Thank you for the video; it gave me some sort of idea on the connection but can you please help me as to how I can connect the endpoints of WOLFBOX Hard Cable (which has acc, batt, and ground cable) to Blackvue B-124 and cable convertor available in the market...
@@SafeDriveSolutions am considering the a229 pro when it comes out. But I may need something that has the ability to upload to a private secure server and save videos automatically when event occurs along with parking features. What do you recommend
@@STONEDECISION That is one of the challenges. I only see Blackvue offering a proper CLOUD based product where you can insert a SIM card and have it upload. ruclips.net/video/as30aCL_pJw/видео.html
Great video. Thanks! Can any of these parking mode batteries be easily connected to an external charger (such as a trickle charger) for overnight charging while the battery is still inside the vehicle? I need 8+ hours of parking mode but my daily drive to work is only 20 mins, which isn't enough to fully charge the battery on the way to work.
Would it be possible to splice in a second dash cam hardwire kit to have one batter pack power two dash cams at the same time? Im not too worried about length of time recording. mMost of the times I’d want recordings are less than an hour at a time.
@@SafeDriveSolutions I received both dash cam and the powerpack yesterday. I am having an issue with the batterypack as when I connected it to the Viofo A229 Pro 3 Ch it would not power on the Dash Cam. I can see the powerpack has battery and everything seems normal except Acc1 shows 00.0. And charging says "Wait" with 0.04A. what am I missing? If I connect the dash cam to accessory power it works but not when connected to powerpack.
@@danykoskova3554 IROAD Battery Pack - The F- Input plug for hardwire Thick Red Wire- constant power fused, Black wire goes to ground, small red wire goes to ignition. On the output of the battery pack this video has how to do that ruclips.net/video/3EOitU9giVQ/видео.html
Thanks for the review Ben, is there any protection for low temp charging? LFP batteries can be discharged at subfreezing temperature, however, Charging LFP battery below 0°C / 32°F can damage the battery and/or reduce its lifespan and must be avoided. If charging LFP batteries below 0°C (32°F), the charge current must be reduced to 0.1C and below -10°C (14°F) it must be reduced to 0.05C.
Someone else asked me the same thing. In the prairies I imagine people are using the battery packs in below zero freezing temperatures year round. I will try and follow up on this. Temperatures drop to -40 degrees celcius
@@SafeDriveSolutionsyour run times seem very high which is even more than the manufacturers claims. I run 2 so 150WH and don’t even get to where your talking about in parking. Real world must be different to lab testing
I drive a 2019 Audi e-tron and am having a Vantrue N4 pro 3 channel installed. Do you recommend a battery pack for parking mode? Also, I live in hot, hot SW Florida.
@@edwardanugent i work on EV all the time. The wiring is pretty much the same on most of these vehicles. Really it depends on who is doing the installation. But I would get a 7500mah rates battery pack. Blackvue B-130X, Thinkware IVOLT Xtra or Powercell 8 all have 7500mah.
Hi. I only drive about 20 minutes a day, but I need parking mode on the rest of the time. Will I wear down my external battery pack really quickly? I can drive it once or twice a week for 45 minutes, but that isn’t happening everyday. Thanks!
I would look at an impact only parking mode dash camera like Thinkware F790, Thinkware U1000, Thinkware U3000 as it will draw very low current while parked and only wake up and record if there is an impact. Then your battery pack will last a lot longer
Can I use a power station with a cigarette plug? Powerstation like the Anker Solix with 1000wah. When the battery dies I can just charge it from my house?
