TQKA vs Cellink

[expphoto]

Looking into one of the two. REALLLLLY don't want to spend $300 on the Cellink for a cam that's less thank it, but I also don't wanna risk a fire.

With the TQKA that's been recommended on the forums. How much would ya'll trust it to be as safe as the Cellink?

 

[Nigel]

As long as they never get charged below freezing, there is very little to worry about.

As far as I know, neither Cellink or TQKA include a below freezing cut-off, which is definitely a concern. If you live somewhere cold then I recommend adding a below 5°C cut-off to their power supply cable, then you don't need to worry, then you can even use LiPo without worrying.

 

[expphoto]

As long as they never get charged below freezing, there is very little to worry about.

As far as I know, neither Cellink or TQKA include a below freezing cut-off, which is definitely a concern. If you live somewhere cold then I recommend adding a below 5°C cut-off to their power supply cable, then you don't need to worry, then you can even use LiPo without worrying.

Interesting. Good to know. It hits 120 here so that's my concern.

 

[ranova]

The issue with TQKA is that it doesnt support passthrough charging. So if you turn on your car and it starts charging, any devices connected to it will stop being supplied power and when you shut off your car, the battery stops charging but you will likely have to press the power bank's power button or replug your device for it to start supplying power. Others have build a BMS with the TQKA cells, but thats well above my experience or knowledge to perform so I bought a blackvue b124, which is the same as celllinks

 

[expphoto]

The issue with TQKA is that it doesnt support passthrough charging. So if you turn on your car and it starts charging, any devices connected to it will stop being supplied power and when you shut off your car, the battery stops charging but you will likely have to press the power bank's power button or replug your device for it to start supplying power. Others have build a BMS with the TQKA cells, but thats well above my experience or knowledge to perform so I bought a blackvue b124, which is the same as celllinks

Yea. I considered this. I've poked around for a solution to automatically swap between the two. Nothing pre built that's obvious that I've found. 300 bucks for a battery with a 160 dollar cam seems silly to me.

 

[ranova]

Yea. I considered this. I've poked around for a solution to automatically swap between the two. Nothing pre built that's obvious that I've found. 300 bucks for a battery with a 160 dollar cam seems silly to me.

I agree but when my partner's car was broken into and the viofo a129 so happened to just die an hour before due to voltage cutoff (even after driving for 45 min and it parked for a few hours), the $300 seemed worth it

 

[expphoto]

I agree but when my partner's car was broken into and the viofo a129 so happened to just die an hour before due to voltage cutoff (even after driving for 45 min and it parked for a few hours), the $300 seemed worth it

Running the Tqka?

 

[Dashmellow]

@expphoto, you can currently purchase the TQKA LiFePO4 20,000 mAh power bank for only $15.99 on Amazon with free shipping. At that price you can buy two or more and simply swap them out when needed if you want to. It's no big deal to plug your camera into a power bank when required. The inconvenience of manually plugging a camera into a power bank periodically is a small price to pay compared to the cost of a Cellink. Living in a rural area, my practice is to leave my home with my cameras powered by my vehicle's electrical system but when I arrive at my destination miles away I switch to two power banks (including a TQKA during hot weather) and use them to power my cams for as long as needed until my return trip home. In the evening, I take the banks inside, let them rest for a period at room temperature and then charge them overnight. LiFePO4 cells will provide a couple of thousand charge cycles and are quite safe. I've been using this method with power banks for several years now and it has just become a routine practice.

At one time, I had planned to hardwire my cams or purchase a Cellink but running four cameras with batteries on a daily basis (360º coverage) is too much drain on a typical car battery or Cellink for that matter and manually operated power banks have provided a relatively simple and inexpensive solution.

The TQKA LiFePO4 battery bank has a few minor challenges compared to typical Li-ion cell power banks. They are substantially heavier than a standard power bank, have about 14% less capacity than a similar sized Li-ion, faster self discharge (in storage) and they have a few design quirks but they are well made and solidly constructed. You can hardly go wrong at that price. In fact ,they are cheap enough so you could buy one just to see how well it works for you.

 

[ranova]

Running the Tqka?

It was hardwired into the car with a 12.4V cutoff. When we first hardwired it, the car battery would charge past 13.5V and the dash cam would last a week without driving. That night, it didnt last 2 hours. This is liklely due to the multiple cycles the dash cam drained while in parking mode.

