Power magic pro running battery down

AK47UK

AK47UK

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I installed my DR550GW a couple of weeks ago and since I have found my battery is drained to the point that the engine will not turn over, on both occasions the camera was still recording. I have set my pmp to record for infinity unless the voltage drops below 12v, isn't this correct?

The reason I want it to record for infinity is so I can capture any damage caused to my car whilst it is left unattended, I thought the point of the pmp was so you could do this but stop the battery from draining to a point where the engine wouldn't start.

Any tips appreciated.

Cheers
 
Hey AK47UK

When I had my DR500GW installed it was recomended that I use the "Smart Power Battery Monitor" instead of the Power Magic Pro, I have never had any problems from this and it does cut the camera off when the car battery hits 12v (will only work if camera is in parking mode)
 
Does that record continuously until the 12v is reached or for a pre-set time mate? I am paranoid because my car was damaged when in a car park and it looked like malicious damage with intent so I want the camera to always be rolling unless the battery gets too low.
 
I have mine set to motion detect, sensitivity quite high, so in my works car park where people are always coming and going it records 3 min slots all through the day, its not set to record none stop as I find it pointless but it will start recording soon as something moves in to its field of vision
 
Mine is set to motion etc. I meant that power is provided to the camera permanently so if an event was to occur it would record it. It was my understanding with the timer set to 6 hours that if an event was to occur in the 7th hour then it would not be recorded.
 
I am guessing that the firmware and options maybe different between the models, I asume the hour setting is on the PMP ?

*edit

I arrive at work at 7am, When I get home and check the memory card recordings mine has gone all the way through to it capturing me walking to my car at 4.30pm .....so over 8 hours of recording off and on
 
I have the PMP set to infinity and 12v. On the Blackvue I have used the recommended settings on a youtube vid I watched. The rear cam has its LED on all the time, I turned the front LED off to avoid attracting attention.
 
Yes, it has only happened twice and both times I think the car hadn't been used for 24 hours.
 
Not taking long then, something drawing a lot of power, just like that Zenec problem I had, I guess you are positive it is the camera doing the draining
 
I haven't had any power problems since installing the Zenec but a week or so after installing the camera I have had problems so I think the dash cam is the cause.
 
BlackVue - Full HD 1080p Dash Cameras with GPS

Looking at the stats maximum power consumption 4.8w . That would be 0.4A or 400mA at 12V . ( 0.4 * 12 = 4.8) .
Thats a worst case scenario though I would expect something like that to only be taking 100-200mA. The power manager itself will also be using power but I wouldn't have thought that much maybe 20mA . If you add the standing load that the car itself takes which is usually something like 30mA then you are around 250mA.
Over a 24Hr period thats only 6Ah of capacity but overall the standing load on the car battery is probably about 10 times what it would be without the camera connected.
So assuming you could reasonably expect the car to be left for 30 days locked with the alarm on before you had an issue, you may only get 2-3 days as the higher standing current will reduce the battery capacity quicker.
You really need to measure how much current the items are taking to see if the issue is related to the camera or something else with the car.
The fact that the car is a 1.8 petrol probably means the car battery capacity is smaller than something like a diesel anyway.Also you need to drive the car for a good distance to recharge it, If it's only doing short trips the battery will eventually discharge.

Karl.
 
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Thanks for that mate, my journeys are rarely above 20 minutes long so the alternator might not get a chance to start charging up the battery enough. Might have to bite the bullet and set a timer on the PMP but sods law would be my car would be damaged when the camera was powered off.
 
Did you sort this out ?? I have just installed pmp with the BV 550 and so far so good ...
 
I have set the PMP to 24 hours so will test when I don't use my car for a prolonged period, I will be at glasto for a week so that will be the perfect test.
 
Well so far my PMP has worked as it should ....

What cut off voltage have you got it set to now ??
 
12v still, just set the record to 24 hours instead of infinity.
 
I have mine set to

parking mode on in motion detection and 3 min sections
PMP set to 11.8V and 24hrs

but when I go to work my shortest run is 80 miles each way ...
 