I am not familiar with that nor have I tested that either. I am looking at it online. Not sure if I have the correct one because it does look very expensive. Sounds like an interesting question though
Hi There, Here is the question I have for you: If I use an iVolt Xtra and connect its battery input lead to a voltage sensitive relay that is series with the starter battery, and then connect the iVolt Xtra's accessory lead to an accessory fuse port, would this allow for the following situation: 1) when the vehicle is put into Accessory mode prior to starting the vehicle's engine, the iVolt Xtra will power on the dashcam (or take it out of Park mode), which itself will then pull current from the iVolt Xtra, but the iVolt Xtra will not charge yet because its battery lead will only see 0 Volts due to the relay being closed (engine off) (In the above situation, "Accessory mode" could be substituted with "Run mode," depending upon which fuse port is tapped) 2) when the vehicle's engine is started, and the voltage sensitive relay cuts in, the iVolt Xtra's battery lead will see >12 Volts and the iVolt Xtra will be prompted to begin charging via the starter battery/alternator I realize that different voltage sensitive relays have different cut in/out voltages, some allow for adjustments, some have 15-second delays or 30-second delays before cutting in and out, many vehicles have variable alternators (mine does, but its charging voltage has never gone below 13.5 volts, regardless of starter battery health--MBZ officially states that it will never go below 13.4 V), etc. In theory, do you think that the iVolt Xtra's wiring is such that the above setup would work? It seems to me that if it does, a car that utilizes auto start-stop would have the advantage that when the engine shuts off at a stoplight, the relay will cut out and prevent the iVolt Xtra from charging while the engine isn't running, but the dashcam will remain recording--without going into Parking mode--because the iVolt Xtra will still be getting a voltage signal through its accessory wire. When the light turns green and the car auto starts, the iVolt Xtra will then begin charging again. Later, when the vehicle is fully shut down, the accessory port will have its power cut a well, and the iVolt Xtra will signal for the dashcam to either turn off completely or enter Parking mode. It seems to me that the above setup would be a good way to ensure that an external dashcam battery pack never charges off the starter battery unless the engine is running. Thank you in advance for any help you might provide! Andy
I appreciate you asking the question. This is not something we can answer on RUclips. We have never seen the need to wire it in such a way. I am going to assume this is for a Mercedes Benz vehicle As you listed MBZ. If you just bought a Thinkware U3000. It has the option of delaying parking mode from starting for up to 5 minutes. Options of 30 seconds, 1,2,3,4, or 5minutes. This would mean it will still record in normal driving mode and will not draw any current from your car battery and only draw from battery pack for up to 5 minutes. Will record in normal driving mode and will not go into parking mode from just sitting at the lights. It may not be ideal for that dash camera but some dash camera do have delays as well. For instance Viofo has a setting called Enter Parking Mode Timer it can be set for 90 seconds which means it will not enter parking mode until 90 seconds after turning ignition off.
@@SafeDriveSolutions Thanks, I appreciate your quick and thorough response. It looks like even if one used the U3000 with the iVolt Xtra and set the Parking mode initiation timer to, say, 5 minutes, the iVolt Xtra would still pull ~10 A while the car is in auto stop at a red light. I guess I just don't like this idea, as I know the auto start -stop systems of many cars can be finicky--they won't activate if the BMS system detects that there's a risk that the car won't start again when the light turns green. This can be due to excessive current draw such as from the AC unit, less than optimal battery health, etc. Indeed, I have seen several posts online complaining that their auto start-stop feature went away when they installed battery packs (but one never knows exactly the full story). It just seems to me that, if possible, it would be a good idea to have a setup that would only allow the dashcam battery pack to charge when the engine is running, and it seems that the new iVolt Xtra's wiring setup may allow for this.
@@AEMBowers So if ignition is not outputting to battery pack from wherever your wire connection is. The battery pack will not charge. Hence will not draw any current. But you could wire the green wire to whatever is outputting ignition or accessory when needed. Just saying that some dash cameras on the market you can delay when it goes into parking mode that way it reocrds normally until that timer finishes. At the same time if the ignition wire is not powered up the battery pack will not draw any current from vehicle. Everything comes down to where you get your trigger/ignition hookup. Also you could if you really wanted hook a on/off switch inline to turn it on or off from charging when stopped at traffic lights to green ignition wire that is.
