Review of the Thinkware F750-2CH?

another video we took driving through Bondi Beach and Bronte
Remember to watch in 1080p
 
Hi all,
I have the Thinkware 750 front and rear cams hardwired to a constant on and a switched circuit. I only get about 6 hours in Parking Mode
before the battery protection cuts it off. I originally had Motion on as well so I turned it off trying to extend the Parking Mode time
before the battery protection cuts it off but didn't seem to make any difference. I checked the battery and it reads 12.3 when it cuts out
from 12.7 full charge. So I figure I'm using a 1/3 of a volt in the 6 hours.
What's the lowest Battery Protection I can safely set it without risk of not starting, where do you set yours too? My settings are in the photo below. Any thoughts? thanks
 

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Remember its not just about time, its about how much it'll record, on my drive it lasts all night, at work it lasts 12 hours, but in a busy car park it might turn off for 6/7 hours.

What id suggest is making sure you don't have a parasitic circuit someplace in the car, when the car is fully asleep it shouldn't draw more than a few 10s of milliamps, if you drawing 300mA then you have a problem, no amount of setting changes on the dash cam will help you. Also, 12.7 is edging on the low side, how old is battery?

Finally, what's the weather like? Cold weather reduces battery efficiency and increases consumption
 
Remember its not just about time, its about how much it'll record, on my drive it lasts all night, at work it lasts 12 hours, but in a busy car park it might turn off for 6/7 hours.

What id suggest is making sure you don't have a parasitic circuit someplace in the car, when the car is fully asleep it shouldn't draw more than a few 10s of milliamps, if you drawing 300mA then you have a problem, no amount of setting changes on the dash cam will help you. Also, 12.7 is edging on the low side, how old is battery?

Finally, what's the weather like? Cold weather reduces battery efficiency and increases consumption

It's a brand new 2016 Tundra with a heavy duty alt and batt. The cam is the only add on I have done. I had three empty fuse slots
under the dash. Two were switched and one was constant so I made use of of the two. Having said that I have it set to incident
and I turned motion off. No incidents reported so no reason for the voltage drop that I can think of Unless those led's are using
good amounts of power but I can't see that happening. Outside temp is around 70-80, nothing out of the ordinary there. Not sure
why you think 12.7 is low, I assumed it was 100% charged from what little I know. Of course I'm assuming that the Thinkware's
led's stay on while in Parking Mode, Now if they shut off and the cam remains active the that's a whole different story.
 
Mine sits at over 13 on battery. I think at this point the sensible thing to do would be to test the current draw.

You will need a multimeter, disconnect the positive terminal on the battery (make sure you have your radio code first) then connect the multi meter between the positive terminal on the battery and the now disconnected positive leads.

Do Not attempt to start the car, your multimeter will not survive!

so get a reading of current draw from the moment you remove the keys, then do it again every 10 min for half an hour, by that time the car should be asleep assuming you didn't open any doors or turn things on, the ECU is the main one, that can stay alive for half an hour or even more..

Do that without the dash cam to give you a base line, then try It with the dash cam to compare

As I said, the current draw should be a few 10s of milliamps when asleep, any more than 100mA and you will start having issues, any more than 300 an your going to have some battery problems sooner rather than later if you dont drive a lot..
 
Mine sits at over 13 on battery. I think at this point the sensible thing to do would be to test the current draw.

You will need a multimeter, disconnect the positive terminal on the battery (make sure you have your radio code first) then connect the multi meter between the positive terminal on the battery and the now disconnected positive leads.

Do Not attempt to start the car, your multimeter will not survive!

so get a reading of current draw from the moment you remove the keys, then do it again every 10 min for half an hour, by that time the car should be asleep assuming you didn't open any doors or turn things on, the ECU is the main one, that can stay alive for half an hour or even more..

Do that without the dash cam to give you a base line, then try It with the dash cam to compare

As I said, the current draw should be a few 10s of milliamps when asleep, any more than 100mA and you will start having issues, any more than 300 an your going to have some battery problems sooner rather than later if you dont drive a lot..
I have the cam disconnected, I'm going to drive it a few days and charge the battery up first then I'll run the test later in the week and keep you posted.
 
