Thinkware IVOLT XTRA vs Blackvue B-130X Review

[safedrivesolutions]

@Panzer Platform sent me his Blackvue B-130X a few months back and I have been procrastinating on testing both of these battery packs.
A couple things I noticed
Thinkware IVOLT XTRA says 8500 mah in screenshot. Yet it is rated at 7500mah.






After having both of them charged I did some testing.
Thinkware had a projected 33 hours and 19 minutes at 100%
Blackvue B-130X projected 31 hours and 28 minutes at 100%


We then waited an hour and retested
Thinkware IVOLT XTRA 31 hours and 10 minutes remaining
Blackvue B-130X had 25 hours and 9 minutes remaining. A 6 hour drop



We then let the battery packs sit for 2 days with no dash cam hooked up to it. Just wanted to see (There is probably a technical term for this) how much it dropped.
Thinkware dropped to 80% and Blackvue dropped to 64%.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

So then we moved on to testing in cold weather



After 30 minutes no change. Both units still fully operational.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

After 30 minutes of being in cold here is where we are at.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

So it has officially been 1.5 hours of sitting in the ice. Not much has changed.

Let's take a look at how it does for parking mode time after sitting in ice for 1.5 hours. Please note no dash camera was hooked up to the battery pack while in the ice. We hooked it up to each individual battery pack and waited 2 minutes for it to settle and screenshot the time remaining. As you can see the Thinkware stabilized and lost approx 5 minutes while the Blackvue lost 2 hours.

 

[Vortex Radar]

I like the ice testing! lol

Yeah the apps with capacity / time estimates for all of the battery packs are all inaccurate, but just in different ways. The same is true for the BBMC PC8 as well. It's odd that even though they're all Cellink batteries, they're all incorrect in different ways, lol.

For testing purposes I eventually just ignored what the app would say, connected a dashcam in low bitrate or timelapse mode (so I could see when the dashcam would stop recording), and measured the old school way. Time consuming for sure, but I think necessary.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

I like the ice testing! lol

Yeah the apps with capacity / time estimates for all of the battery packs are all inaccurate, but just in different ways. The same is true for the BBMC PC8 as well. It's odd that even though they're all Cellink batteries, they're all incorrect in different ways, lol.

For testing purposes I eventually just ignored what the app would say, connected a dashcam in low bitrate or timelapse mode (so I could see when the dashcam would stop recording), and measured the old school way. Time consuming for sure, but I think necessary.

Looks like I am cracking open a second dash cam box.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Can you try to charge them while on ice?
This will check if the BMS low temp charge protections works.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

Can you try to charge them while on ice?
This will check if the BMS low temp charge protections works.

I dont have enough power captain to charge both of them. 2 dash cameras are hooked up now for testing.

 

[ly-70mai]

Charging at low temperatures is dangerous, right?

Can you try to charge them while on ice?
This will check if the BMS low temp charge protections works.

 

[ly-70mai]

I guess these battery packs just use a very simple power calculation method, and the error is a bit large. Maybe they just look up a table of correspondence between voltage and capacity. Calculating the capacity of LiFePO4 phosphate is often difficult.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Charging at low temperatures is dangerous, right?

BlackVue B-130X Test & Review PP

I would like to say thank you to @BlackVue for sending me the all new Power Magic Ultra Battery B-130X for test & review. They even sent me a DR900X Plus to test it with. Last month I tested the BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 with an identical 96Wh capacity so I have that on hand to compare with. -...

dashcamtalk.com

 

[safedrivesolutions]

 

[rcg530]

Hi Ben. I have to disagree with the statements that dash camera battery packs output voltage level never goes too low to cause a problem with dash camera hardwire kits with a low voltage cutoff setting of 11.8 or above.

The output voltage level does not stay at 12.7 volts as you mentioned in the video. The output voltage level starts out at just over 14 volts (usually in the 14.2V range) at a full charge level and it will decrease as the charge level of the battery pack decreases. A fully depleted dash camera battery pack will have an output voltage level at or just above 11.0 volts. That's why the low voltage cutoff feature of a 12V-to-5V hardwire kit will turn off the dash camera before the battery pack has been fully discharged.

Here are some screenshots from an iVolt Xtra BAB-95 charge cycle test I ran in my battery pack review video. The battery pack was fully depleted by running it down to its fully depleted charge level by using a VIOFO A139 Pro, but the HK3-C hardwire kit turned off the A139 Pro 3CH when the output voltage level reached 11.8 volts (minimum LVC value for the VIOFO hardwire kits). I then used my USB power testing device to draw down the battery pack to its fully discharged state (when the battery pack's BMS turns off the output power and potentially the battery pack itself). The dash camera battery pack's output voltage level is reported at 11.1 volts before it starts charging and as the charging power is used to charge the battery pack when the ACC IN power is turned on, you can see the output voltage level increases from the 11.1 volts to just over 12 volts as the charging cycle begins.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

@rcg530

Mine tested at a higher voltage when nearly dead. Like 1% left.

Is there maybe inconsistencies in battery packs?? These 2 both tested with a multimeter at high voltages

 

[rcg530]

@rcg530

Mine tested at a higher voltage when nearly dead. Like 1% left.

