Vantrue E1 - Power Consumption Testing - Initial Results
I spent the afternoon testing out the Vantrue E1 to see how much power it consumes in the various modes of operation it supports. I used the Vantrue 2-wire hardwire kit with low voltage cutoff support at 12.0V and 11.6V.
Normal Mode Recording Power Consumption Tests - 2560x1440p(HDR) 30fps vs 2560x1440p 30fps
It appears that setting the video resolution to include HDR bumps up the power draw by about 25 mA / 0.3 Watts.
Parking Modes
Only one of them can be selected at a time.
Parking Mode - Entry - *Modified 03-Aug-2022*
All of the supported parking modes begin by having the vehicle stationary for 5 minutes (no vehicle movement and no vehicle impacts being detected)
Starting with the VT-EBG311 firmware (01-Aug-2022), you can long press the bottom center button while the E1 is in normal recording mode to have the E1 manually enter parking mode.
Firmware versions before VT-EBG311, you can long press the
button to manually enter parking mode.
Parking Mode - Exit - *Added 01-Aug-2022*
When the E1's G-sensor detects vehicle movement, the E1 will exit the currently active parking mode and return to normal mode recording.
Collision Detection
This parking mode is a super power saver for the E1. After the vehicle is stationary for 5 minutes, it enters into this parking mode by performing a "power down" by going into what I would call a deep sleep state. While in this deep sleep state, the E1 consumes only 8 mA / 0.1 Watts (part of that being from the hardwire power adapter). When an impact is detected by the E1, it begins a power up process which takes about 9.5 seconds to accomplish and begin recording. The E1 records for 60 seconds and then it goes back into its sleep mode. If the dash camera continues to detect impacts during collision detection recording, it will exit the collision detection mode and enter normal recording mode and it will re-enter collision detection mode when the vehicle remains stationary for 5 minutes.
Motion Detection
After the vehicle is stationary for 5 minutes, the E1 will enter into motion detection parking mode. You can select a sensitivity level from 1 to 5 when you select this parking mode in the firmware settings. The default sensitivity value is 3. When the E1 detects any visible motion in the field of view, it will start recording video including between 3 to 5 seconds before the motion event and 30 seconds after it detected motion for a total of 35 seconds.
Video resolution settings of 1944P and 1440P HDR do not support pre-recording (buffering) function. After enabling motion detection parking mode, the video resolution will automatically be changed to 1440P for recording.
Low Bitrate
When you select the "Low Bitrate' parking mode, you will need to select if you want it to record 1080p 15fps video or 720p 15fps video. After the vehicle is stationary for 5 minutes, the resolution and fps will be changed to the value selected and it will record video with audio for however long it is in this parking mode.
Low Framerate
When you select the "Low Framerate parking mode, you will need to select how many frames per second to use while recording the video (which does not contain any audio). You can select 1 fps/5 fps (default)/10 fps/15 fps.
Hardwire Kit - Low Voltage Cutoff Testing
When I test a hardwire kit with a low voltage cutoff feature, I test to see at what actual voltage level it turns off power to the dash camera. The Vantrue USB-C 2-wire hardwire kit has two voltage selections 12.0V/24.0V or 11.6V/23.2V. I'm testing it using power from a 12-volt power supply. I selected the 12.0V low voltage cutoff value.
Unfortunately, the Vantrue hardwire kit's low voltage cutoff feature did not work. I start my testing with the voltage level set to 12.6 volts. I drop the voltage level by 0.10 volts and I wait 2 or more minutes to see if the low voltage cutoff logic kicks in to power down the dash camera. I drop the voltage by 0.10 volts until I reach the configured voltage level and then I drop it by 0.05 volts until I reach the voltage threshold where the low voltage cutoff logic kicks in. I tested voltages all the way down to 11.25 volts and it never turned off the power to the E1 dash camera. I've sent an inquiry to Vantrue about this behavior.
03-Aug-2022 Update:
I was sent a second Vantrue hardwire kit to test. This second hardwire kit successfully powered down the E1 after the input voltage reached 11.90 volts and was kept at the level for 47 seconds on test 1 and 1 minute 54 seconds on test two. After the power to the E1 was turned off, I measured the power consumed by the hardwire kit in this state and it was consuming 2 mA / 0.024 Watts.
I then wanted to see when the hardwire kit would restore power to the E1 as the voltage level was increased. I increased the input voltage in 0.05 increments and I left the voltage at that level for 2 minutes. When I increased the voltage from 12.30 to 12.35, the hardwire kit supplied power to the E1 within 7 seconds of having the input voltage set to 12.35 volts.
Power Consumption Results - Updated 03-Aug-2022
View attachment 61279
E1 Firmware
On 25-July-2022, Vantrue released a firmware update for the E1. Version VT-EBG021. I updated my E1 with that firmware version before performing my power consumption tests.
Firmware VT-EBG021 - Time Zone - Screen Bug
I found a strange situation when trying to access the "Time Zone" firmware settings screen/page. After I updated to the VT-EBG021 firmware, I used the firmware option to reset all settings to their firmware defaults. That results in you selecting the firmware settings just like you powered up the E1 for the first time. As part of that initial power up firmware settings step, you are prompted for the time zone. That screen looks okay. After using the E1 for some amount of time to gather the power consumption test results, I returned to the settings page for the time zone and that's when I found what looks like a page for another setting when you first enter the "Time Zone" setting page. If you press the down button it corrects the screen to the list of time zones. I've reported this bug to Vantrue.
View attachment 61203