@@SafeDriveSolutions I don't currently own an iVolt Xtra. Is the green wire the Accessory wire (I cannot tell from online pictures--my color blindness doesn't help either, lol)? I have the iVolt Mini, but it only has a power and a ground, suggesting to me that the signal wire that turns on/off the dash cam (or takes it into/out of Park mode) is the same as the power wire that charges the iVolt Mini. But, with the iVolt Xtra, my hope is simply that the accessory wire alone is what turns on/off the dash cam (or takes it into/out of Parking mode), whereas the power wire simply allows the iVolt Xtra to charge. In this way, I'm wondering if a relay can control the iVolt Xtra charging, whereas the car's accessory power bus can control the IVolt Xtra's powering of the camera. But, maybe the iVolt Xtra's power wire must be active in the first place in order for the iVolt Xtra to utilize the accessory wire to turn the camera on and off?
never heard of those batteries until now. They are very expensive. Not sure how it compares. Maybe one day someone will test it. However we are not going to go spend $1000 just to run the test.
@@SafeDriveSolutions I have an anti gravity power station and a Dakota LIthium powerbox (which is a 12v 10 AH that is the size of a motorcycle battery that's 200 for the unit. That would give you 120 Watthrs of power. It can also be charge by a small solar panel. I'm thinking of using something along those lines. I wish I lived up close, I am leaning on a Blackvue 970 box. Your channel has been a great research tool, I love how you go in depth.
@@kene3431 I just recieved a new box unit to test from a different supplier. The bos is smaller in size as well and will be easier to hide then the Blackvue one.
@@SafeDriveSolutions I am looking forward to the review. I live in St. Louis MO. So security is my primary concern when venturing out. It also gets real hot here so box units seem like the way to go. I have a regular cab F150. So I am hoping the cabin camera picks up the rear good enough. The 700 series loom like a good option for 3 if I would need 3, but the technology doesn't seem fully mature yet. I wish all the cameras front and back were 4k. I would pay the premium.
I installed 2 ivolt batteries in parallel but it doesn’t take power from the second ivolt battery to power the parking mode for more hours just waste of my hard earned money on the second battery 😢I made stupid mistake to buy thinkware expensive camera and my advice is just buy a ordinary cheap dash camera
So you are giving a recommendation to buy a cheaper dash camera because your battery packs are not working correctly?? Could you explain in more detail. In order to have both battery packs working together you need an expansion harness
A lot of dash cameras do not have timers or proper low battery protection. That is where it goes wrong. Viofo, thinkware, blackvue, iroad, and others have timers and low battery protection.
There is some debate at 17:11 where we are discussing when the Viofo dash camera will shut off. we will continue researching this further.
Although for my use-case battery pack's aren't a necessity the information you provided here was exceptional. Awesomely well done Ben keep it coming!
Awesome, thank you!
Thank you for the video; it gave me some sort of idea on the connection but can you please help me as to how I can connect the endpoints of WOLFBOX Hard Cable (which has acc, batt, and ground cable) to Blackvue B-124 and cable convertor available in the market...
Need more dashcam battery options, both of these are made by the same company so they keep the prices high.
I have another one but they wont ship to North America. It is not made by egen.
There are heaps of battery options
@@chefgav1can you list some? I'm currently thinking about buying the Cellink Neo 8+ S
@@Kidneyspears neo is a great battery
Thank you ❤
You're welcome 😊
Good deal. Dude. Watched a bunch of your videos now. You really know your shit
Glad your enjoying.
@@SafeDriveSolutions am considering the a229 pro when it comes out. But I may need something that has the ability to upload to a private secure server and save videos automatically when event occurs along with parking features. What do you recommend
@@STONEDECISION That is one of the challenges. I only see Blackvue offering a proper CLOUD based product where you can insert a SIM card and have it upload. ruclips.net/video/as30aCL_pJw/видео.html
@@STONEDECISIONyou will need a Blackvue for that
1. In case of accident your car dies.
2. In case you’re car battery drain’s down.
3. For Parking surveillance option with dash cam. 😊
Great video. Thanks! Can any of these parking mode batteries be easily connected to an external charger (such as a trickle charger) for overnight charging while the battery is still inside the vehicle? I need 8+ hours of parking mode but my daily drive to work is only 20 mins, which isn't enough to fully charge the battery on the way to work.
