Viofo plugged in for 8 days straight?

[Tuesfutu]

First, let me introduce myself as I'm new to the forum. My name is Dan and I hail from North Bay, ON and I recently purchased a Viofo A119 V2.

I own two vehicles; the subject being a 2012 GMC Sierra. I generally put my truck away for the week and drive a tiny Yaris for work and groceries.

About a week ago, I left the truck without pulling the cable from the 12v socket.

My reason for this post is that I've read several posts since joining that you need battery rundown protection if you have a camera plugged into constant feed.

So now that you've read my ramble; has anyone had issues with batteries dying without this protection? The reason I ask is because my trucks voltage did not drop at all after 8 days of constant recording.

 

[dash riposki]

Does your sierra have a low voltage disconnect (OEM) on one of the sockets?

My 2003 has two lighter sockets, one is connected to a LVD, the other not.
(I always forget which is which) I've had the truck battery die when i left a satellite radio receiver plugged in for two days in the wrong socket. (Draws much more than a dashcam)

Did you check the files to see if the cam actually recording during that period?

That socket may actually power down when the voltage drops.

 

[Sabe]

If drv draws about 250mAh it's not possible that it has been on a week and you don't notice any drop in voltage because in a week it's at least 40 amperes.

 

[Tuesfutu]

Does your sierra have a low voltage disconnect (OEM) on one of the sockets?

My 2003 has two lighter sockets, one is connected to a LVD, the other not.
(I always forget which is which) I've had the truck battery die when i left a satellite radio receiver plugged in for two days in the wrong socket. (Draws much more than a dashcam)

Did you check the files to see if the cam actually recording during that period?

That socket may actually power down when the voltage drops.

Yea, I had a look at the files, obviously, the whole eight days wasn't there, but the last (approx.) 9h were there. The socket is always on power.

If drv draws about 250mAh it's not possible that it has been on a week and you don't notice any drop in voltage because in a week it's at least 40 amperes.

My apologies, I didn't think that I would be taken verbatim. To clarify; when I checked my voltage on the battery, it was still over 12V, if there was any drop, it was negligible. I will ensure not to be so word specific in the future.

 

[Sabe]

I don't know how big is your battery but in europe average battery size is about 70 amperes so 40 amps will make car inoperative.

 

[dash riposki]

Any chance somebody drove the truck without your knowledge? (Teenage sons....etc....don't ask me why I thought about it, but vaguely remember being a teenager.)

 

[DashcamDPR]

don't ask me why I thought about it, but vaguely remember being a teenager.

he's your suspect

 

[Leopold]

Please correct my if I'm wrong...
- the A119 draws approx 0.5 A from a 5V source.
- with a reasonably efficient power converter from 12V it would be like 0.2 A draw from the car battery
- to operate the A119 5 hours would then equal 1 Ah power consumption from the car battery
- if we have, say, a 90 Ah battery this would mean we could run the camera 5*90 hours. That is 450 hours, or almost 19 days.

Maybe I'm exaggerating the conversion efficiency somewhat 12V => 5V but I think you see my point.
__
Of course... we need the car battery to also be able to start the engine! Let´s say that in most circumstances it would be sufficient to have 2/3 of the total energy in the car battery at our disposal, to be able to start easily except perhaps under extreme cold temperatures. This would mean that a A119 dashcam can be connected for about a week without problems, granted that we have a rather large car battery of 90 Ah. For a 60 Ah car battery maybe half a week is a more reasonable limit.

__
PS. I actually have a power bank that shows current draw, I'll use it to verify the figures of 0.5 A I saw. I think it is much lower typically and especially if you have the cam in parking mode. I´d check it right away but you have to wait until tomorrow... heavy rain right now!

 

[Tuesfutu]

Haha; no teenage son's, mine just got out of diapers.

I looked up my battery, it's 120 Ah. I spoke to some electrical guys at a local modder shop and they told me it would be about three weeks before it would drain the battery voltage below cranking capacity.

 

[5Cowbells]

Please correct my if I'm wrong...
- with a reasonably efficient power converter from 12V it would be like 0.2 A draw from the car battery.

Interesting conversation. Have this comment but hope you continue to seek a theoretical answer.

• (Edit: Never mind - had to delete the original comment after thinking about it, because it was not correct. Concur A119 draws roughly 0.5A at 5Vdc from the 12 to 5Vdc converter, which equates to a power of 2.5 Watts. If the 12 to 5 voltage conversion process was 100% efficient with no other line losses, then the power that must be transferred from the battery through the 12 to 5 Vdc converter to the A119 circuitry is 2.5 Watts. So the resulting current on the 12Vdc input circuit to the converter would have to be 2.5W/12Vdc = 0.21A. Any converter inefficiency or 12Vdc circuit line losses would bump up the power draw from the battery from there.}
  

 

[Sabe]

Haha; no teenage son's, mine just got out of diapers.

