Dashcam Power: Power Magic Pro vs. Cellink B?

[revenlymokalu]

What's the difference between the magic pro and celllink b? Do I need to get both or just the magic pro itself is enough? Thanks in advance

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by revenlymokalu

Hey man. What's the difference between the magic pro and celllink b? Do I need to get both or just the magic pro itself is enough? Thanks in advance

The magic pro is a meter that will shut off the camera once your battery hits a certain voltage or time.

The celllink battery is a secondary battery, in which the camera plugs directly into. Thus, the camera will not draw directly from your car's battery which would prevent any damage to our $1000 lithium batteries.

I use a Multisafer only, which is similar to the magic pro, and it works just fine without warnings popping up.

[SanchoDivine]

Originally Posted by revenlymokalu

What's the difference between the magic pro and celllink b? Do I need to get both or just the magic pro itself is enough? Thanks in advance

Don't need both. Just get the Cellink B and a mini fuse that you can connect to fuse slot 125 in your trunk. Works great and keeps your cam from draining your car's expensive battery.

[Zermatt]

I got rid of my MagicPro and went with a secondary battery. Instead of the 38.4 Wh Cellink B, I chose to go with the RAVPower 57.6Wh Element Car Jump Starter. It has 50% more battery capacity at less than half the cost and as a bonus, the battery pack has additional functionality. Unlike virtually all other battery packs which are LiPo, this one is LiFePO4 (same as F8x) so its operating and storage temperatures are much higher and vehicle appropriate. It comes with an 18mo warranty. Its tucked away next to my M3 battery with Velcro.

RAVPower
Model: RP-PB053
Type: Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4)
Capacity: 18,000mAh
Cost: $70

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by Zermatt

I got rid of my MagicPro and went with a secondary battery. Instead of the 38.4 Wh Cellink B, I chose to go with the RAVPower 57.6Wh Element Car Jump Starter. It has 50% more battery capacity at less than half the cost and as a bonus, the battery pack has additional functionality. Unlike virtually all other LiPo battery packs, this one is LiFePO4 (same as F8x) so its operating and storage temperatures are much higher. Comes with an 18mo warranty. Its tucked away next to my M3 battery with Velcro.

RAVPower
Model: RP-PB053
Type: Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4)
Capacity: 18,000mAh
Cost: $70

I like this idea. I didn't want to go the Cellink B route because it was way too expensive. Can you wire it so that it recharges when the car is running? The benefit with the Celllink B is that it recharges when the car is running.

Edit: Disregard, as I understand it you could plug it into the right fuses and it would do the job according to the manual. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Zermatt]

UPDATE - - Amazon price drop:

RavPower RP-PB053 currently on sale on Amazon for $59.99.

I currently have it wired to charge while vehicle is running. BlackVue Dash Cam is connected directly to my RavPower RP-PB053. My only critique is that its charging circuit is limited to 15W whereas other battery packs charge at double that. Its not an issue for me but it could pose a problem for those who drive very short distances. Nevertheless, its price, capacity and LiFePO4 composition makes it the best battery pack that Ive been able to find.

[EALm4]

Originally Posted by Zermatt

UPDATE - - Amazon price drop:

RavPower RP-PB053 currently on sale on Amazon for $59.99.

I currently have it wired to charge while vehicle is running. BlackVue Dash Cam is connected directly to my RavPower RP-PB053. My only critique is that its charging circuit is limited to 15W whereas other battery packs charge at double that. Its not an issue for me but it could pose a problem for those who drive very short distances. Nevertheless, its price, capacity and LiFePO4 composition makes it the best battery pack that Ive been able to find.

Care to elaborate on how it's wired up to charge? Can it easily be removed to say charge inside the house if need be? This is a great alternative.

[Zermatt]

Originally Posted by EALm4

Care to elaborate on how it's wired up to charge? Can it easily be removed to say charge inside the house if need be? This is a great alternative.

Disassemble the cigarette plug and run the wire to the fuse panel using a fuse tap on slot 125 to provide ACC power. When you want to take it out of your vehicle, simply unplug the both the 12V charging cable and dash cam cigarette plug from the RAVPower Battery.

[djpeetur]

I have tried rav4 battery pack which was great for the price. But the reacharge time was simply to long. I can not drive 4 hours for a full charge. The Cellink recharge time is only 45 minutes.

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by Railgun

So the charging input of that jump starter is simply too low.

Why not go for something like this then...

https://www.ravpower.com/32000mah-ex...2.0-black.html

Where the capacity is even higher, and the charging rate is even higher.

While not LiFePo4, in this application, does it really matter?

If someone wants, I'd imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to crack that case open and change the circuitry a bit to increase the charging rate.

I'm no battery expert but I think the issue is that other types of batteries do not handle temperature fluctuations well and since cars can get pretty hot the power banks can be problematic and cause possible fires.

If it is easy to mod the RavPower charging rate let me know, I know I would probably mess it up and cause it to short.

[foofighter]

So being a new owner well my name is on the title and the wife drives it. I usually install dashcams in our vehicles. Usually I just hardwire it into a live fuse location and have never had any issues.

