Car Battery Discharge Prevention

[Jellandross]

i'm a car cam newbie and i've been reading up about the car cam's electrical consumption and it's effect on the car battery. apparently, car battery is built primarily for the purpose of producing a high burst of ampere for cold cranking. it is not designed to be frequently discharged to near or zero charge like in a mobile/laptop battery. doing so will shorten it's life span.

 

the below article from dashcamtalk was very educational for me. i didn't know that setting the car cam power cut-off device to below 12.4V is not a good thing for the car battery. the technician who installed my car cam originally left the cut-off voltage at the default 11.8V as he said it'll give the longest operational time for the car cam. after reading the article, i changed the cut-off voltage to 12.2V which is the highest that the device can do.

 

for you guys who's been using car cam for a long while, what cut-off voltage do you guys set to? do you notice any perceptible shortening of your battery life span for guys who set it below 12V?

 

 

DASHCAMTALK - Battery Discharge Prevention

 

https://dashcamtalk.com/battery-discharge-prevention/

 

If you purchased a dash cam that has a parking mode / parking surveillance option which requires you to hardwire the DVR into your vehicle, you may want to consider a battery discharge prevention device. This device goes by many names:

▪ Battery discharge prevention device

▪ Uninterrupted power cable

▪ Low battery cutoff

▪ Battery protector

▪ Electric power controller

▪ Power magic

 

What is it?

Regardless of the name, this device is connected to your dash cam’s power supply and hardwired into your vehicle. The device can prevent the discharge of the vehicle battery by blocking power to the dash cam if the voltage drops below a configured value or if the configured time has elapsed.

 

Is it necessary?

Many people would argue that a battery discharge prevention device is necessary however this depends on 2 factors. The first factor is how often you drive your vehicle. If you drive it daily, a typical dash cam will not drain enough power from an average car battery for a problem to occur. In fact, many people have left their vehicles for 2 or more days in parking mode without any problems with battery discharge. If you will not be driving your vehicle for a few days, you could unplug your dash cam to prevent battery discharge.

 

The second factor is your car battery’s condition. If it is a newer battery in good condition, the dash cam will unlikely drain the battery for numerous days. If your battery is not in good condition, you will likely need to replace it anyways and a battery discharge prevention device will just delay the inevitable replacement for a few weeks.

 

However, given the relatively low cost of these devices, many people would rather not face this battery discharge risk. Overall, they are a reasonable device to consider but not 100% necessary depending on your driving behavior and battery condition.

 

What is the ideal voltage cut-off?

Unfortunately this is not a clear cut question. Lead Acid start batteries typically found it vehicles should not be routinely deep cycled or that will reduce the life of the battery. Hence, if you never want to deep cycle your battery the cutoff needs to be 80% or 90%. This equates to a voltage cut-off of around 12.4V. No battery protection device that I have seen has this setting. If your battery protection device cut-off is 12V or 12.2V, the battery will deep cycle if it hits this number reducing the life expectancy of the battery.

 

The following table estimates the voltage associated with a typical 12V lead acid battery’s percentage charge for a variety of temperatures. Note that these voltages are approximate estimates based on an unloaded battery (not when charging).

 

*** Refer to table in the web site ***

 

The above table is important when choosing a device since you want to make sure the voltage cut-off is adequate. For example, a voltage cut-off of 11.6 is equal to a completely dead battery when it is warmer than 57 degrees F or 14 degrees C. Really not a good cut-off in most conditions but some devices have this setting or lower.

 

Device Summary

There are numerous devices on the market that perform this function and all are interchangeable. You can use a BlackVue Power Magic with a Itronics dash cam or use an Itronics Uninterrupted Power Supply with a BlackVue dash cam.

 

Not all battery discharge prevention devices are created equal. The following table summarizes the main features of the most popular devices available today.

 

*** Refer to table in the web site ***

 

The Lukas LK-290 is the best battery discharge prevention device out of the bunch. It is the only one with a voltage cut-off of 12.4V and it also has 4 time settings. This is the recommended device.

The ITV-80 comes in second but it only has a maximum cut-off of 12.2. The Power Magic, Power Magic Pro have 2 voltage settings which are 2 low and numerous time settings. The FineVu Perfect Power is the real disappointment here since there is only 1 voltage setting of 11.8v which is too low (particularly on a hot day). It also doesn’t have a time setting.

 

Note that the FineVu cameras have a built-in battery discharge prevention device. Unfortunately the voltage cut-off is set at 11.6v. This is much too low for normal temperatures and the battery will likely be dead before the cut-off voltage is hit. This is the reason why FineVu sells the Perfect Power device.