Powerbank Battery for a Dashcam

[Sky Blue]

I bought it (MAXOAK 50000mAh 185wh 6 Port(5/12/20v) Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank) for my front and rear SG9665GC and its seems that both runs fine from the battery.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00YP823NA
I am also using this adapter on 12V/2.5A output port:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B007SP4KV0
and this splitter for 2 cams:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00ZOJIOZK

 

[Feitelijk]

How long would a SG9665GC run on a 2600mAh powerbank?

 

[Dashmellow]

Glad to see that someone finally purchased a MaxOak. Hope you'll keep us posted about your experience with it.

The MaxOak could easily power at least 4 dash cams for an extended period of time, not just the two SG9665GCs.

An alternative to your choice to use the 12V/2.5A port and a splitter to connect the 12V adapters supplied with the cameras would be to use the USB ports on the MaxOak with good quality shielded USB-A to USB mini-B cables such as those available from Monoprice. In fact, there is a reasonable likelihood that you will get much longer run times for the cameras using the already available 5 volts that the power bank puts out rather than the stepping down the 12 volt port with the GC adapters.

 

[Dashmellow]

How long would a SG9665GC run on a 2600mAh powerbank?

A few hours, give or take.

 

[Sky Blue]

Thanks @Dashmellow I will try to post my experience later.

As I am using the splitter to power both SG from the passenger cigarette lighter source, previously stated option is convenient for me just switch the power source from cigarette lighter to battery.

 

[Dashmellow]

Thanks @Dashmellow I will try to post my experience later.

As I am using the splitter to power both SG from the passenger cigarette lighter power, previously stated option is convenient for me just switch the power source from cigarette lighter to battery.

It's certainly an option. As I've mentioned earlier in this thread, I regularly power 4 cameras using two 20,000 mAh power banks. My vehicle has two 12V ports on the console that I have fitted with two dual port USB adapters that I switch from there to the power banks when I park with the cables I've mentioned, so it is a similar procedure. I've gotten so used to it, it's just become a habit. When friends see me do it in my vehicle for the first time, they always ask what I'm doing. Some think I'm a fanatic and some want to go out and get a similar set-up, especially friends who have had the experience of coming back to their vehicle in a parking lot to discover some mishap and no one around to answer for it.

I would be very curious to know how much difference in run time there would be between using USB cables directly instead of stepping down the power again. Then again the MaxOAK has so much juice, it may not matter.

With my 20,000 mAh power banks I can run two dash cams for many, many hours. I've never pushed it to the limit as it is best not to completely drain lithium-ion batteries. If you notice that you don't get the expected run times using the 12V port it would be a signal to try the other method. Yeah, keep in mind that you'll get longer life out of the MaxOak if you tend to keep it topped off than if you deep cycle it too often.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

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.

Just purchased this from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00NGJK6NIGreat price! Thanks for the tip @Dashmellow

 

[Dashmellow]

Just purchased this from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00NGJK6NIGreat price! Thanks for the tip @Dashmellow

Wow, that is a great price! I paid about 23 dollars for mine and shortly afterwards it went up to its apparent regular price of 36 dollars, so 18 bucks for one of those is a true bargain.

One quirky design thing you will discover about the PowerAdd is that the USB ports seem like they are upside down. In other words, what feels like the top of the unit with the grid pattern is really the bottom. I'm not quite sure why they did it that way but one soon gets used to it. In any event, the thing with this powerbank is that it cranks! It seems to have remarkable stamina compared to similar capacity power banks I've had experience with. Unlike most large power banks that use an array of eight 18650 lithium-ion cells, the PowerAdd is one giant lithium-polymer battery. That was the one of the reasons I bought it actually as I wanted to see how such a battery would perform. Lithuim-polymer also offers an added safety factor when compared to lithium-ion 18650 cells. Another reason I bought this bank was its complete lack of "smart" features (except safety features). It is basically a power source, not necessarily designed just for smartphones. The result is that it runs dash cams and anything else without any unpleasant surprises, shutdowns or forcing of cameras into mass storage mode.