Reading on here, it seems like the BMW's electrical system is really sensitive to noticing voltage drops. My question is has anyone installed a dashcam sans the external power supply without running into issues? Or is this done primarily as a safeguard?

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by Railgun

Also, unless my math (read: online calculators) are wrong, the celllink B is 74Wh≈6Ah (as advertised) and the RAV power unit is 216Wh=18Ah@12v

That's still Greek to me

Originally Posted by foofighter

So being a new owner well my name is on the title and the wife drives it. I usually install dashcams in our vehicles. Usually I just hardwire it into a live fuse location and have never had any issues.

Reading on here, it seems like the BMW's electrical system is really sensitive to noticing voltage drops. My question is has anyone installed a dashcam sans the external power supply without running into issues? Or is this done primarily as a safeguard?

I run the dashcam with a multisafer, which is connected to the BMW battery. The multisafer will turn off the dashcam after an amount of time elapses or the car battery voltage drops to a certain threshold. Initially when I installed this, I got the battery discharge warnings. I changed the time setting to 12 hours and it hasn't given me the warning since.

If you're just plugging in the camera to a fuse that turns on when the car is on only, you shouldn't have an issue. This is more for those that want the camera on when parked, etc.

Why the majority of the F8X folks here go the external battery route is because our batteries are very expensive LiFePO4 batteries, and continuous draw could damage them. So the $2-300 external battery is insurance to protect the +$1000 batteries as the camera will only draw from the external battery and it will recharge once the car is running.

[foofighter]

Originally Posted by damageprone

That's still Greek to me



I run the dashcam with a multisafer, which is connected to the BMW battery. The multisafer will turn off the dashcam after an amount of time elapses or the car battery voltage drops to a certain threshold. Initially when I installed this, I got the battery discharge warnings. I changed the time setting to 12 hours and it hasn't given me the warning since.

If you're just plugging in the camera to a fuse that turns on when the car is on only, you shouldn't have an issue. This is more for those that want the camera on when parked, etc.

Why the majority of the F8X folks here go the external battery route is because our batteries are very expensive LiFePO4 batteries, and continuous draw could damage them. So the $2-300 external battery is insurance to protect the +$1000 batteries as the camera will only draw from the external battery and it will recharge once the car is running.

perfect thank you for the clarification, it gets driven daily so I don't anticipate this thing sitting there for more than 12 hours. I'll have a look at the multisafer route. We bought the extended BMW care thing and it's a lease so not too concerned w/ having to replace the battery during it's time w/ us.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by djpeetur

I have tried rav4 battery pack which was great for the price. But the reacharge time was simply to long. I can not drive 4 hours for a full charge. The Cellink recharge time is only 45 minutes.

I guess good thing about Bozemont Montana where Zermatt is from is that everything is 4 hours away.

[djpeetur]

I tried all of those things. The best and fastest recharge is the cellink.

[Zermatt]

After a few months of using this RAVPower, I have to admit, this is a poor solution. The charge rate controller limits the input power and only charges at a painfully sluggish 1A rate.

Ive since looked at the CellLink Neo and new BlackVue B-124 batteries that have an incredibly fast charge rate (up to 13.5A) and Bluetooth connectivity. At $300+, these are expensive. Both of these have received a lot of great reviews but have a high $4.27/Wh cost.

My power needs while parked has increased as Im expanding to a 4 camera system tied in with a WiFi Hotspot. I am now proceeding to set up my own LiPO4 battery with a charge/voltage controller that bring my cost down to $1.30/Wh. ($2.08 if you go with the smaller 96Wh battery). The charge controller will be connected directly to the battery so charge rate is variable but can go up to 25A.

[damageprone]

Originally Posted by Zermatt

Ive since looked at the CellLink Neo and new BlackVue B-124 batteries that have an incredibly fast charge rate (up to 13.5A) and Bluetooth connectivity. At $300+, these are expensive. Both of these have received a lot of great reviews but have a high $4.27/Wh cost.

My power needs while parked has increased as Im expanding to a 4 camera system tied in with a WiFi Hotspot. I am now proceeding to set up my own LiPO4 battery with a charge/voltage controller that bring my cost down to $1.30/Wh. ($2.08 if you go with the smaller 96Wh battery). The charge controller will be connected directly to the battery so charge rate is variable but can go up to 25A.

You can get the older B-112 Blackvue battery for ~$150. But with a 4 camera system, it won’t meet your needs.

Keep us updated on your new system you’re setting up. I’m interested.

[The_One]

Originally Posted by revenlymokalu

What's the difference between the magic pro and celllink b? Do I need to get both or just the magic pro itself is enough? Thanks in advance

I have a DDPai Mini 3.
It has 2K+ res and a 32G internal SSD rather than a SD card, which means it proceeds much faster and no risk to lose data due to vibration or bad connection.
It can do time-lapse video while car is parked.
And it has a remote button for photo taking + 10s of video along with the photo.

It also detects the battery voltage level and automatically shuts down to prevent over discharge of the battery.

I would recommend this product.

Here are some image taken by it.