Powerbank Battery for a Dashcam

Thanks. But the cigarrette power cables I have are in one piece from cigarrette to the miniUSB connector of the cams (shadow gt680w and joovuux) and do not want to switch to other power supply and cables. Although this seems to be the only way I can use a power bank. Forgot to mention I am not keen on hardwiring the cams either.
 
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Because I like to use powerbanks when away from my vehicle I use two dual port USB 4.8 amp chargers like the one I posted a photo of earlier and high quality shielded cables. When I park, I just swap the plugs into the power banks.
As long as you use good quality power supplies that put out enough amperage and good shielded cables there is no reason to stick with the power supply that came with the camera if you want more flexible connectivity.
I've used this method for a variety of different cameras for about two years now, currently three Mobius cams and an SG9665GC and have never had any problems.
 
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Thank you for clearly explain how have you done. Keep well!
 
I recently tested the endurance of my two Anker Power Banks by connecting one of my two Mobius cams to each of them, & recording 3 minute duration clips in loop-recording mode until the banks were exhausted.

The test was done indoors at a room temperature of 21°C, dropping to around 17°C overnight. Results...

Anker Astro E4 13000mAh (Bought 29 January 2014)
345 files recorded. 17 hours duration.

Anker PowerCore 15600mAh (Bought 24 November 2015)
482 files recorded. 24 hours duration.

Note that the E4 is over two years old, has been in daily use charging phones, MP3 players, etc, so has doubtless lost some of it's charge capacity over time.
 
I already have this one which I bought for my old car but I rarely use now as the old car has new battery. How can I use this for my two independent dash cam (front and rear) in 2016 Toyota Rav4?

Stanley.jpg
 
I was thinking to buy this one:

MAXOAK 50000mAh 185wh 6 Port(5/12/20v) Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00YP823NA
But I saw one review for the battery as below:
I purchased 3 of these to use as a power source for a 12 volt wireless camera. Initially everything seemed perfect, the device even came with a connector that worked beautifully with our camera out of the box! Then the camera shut down 15 seconds later.... Turns out that there is a minimum current draw required to keep this device on otherwise it shuts down. I connected 2 wireless camera's, and still not enough current. Added a USB LED light, still not enough current.

If the main purpose is to charge a cellphone, or laptop then I'm sure this would be a great device. Otherwise, you might want to look elsewhere for a battery to power your low wattage devices.

This is a true shame as due to the large capacity of this device, it would be a great power source for low powered applications such as mine. Would power that camera for days if my calculations are correct.

I don't know how much true it is through!
 
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Sky Blue said:
I was thinking to buy this one:

MAXOAK 50000mAh 185wh 6 Port(5/12/20v) Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00YP823NA
But I saw one review for the battery as below:
I purchased 3 of these to use as a power source for a 12 volt wireless camera. Initially everything seemed perfect, the device even came with a connector that worked beautifully with our camera out of the box! Then the camera shut down 15 seconds later.... Turns out that there is a minimum current draw required to keep this device on otherwise it shuts down. I connected 2 wireless camera's, and still not enough current. Added a USB LED light, still not enough current.

If the main purpose is to charge a cellphone, or laptop then I'm sure this would be a great device. Otherwise, you might want to look elsewhere for a battery to power your low wattage devices.

This is a true shame as due to the large capacity of this device, it would be a great power source for low powered applications such as mine. Would power that camera for days if my calculations are correct.

I don't know how much true it is through!
Click to expand...

That power bank was mentioned earlier in this thread. It would be great if one of us would take the plunge and report on their experience with it here on DCT.

That Stanley Jump Starter's ability to run dash cams from its USB ports would depend on how much current it puts out. You would want at least 1 amp per port per dash cam but many devices like that only out-put 500 mAh per port. Unfortunately, even Stanley's own web site doesn't provide the specs.
 
Dashmellow said:
Because I like to use powerbanks when away from my vehicle I use two dual port USB 4.8 amp chargers like the one I posted a photo of earlier and high quality shielded cables. When I park, I just swap the plugs into the power banks.
As long as you use good quality power supplies that put out enough amperage and good shielded cables there is no reason to stick with the power supply that came with the camera if you want more flexible connectivity.
I've used this method for a variety of different cameras for about two years now, currently three Mobius cams and an SG9665GC and have never had any problems.
Click to expand...

I am very curious what your setup looks like. I just bought the A118C dashcam and Ankar power bank and was curious what other products I would need to have it run efficiently . It seems like the SG9665GC and the A118C uses mini usb. So my question was if you run the SG9665GC using a USB to Mini-USB cable and plugging that into a powerbank?

