Power Magic Pro shuts off early

SlickMachine

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I have come to really dislike Blackvue and their products at this point. I won't get started on the 900s and overheating etc. I installed my PMP and cam 5 months ago. Before I go further, let me say that I have extensive experience installing car audio and other car related electronics, so I'm no stranger to DC and the like. So, immediately upon install, I ran into issues with this unit. I could not get it to power on, and after testing and experimentation, I realized that it needed power from the switched side to 'jump start' the unit, and then it would stay on with the truck turned off. I set the voltage cutoff at 12v and left it as is (I should have returned it). It worked fine for a while, now 5 months later the PMP cuts off earlier and earlier in park mode. It used to run for 2 days ish, now only a few hours. No settings have changed on the camera. The voltage sensing on this thing has degraded and now it's useless.
I post this not for help, but to let everyone know what they are getting into with this product. It is unreliable and very cheaply made. Very frustrating.
 
you need to start the vehicle after install before it will turn on and start working, this is normal for a device with a low voltage cutout function

not running as long as it did when first installed is due to wear on your batteries, this is also normal
 
More likely your battery is getting stuffed than anything wrong with the unit

If you have extensive experience Im surprised you havent worked out the two"problems" you have had


I did contribute to a thread on the PMP about your startup trouble as I had the same problem and we solved it simply by starting the car.

Have found they give little trouble and most problems are installation errors or user unfamiliarity
 
Yeah battery health do drop this time of the year, its always now and the coming months you hear of people having battery / start problems, that rarely happen in the summer.
I am pretty sure when i do get a hard wire kit, i will probably also have to get a new car battery, my only chance not to would be my 2012 car and using parking guard i will just use parking guard for 30 minute periods as that's the time i am away from my car.
+90% of time where i park i have my own CCTV or my friends to cover the car where it is parked.
So in short i will just use parking mode for shopping, which i get done pretty fast due to my phobia towards my fellow countrymen.
 
More likely your battery is getting stuffed than anything wrong with the unit

If you have extensive experience Im surprised you havent worked out the two"problems" you have had


I did contribute to a thread on the PMP about your startup trouble as I had the same problem and we solved it simply by starting the car.

Have found they give little trouble and most problems are installation errors or user unfamiliarity
Wtf does 'battery getting stuffed' mean? The battery and truck are brand new. Unfortunately my experience doesn't extend to unfcuking cheap Chinese voltage sensing boards. I'll say it one more time: I went from days of parking mode down to a few hours. Given the large amount of other complaints all over here, you think it's my 'stuffed' battery? Give me a break. I should also mention that when I put my multi meter on the pmp hot wire the other day after I found it shut down, it read 12.2v. so the 12v threshold it's supposed to be set at is completely useless. I had the same issues when I first installed it.
 
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Yeah battery health do drop this time of the year, its always now and the coming months you hear of people having battery / start problems, that rarely happen in the summer.
I am pretty sure when i do get a hard wire kit, i will probably also have to get a new car battery, my only chance not to would be my 2012 car and using parking guard i will just use parking guard for 30 minute periods as that's the time i am away from my car.
+90% of time where i park i have my own CCTV or my friends to cover the car where it is parked.
So in short i will just use parking mode for shopping, which i get done pretty fast due to my phobia towards my fellow countrymen.

I would lean harder toward what you're saying except that my truck is parked in my heated garage in Denver where it has not been that cold, except for a few days ago. There are other times over the past several months where I would come out to my car after work and find that the camera has shut off. It's highly unlikely it's my battery.
 
you need to start the vehicle after install before it will turn on and start working, this is normal for a device with a low voltage cutout function

not running as long as it did when first installed is due to wear on your batteries, this is also normal
I'm talking days of run time initially, now down to a few hours, on a 5 month old truck.
 
should also mention that when I put my multi meter on the pmp hot wire the other day after I found it shut down, it read 12.2v. so the 12v threshold it's supposed to be set at is completely useless.
Then why didn't you say that in your opening post? That way you would have indicated that you had tested the voltage dropout of the PMP and the battery was OK. That would also have given your post more credence and would have saved everyone looking in their crystal balls in an attempt to help you. (even though you said you didn't need help). You also omitted to tell 'us' that your truck was only 5 months old, just that you fitted the cam 5 months ago.

In addition to that, there is absolutely no reason to be so rude with the use of profanities or TLAs that indicate them when answering someone who is making suggestions as to what the problem might be (given the incomplete information).

But thank you for the warning given in your opening post anyway.
 
I am just going to throw this out there, the 12v setting may be off a little bit by shutting down at the 12.2 reading your meter is showing you. And the cheap meters most installers use are not that accurate either, when was yours last certified? Our service techs (not automotive) have to get their meters calibrated and certified yearly. In the previous months it may have been shutting down at that same voltage. The problem can still be your battery for the run time cycle getting shorter and shorter. Don't rely on the time you bought the truck for the age of the battery, it can be up to 3 years old before it is installed when the truck is built.

