Using LiFePo4 Battery as Dash Cam Battery

[jaronk2000]

So I have been researching dash cam batteries, and have found that the reason you need a dash cam specific battery is that it uses Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePo4) instead of Lithium Ion. Which is why it does well in extreme temps, holds more charge, charges faster, etc, etc.

I have found some LiFePo4 batteries that are much larger than the typical dash cam specific batteries for around the same price. Would something like this do the same thing? It has 256 Watt Hours instead of 78, and is around $50-100 cheaper than all of the other batteries.

I can't find anything that would make this a bad idea. It can connect and charge via the car port and using adapters you could easily hook up all the dash cams. I know it is significantly larger, but you could put it under a seat, or in the trunk.

Thank you for your help!

 

[thomas-dash]

I was thinking about using a similar thing, but I ended up installing a 100Ah LiFePO4 battery instead:

Do you think this could be made to work as a battery pack?

I think I’m going to buy a battery pack to get it off the main car battery and hopefully get additional parking mode coverage since I’m not driving my car as much. Additionally, I’m planning on adding a second 2-channel dash cam. With Cellink NEO I would need to buy two of them to get around...

dashcamtalk.com

My setup ended up having a higher total cost than the purpose built dash cam battery packs, but a cheaper cost per Ah/Wh.

I think the main two concerns would be leaving it connected while your car is off and causing it to drain your starter battery and not having the right charging profile/voltage to recharge the LiFePO4 battery.

If you had it connected to an ACC port on your car to charge, then you wouldn’t have to worry about draining the battery. The unit itself might provide the right charging profile for the LiFePO4 battery.

To be honest, I’m not quite sold on the charging profile thing. When I was charging the 100Ah battery with a bench power supply it seemed the battery seemed to take the amount of power that it wanted at any given time.

 

[thomas-dash]

I just read the listing and it says it comes with a car charging cable, so I think it will charge just fine while your car is running.

The big thing will be if you drive your car enough to recharge the battery.

I think it could work pretty well and you would really only have to worry about running the charging cable for the unit and the power cables going to your dash cam.

Parking mode could be a little tricky to get working.

 

[gamesfrager]

Hello. See my post here https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/ravpower-saved-the-day.47119/post-575845 where I have used a LiFePO4 battery pack that supports pass-through charging.
It ended up costing way less than buying a dedicated dash cam battery pack, but of course took much longer in research time.

 

[Milos7]

I got this 204Wh LiFePO4 Battery bank for less than half the price while getting more than twice the juice than dash cam park mode specific batteries. It gives me over 45h of record mode or park mode with VIOFO Pro dual dash cams. It can charge while powering the cam too, but i don't do it. I charge it from lighter port while driving, and only plug in dash cam into it when I park.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B08NSYCZD4

 

[youngster]

I got this 204Wh LiFePO4 Battery bank for less than half the price while getting more than twice the juice than dash cam park mode specific batteries. It gives me over 45h of record mode or park mode with VIOFO Pro dual dash cams. It can charge while powering the cam too, but i don't do it. I charge it from lighter port while driving, and only plug in dash cam into it when I park.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B08NSYCZD4

I was looking st this as well for my 2channel 4k, options are endless, up to 370000 mah / 1000w...nice feature is you can remove it for a camp trip...so when you park you then leave the cam on at all times? I finally found a cam with motion detection so I was planning to leave it on all the time on such a device ..

 

[kamkar]

Motion detect are the norm on most dashcams, it is a bit flawed mode though, cuz if there are just a tiny bit of motion somewhere in frame it will record, and so you might end up with the camera that record all the time.

I do record all the time myself while parked, but only for 1 hour on the timer, and then i use the always record low bitrate, so instead of normal videos up around 600 MB i get 128 MB files instead.
And even if low bitrate are also a IQ thing, still fine enough to have a chance at passing plates.

The low bitrate also generate less heat, which is a factor if it is summer and you are parked in the sun, cuz a dashcam will shut down if it get too hot,,,,,, that or chance are it will catch fire if it dident.

 

[youngster]

Motion detect are the norm on most dashcams, it is a bit flawed mode though, cuz if there are just a tiny bit of motion somewhere in frame it will record, and so you might end up with the camera that record all the time.

I do record all the time myself while parked, but only for 1 hour on the timer, and then i use the always record low bitrate, so instead of normal videos up around 600 MB i get 128 MB files instead.
And even if low bitrate are also a IQ thing, still fine enough to have a chance at passing plates.

The low bitrate also generate less heat, which is a factor if it is summer and you are parked in the sun, cuz a dashcam will shut down if it get too hot,,,,,, that or chance are it will catch fire if it dident.

Thanks, does your cam actually record number plates / snapshot during low nitrate?

 

[youngster]

I was thinking about using a similar thing, but I ended up installing a 100Ah LiFePO4 battery instead:

Do you think this could be made to work as a battery pack?

I think I’m going to buy a battery pack to get it off the main car battery and hopefully get additional parking mode coverage since I’m not driving my car as much. Additionally, I’m planning on adding a second 2-channel dash cam. With Cellink NEO I would need to buy two of them to get around...

dashcamtalk.com

My setup ended up having a higher total cost than the purpose built dash cam battery packs, but a cheaper cost per Ah/Wh.