You can use a cigarette lighter adaptor to plug into a charger. The Blackvue B-124X and Thinkware Ivolt Mini come with cigarette lighter adaptors
Thanks for the review , as living in Kuwait where temperatures reach +60° celsius (+140° fahrenheit ) in summer , no way I can trust lithium in my car
Do you use a dash camera? If so which one withstands the high temperatures there?
I have been using Rexing V1P Max since the last month , not so happy though @@SafeDriveSolutions
Would it be possible to splice in a second dash cam hardwire kit to have one batter pack power two dash cams at the same time? Im not too worried about length of time recording. mMost of the times I’d want recordings are less than an hour at a time.
I have done this in 2 of my vehicles now. It has a 2 amp output. And i have yet to measure a dash cam over 1 amp output.
Good to know! Thanks for the input! This would actually be for two single channel Viofo A139 pros which I know draw 450mA each
Another great video :-) what battery pack would you recommend for Viofo A299 PRO 3CH, please? Greatly appreciate any feedback 🙂
ruclips.net/video/re3HkcHiPCU/видео.html IROAD powerpack pro 12
@@SafeDriveSolutions I received both dash cam and the powerpack yesterday. I am having an issue with the batterypack as when I connected it to the Viofo A229 Pro 3 Ch it would not power on the Dash Cam. I can see the powerpack has battery and everything seems normal except Acc1 shows 00.0. And charging says "Wait" with 0.04A. what am I missing?
If I connect the dash cam to accessory power it works but not when connected to powerpack.
@@danykoskova3554 IROAD Battery Pack - The F- Input plug for hardwire Thick Red Wire- constant power fused, Black wire goes to ground, small red wire goes to ignition. On the output of the battery pack this video has how to do that ruclips.net/video/3EOitU9giVQ/видео.html
Thanks for the review Ben, is there any protection for low temp charging?
LFP batteries can be discharged at subfreezing temperature, however, Charging LFP battery below 0°C / 32°F can damage the battery and/or reduce its lifespan and must be avoided.
If charging LFP batteries below 0°C (32°F), the charge current must be reduced to 0.1C and below -10°C (14°F) it must be reduced to 0.05C.
Someone else asked me the same thing. In the prairies I imagine people are using the battery packs in below zero freezing temperatures year round. I will try and follow up on this. Temperatures drop to -40 degrees celcius
@@SafeDriveSolutionsdo you guys not have Cellink battery packs in your neck of woods?
@@chefgav1 i have Thinkware Ivolt xtra and Panzer sent me a Blackvue b-130x to test against it.
@@SafeDriveSolutionsyour run times seem very high which is even more than the manufacturers claims. I run 2 so 150WH and don’t even get to where your talking about in parking. Real world must be different to lab testing
@@chefgav1 what dash cam are you using? Higher current draw on Blackvue and Viofo 2 channel setups
I drive a 2019 Audi e-tron and am having a Vantrue N4 pro 3 channel installed. Do you recommend a battery pack for parking mode? Also, I live in hot, hot SW Florida.
Yea the N4 Pro draws a lot of current. So if you want parking mode I would recommend a battery pack for sure
@@SafeDriveSolutions Yea but which one? And what about the fact that I drive an EV?
@@edwardanugent i work on EV all the time. The wiring is pretty much the same on most of these vehicles. Really it depends on who is doing the installation. But I would get a 7500mah rates battery pack. Blackvue B-130X, Thinkware IVOLT Xtra or Powercell 8 all have 7500mah.
Hi. I only drive about 20 minutes a day, but I need parking mode on the rest of the time. Will I wear down my external battery pack really quickly? I can drive it once or twice a week for 45 minutes, but that isn’t happening everyday. Thanks!
I would look at an impact only parking mode dash camera like Thinkware F790, Thinkware U1000, Thinkware U3000 as it will draw very low current while parked and only wake up and record if there is an impact. Then your battery pack will last a lot longer
Can I use a power station with a cigarette plug? Powerstation like the Anker Solix with 1000wah. When the battery dies I can just charge it from my house?