I now own four different high capacity power banks (20,000 mAh, approx.) that all cost in the neighborhood of 2o dollars each and I can say with confidence that there is no reason whatsoever to pay two, three or more times that for an Anker or equivalent. If you do your homework and buy from a source that has a legitimate business presence on the web, offers a warranty and some sort of active customer support, you should be fine. One of the budget power banks I own has been in daily hard service for more than two years now in challenging conditions and it is still functioning at the same full capacity as it did when it was new. If one practices good maintenance and charging technique and you keep the battery as much as possible away from excessive heat, physical shock and vibration, a battery bank should last a long time.

BTW, Here is the URL for PowerAdd's web site and the Pilot Plus Power Bank.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Thanks for sharing that information. I find your research coupled with experience invaluable.

 

[reverend]

Funny you mention PowerAdd - I just took delivery of one recently which supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 to charge my phone quicker and it works great

I always wondered why they didn't do QC on powerbanks and it seems to work quite well.

It's brilliant, the build quality is as good as any powerbank I've seen and the QC side of things works really well and lets me get a turbo charge without needing to be near a wall socket. I'd never heard of them before this but I'm very happy with the quality of it.

 

[Dashmellow]

I understand the appeal of fast charging and apparently Qualcomm Quick Charge does function well by most accounts but the way the technology works puts a great deal of added stress on the battery of the device being charged as well as on the batteries inside a power bank as they become subjected to unusually high current drain beyond the high current drains they are already typically subjected to. There is no way around the laws of physics even if you do try to bend them. While I can see the value to smartphone and tablet owners even if it does mean that their batteries will have a shortened service life in the long run. As for powering dash cams for long periods, I believe that Qualcomm Quick charge is a potentially problematic idea at worst and of little value at best as it really only begins to kick in when a device is already deeply drained. It is also not clear how Qualcomm Quick Charge deals with super-capacitor powered dash cams but this too could be a potential problem that might cause stress and excess heat in a power bank.

 

[reverend]

QC wouldn't make any difference to a dashcam as it would just charge at the normal voltage and ampage.

The device has to request the extra output which it wouldn't get with these so it's kind of win-win in that it charges the phone quickly but also works with a dashcam (or anything else) as needed

 

[Dashmellow]

QC wouldn't make any difference to a dashcam as it would just charge at the normal voltage and ampage.

The device has to request the extra output which it wouldn't get with these so it's kind of win-win in that it charges the phone quickly but also works with a dashcam (or anything else) as needed

Not quite sure it works that way according to what I've read. If it senses a drained battery it will boost the current going to the dash cam. It shouldn't harm the camera but power banks don't especially like that if it isn't required. Again, I also question how it will respond to a drained super-capacitor.

My preference in a power bank for a dash camera is a linear power source.

 

[reverend]

Some specs are here and you can see it's the device being charged (PD / portable device) that sends the commands to the QC charger to request the higher voltage - the QC charger doesn't just send extra power to anything unless it explicitly tells it to:
http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/NCP4371-D.PDF

If a dashcam with a supercap is connected it won't be provided with a higher burst of energy as it won't be sending the relevant commands to up the voltage / ampage.

Kind of like how a 2amp charger still only provides most dashcams with less than 0.5a - it just supplies what the device requests.

I've used the SG9665GC with different chargers in the car no with no issues to report yet.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Some specs are here and you can see it's the device being charged (PD / portable device) that sends the commands to the QC charger to request the higher voltage - the QC charger doesn't just send extra power to anything unless it explicitly tells it to:
http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/NCP4371-D.PDF

If a dashcam with a supercap is connected it won't be provided with a higher burst of energy as it won't be sending the relevant commands to up the voltage / ampage.

Kind of like how a 2amp charger still only provides most dashcams with less than 0.5a - it just supplies what the device requests.

I've used the SG9665GC with different chargers in the car no with no issues to report yet.

Do you have a preferred charger among those that you have used?

 

[reverend]

Do you have a preferred charger among those that you have used?

It's more the ports I needed so I used an Inateck 4 way for ages that worked well and I had no issues with any of the dashcams, whether battery or capacitor that were connected:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00WHI9CHA
I noticed my phone (Galaxy S6) sometimes didn't charge at full speed in the car so I decided to buy a Quick Charge 2.0 unit so it would charge faster during the same periods. I had the same problem with the S6 in multiple USB 2a chargers so it was a bit weird - I even bought one of those LED cables which shows how fast the device connected is charging so I knew when to unplug and reconnect it! I always use TomTom when in the car on the phone and I'm not sure if the extra power drain of that does something weird - the Android version is pretty buggy.

