Purpose of hardwire kit and what if car has continuous power to cig lighter

nagooro

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Probably a noob question but, what's the purpose of hardwiring the dashcam to the car battery? Is it so the dashcam has power 24/7 allowing it to use the parking mode feature?

I drive a f150, the cigarette lighter socket always delivers power, even when the vehicle is off, is this essentially the same thing as a hardwire kit? (if I kept it plugged in at all times)?

If I do leave mine plugged in all the time, should I be worried that it will drain my battery? (eg. leaving the dashcam plugged in overnight)

Thanks for any input.
 
Only the newly released A119 V3 supports advanced parking mode via the newer 3-wire hardwire kit. (Also has low voltage battery discharge prevention.

A119 / A119 V2 supports a limited parking mode via firmware using 2-wire power but you would want to add a low voltage battery discharge prevention system such as the RHUNDO product. That one works well for always hot cig ports plug and play.

If you don’t need parking mode then hard wiring is connected to a switched accessory power circuit that only powers the DashCam at engine start.
 
There are 3 reasons to hardwire.
1: To keep your in dash socket open for other stuff
2: To keep wires off the dashboard and not draped all over the place.
3: To make it possible for the camera to do parking mode.
Hard wire kits in general also have a build in BDP ( Battery Discharge Protection ) so you can set a low voltage cut off, and thats a good idea to keep as far over 12 volts as you can ( depending on your need for time + parking mode )
Also if you use parking mode it is sort of a constant parasitic drain on your battery, so you have to drive some to replenish your car battery, so not a option to do parking mode for 23 hours every day and only drive 1 hour.

For parking mode it is not advised to do so with regular 1080p 30 frames footage, this simply generate too much heat in a car not least if it is parked outside in the sun, the latest to remedy this and still have 1080P 30 FPS are to use a lower bitrate while parked, this also mean files are smaller and so you can have room for many more hours on a memory card.

you can use a Rhundo 3 way splitter https://www.amazon.com/gp/B07BRD6N1BIt have a range of options like BDP and a timer ASO,,,,, BUT ! many of the new dashcams need a purpose build hard wire kit to function ( often 3 wire kits )
So using the Rhundo for true parking mode are not really a go, but it can keep a camera live for X time after key off, or maybe something you want to charge while parked.
Especially in a car like yours with a always on socket in the dash are the Rhindo gadget nice. But as the camera are kept on in regular recording mode it is far from a ideal option, and also all you get are just hours of recordings, so if your car got dinged while parked you got to see it yourself and dig out when in among all your footage.
True parking mode put events in a read only folder where they are safe from deletion for a good while if not for ever, and a trigger of the G sensor will give you the exact time so you don't have to dig around to find it.

So look at the Rhindo gadget as a nice thing to split your dash socket up and make things connected to it manual turn off able or automated with a timer or low cut off ( but not really a dashcam in parking mode )
I have it in my car but just use it on a regular ACC fuse, and use it to power some cameras ( many of those in my car ) so the advanced functions i don't use.
 
Only the newly released A119 V3 supports advanced parking mode via the newer 3-wire hardwire kit. (Also has low voltage battery discharge prevention.

A119 / A119 V2 supports a limited parking mode via firmware using 2-wire power but you would want to add a low voltage battery discharge prevention system such as the RHUNDO product. That one works well for always hot cig ports plug and play.

If you don’t need parking mode then hard wiring is connected to a switched accessory power circuit that only powers the DashCam at engine start.
I got the A119 v2 (I think, the one with the updated "skiding contacts" on the GPS mount) + the Viofo hard wire kit. In the kit there was an inline "low voltage detection" at 11.8V for 12V batteries (and another value for 24V) and it was branded viofo. There were only +/- (2 wire) feeding it. Will that not work to prevent battery from discharging?

I will normally not leave the cam in the car, just the gps mount will be connected and i hope that doesnt consume power without the cam.

I set it up to the interior lighting (allways powered lead was only thing available...except 10s power when opening doors lol) as this is the only power source unless i want to hide the cable by the wind screen a-pole but there i have air bag curtains so i dont dare doing that.
Cables were to short to go back to mid-pole (by the seatbelt) and below the in-step, so i went for the interior lighting. Found a solder point and soldered the + and cranked the - ring to the chassis together with the lighting ground.

Will Be interesting to see if it will drain the battery even with the protector. I will mount the camera a few days close to my home just to test and angle a webcam towards the car should any thieves steal the camera (and thus the evidence on the card :-/ ).

Sd-based cameras are good for impacts, but i dont feel like attracting thieves by hanging it in the window every night of the week :-/ so for parking the only way to go is cloud based storage cameras but then you need a sim and a data plan too :-(

Also if you use parking mode it is sort of a constant parasitic drain on your battery, so you have to drive some to replenish your car battery, so not a option to do parking mode for 23 hours every day and only drive 1 hour.
If You drive a full hour the battery will be charged full for sure. The generator packs massive amps to the battery while driving.
Also from the tests i saw here (in BcHobbyists mod fw thead - His video on YT) on a video, parking mode only use 230mA in standby and 280mA recording at 5fps, so during 4 days it would consume 22Ah if it was mostly standby. That is a lot especially on smaller batteries (mine is just 45Ah so I would have a rough time starting at half that) but 24h is only about 5.5Ah and that is no problem. 40Ah left in battery is plenty. Of course that gives that your battery is fairly new (at least not allmost dead)
 
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