I am not familiar with that nor have I tested that either. I am looking at it online. Not sure if I have the correct one because it does look very expensive. Sounds like an interesting question though
Can you charge these dash cam battery packs at home? I’ve got an EV so would go through the inconvenience to save on vehicles battery
there are ways to charge at home. with some adaptors.
Can you connect a front and rear dash cam to this battery packs??
Yes you can
Hi There,
Here is the question I have for you: If I use an iVolt Xtra and connect its battery input lead to a voltage sensitive relay that is series with the starter battery, and then connect the iVolt Xtra's accessory lead to an accessory fuse port, would this allow for the following situation:
1) when the vehicle is put into Accessory mode prior to starting the vehicle's engine, the iVolt Xtra will power on the dashcam (or take it out of Park mode), which itself will then pull current from the iVolt Xtra, but the iVolt Xtra will not charge yet because its battery lead will only see 0 Volts due to the relay being closed (engine off)
(In the above situation, "Accessory mode" could be substituted with "Run mode," depending upon which fuse port is tapped)
2) when the vehicle's engine is started, and the voltage sensitive relay cuts in, the iVolt Xtra's battery lead will see >12 Volts and the iVolt Xtra will be prompted to begin charging via the starter battery/alternator
I realize that different voltage sensitive relays have different cut in/out voltages, some allow for adjustments, some have 15-second delays or 30-second delays before cutting in and out, many vehicles have variable alternators (mine does, but its charging voltage has never gone below 13.5 volts, regardless of starter battery health--MBZ officially states that it will never go below 13.4 V), etc.
In theory, do you think that the iVolt Xtra's wiring is such that the above setup would work? It seems to me that if it does, a car that utilizes auto start-stop would have the advantage that when the engine shuts off at a stoplight, the relay will cut out and prevent the iVolt Xtra from charging while the engine isn't running, but the dashcam will remain recording--without going into Parking mode--because the iVolt Xtra will still be getting a voltage signal through its accessory wire. When the light turns green and the car auto starts, the iVolt Xtra will then begin charging again. Later, when the vehicle is fully shut down, the accessory port will have its power cut a well, and the iVolt Xtra will signal for the dashcam to either turn off completely or enter Parking mode.
It seems to me that the above setup would be a good way to ensure that an external dashcam battery pack never charges off the starter battery unless the engine is running.
Thank you in advance for any help you might provide!
Andy
I appreciate you asking the question. This is not something we can answer on RUclips. We have never seen the need to wire it in such a way. I am going to assume this is for a Mercedes Benz vehicle As you listed MBZ. If you just bought a Thinkware U3000. It has the option of delaying parking mode from starting for up to 5 minutes. Options of 30 seconds, 1,2,3,4, or 5minutes. This would mean it will still record in normal driving mode and will not draw any current from your car battery and only draw from battery pack for up to 5 minutes. Will record in normal driving mode and will not go into parking mode from just sitting at the lights. It may not be ideal for that dash camera but some dash camera do have delays as well. For instance Viofo has a setting called Enter Parking Mode Timer it can be set for 90 seconds which means it will not enter parking mode until 90 seconds after turning ignition off.
@@SafeDriveSolutions Thanks, I appreciate your quick and thorough response. It looks like even if one used the U3000 with the iVolt Xtra and set the Parking mode initiation timer to, say, 5 minutes, the iVolt Xtra would still pull ~10 A while the car is in auto stop at a red light. I guess I just don't like this idea, as I know the auto start -stop systems of many cars can be finicky--they won't activate if the BMS system detects that there's a risk that the car won't start again when the light turns green. This can be due to excessive current draw such as from the AC unit, less than optimal battery health, etc. Indeed, I have seen several posts online complaining that their auto start-stop feature went away when they installed battery packs (but one never knows exactly the full story). It just seems to me that, if possible, it would be a good idea to have a setup that would only allow the dashcam battery pack to charge when the engine is running, and it seems that the new iVolt Xtra's wiring setup may allow for this.