I then swapped it out for a Quick Charge 2.0 unit which had 1x QC port for the phone and 2x USB ports which works great but they're not available at the moment:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B019BURXSG
I use the three port version of that Luxebell up front and the two port in the rear socket and have had zero issues since February

 

[Deleted member 46308]

It's more the ports I needed so I used an Inateck 4 way for ages that worked well and I had no issues with any of the dashcams, whether battery or capacitor that were connected:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00WHI9CHA
I noticed my phone (Galaxy S6) sometimes didn't charge at full speed in the car so I decided to buy a Quick Charge 2.0 unit so it would charge faster during the same periods. I had the same problem with the S6 in multiple USB 2a chargers so it was a bit weird - I even bought one of those LED cables which shows how fast the device connected is charging so I knew when to unplug and reconnect it! I always use TomTom when in the car on the phone and I'm not sure if the extra power drain of that does something weird - the Android version is pretty buggy.

I then swapped it out for a Quick Charge 2.0 unit which had 1x QC port for the phone and 2x USB ports which works great but they're not available at the moment:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/B019BURXSG
I use the three port version of that Luxebell up front and the two port in the rear socket and have had zero issues since February

Thanks for the information

 

[reverend]

On the subject of powerbanks that Vivis one with dual charging etc I have been testing and it's been dying much sooner than I'd expect for a 20000mAh powerbank.

I used a Drok USB Dr up after fully charging it and then fully discharged it and it was flat after 7450mAh had been used according to the USB Dr.

I've now hooked up the Drok to a wall socket charger and am charging it back up to see how much goes in before it's full but seems if it is a 20000mAh powerbank it's highly inefficient and no good for dashcams. I know Anker quote much better efficiency levels (I think I once read 10%) but over 60% seems ridiculous!

 

[Dashmellow]

Some specs are here and you can see it's the device being charged (PD / portable device) that sends the commands to the QC charger to request the higher voltage - the QC charger doesn't just send extra power to anything unless it explicitly tells it to:
http://www.onsemi.com/pub_link/Collateral/NCP4371-D.PDF

If a dashcam with a supercap is connected it won't be provided with a higher burst of energy as it won't be sending the relevant commands to up the voltage / ampage.

Kind of like how a 2amp charger still only provides most dashcams with less than 0.5a - it just supplies what the device requests.

I've used the SG9665GC with different chargers in the car no with no issues to report yet.

I see the point you are making but one way or another, even with sophisticated circuitry there is no way that fast charging schemes will not cause significant stress to batteries. As Battery University mentions in their article on Fast and Ultra Fast Chargers "Ultra-fast charging always causes stress". (The bank will get stressed at high discharge as will anything it fast charges.) In an automotive environment with vibrations, heat, cold and occasional shocks I would personally avoid long duration use of a high capacity Qualcomm enabled power bank for safety and longevity reasons even if it has no deleterious effect on the cameras.

Edit: BTW, which PowerAdd battery bank did you purchase? I see on their web site that some units offer a "Smart" quick charging scheme but they don't specifically mention Qualcomm.

 

[Dashmellow]

On the subject of powerbanks that Vivis one with dual charging etc I have been testing and it's been dying much sooner than I'd expect for a 20000mAh powerbank.

I used a Drok USB Dr up after fully charging it and then fully discharged it and it was flat after 7450mAh had been used according to the USB Dr.

I've now hooked up the Drok to a wall socket charger and am charging it back up to see how much goes in before it's full but seems if it is a 20000mAh powerbank it's highly inefficient and no good for dashcams. I know Anker quote much better efficiency levels (I think I once read 10%) but over 60% seems ridiculous!

I've noticed that brand new battery banks that have been in storage for long periods of time seem to increase in capacity the more they are used. I usually drain a new bank down to about 10% when I first receive it and then give it a long slow full recharge. (usually @ 1 amp). I do this several times with a new battery bank. Later, I move to a 2 amp charger and keep the bank relatively topped off as much as possible.

Lithium batteries are a bit like muscles. They seem to need to breathe and get some exercise.

See if your bank improves after several full cycles. You might notice a similar effect.