Don't Let Your Dash Cam Drain Your Battery
Dash cams can be useful for recording accidents, vandalism, and other incidents, even when a vehicle is parked. But keeping a camera running while the ignition is off comes with a risk: draining the car's 12 V battery. Commercial hardwire kits are supposed to prevent this by automatically disconnecting power when the battery voltage drops too low. Unfortunately, those protections don't always work as advertised.
Dieter Santy discovered this problem after purchasing a Vantrue dash cam and its matching hardwire kit. Before installing the hardware in an electric vehicle, Santy connected it to a bench power supply and gradually lowered the voltage to determine when the protection circuit would activate. It never did. The camera continued drawing power even as the voltage dropped below safe levels.
The complete setup (📷: Dieter Santy)
Rather than gamble on another commercial kit that may have the same problem, Santy developed VoltGuard, an open...
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