@@AEMBowers So if ignition is not outputting to battery pack from wherever your wire connection is. The battery pack will not charge. Hence will not draw any current. But you could wire the green wire to whatever is outputting ignition or accessory when needed. Just saying that some dash cameras on the market you can delay when it goes into parking mode that way it reocrds normally until that timer finishes. At the same time if the ignition wire is not powered up the battery pack will not draw any current from vehicle. Everything comes down to where you get your trigger/ignition hookup.
Also you could if you really wanted hook a on/off switch inline to turn it on or off from charging when stopped at traffic lights to green ignition wire that is.
@@SafeDriveSolutions I don't currently own an iVolt Xtra. Is the green wire the Accessory wire (I cannot tell from online pictures--my color blindness doesn't help either, lol)? I have the iVolt Mini, but it only has a power and a ground, suggesting to me that the signal wire that turns on/off the dash cam (or takes it into/out of Park mode) is the same as the power wire that charges the iVolt Mini. But, with the iVolt Xtra, my hope is simply that the accessory wire alone is what turns on/off the dash cam (or takes it into/out of Parking mode), whereas the power wire simply allows the iVolt Xtra to charge. In this way, I'm wondering if a relay can control the iVolt Xtra charging, whereas the car's accessory power bus can control the IVolt Xtra's powering of the camera. But, maybe the iVolt Xtra's power wire must be active in the first place in order for the iVolt Xtra to utilize the accessory wire to turn the camera on and off?
@@AEMBowers green wire is accessory wire.
What about swaping out the main battery to something like an AntiGravity Lithium battery.
never heard of those batteries until now. They are very expensive. Not sure how it compares. Maybe one day someone will test it. However we are not going to go spend $1000 just to run the test.
@@SafeDriveSolutions I have an anti gravity power station and a Dakota LIthium powerbox (which is a 12v 10 AH that is the size of a motorcycle battery that's 200 for the unit. That would give you 120 Watthrs of power. It can also be charge by a small solar panel. I'm thinking of using something along those lines. I wish I lived up close, I am leaning on a Blackvue 970 box.
Your channel has been a great research tool, I love how you go in depth.
@@kene3431 I just recieved a new box unit to test from a different supplier. The bos is smaller in size as well and will be easier to hide then the Blackvue one.
@@SafeDriveSolutions I am looking forward to the review. I live in St. Louis MO. So security is my primary concern when venturing out. It also gets real hot here so box units seem like the way to go. I have a regular cab F150. So I am hoping the cabin camera picks up the rear good enough. The 700 series loom like a good option for 3 if I would need 3, but the technology doesn't seem fully mature yet. I wish all the cameras front and back were 4k. I would pay the premium.
How much for them?
safedrivesolutions.com/dash-cam-battery-pack/
Can you use one of the large phone batteries..?
phone batteries? like portable batteries?
@@SafeDriveSolutions yes, we have a very large portable phone battery so wonder if you could use that over theses ones..? Thanks
@@spice3767 ruclips.net/video/DYI1sdQMMak/видео.html
I installed 2 ivolt batteries in parallel but it doesn’t take power from the second ivolt battery to power the parking mode for more hours just waste of my hard earned money on the second battery 😢I made stupid mistake to buy thinkware expensive camera and my advice is just buy a ordinary cheap dash camera
So you are giving a recommendation to buy a cheaper dash camera because your battery packs are not working correctly?? Could you explain in more detail. In order to have both battery packs working together you need an expansion harness
My goodness...seems like parking surveillance mode is next to impossible :(
If not really expensive
There are lots of energy efficient dash cameras that draw low current. Without the need for a battery pack
You just stared in your video that even with hotwiring , it will do long-term damage to your car battery.??
A lot of dash cameras do not have timers or proper low battery protection. That is where it goes wrong.
Viofo, thinkware, blackvue, iroad, and others have timers and low battery protection.