Out of interest why did you set to 11.8v? My thoughts were if I set it to 12v there would be more cranking power for my starter motor.
 
When I had battery drain from my Zenec stereo and the volts in the battery got to 10.7v it was not enough to turn the car over, mine is set at 12v
 
Last edited:
I haven't driven my car for the past few days so today will be the test if the 24 hour on the PMP did the trick!
 
Completely dead, no central locking... Still could be the dashcam but now I also suspect the Zenec or a faulty PMP.

How did you fix your Zenec battery drain mate?
 
I just did a google search and that was the number that came up the most ....
 
Guess a lot of it depends on engine size and type to what size battery you have, obviously diesels take a lot more amps to crank over than a small petrol like mine :laugh:
 
The battery for this car is in the boot which threw me as thats a first for me and its massive !!! Lol
 
:) I think its used as a counter weight to keep the car level :)
 
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Cheers mate, I have a multimeter so will give that a go on the terminals. I think I will disconnect my dashcam for the time being as a test :(
 
Think I have cracked it, I followed a guide on here that said to have the switched live on the blower fuse and the perm live on the cigar socket. Since installation no matter which side I switched the PMP multi-boot switch to the green LED remained on which I thought was weird. Just took a multimeter to my car and the blower circuit is a perm 12v so I found a switched 12v (heating / air con circuit) and moved the red wire to there, now the PMP LED switches off and on (although when the green LED is off the rear camera LED is still on). Time will tell.
 
For what its worth, mine is on 24/7 on record / park mode. I don't have a power magic pro, just hardwired in.
I used to have battery drain issues but it was a faulty canbus in the RNSE. One quick cure by NHN the legend and its all fine and dandy.

My car sits out the front of my house all week and starts fine at the weekend, so if your battery is draining in a few days, it ain't the cam.
 
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Is yours the 550 dual cam mate? I didn't realise the battery could power it for so long without running empty and finding out I wasn't using a switched live seemed to explain it.

Any idea what was wrong with your canbus? I have a Zenec headunit, Jet had a Zenec that caused him drain issues until they replaced it. Perhaps the canbus adapter is at fault but will test my car with the new wiring first.
 
I have the Blackvue DR380 hardwired in.
The canbus on the RNSE was faulty causing a 2amp drain to earth.
 
Ok cool, I will monitor mine and hope for the best, if it happens again I will investigate the canbus. I'm pretty sure I had left my car for days before installing the dash am without any problems so am hopeful that is the fault. Never experienced this before installing them and had it 3 times since installation.
 
Get in your car and lock it with the fob, keep really still so you don't set the alarm off and if the canbus has gone you will still hear the satnav disc spinning after about 60 seconds as it will keep powered up despite the ignition and the RNSE being off.
 
AK47UK said:
Think I have cracked it, I followed a guide on here that said to have the switched live on the blower fuse and the perm live on the cigar socket. Since installation no matter which side I switched the PMP multi-boot switch to the green LED remained on which I thought was weird. Just took a multimeter to my car and the blower circuit is a perm 12v so I found a switched 12v (heating / air con circuit) and moved the red wire to there, now the PMP LED switches off and on (although when the green LED is off the rear camera LED is still on). Time will tell.
Click to expand...

I know you have sorted out you permanent live and ignition live but I just have a question about how it's working,

When you have the PMP in the off mode and the ignition is off the green LED should be off and the 550 should be off ... No LEDs on at all, it does take a few seconds to shut down. To test this can you confirm that the 550 gives you the power on voice command when you start the car and gives you the powering down voice command when you turn the car off ??

I have taken the ignition live from the AC system and when the pmp is off the camera completely powers down when the car is turned off and only stays on when the pmp is on and the pmp green led stays on in this mode.
 
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Cheers for the tip sidibear, my sat nav is held on an internal flash chip but I assume the same goes for an audio cd so will test that. I'm sure when ignition is off something made occasional noises but this was the same with the stock headunit and xtrons too.

I didn't leave it switched off for long Anthony so that may be why it stayed on. Will also test that by leaving it off for a little while.
 
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