If so, which cable did you buy? And how long do you think I would need to just mount my dashcam behind my mirror, run cable through the headliner on top to the right, underneath carpet and to my USB port / cig lighter?
 
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inspire said:
I am very curious what your setup looks like. I just bought the A118C dashcam and Ankar power bank and was curious what other products I would need to have it run efficiently . It seems like the SG9665GC and the A118C uses mini usb. So my question was if you run the SG9665GC using a USB to Mini-USB cable and plugging that into a powerbank?

If so, which cable did you buy?
Click to expand...

My vehicle has two 12V "cigarette lighter" ports in the front console, so I use two dual USB chargers similar to the one in this photo. For cables I highly recommend Monoprice. I use 10 foot and 15 foot USB-A to 5 pin mini-B cables, which are shielded, well made and very attractively priced. The same cable is available with a micro plug on the end instead of a mini-B. You can also buy a heavier AWG version with a ferrite bead. When you want to use your power bank, just swap the USB-A plugs from the car charger to the bank.

charger.png cable.png
 
Dashmellow said:
My vehicle has two 12V "cigarette lighter" ports in the front console, so I use two dual USB chargers similar to the one in this photo. For cables I highly recommend Monoprice. I use 10 foot and 15 foot USB-A to 5 pin mini-B cables, which are shielded, well made and very attractively priced. The same cable is available with a micro plug on the end instead of a mini-B. You can also buy a heavier AWG version with a ferrite bead. When you want to use your power bank, just swap the USB-A plugs from the car charger to the bank.

View attachment 22118 View attachment 22117
Click to expand...

Thank you. Just ordered the 10 ft cable with ferrite bead and the same cigarette lighter port. I realized that most conventional USB ports in a car is rated at 5V at 0.5A which I believe not sufficient power.
 
inspire said:
Thank you. Just ordered the 10 ft cable with ferrite bead and the same cigarette lighter port. I realized that most conventional USB ports in a car is rated at 5V at 0.5A which I believe not sufficient power.
Click to expand...

You're welcome! Yeah, 1 amp is the bare minimum you should have for current. Longer runs of cable often will benefit from more. The dual port car chargers I use supply 2.4 amps to each USB port.
 
Dashmellow said:
You're welcome! Yeah, 1 amp is the bare minimum you should have for current. Longer runs of cable often will benefit from more. The dual port car chargers I use supply 2.4 amps to each USB port.
Click to expand...

I am also wondering, what powerbank(s) do you specifically use? I have heard on this forum that Anker works well, so I ordered the Anker ones but it seems like you use four cams so I was curious which specific one you have in your car.
 
inspire said:
I am also wondering, what powerbank(s) do you specifically use? I have heard on this forum that Anker works well, so I ordered the Anker ones but it seems like you use four cams so I was curious which specific one you have in your car.
Click to expand...

The powerbanks I've used for the last two years are 20,000 mAh generic Chinese ones that cost 20 dollars each on Amazon. They are still working fine and have been in daily use all this time. Both have two USB ports each - one 2.1 amp and one 1 amp. The two battery banks will run four cameras all day if I wanted them to. Unfortunately, they are no longer available. There are dozens of similar ones on the market though but it is hard to know what you are getting. I kind of like the PowerAdd units because for a "generic" Chinese brand you get a decent warranty and actual customer service.

You certainly won't go wrong with any of the Ankers which are of high quality and come with a good warranty. On the other hand if you shop carefully you can spend a lot less.

One important issue that is slowly becoming more of a problem for dash cam users who want to run their cameras off power banks is that many of them now have so called "smart" features that are designed specifically for use with certain smartphones and tablets. Sometimes these "smart" features in power banks can make the camera think it is connected to a computer rather than a power source and they will therefore go into "mass storage mode" and won't run. There have also been a few reports of "smart" battery banks that automatically shut off if they sense that the camera is fully charged.
 
I use the Xiaomi Mi powerbanks. Well built and works with any device.

I also built a 12v/5v AGM battery pack for portable auxiliary power.

_FFX8025.jpg BB2.jpg _FFX8449.jpg
 
how would a powerbank work for a blackvue dr650gw 1ch? How would i hook it up? Wouldn't it have to put out 12v? I'm new to this kind of stuff :)
 
i found one but only has a usb port on it. Could you maybe link me to one that i could get? thx :)
 
no idea which is suitable, Cellink B is a purpose made power supply for this but they're around $300, have a look on Amazon maybe for some power banks that have 12v output
 
 
I picked up a Vivis 20000mAh powerbank yesterday which has something I've not seen before - it has two 2A microUSB inputs for charging at double the speed (4A) for a 6 hour charge time from empty.

I'm just giving it the first charge through a single cable - not sure how long it will last but initial impressions are that it's well put together.
 
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