SOLAR powered dash cams????

Bison412

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I live in South Florida and park my truck outside. There is no way a dash cam battery would not have enough power for 24/7 use. People have posted "just use a solar battery". That would be even worse than running wires to the dash cam. I use different cars and trade cars often. I don't want to permanently install a dash cam or run wires anywhere. I've tried dash cams, but the wire is maddening. Does ANYONE know of any such dash cam???
 
average dashcam batteries can be good for up to 10 minutes, lipo batteries are not something you want to have in a hot car anyway, dashcams need to be externally powered
 
Welcomne to the forum.

There are no such dashcam i know off, there are solar USB power banks, and some people do use a power bank for powering a camera during parking.
But it is not a route i would go down as i dont think it is safe in the extreme heat of a parked car, and also use of a power bank in general mean you just record all the time, something that is not good for a dashcam not least in really hot environments, so thats why things like time lapse or at least low bitrate have come about to minimize internal heat generation during parking guard.

Hard wire a dashcam are in most cases a job that leave no footprint when removed, cuz all you have to do is pull the 1 or 2 piggy back fuses, and put the original fuses back in their place, and then take the ground connection off what ever screw you are using for that.
In most cases it is also pretty easy to route the wire along the headliner and down a A - pillar, or the door rubber weather seal.

You will at times see solar powered CCTV cameras or other gadgets, here for instance road / environmental measuring stations along roads are often powered by a small solar panel.
And i am sure those are the battery and solar panel + charger standing alone, and the other stuff wired to the battery.
 
Welcomke to DCT @Bison412 :)

To get the 350mA-500mA a dashcam requires while generating enough energy to charge a powerbank so you can run it at night will take an inconveniently-sized solar panel; at least the size of a open printed magazine or more. So switching all this between cars wouldn't be a 'quickie' job.

My suggestion would be to use a pair of powerbanks, with one charging at home while the other is in use, and plugging the cam into the cig lighter socket while driving. You could tape the wires along the windshield pillar instead of tucking them behind it, just a couple minutes to swap cars and 24-hour protection as long as you remember to swap out powerbanks daily.

There are some 'pass-through' powerbanks and devices like the Celllink which could possibly be charged with a seperate solar panel but I can't say if they'd charge correctly. The big problem with solar electricity is that the ratings are for direct full sun. Just putting them behind car glass loses a lot, and even a slight cloudiness along with the sun's moving across the sky will reduce that considerably. Solar panels are already about as advanced as we can expect them to get for many years and I'n not aware of any way to reduce their size becoming an imminent technology. What they can do is as much limited by how much sun energy is striking a given area as anything else, and that limit isn't changeable.

Your idea could be at least somewhat accomplished with many cars reasonably well were it not for you wanting an easily-swappable system. Like so many things in life you can have one or the other but not both at the same time.

Phil
 
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