I think the main two concerns would be leaving it connected while your car is off and causing it to drain your starter battery and not having the right charging profile/voltage to recharge the LiFePO4 battery.

If you had it connected to an ACC port on your car to charge, then you wouldn’t have to worry about draining the battery. The unit itself might provide the right charging profile for the LiFePO4 battery.

To be honest, I’m not quite sold on the charging profile thing. When I was charging the 100Ah battery with a bench power supply it seemed the battery seemed to take the amount of power that it wanted at any given time.

so it I'm thinking of using a fe3po4 giant battery pack ( 144000 mah /3.7v= 40000mah ish at 12v) with an advertised 5amp car charger (4-5hrs charge)
.like the idea of using it outside the car on a Camp trip.
From what I've learnt from your install, if I connect the 12v pos output to the bat cable of the hw kit( with interposed 5amp fuse) , leave acc on fuse box and attach negative hw As well as negative from 12v outlet close to one anther to the car frame I should be able to trick the cam into parking mode?
Thanks

 

[kamkar]

As you can see in the video the easy to read EU plates are captured in low bitrate, here using the SG9663DR system.

I was afraid they would not do that as the bitrate are a image quality thing, maybe if the cars was traveling faster, but here in Denmark you cant park curb side on faster roads, the default town speed limit are 50 kmh but larger roads in towns can have higher speeds, but then you can not park at the curb there as that would be too dangerous.
This is a 60 kmh road as the sign in the video indicate, though in the background ( 1 - 200 M ) there is a roundabout so maybe the cars are not up to full speed where i am parked.
This is right next to a school, and the "pocket" i am parked in is where parents unload / pick up their kids, it is not uncommon that there are a 40 kmh speed limit next to schools, but not here for some reason.

My home CCTV cameras also use a fairly low bitrate as they are filming stationary things or things moving at walking speed, in which case a very low bitrate are fine.
My dji action camera on the other hand use a very high bitrate ( 100 mbit ), around 3 X higher than any dashcam, but it also have to crank out 4K/60 FPS footage, and footage of action.

Motion triggered recordings as i recall are made using the regular recording parameters of the camera, so if there are a lot of motion the camera might as well just record all the time, but then it is also operating of its MAX potential and so internal heat generation will be at its MAX too, probably making the camera reach shutdown temperatures on a hot summer day faster than if it was just recording a little now and then, or using a lower bitrate, or as is also a option using time lapse.
I just dont like time lapse as it have no sound.

Of course i do also have G-sensor on while parked, if it trigger it will save the event files in the Read Only folder, the regular low bitrate footage are considered regular footage so it will get overwritten when it is the oldest footage around.
But not really a problem if you use a adequate sized memory card, and surely not if you like i do only use parking guard for 1 hour on the timer ( this cover all my shopping ) at home i have CCTV on the car, and if needed i can always up the timer in the camera so instead it would be the 12.2 Volt low voltage cut off that determine for how long the camera record in parking mode.

If you use parking guard a lot and every day, you should at least have a 256GB memory card i think, this should at least give you 1 - 2 days of "buffered" footage if you suddenly notice a suspect dent or scratch on your car.

 

[thomas-dash]

so it I'm thinking of using a fe3po4 giant battery pack ( 144000 mah /3.7v= 40000mah ish at 12v) with an advertised 5amp car charger (4-5hrs charge)
.like the idea of using it outside the car on a Camp trip.
From what I've learnt from your install, if I connect the 12v pos output to the bat cable of the hw kit( with interposed 5amp fuse) , leave acc on fuse box and attach negative hw As well as negative from 12v outlet close to one anther to the car frame I should be able to trick the cam into parking mode?

I think it might, but I'm not 100% certain it will work. If the battery pack's car charger ground is isolated from the ground for the connection that connects to the dash cam, then your dash cam might not turn on. If it's a three-wire HWK, you would have to electrically connect the ACC and Batt wires together to get it turn on. Of course you would then essentially lose any parking mode functionality as there wouldn't be the loss of 12V to trigger parking mode when you turned your car off. You would have to get creative with a relay to sort that issue out.

It's really hard to say until you try it out.

 

[Nigel]

I think it might, but I'm not 100% certain it will work. If the battery pack's car charger ground is isolated from the ground for the connection that connects to the dash cam, then your dash cam might not turn on. If it's a three-wire HWK, you would have to electrically connect the ACC and Batt wires together to get it turn on. Of course you would then essentially lose any parking mode functionality as there wouldn't be the loss of 12V to trigger parking mode when you turned your car off. You would have to get creative with a relay to sort that issue out.

It's really hard to say until you try it out.

It should work fine if connected as described, my worry would be when charging, if the battery pack is to be charged from the car while also powering the camera. It is possible that it is not designed to allow the GND for the charging input to the battery pack and the GND for the battery pack output, to be connected together. Should really check with the manufacturers.

so it I'm thinking of using a fe3po4 giant battery pack ( 144000 mah /3.7v= 40000mah ish at 12v)

I'll just point out that LiFePo4 works at 3.2v, not 3.7v, so your calculations may be out by quite a bit?