Good luck, heading to work.
 
I am just going to throw this out there, the 12v setting may be off a little bit by shutting down at the 12.2 reading your meter is showing you. And the cheap meters most installers use are not that accurate either, when was yours last certified? Our service techs (not automotive) have to get their meters calibrated and certified yearly. In the previous months it may have been shutting down at that same voltage. The problem can still be your battery for the run time cycle getting shorter and shorter. Don't rely on the time you bought the truck for the age of the battery, it can be up to 3 years old before it is installed when the truck is built.

Good luck, heading to work.

voltage at the PMP will likely be lower than direct at the battery, same goes for any of these similar type battery cutoff devices, they also have a +/- tolerance of 0.1v so if the cutoff was set to 12v and the battery reads 12.2v then it's pretty close to what you would expect, the run time getting significantly shorter is typical of what having a parasitic load every time you key off will do to your batteries, typical primary car batteries are not intended for this type of use, they're all about CCA (cold cranking amps), how much power they can deliver for a few seconds while starting and then being quickly recharged back to full, some vehicles do have secondary auxiliary batteries that are better able to cope with this type of usage but it's not something that is healthy long term for a starter battery
 
voltage at the PMP will likely be lower than direct at the battery, same goes for any of these similar type battery cutoff devices, they also have a +/- tolerance of 0.1v so if the cutoff was set to 12v and the battery reads 12.2v then it's pretty close to what you would expect, the run time getting significantly shorter is typical of what having a parasitic load every time you key off will do to your batteries, typical primary car batteries are not intended for this type of use, they're all about CCA (cold cranking amps), how much power they can deliver for a few seconds while starting and then being quickly recharged back to full, some vehicles do have secondary auxiliary batteries that are better able to cope with this type of usage but it's not something that is healthy long term for a starter battery
Reread my post, specifically where I said that I measured at the PMP, (exactly at the crimp connection hot batt lead.)
Voltage, multimeters, none of this really matters because they are not the problem. Junk.
 
Reread my post, specifically where I said that I measured at the PMP, (exactly at the crimp connection hot batt lead.)
Voltage, multimeters, none of this really matters because they are not the problem. Junk.

set a lower voltage then, I'm not defending the PMP, personally I don't like them, they have a lot of shortcomings, it's what you have though so if you have it you may as well use it
 
Pull the trigger

As an example of battery life I used to drive taxis and one winter when my battery died I put a huge oversized one. That battery last 14weeks. Could be the same with yours. But then with a possibly unreliable meter you might not get a true reading so who would know.

There is no heed for rudeness we are all here to help maybe in different ways and often in ways that you may not understand as we come from all over the world and use different expressions.
If you are convinced you are right and its junk Chuck it in the bin then and dont rave about it.
 
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set a lower voltage then, I'm not defending the PMP, personally I don't like them, they have a lot of shortcomings, it's what you have though so if you have it you may as well use it
What hardwiring kits do you recommend then? The only good choices seem to be PMP or Vico Power Plus (unless you can use a camera specific kit such as for the A129 or your SG9663DC).
 
What hardwiring kits do you recommend then? The only good choices seem to be PMP or Vico Power Plus (unless you can use a camera specific kit such as for the A129 or your SG9663DC).

Multi Safer/Fine Safer are good, maybe a little hard to find though, Vico Power plus the timer is not very accurate but aside from that it's good, not many of these types of universal supplies available these days, the Rhundo power supplies aren't the same style as these but do work well
 
Multi Safer/Fine Safer are good, maybe a little hard to find though
They are hard to find! I know they came out with a new version but it seems like they're rare, and have to be imported. I wonder why more vendors don't carry them?
 
Limited market I think as it is more suited to cameras that auto change to parking mode, not something that is easy to get 100% right
 
12V or 12.5V are the only options for a 12V system. OP already has his set to 12V.
Did they change them? The settings were 11.8v and 12v

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I have two of then, one recent (within the last year) and one several years old. Just checked and they both claim to switch at 12V and 12.5V and do actually switch off at 12V (when set to 12V) but both require at least 12.25V to switch them on (thus the old advice to start the engine if they don't switch on.
11.8V and 12V switching would make a lot more sense as a 12V battery will easily fall to 12V with a bit of load on it when not being charged.
The problem that I have in my car, is that when the auto start/stop stops the engine, the battery voltage falls to 12V (I have a meter permanently attached) and thus the PMP switches off the dashcam when I (say) stop at the traffic lights regardless of whether it is switched on or off. However the delay circuit that I have described in my thread overcomes this problem as long as the PMP is switched on, and in my case keeps it on for three minuets.
 
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