Before we start, many users will have this burning question in mind.
Frequent Asked Question ( FAQ 1):
Is dash camera battery pack (power pack) the same as my smartphone's power bank?
Answer 1: Yes, only to a certain extent. However smartphone's power bank may not be suitable for prolong usage in the vehicle.
Back to the main topic. The main tip to select a dash camera battery pack, is to look at the:
Determining the Battery Capacity: look at the Watt-Hours (Wh)
instead of Miliampre (mAh).
Many seller offers two details: the Milliampere (mAh) and Watts-hour (W) for the dash camera battery pack.
However, we suggest that you look at W because it is a simpler and fairer way to compare the battery capacity compared to mAh.
I won’t go into details, but for the curious user the concept is explained below.
**You may skip the "losing-brain-cells" section below**
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<Start of> explanation of mAh and W section
mAh (milliampere hour) will be affected by the Voltage
Conducting the test with a
-lower voltage, the mAh increases proportionally.
-higher Voltage, the mAh decreases proportionally.
Different manufacturers uses different Voltage to conduct the test, hence as illustrated in the example above, mAh isn’t a fair comparison, unless you know that they uses the same Voltage for the test.
Power (Watts) is the energy store in the cells it takes into consideration both Voltage and mAh.
Power is derived by the formula
Power = Voltage X Ampere
The volume of Power remains constant irregardless of the Voltage drop/increase. If the voltage drops, the amped will increase, this means that the battery is able to supply the device for a longer period.
<End of> explanation of mAh and W section
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FAQ 2:
-So what’s the ideal Wh for the battery pack?
-How many hours could the battery pack power up my dash camera in Parking surveillance recording (while engine off)?
Answer 2:
It depends on how long you would like the dash camera to run in the parking surveillance mode (vehicle engine turn off), you can calculate the ideal Wh by using the formula given in Answer 1.
For most user they would want at least 24 hours of parking surveillance recording.
So, we would recommend getting them to at least get a 72Wh dash camera battery pack. In consideration of the fact that, on average a set of 2-channel dash camera (front & rear) has a power consumption of 3W.
72Wh / 3W=approximate 24 hours of usage in parking surveillance recording.
However user that wants super-extended hours of recording can get larger capacity batteries or multiple batteries.
