Dashcams!

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I know it's a sad world. I've just had a call from the insurance, paying me a little more than what I thought the van was worth so that's a bonus. Also had some tool cover that I didn't know about too. Won't cover what I've lost but it will help.
Glad to hear it isn't going to be a 100% loss but still, hope it goes smoothly in future!
 

JRJ

JRJ

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Anyone have a Garmin 66W, bought it for the wife's car with the intention of having motion detection for when she's parked in work (hospital car park) having picked up a few minor dings and marks, she works a 12hr shift so set it up for continuous motion, car didn't move for 2 days over Christmas and the camera had killed the battery, turned off the parking mode and did it again. Seems to be recording a lot of short clips pretty much every 20mins, any advice on settings? currently out of the car to avoid a RAC callout after a night shift.
 

JRJ

JRJ

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:D to be honest I didn't expect it to be so sensitive at the lowest setting, crisp packets blowing/cats walking 30 ft away.

With parking mode disabled how much power would the dashcam be taking? I didn't think it would be much once the onboard battery was charged.
 
Underboss
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The problem is, if your running a dashcam in parking mode, it uses the main battery

even if there is a "cut off" like my dashcam, it kills it over time

i know this because i was keeping an eye on the voltage, also i noticed the recording from the camera were getting less and less, so instead of recording say 100 clips in a day, this was diminishing over time

i put a new battery in, and bought a cellink, and its been perfect every since
 

JRJ

JRJ

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Great thanks I'll take a look at the cellink as a long term solution, for the time being I'll completely disable the parking functions.
 
Soldato
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:D to be honest I didn't expect it to be so sensitive at the lowest setting, crisp packets blowing/cats walking 30 ft away.

With parking mode disabled how much power would the dashcam be taking? I didn't think it would be much once the onboard battery was charged.
Are you sure the 12V socket isn't powered when the ignition is off? I had a Focus though work for a while and the 12V socket in that was permanently live.
 

JRJ

JRJ

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Are you sure the 12V socket isn't powered when the ignition is off? I had a Focus though work for a while and the 12V socket in that was permanently live.

Its hardwired into fuse board for parking mode with an official Garmin parking cable.
 
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Ive got a garmin 56 front and garmin mini rear both hard wired with the garmin lead and have parking mode enabled on both ( motion recording ) Never any flat battery issues though ? The garmin lead has a voltage cut out when the voltage drops to 11.7 volts. The voltage cut can be changed by opening the box on the hardwire kit and there are jumpers that adjust the voltage it cuts out at. Sounds like your could be faulty or set wrong as I have never experienced a flat battery.
Wife has a garmin 55 on hers again with hardwire parking mode
 
Soldato
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I don’t think the post above were suggesting you’ll get a flat battery.

The constant drain prematurely kills car battery which is why they suggest buying a cell link to power the camera and recharge when the car is on.
 
Soldato
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Its hardwired into fuse board for parking mode with an official Garmin parking cable.

Ah! My apologies, the only camera with parking mode I've used still needed to be connected to switched live and then ran from the internal battery when parked.

Ive got a garmin 56 front and garmin mini rear both hard wired with the garmin lead and have parking mode enabled on both ( motion recording ) Never any flat battery issues though ? The garmin lead has a voltage cut out when the voltage drops to 11.7 volts. The voltage cut can be changed by opening the box on the hardwire kit and there are jumpers that adjust the voltage it cuts out at. Sounds like your could be faulty or set wrong as I have never experienced a flat battery.
Wife has a garmin 55 on hers again with hardwire parking mode

If that is the case I'd definitely be swapping those settings! I wouldn't be comfortable with my battery regularly dropping below 12V. I've seen the following chart (or similar) in a few places which compares voltage to SoC.

 
Soldato
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I've left the car sitting for over 2 weeks and had the cam on constant motion recording which hasn't caused the voltage to drop below and cut the power.
That's good, shows that a higher cut off should still give plenty of coverage. I'd rather make sure that I keep 50% SoC in the battery than risk missing someone bumping my car, especially in the winter.
 

JRJ

JRJ

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Possibly ? When you switch the ignition off does the camera screen flash up "parking mode recording" then go blank ?

Wife's just gone in on a night shift so I'll double check tomorrow but don't remember seeing it when I first set it up, screen would go off and the red led would flash.
 

JRJ

JRJ

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maybe, you have a switched live and a continuous live ones
google your car and dashcam etc to find the correct one, or use your owners club website, might help

I'll double check them tomorrow, took the fuses from one of the Tiguan owners clubs posts.
 
Transmission breaker
Don
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Anyone know of a small, cheap camera:

It has to be 1080p at least
No app
No screen
No USB head unit connection (or associated nonsense)
Auto loop record to SD card
No wifi
Small
Solid mount (3m type) not suction
12v or 5v power
No parking recording
Weatherproof is a plus, but not really required.

They must exist out there. My old blackvue in my car from years ago is still working and doing exactly this, it's just a bit chunky for hiding in the fairing of my motorbikes! It's the most basic of functions that just works when needed. Almost all of the cheap cameras I see are trying to put in all these pointless features that just add cost/complexity and bulk. I just want it to record in a loop when powered on :D
 
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