12V and dash cam in sentry mode

[Mach-Lee]

I assume just keeping a dashcam plugged into the cigarette lighter-style plug won't drain the 12V? It turns off when the car is off, right?

Correct, power is cut after about 30 min.

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[flapjake314]

i ended up using an external battery pack bc i wanted it to stay on but didn't want to drain the 12v

 

[shadowsjc]

i ended up using an external battery pack bc i wanted it to stay on but didn't want to drain the 12v

How has that been working so far? How often do you charge the battery pack? Which battery did you use?

 

[flapjake314]

How has that been working so far? How often do you charge the battery pack? Which battery did you use?

I did it for about 6 months because I was parking in a public covered parking garage. I owned 2x 25,000 mAh battery packs and they would each last around 1.5 days with the Vantrue S1 with motion sensing turned out (the camera records for 5 seconds whenever a car passed by me in the garage).

Practically what I did was just go to the car with a fresh battery pack every time I was heading out and left that pack in when I got home (took the old one back upstairs with me to recharge and repeat). I wasn't going down every day when it was parked to swap the battery.

This method completely avoided the 12V and therefore had zero impact on the car which is what I wanted.

 

[shadowsjc]

I did it for about 6 months because I was parking in a public covered parking garage. I owned 2x 25,000 mAh battery packs and they would each last around 1.5 days with the Vantrue S1 with motion sensing turned out (the camera records for 5 seconds whenever a car passed by me in the garage).

Practically what I did was just go to the car with a fresh battery pack every time I was heading out and left that pack in when I got home (took the old one back upstairs with me to recharge and repeat). I wasn't going down every day when it was parked to swap the battery.

This method completely avoided the 12V and therefore had zero impact on the car which is what I wanted.

Interesting. I wonder if it's possible to recharge the battery pack from the 12v while it's driving. It would become too cumbersome for me to swap out a battery every day or two

 

[flapjake314]

Interesting. I wonder if it's possible to recharge the battery pack from the 12v while it's driving. It would become too cumbersome for me to swap out a battery every day or two

this is possible and i tested it. it depends on your personal usage but i do not drive enough to make this work for me. either way it would unlikely fully replace you having to swap the battery if you want 24/7 coverage, but could extend it from 1.5 days to something like 2 or 2.5 etc

it wasn't much of a hassle, it's just a USB battery, i left it plugged in near my door. on my way out i grab my keys and the battery. on my way back i just plug the empty one in

 

[yngwenli]

Can the HVB ever charge these USB batteries?

I think I read earlier that accessories use the 12V so I assume no, but it seems like it'd be better to slow drain the HVB since that thing can last so long and it's easy to know how much capacity is left vs. the mystery 12V battery.

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