I have the cam disconnected, I'm going to drive it a few days and charge the battery up first then I'll run the test later in the week and keep you posted.
Okay, I gave it a shot anyway. I used the neg side, it read -0.50 and quickly dropped down to -o.15 and leveled out.
The cam cut off when I disconnected negative side. I've read it's better to do the negative side so I went with that.
 
did you have that set to A or mA? if that is 150mA (0.15A) then that is still quite high, was that with or without the camera?

mine was drawing about 200-300mA when asleep, after a lot of circuit breaker pulling and trail and error, I discovered the "leak" turns out that on my car the defunct Bluetooth module (my replacement head unit had one in it leaving the car one unused) was keeping the car awake, because the headunit wasn't telling the BT module to shut down it didn't, which in turn kept kept the PCM and IC alive. all because an unused BT Module was powered on , after I disconnected it she dropped to about 20mA without the camera.
 
I had it set to 10A, Plugs in com and 10 A DC. It's the only way I could get a reading. That is without the camera connected. Factory head unit, so I don't think it's the bluetooth. Wondering if I did the parasitic draw test correctly! ) Anyways @ 0.15A = 150 Milliamps X 14 hours it sat in my driveway would be a 2.1 amp draw on
my battery, don't see how that's possible since I read it after it sat all night and was at 12.3 with the cam on. I started with 12.6, the cam shuts of at the 6 hour mark and the battery says 12.3 - Then again I'm not the best at electrical stuff either lol.
 
Just a heads up. Temperature plays a large part in this too. If the temp drops overnight, the time will be significantly cut as the battery will lose it's charge faster. The opposite is true if it warms up overnight. On warm days (15C+) my camera stays on all night (5pm to 7:30am) in parking record mode/motion detection mode. In the winter, (-5C and lower) I am lucky if I get 3-4 hours out of it. I have the battery voltage cut off set at 11.7V. In the morning, the temperature rises (most of the time) and if I take a battery voltage measurement, the voltage is over 12.3V.

Just a heads up.
 
I called Thinkware, they advised me to turn down the voltage setting. That didn't make sense to me since the cam turned off in such a short amount of time and
while the voltage was correct. I just couldn't see how I could get 12 hours in incident mode only with no motion let alone with motion on. Seems like it would have
put me at about 11.9 in incident mode which is lower than I want to be. None the less they asked again so i obliged. I turned the voltage down to 12 and I turn on
the motion, going for broke dead battery or not. I figure my 5.7 liter needs a little umph to get her going. Much to my surprise it recored the full 12 hours and when
I check the juice left I still show a 12.3. :) Awesome!
 
yeah what it measures at the cam versus actual voltage can sometimes differ so it's a bit of trial and error to get the right setting
 
I am looking to get this camera, but how good is the video quality compared to similarly priced cameras ?

Will I need to get any power units even if I hardwire it ?
 
video quality is very good. but more important , this cam is just much better built
than the competitors in the same price range. (I've owned 3 blackvues which all
had overheating problems)

If you get the thinkware hardwire cable with it & hook it directly to the batter
you get the parking mode functionality as well and you won't need a power unit.
 
The only point I can add to that is that it appears that the energy management system in modern cars with start/stop technology allows the battery voltage to reduce lower than in older cars and this means that parking mode can be shorter than desired. In my car (a 2015 Audi S5) if I have been driving it a lot so the battery is fully charged then parking mode might last up to 48 hours (which is the maximum for the F750 anyway). However since I do not drive my car daily and then most of my journeys are relatively short, my battery is rarely fully charged and parking mode might auto switch off after less than 12 hours.
 
anothe thing they should fix imo, cos i think my battery can definitely go over that 48hrs limit
 
video quality is very good. but more important , this cam is just much better built
than the competitors in the same price range. (I've owned 3 blackvues which all
had overheating problems)

If you get the thinkware hardwire cable with it & hook it directly to the batter
you get the parking mode functionality as well and you won't need a power unit.

Are there cameras out there with better video quality ?
I'm tossing up if I should buy now or wait for the F770
 
Thinkware tech support told me that they are considering extending that 48 hour limit in a future firmware update. But its no longer a concern to me as I don't think my battery could sustain the camera for longer without setting the voltage threshold below 12V and I am loathe to do that.
 
Are there cameras out there with better video quality ?
I'm tossing up if I should buy now or wait for the F770

as DUAL cam i think this is the best video you can get (or at least same)

If you want the very best video quality possible then you should NOT go with a dual cam,
but with 2 seperate ones.

As for waiting for the new model, can't really comment on it other then that there
will ALWAYS be a next model coming out... :)
 
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