Anyone here knowledgeable about car electronics?

[MosinVirus]

I like my front-facing dash cam in front of the rearview mirror. Doesn't take up any dash or windshield real estate and gets a VERY good FOV for front impacts.

It also allows you to make use of the circuitry for any cabin lights. If you have cabin lights that automatically turn on/off that also have a physical switch to turn on the light, that circuit is energized any time a door is opened/car started and automatically turned off after a period of time when the car is not running. You would wire up the dash cam wiring harness BEFORE the light switch, there's an upstream circuit/controller that controls the automatic on/off behavior.

I thought about it but wanted to not touch the existing wiring.

Are you able to easily check to see if it is a voltage issue?

Not easily. Would need to get a new battery.

Make sure the circuit you checked and connected to isn't one that stays hot for a period of time.
Like how most cars you can roll up or down the window or listen to the radio after shutting down the car then they shut off off after time has passed.

I am truly baffled. I tested all the fuses. Some stay on some turn off. The ones that stay on should at least run the camera until they eventually shut off (if they do) but the camera shuts off instantly.

This is my thought as well. More than likely a battery protection method built in to the vehicle so that inadvertently left on circuits cant kill the battery.

But when the camera is off I still get 12.38 V flowing to it.

[hey8you]

Maybe buy a battery backup for the dash cam? I had a similar problem like you. All fuses except for one stays on all the time. I guess my cars computer decides when to kill the power so all fuses in the trunk stays on all the time. There was only one circuit that would turn off after 10 min or if I opened any door. I had no choice but to wire my dash camera to that circuit and add a battery backup. Now my dash camera has its own battery that lasts about 20+ hours when the car is off.

[MosinVirus]

Maybe buy a battery backup for the dash cam? I had a similar problem like you. All fuses except for one stays on all the time. I guess my cars computer decides when to kill the power so all fuses in the trunk stays on all the time. There was only one circuit that would turn off after 10 min or if I opened any door. I had no choice but to wire my dash camera to that circuit and add a battery backup. Now my dash camera has its own battery that lasts about 20+ hours when the car is off.

That is exactly what I will do. Cellink B battery is coming today.

[Fizz]

If your dash cam shuts off at 12.39 volts, i would find another one. Thats only 20 percent battery usage.
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It can drop that low on a full charge depending on where you measure it. Also, while the car is on it will be closer to 14 volts. You wouldn't want accessories regularly taking the battery below 80% anyway.

[MosinVirus]

Update and another failure.

Got a Cellink Neo battery. It came with wires prepped for my camera.

So I decided to re-run the wiring to the rear seat. My plan was to seat the battery under the rear seat.

The cable running from the camera to the battery has all three wires - ground, constant, and ignition. It plugs into the battery via a plug.

The battery can be plugged into the cigarette lighter socket or hardwired. I decided to hardwire. The cable has a plug on one side that goes into the battery and on the other it has a stripped wire tip for add-a-circuit connection and a ground round tip.

So I added a add-a-circuit extension, used the same fuses I was using for my ignition-on wire when the camera was hardwired to fuses. And I ran the ground under the carpet to where the foldable rear seat clips in. I removed the cover and placed the ground wire tip under the cover where the cover screw is screwed into metal.

I dont know if that is a good ground point.

The camera seems to work so I go for a test drive. In the middle of the test drive the camera enters Parking Mode and stays in it.

I check the fuses and the 5 amp fuse in the top slot of add-a-circuit extension is burnt out. I turn the camera off via the power button.

I replace the burnt fuse with another 5 amp fuse, but the camera is not turning on anymore. I tried using a 10 amp fuse, some thing. The second 5 amp fuse burnt out too.

The battery is working it seems. Makes the beep when the car starts and 2 beeps when the car is turned off. The light stays on when the car is running.

So thinking that maybe the ground is bad, I disconnect that cable from the battery and use a cigarette lighter cable for the battery. The camera is not turning on.

So I test the camera by using its cigarette lighter cable. Turns on and off as designed.

So the question is what could the problem be if even when I use the cigarette lighter cable for the battery (to eliminate the possibly bad ground) the camera still doesnt get a power through and from the battery after a couple of fuses burnt? Is the wiring I just ran from camera to battery damaged somewhere? Is it the battery?

