Power Drain?

[Mick B]

I'm using the Power Mic Pro but may be having issues with the camera draining the car battery. The day after it was fitted (to a 3 month-old BMW X3) the auto stop/start didn't cut in at junctions. It was suggested this could be low battery so on Saturday, we did a 100 miles round trip and it works fine. The car has been parked since then (parking motion sensors turned off so no recordings) but this morning on starting we got a warning of an electrical issue. The car started and ran OK and we didn't get the warning again when starting to come home. This may of course be a general electrical issue for my BMW dealer to sort out but it's strange it started immediately after the camera was fitted - by an engineer from the company I purchased from.

 

[jokiin]

This is why people buy products like the Cellink Neo

 

[bpsmicro]

You mean you're using the Power Magic Pro? What cut-off voltage is it set for. If it's the default 11.8V, it's possible the computers in the BMW are not liking that parasitic drain. Try setting it to 12V and see.
Very recent higher-end car models have a pretty sophisticated on-board computer system that monitors battery drain when shut off, and "knows" what a normally expected drain would be, and you're throwing that off with the camera. I don't know if yours is smart enough to "learn" that all is really well, or if it can be adjusted by the dealer (probably not), or you'll have to tweak the camera/PMP to avoid the problem.

Or a separate battery like the Neo, as mentioned.

 

[krole]

I thought the only options were 12.0 and 12.5. 12.0 is still too low imo. 12.4 is the safest but you won't get very long parking mode. 12.2 is a better compromise. However below 12.4 you battery can deep cycle which will shorten its life. Unfortunately the Power Magic Pro only has 12 and 12.5.

The Blackvue B-124 battery seems a good alternative to the Cellink Neo, looks to be cheaper (in the US at least) and its basically the same thing.

 

[M8TJT]

But not in the UK
Cellink Neo £229
Blackvue B-124 £269.99

Enter the usual UK price rip off.

 

[Mick B]

Thanks guys. I'm fairly sure the fitter (not me!) said he'd set the PMP to 12.5v. I suspect it is the car being particularly sensitive to the drain. It works OK, just gives me warnings.

I assume the separate batteries are charged by the car's system but then power the camera so it doesn't do this? The only alternative being to abandon parking mode and wire to ignition switched supply so it only runs when the car does. Unless you have other ideas

 

[krole]

The Cellink\BlackVue battery is meant to be charged while the car is on. When the car is off the dashcam is powered by the this battery and not the cars battery at all. So you shouldn't experience this issue.

 

[jeez123]

However below 12.4 you battery can deep cycle which will shorten its life. Unfortunately the Power Magic Pro only has 12 and 12.5..

Says... who?

11.6V is what deep cycles your battery. I'm not aware of any EXIDE battery being "deep cycled at 12.5V".
I've been running A LOT of batteries to their limits, and none what so ever has lost capacity at 12.5V. I'm doing a 4000W(!) speaker-install in the car, along with a 24/7/365-running DR650S-2ch (40mA/h) with a FineSafer Vu set to cutoff at 12.0Vin winter and 11.8V in summer. My current battery isn't being affected, what so ever. If it did, i wouldn't be able to record 36hrs of dashcam-activity before the 11.8V-limit is reached.

I can't speak for cheap chinese batteries, but for the quality ones, that should definately not be influenzing on the capacity @ 12.5V.

 

[krole]

Says... who?

11.6V is what deep cycles your battery. I'm not aware of any EXIDE battery being "deep cycled at 12.5V".
I've been running A LOT of batteries to their limits, and none what so ever has lost capacity at 12.5V. I'm doing a 4000W(!) speaker-install in the car, along with a 24/7/365-running DR650S-2ch (40mA/h) with a FineSafer Vu set to cutoff at 12.0Vin winter and 11.8V in summer. My current battery isn't being affected, what so ever. If it did, i wouldn't be able to record 36hrs of dashcam-activity before the 11.8V-limit is reached.

I can't speak for cheap chinese batteries, but for the quality ones, that should definately not be influenzing on the capacity @ 12.5V.

12v battery at rest and full charge is ~12.6v. Normal car batteries aren't meant to go below 80% of that charge, ~12.4v. Going below that can deep cycle the battery. It's not recommended to take deep cycles below 50% charge, which is closer to 12v. Exact voltages depend on temp.

11.6v is called a dead battery. Not sure what kind of winter you have but that probably wouldn't work too well here.

https://dashcamtalk.com/battery-discharge-prevention/
https://www.energymatters.com.au/components/battery-voltage-discharge/
https://www.batteriesinaflash.com/deep-cycle-battery-faq