 

[expphoto]

@expphoto, you can currently purchase the TQKA LiFePO4 20,000 mAh power bank for only $15.99 on Amazon with free shipping. At that price you can buy two or more and simply swap them out when needed if you want to. It's no big deal to plug your camera into a power bank when required. The inconvenience of manually plugging a camera into a power bank periodically is a small price to pay compared to the cost of a Cellink. Living in a rural area, my practice is to leave my home with my cameras powered by my vehicle's electrical system but when I arrive at my destination miles away I switch to two power banks (including a TQKA during hot weather) and use them to power my cams for as long as needed until my return trip home. In the evening, I take the banks inside, let them rest for a period at room temperature and then charge them overnight. LiFePO4 cells will provide a couple of thousand charge cycles and are quite safe. I've been using this method with power banks for several years now and it has just become a routine practice.

At one time, I had planned to hardwire my cams or purchase a Cellink but running four cameras with batteries on a daily basis (360º coverage) is too much drain on a typical car battery or Cellink for that matter and manually operated power banks have provided a relatively simple and inexpensive solution.

The TQKA LiFePO4 battery bank has a few minor challenges compared to typical Li-ion cell power banks. They are substantially heavier than a standard power bank, have about 14% less capacity than a similar sized Li-ion, faster self discharge (in storage) and they have a few design quirks but they are well made and solidly constructed. You can hardly go wrong at that price. In fact ,they are cheap enough so you could buy one just to see how well it works for you.

This is actually what I did. Bought two of em.

It was hardwired into the car with a 12.4V cutoff. When we first hardwired it, the car battery would charge past 13.5V and the dash cam would last a week without driving. That night, it didnt last 2 hours. This is liklely due to the multiple cycles the dash cam drained while in parking mode.

Hmm, Odd. No sign of random failure? Should last thousands of cycles. Fully charged?

 

[ranova]

This is actually what I did. Bought two of em.



Hmm, Odd. No sign of random failure? Should last thousands of cycles. Fully charged?

it was definitely voltage cutoff. Car is only a year old and we live in northern california, so cold wasn't the issue. This was after 45 minutes of driving so the car's 12v battery shouldve been fully charged (which only charges to 12.6 or 12.7V max nowadays, when before it was 13.7+)

 

[Nigel]

it was definitely voltage cutoff. Car is only a year old and we live in northern california, so cold wasn't the issue. This was after 45 minutes of driving so the car's 12v battery shouldve been fully charged (which only charges to 12.6 or 12.7V max nowadays, when before it was 13.7+)

It would never have been 13.7 with the engine off. If it is only reaching 12.7 with the engine on then you have an alternator problem.

 

[Dashmellow]

@ranova, yesterday, I ran into an unusual problem with my TQKA power bank and I want to make you aware if it. I described the issue in the TQKA Owners thread.

 

[ranova]

@ranova, yesterday, I ran into an unusual problem with my TQKA power bank and I want to make you aware if it. I described the issue in the TQKA Owners thread.

Thats a bummer - luckily the TQKA power banks are still cheap so I would recommend just buying a couple new ones instead of chancing with your defective one

 

[EsQueue]

TQKA VS Neo6/B124

Charge speed: 5V@2A or 10 Watts VS 12V@6A or 72 Watts via Cig lighter and 12V@9A or 108 Watts via hardwire. Neo6/B124 7-11 times more charge power.

Capacity: 20,000 mAh @ 3.2v or 64 W/h VS 6,000 mAh @ 12.8v or 76.8 W/h. If they wanted to trick others they could have rated their battery to 24,562.5 mAh to make it look higher.

Both have aluminum cases and the TQKA display current capacity via Digital display and it has a flashlight. The Neo6/B124 displays capacity via bluetooth which is EXTREMELY sketchy and has a hard time working. It takes a few resets of the program and refreshes to get it to connect.

Following prices were the best that I could find. Now for cost vs capacity, The TQKA cost $15.99 USD on Amazon. That is approximately, 0.25 USD per W/h. Cellink Neo 6 costed @299.99 USD while the BlackVue B-124 costed $259.99 coming in at $3.91 and $3.39 USD respectively. LOL!!!!!! I paid $0.22 USD but had to wait weeks to ship from China. These are all assuming that the claimed capacities are actual which is rarely the case for low cost things but at such a large gap, it doesn't change much. My batteries were supposed to be 7,000 mAh LiFePO4 32700 cells but they turned out to be all close to 6,000 mAh each.

Thing is that I can't find a way to properly charge 4s LiFePO4 batteries from your car as quickly at the expensive option. I've found chargers that cost a few hundred by themselves.

 

[Dashmellow]

Thats a bummer - luckily the TQKA power banks are still cheap so I would recommend just buying a couple new ones instead of chancing with your defective one

The seller on Amazon ended up providing me with a partial refund for my 18 month old TQKA and I went ahead and bought a new one. I explain what happened with the seller in more detail over in the TQKA owners thread.

Eighteen months ago the TQKA sold for $22.00 and now the are only $16.00 so with the refund they provided it worked out well.

I'm not quite sure what to do with the old unit but I think I may dismantle it and remove the battery cells for a potential future project.