I looked up my battery, it's 120 Ah. I spoke to some electrical guys at a local modder shop and they told me it would be about three weeks before it would drain the battery voltage below cranking capacity.

That 120 amps was the answer why my calculations didn't add up, normally we have 120 amp battery only in a very large trucks or a bus, basic gasoline car battery is about 65 amps, diesel cars about 80 amps.

 

[Leopold]

If the 12 to 5 voltage conversion process was 100% efficient with no other line losses, then the power that must be transferred from the battery through the 12 to 5 Vdc converter to the A119 circuitry is 2.5 Watts. So the resulting current on the 12Vdc input circuit to the converter would have to be 2.5W/12Vdc = 0.21A. Any converter inefficiency or 12Vdc circuit line losses would bump up the power draw from the battery from there.}

I agree, I think 0.25 A draw from the car battery would be a better estimate given power draw of 0.5 A @ 5 V and conversion losses.

Tested the A119 V1 (firmware version 2.05) today with a Tomo power bank that shows power draw. Turns out it fluctuates constantly between 0.25 A - 0.65 A with the display off, with active display it becomes a little higher max 0.72 A. I have no possibilities to calculate mean power draw with precision but it seems to be around 0.45 A... if you can trust a dirt cheap power bank from China

I'll see if I can find a new official firmware version since it seems a bit old (but works fine). I have no interest in parking mode since it is illegal where I live but maybe a new firmware version also brings other benefits.

 

[Leopold]

I upgraded to V3.3 now but I don't understand how the parking mode is supposed to work. I set it to 5 fps or something like that... but under what conditions does it engage and disengage?
__
Power draw was the same as before and I see no difference in the produced video files... so I obviously was unable to make it go into parking mode. I don't understand how it works but never mind... I will never use it in Sweden.

 

[SawMaster]

There's a lot to consider here. I just put a new series 27 battery in my old van and other than a somewhat higher than normal charge rate it easily handles 4 cams for 8+ hours with no apparent loss of starting power. With the old battery there was some weakness in the same situation but it started. Similar happened when running one cam about 60 hours with the old battery (accidentally) but I haven't checked with the new one.I normally don't exceed ~18 hours with one cam. And I also replaced the starter as the old one would no longer start when it got hot, even with the new battery, so now the starting load is much less thus allowing more cam time. I'd estimate that I now have twice as much cam time available than before

But the real issue lies in what such usage does to the battery. From what I can find, the experts say that with a wet-cell car-starting battery when you discharge it to below starting level more than 5-6 times it's not long for the world after that. My personal experience indicates that they may be a bit pessimistic but after about 10 times you're battery will be done for, new or old. Charging rate also plays a role here as the high rates of today's cars will kill a deeply discharged battery faster than with older low-output alternators like my van has. Cheapo batteries can take far less abuse than good ones. Starting batteries are not meant for long slow discharging so one should exercise restraint when running cams over long time periods

A BDP isn't a bad idea for those of us who run cams when parked, but they are not absolutely necessary got shorter duration parking when the entire car is in very good condition and you've paid attention to how the car behaves when starting. Even with a BDP you're going to shorten the car battery life doing this. The bug question is how much you will lose and whether that is an acceptable loss to you. In my big V8 vans I got 4-5 years life from the battery before cams and now that seems to be 3-4 years, maybe a bit less. I use mid-grade batteries as I've found them to get the best overall value, and the one I just bought was ~$150, this I'm paying about $38 per year fr cam use and ~$30 without cams . $8 a year is well worth the peace of mind my cams give me. Factor in a BDP and the bargain dissipates quickly

Sometime in the future I plan to do a test with an old car battery I have running one cam till it quits. Of course you'd never start a car at that charge level but it should give me an idea of how long a cam can run under the worst circumstances. I'm finding this thread very interesting as it seems to confirm my thoughts that for most people parking overnight (or maybe longer) a BDP is probably a waste of money, but if it makes you feel better then use one

Phil

 

[5Cowbells]

Tested the A119 V1 (firmware version 2.05) today with a Tomo power bank that shows power draw. Turns out it fluctuates constantly between 0.25 A - 0.65 A with the display off, with active display it becomes a little higher max 0.72 A. I have no possibilities to calculate mean power draw with precision but it seems to be around 0.45 A... if you can trust a dirt cheap power bank from China

Not exactly laboratory grade instruments we are using. I use an ~$8 inline Keweisi USB V/A meter from Banggood that seems to work OK and measures volts, instantaneous amps, elapsed time, and mAhrs. I've made several measurements at the input to long USB cable, most unpublished, that agree in general with yours. To get repeatable results, the most significant variables need to be controlled or at least noted, such as:

• Recording Mode (Normal, Time-lapse, or not recording).
• Resolution/fps (1080P60 consumes the most power).
• LCD on or off.
• Using the supplied long USB cable or not (any cable losses consume power).
• powering through the GPS Mount or camera side (internal resistance in the GPS mount).
• Using GPS or not (does not consume much power).
• {Edit: Where in the circuit the measurements are made.}

The drain on the battery while parked may also include car alarms or any other devices active when the ignition is off. We can estimate/measure the power drain on the battery due to the A119 with fairly good accuracy, but the more difficult part, as @SawMaster has pointed out, is to understand the impact of that drain on the battery life and consequently our time and bank accounts. I guess a starting point is to ensure that enough power remains in the battery to start the car. I personally have had bad experiences after running car batteries down to the point where they won't crank the engine. Seems that once that happens, premature replacement is eminent, usually after a few more inconvenient, aggravating, and sometimes costly jump starts.

 

[Tuesfutu]

Some great discussion here. Although I will not have to worry about leaving it on by mistake again. I just finished hardwiring the dashcam about an hour ago. My Sierra has an aftermarket accessory port in the MBEC; I picked up the connector, added the ground and primary to it and now it only comes on with the car.

I can grab some pics if anyone is interested.

Thanks for all the replied fellas.

 

[5Cowbells]

I upgraded to V3.3 now but I don't understand how the parking mode is supposed to work. I set it to 5 fps or something like that... but under what conditions does it engage and disengage?
__
Power draw was the same as before and I see no difference in the produced video files... so I obviously was unable to make it go into parking mode. I don't understand how it works but never mind... I will never use it in Sweden.

Just loaded V3.3 firmware yesterday, so still early. I've measured power draw for V3.1 firmware in the various Parking Mode sub-modes (Normal recording, Standby Mode, and Time-lapse) but not published. To give you a rough idea of the results: Standby Mode (not recording) draws about 1/2 the power of Normal Recording, and Time-lapse draws about 4/5 the power of Normal Recording, even at 1 fps (surprisingly). I want to re-verify the Time-lapse numbers.

{Edit: For any A119S users, the cover-the-lens method may not work and may perpetuate Normal recording indefinitely. Place the still A119S where it views a static scene, even very dimly lit, that has some features and contrast, and it will consistently slip into the Standby mode right on time, in about 90 seconds. Once Standby initiates, wiggle your fingers in front of the lens once a minute to initiate and sustain Time-lapse recording.}

The easiest way to activate and sustain the different sub modes is in the comfort of your home as follows:

• Use the supplied long or short USB cable and connect to a USB wall charger or USB power bank. To see what the camera is doing precisely, you need to turn screensaver OFF.
• Set up the camera to include a TV or something moving in the FOV of the camera.
• At power up the A119 starts in Normal recording which is sustained by continued motion in the FOV (Motion Detection) and/or camera movement (G-sensor).
• The A119 will not go into Time-lapse recording without first going to Standby Mode.
• To activate the Standby Mode, cover the lens with a dark cloth and don't move or jar the camera. After 1.5 minutes or so the LCD (if on) will turn off, the red REC button light will turn off, and the green Power button light will turn on. Camera is now in Standby mode (not recording) and will stay there as long as no motion is sensed in the camera FOV and no camera movement is sensed (by the G-sensor).
• To activate Time-lapse recording, remove the cover from the lens without moving the camera and provide motion (e.g. a TV) in the camera FOV. The green Power button light goes out, and the red REC button light turns on indicating the camera is in either Time-lapse or Normal recording (you can't tell looking at the lights). If screensaver is off, Time-lapse recording is indicated by the "xFPS" symbol, where x is that value selected in the PM menu, below and left of the red blinking record dot. Time-lapse recording is sustained by motion in the camera FOV.
• To activate Normal recording, gently pick up or move the camera. Parking Mode Normal recording is indicated on the LCD screen by the "car" icon below left of the blinking red record dot (replacing the "xFPS" symbol). Too much movement may generate an Event (emergency) recording indicated by the big yellow triangle on the LCD. Either motion in the FOV or camera movement (G-sensor trigger) will sustain Normal recording.
• {Edit: Update 1/15/2018: Although Parking Mode automatically changes the G-Sensor menu setting to "High Sensitivity" during parking periods sometime after entering Standby mode/Time-lapse recording, the camera does switch back to the User's original setting sometime after Normal recording resumes.}

 

[Hombré]

I can grab some pics if anyone is interested.

Im interested thanks

 

[Tuesfutu]

Im interested thanks

Sorry for my tardiness, I decided to do a fishing weekend. Below are the steps I took to hardwire (sort of, you'll see what I mean) my @viofo A119 dashcam to my 2012 GMC Sierra.

The connector is Delphi (Part #20791502), about $8. The female pins are about $0.24 a piece (Part #15304717-L)

 

[jokiin]

you'll get better results from the camera if you point the lens down a bit further