Using a VIOFO A129 Pro with a Battery Pack

Kiwicom

New Member
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
24
Reaction score
10
Country
United States
This might sound silly.
I bought an A129 Pro Duo with a Blackboxmycar i750 battery pack. Got a super deal!
They supplied a wiring harness. The harness looks to be the output harness from the I750 and the 3 wire harness that came with the cam.
Question is - There is an inline voltage cutoff selector that is part of the harness. Am I stupid but what could this possibly be for? Minimum Voltage is 11.4 volts!
Should I just cut it out or am I missing something?

Thanks for your advice!
 
If anyone has installed with the cutoff selector still in place, how long does the backup battery last? I would think even on the lowest setting it would eat into the length of recording time.
 
Why do you think it would cut into the length of recording time? The lower the voltage cutoff, the longer the voltage will be present for the dashcam...so this would increase the recording time.

Why cut the voltage selector out? Why don't you try it with the voltage selector in place and see what happens. If it's a battery pack, you should be able to disconnect it and reconnect it quickly...right?

How do you plan on recharging the battery pack?
 
Why do you think it would cut into the length of recording time? The lower the voltage cutoff, the longer the voltage will be present for the dashcam...so this would increase the recording time.

Why cut the voltage selector out? Why don't you try it with the voltage selector in place and see what happens. If it's a battery pack, you should be able to disconnect it and reconnect it quickly...right?

How do you plan on recharging the battery pack?
I would think the point of not using your car battery is that you can drain the backup battery without issue. ***Of course it would shorten the recording time if you have a cutoff voltage set***, Right?
For example. If you where to use your car battery and have the voltage cutoff set to 11.4 volts there is still way more charge in the battery (enough to start the car) and if you did not cut of the camera at that point it would likely run the battery flat and the car would not start. I would guess the camera would run for days and days. IMHO the point of the voltage cutoff is to save you cars battery.

I guess I could try leaving the switch in place but as I plan to hid all the wiring it will be a pain to take it out later and do a nice soldering job with the car in the driveway! Hence the post.

The battery pack will be charged using to 5-10 amp ignition on feeds. It will receive no power when the ignition is off.

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
I get it. You want to use the complete power available on the pack. Maybe try it first, without any solder to see how much time you get with the cutoff in place. After testing it out, you can then cut it out and solder it in. I'd leave enough wiring so you can solder it back in later. If I was in your position, I'd probably cut out the cutoff as well.

Another thing to think about, is when the voltage goes lower, does that affect the functionality of the camera? I don't know. What is the minimum voltage that the camera requires to function?
 
Thanks Vlad. Think t read the cameras use 5volts. I will do what you say!
 
The car battery and the powerbank behave differently. With car batteries, the level of charge and the voltage drop downward pretty close together in a gradual diagonal line. With a powerbank, the level of charge drops along that diagonal line, but the voltage remains very high, then drops sharply when you reach a very low level of charge.

So with the powerbank running through the low-voltage cutoff you're probably talking about only a very few minutes difference between highest and lowest setting, but with a car battery the difference can be hours.

A big difference between lead-acid batteries and Lithiun-type batteries.

Phil
 
Super informative Phil. I wonder why the high end dashcam manuals ask you to disable voltage drop feature in the software when using their batteries? Sounds like if is unnecessary.
 
Powerbanks stop delivering power by themselves when they reach the safe limits of their Lithium-based batteries, so you don't need anything else with them like you do for your car battery which has no built-in protection. But as I said, it's probably only a difference in minutes since by that time the powerbank's internal voltage will be dropping fast.

Phil
 
Just to follow with the results. So with the battery cutoff switch set to the lowest level - 11.4v. The battery is cut off when it reaches 11%. (I would guess a couple of hours). Without the switch it drains to 1% in my tests.
I must say the whole experience with the setup has been lacklustre.
- The camera did not go into parking mode with harness provided by the seller. I read that the wires are sometimes reversed - this was not the case.
- What was happening was that the battery was working correctly with B+ giving 13.4v and ACC giving 0v. Past the connection made by the seller both the red and yellow wires showed 13.4v. So it was a short in the connection made by them. I pulled the shrink off and it was obvious. Overhead, cheap shrinkwrap shorting.
- Now works as intended.
Thought this might be helpful info.
 

Attachments

  • Viofo connection.jpg
    Viofo connection.jpg
    535.5 KB · Views: 23
Looks like too much heat and they didn't let it fully cool before bundling the wires :( Glad you got it sorted out (y)

Phil
 
I had issue with my first spliced cable also and the vendor replaced it. I agree that the splicing, including soldering and shrink-wrapping, quality of testing of the cable color and wiring testing; and the cabling insulation is not very robust even on my replaced cable. The cable connections to the connector that goes to the battery pack are also very delicate and not too robust. Plus even the packaging of the delicate spliced cable was folded right at the soldering joints (worst part of cable to fold over) and stuffed into a small plastic bag. I would not be surprised if after time it will short out or fail very soon.
 
Just to follow with the results. So with the battery cutoff switch set to the lowest level - 11.4v. The battery is cut off when it reaches 11%. (I would guess a couple of hours). Without the switch it drains to 1% in my tests.
I must say the whole experience with the setup has been lacklustre.
- The camera did not go into parking mode with harness provided by the seller. I read that the wires are sometimes reversed - this was not the case.
- What was happening was that the battery was working correctly with B+ giving 13.4v and ACC giving 0v. Past the connection made by the seller both the red and yellow wires showed 13.4v. So it was a short in the connection made by them. I pulled the shrink off and it was obvious. Overhead, cheap shrinkwrap shorting.
- Now works as intended.
Thought this might be helpful info.
that picture of the way they solder and shrink wrap tells you how their cable splicing quality is out of control.
 
Back
Top