[bool1tholz]

There doesn't seem to be a soft copy of the manual for that Cellink Neo battery online. But from this website it looks like you need at a 15amp fuse:

https://drivercam.co.nz/products/cellink-battery-neo

They describe a 9amp input in fast charge mode but their bundle seems contains a 20amp fuse from the pictures. On the battery it's marked
INPUT : 12.0~17.0V / 13.5A MAX

[MosinVirus]

Well, it worked with 5amps (for a short time) and now it doesnt evn when plugged into the cig lighter socket.

Is it fried?

[LuckyGuy]

Easy.

I plug mine into my cig. lighter outlet when I get in my car & unplug it when I am done.

[MosinVirus]

I plug mine into my cig. lighter outlet when I get in my car & unplug it when I am done.

Thanks. My interest is in Parking mode.

[MosinVirus]

Update.

As I have said before, I started to communicate with BlackboxMyCar people.

Their latest was suggesting that the output cable may be defective or damaged, but they wanted me to try some stuff like moving the fuse in the add-a-circuit extension from top slot to bottom slot.
Since I was using an unused fuse slot in the fuse box there was no reason to do that, plus not having a fuse in the top slot would not send any power to the battery...

Then I moved the fuse back to the top slot of the add-a-circuit, powered the battery back on by setting it to High. Started the car... No change.
Later that night I went back to the car and changed the 10 amp fuse in the add-a-circuit for a 15 amp fuse. Powered the battery back on and set it to High. Started the car... No Change.

Went back to work. Ended my work day. Started the car... No change... Drove home. Turned the car off.

This morning I get into the car and start the engine. Camera turns on. Drove to work. Turned the car off... Camera started parking mode. So far so good.

Magic?


And the battery was charging just fine yesterday on the drive to work, it just wasn't passing any power to the camera. Not even when I swapped the fuse from 10 amp to 15 amp.
If there was a loose connection that got restored during the drive home last night I assume the camera would have turned on instantly as the connection was restored and power sent.
Today the battery is discharging while the camera is in parking mode. So it seems to be working fine.

The question is what changed, and when will it stop working again?

[bool1tholz]

The Cellink Neo is hooked to accessory power right? So it only charges when you run the car. And using the 10amp fuse in fast charge was blowing the fuse not allowing it to charge.
After putting the Cellink Neo to slow charging and/or using the larger 15amp fuse allowed it to charge when the car was running.
Addirionally the Cellink Neo might have its own low voltage disconnect for output power to protect itself and it wasn't charging until you were both running the car and using a 15amp fuse. (Cellink Neo may not output power until it has a minimum charge level)
All guesses but glad you got it working. I think it will likely just work going forward if my guesses were correct.
Remember to swap that car battery soon since at 5 years you're getting to the end of it's lifespan.

[MosinVirus]

The Cellink Neo is hooked to accessory power right? So it only charges when you run the car. And using the 10amp fuse in fast charge was blowing the fuse not allowing it to charge.
After putting the Cellink Neo to slow charging and/or using the larger 15amp fuse allowed it to charge when the car was running.
Addirionally the Cellink Neo might have its own low voltage disconnect for output power to protect itself and it wasn't charging until you were both running the car and using a 15amp fuse. (Cellink Neo may not output power until it has a minimum charge level)
All guesses but glad you got it working. I think it will likely just work going forward if my guesses were correct.
Remember to swap that car battery soon since at 5 years you're getting to the end of it's lifespan.

Thank you.

I only blew 5 amp fuses (2 of them) on Sunday. After that I had a 10 amp fuse in there. The battery has been charging, turning on with ignition (you hear a beep), and turning off when ignition is off (2 beeps).

Here are the screenshots where it was charging, but still not turning on the camera.

This was on Sunday night (very late).. Car running. Quick test and car was off.


This was Monday afternoon... Car running. On the way to work.


This was Monday afternoon... Got to work. Car is off.


Notice that the battery was fully charged and still not turning on the camera (Not Used)

Here it is today... with the car off, and after the camera turned on in the morning.




The camera is set to Time Lapse, so it takes a picture every 1 second. I assume that is the fluctuating amps. They change every second between 0.1 and 0.2 amps.