Is there maybe inconsistencies in battery packs?? These 2 both tested with a multimeter at high voltages

I retesting a BlackVue B-130X with a VIOFO A139 Pro 3CH as the dash camera power load. I have a multimeter connected to the BAT+ and Ground dashcam output wires from the battery pack. Right now, the BlackVue battery app shows a 25% charge level, 13.1V output voltage level and 1 hr 25 minutes left until depleted. I also have my USB power draw device set to draw 5V @ 1.4A to shorten the time until the battery pack gets close to a low charge level. I'll remove it at that time to allow the A139 Pro 3CH to be the only power load on the B-130X.

 

[safedrivesolutions]

I wonder if with a load they measure differently?

Interesting

 

[Nigel]

Charging at low temperatures is dangerous, right?

Apart from damaging the cells, it can potentially cause a fire at some time in the future.
Fire is rare with LiFePO4 cells, but this is the reason why cars still use big heavy lead acid batteries instead of small light lithium batteries.

I guess these battery packs just use a very simple power calculation method, and the error is a bit large. Maybe they just look up a table of correspondence between voltage and capacity. Calculating the capacity of LiFePO4 phosphate is often difficult.

You would also need to compensate for temperature, because the output voltage of a lithium battery varies significantly with temperature, and dashcam batteries are never kept at standard room temperature!

If you want to be accurate, I think you need to measure the power going in and the power coming out and remember the total, but that will soon become inaccurate if you never get a full charge.

Makes these battery Apps somewhat useless!

 

[Panzer Platform]

Is there maybe inconsistencies in battery packs??

The EGEN Battery Packs start discharging from fully charged around 14.0V+
They discharge all the way down to around 11.0V.

BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 Test & Review PP

Hey guys once again I’m late to the party, but it still feels good to be invited. For the past couple months I’ve been begging Joseph from @BlackboxMyCar to send me a PowerCell 8 for test & review. I think I finally wore him down. Lol What can I say about the PC8 that’s already been reviewed...

dashcamtalk.com

BlackVue B-130X Test & Review PP

I would like to say thank you to @BlackVue for sending me the all new Power Magic Ultra Battery B-130X for test & review. They even sent me a DR900X Plus to test it with. Last month I tested the BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 with an identical 96Wh capacity so I have that on hand to compare with. -...

dashcamtalk.com

 

[safedrivesolutions]

The EGEN Battery Packs start discharging from fully charged around 14.0V+
They discharge all the way down to around 11.0V.

BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 Test & Review PP

Hey guys once again I’m late to the party, but it still feels good to be invited. For the past couple months I’ve been begging Joseph from @BlackboxMyCar to send me a PowerCell 8 for test & review. I think I finally wore him down. Lol What can I say about the PC8 that’s already been reviewed...

dashcamtalk.com

BlackVue B-130X Test & Review PP

I would like to say thank you to @BlackVue for sending me the all new Power Magic Ultra Battery B-130X for test & review. They even sent me a DR900X Plus to test it with. Last month I tested the BlackboxMyCar PowerCell 8 with an identical 96Wh capacity so I have that on hand to compare with. -...

dashcamtalk.com

Curious to see what Robert finds. As mine both tested great.

 

[rcg530]

I ran a test using a BlackVue B-130X battery pack that was initially (I explain that in a moment) powering a VIOFO A139 Pro 3CH dash camera in low bitrate parking mode. The battery pack charge level was 19% as reported by the BlackVue battery app within the main BlackVue app.

The estimated amount of remaining time was grossly inaccurate. I started the test run with an estimated run time of 2 hours 2 minutes. The B-130X was able to power the A139 Pro 3CH dash camera for 7 hours 38 minutes (Start Time 12:50 => End Time 20:37). The charge level percentage is also inaccurate especially when it gets to the lower end of the battery pack charge level. (see attached screenshot of the data collected).

At 20:37, I heard the power down chime from the A139 Pro 3CH dash camera. I had just walked out of the room, so I didn't see the exact B-130X output voltage that the VIOFO HK3-C powered off at, but it was around 11.9 volts.

To show how much unused charge there was in the B-130X, I decided to swap out the A139 Pro 3CH for Thinkware U3000 2CH. I didn't want to turn on the charging power to the B-130X to get the U3000 to boot up, so I tied the accessory power wire with the constant battery wire so it would boot. I then disconnected the accessory power wire so the U3000 would go into time-lapse parking mode after the 30 second delay for entering parking mode. The power requirements of the U3000 (350 mA) are about 50% of the A139 Pro 3CH (700 mA) in parking mode.

The U3000 was able to operate in time-lapse parking mode from 20:45 to 21:31. That would mean the A139 Pro 3CH would likely have run for an additional 23 minutes (roughly). The U3000 test started with a B-130X output voltage level 12.02 volts. When the load of the A139 Pro 3CH was turned off by the HK3-C turning off the power to the A139 Pro 3CH, the B-130X output voltage level rebounded about 0.15 volts. The U3000 2CH was configured that it was connected to an external battery pack, so the low voltage cutoff feature in the U3000 was disabled.

The U3000 2CH time-lapse parking mode test started at 12.02 volts and the B-130X turned off the output power to the dash camera when it reached 10.99 volts. The BlackVue battery app still shows the battery pack charge level of 1% after it turned off the dash camera output power.

If the VIOFO (or any brand) 12/24-to-5V hardwire kits offered a setting to disable the low voltage cutoff feature when connected to a dash camera battery pack, their dash cameras would be able to record for longer periods of time in parking mode.