It would be interesting to get a figure from the B1W model with GPS.

 

[Nigel]

Here is the power consumption for my new Blueskysea B1W (no GPS).
Wifi on, recording: 1.7W
Wifi off, recording: 1.4W
So this is the current leader for power consumption! It would be interesting to get a figure from the B1W model with GPS.

Well that is a problem, because using a cheap USB meter similar to the one in the OP, I measured my Blueskysea B1W at 1.13W.

I'm not surprised that there is a discrepancy, these cheap meters are not very accurate, especially when using switching regulators to supply the power and devices that are far from constant in their power usage, such as using a lot of the power in very short bursts each time the memory card buffer needs emptying.

Yesterday I ran my B1W for 54 hours and 54 minutes from one charge of a 20,000mAh (74Wh) powerbank, that works out at 1.35W, not far from your 1.4W, but I don't expect a powerbank to actually supply all it's power to the camera, I only measured 17,860mAh coming out, and that would make it 66.08Wh and the B1W using 1.20W, very close to what I measured!

Not sure any of this helps, except that we do know that the Blueskysea B1W is one of the lowest power FHD dashcams available, especially when the wifi is off.

 

[kingcom]

Does anyone measured B1W in parking mode?

 

[Nigel]

Does anyone measured B1W in parking mode?

About 1W when in parking mode, not recording but waiting for the g-sensor, about 1.4W when recording.

 

[kingcom]

If I use a 20000mAh powerbank, Does it will stay up to 100h? or I did a mistake?

 

[Nigel]

If I use a 20000mAh powerbank, Does it will stay up to 100h? or I did a mistake?

20,000mAh normally gives 72Wh because they normally measure it at 3.7 volts, but there is always a little lost in heat so expect somewhere around 50 to 60 hours of parking mode plus a bit of recording.

If you are buying cheaper powerbanks, try to check the Wh specification, not the mAh specification. Wh is the amount of power stored, mAh is just current and depends on what voltage you measure it at, so some companies cheat.

 

[kingcom]

Excellent information. Thanks I'm looking for a safe powerbank with power through capability to charge and give power to the cam at the same time.

 

[Nigel]

Excellent information. Thanks I'm looking for a safe powerbank with power through capability to charge and give power to the cam at the same time.

Most powerbanks are "safe", otherwise they wouldn't be on sale!

However they are designed for use in the house, not in the car, and most don't seem to have low/high temperature cutoffs for charging. You should make sure that when charging, the temperature is in the rage 5°C to 45°C. For discharge between -40°C and 80°C. You could add a thermostat inline with the power supply, or two for low and high limits.

Also note that the standard 20,000mAh powerbanks take 10 hours for a full charge, unless you do a lot of driving then it is worth looking at quick charge / PD powerbanks.

Or use one designed for dashcam use like the Cellink Neo, but that is a bit expensive!