Vampire Drain Test: With and Without 24x7 Dashcams

[CameronB]

In another thread a member asked about how much vampire drain is caused by 24x7 (always on) use of a dual-channel (2 camera) dash cam.

That led me to do a controlled test where I left the car unplugged on two separate trips (one 4 days, the other 3 days). One trip had the dash cams running as I normally do. The second trip I unplugged the dash cams before I left to compare the results.

I have a Blackview DR650S-2CH and a Tesla Model S 75D. My starting target charge is about 212 (341 km) miles in both cases. My car is parked in a non-insulated garage and the temperatures there (in moderate California climates) were probably in the 50s (F) at the lowest. Garage doors have glass in them so the camera is semi-active detecting “movement” from headlights that shine in from the street from passing cars. Not constantly but the cameras are periodically active at night.

I took before and after photos of the remaining miles in the car at the start of my trip and the end of the trip. I did the ending shots exactly (well, within 1 minute!) of being 4 days (96 hours) or 3 days (72 hours). That way, when I figured “per day” vampire drain, it wasn’t really 2.7 days or 4.2 days. That way both tests were apples to apples as far as being whole multiple days.

Results With Dual Dashcams:
Starting Mileage: 212 miles (341.2 km)
Remaining Mileage after exactly 4 days: 184 miles (296.1 km)
Avg “Vampire Drain” per day = 7 miles per day (11.3 km/day)

Results Without Dual Dashcams:
Starting Mileage: 213 miles (344.4 km)
Remaining Mileage after exactly 3 days: 201 miles (323.5 km)
Avg “Vampire Drain” per day = 4 miles per day (6.4 km/day)

So the answer (at least in my case/car) is that dual dash cams on 24x7 increase vampire drain by 75% or about an extra 3 miles / 4.8 km a day above and beyond what the car itself drains.

In my case, in a garage and (except for these tests) usually plugged in over night, the relative miles are negligible. But if a car were to be left at an airport for a long time (especially in the cold), this increase in vampire drain could be very significant.

 

[apacheguy]

The car enters a deeper sleep after 24 hours. Thus, the one with 3 days will be slightly biased lower compared to the one with 4 days which spent a greater amount of time in deep sleep. Just FYI.

 

[mknox]

I have a single Blackvue dashcam and find no difference in vampire losses on both short and long term parking periods. I've recorded a lot of data on this because I have fairly high vampire losses already (5% or more per day) both with and without the dashcam, and with variations of the Energy Savings and Always Connected switches.

 

[Ande]

I bet anything else, like how ofter you use app, cellular data traffic (if any logs/reports are requested) etc, is much more than those cameras.
They should be a few watts each, at most. It's hard to believe they have any significant influence.

using a lab power supply or power meter, it's easy to log their consumption.. if I had one, I would tell exactly how much it uses..

 

[chillaban]

I bet anything else, like how ofter you use app, cellular data traffic (if any logs/reports are requested) etc, is much more than those cameras.
They should be a few watts each, at most. It's hard to believe they have any significant influence.

using a lab power supply or power meter, it's easy to log their consumption.. if I had one, I would tell exactly how much it uses..

Cameras might only be a few watts each, but the DC-DC converters for recharging the 12V battery can cost hundreds of watts while they're running, and 12V batteries do not charge instantly either, so you have to keep the HV bus up and running to charge the battery. The overall impact might be much higher than the 5W that a dashcam draws.

 

[CameronB]

I may continue to run these experiments and see if there is much variation. Frankly I expected there to be no real difference because like @Ande said, I figured they only used a few watts so might be a 5% difference rather than the 75% difference I observed.

But I’ll try to get some more data points and see how they compare. I’ll also try (subject to my travel needs) to standardize on a 3 day test cycle.

 

[apacheguy]

I suspect it’s more than a couple of watts.

I used to have an RPi3 connected to the 12 V line. It only increased the vampire draw by less than 1 rated mile per day. The RPi with WiFi antenna draws about 1-2 watts at idle. These Dash Cams likely draw more based on this data.

 

[scottm]

I think term vampire loss was originally used to refer to the power consumption of a powered down system (switched off), while it remained plugged in. A television or washing machine not doing its job may draw useless vampire power.

In Tesla land vampire is used to refer to consumption of all the various loads while the car is parked, but not powered down. But even when you power off the car it still draws for circuits waiting for you to get going again. You'd have to pull all fuses to really power off the car (disconnect it from its source). In that state, if the main pack drops charge it's due to battery self discharge, which is different from vampire..

So the true vampire drain of a dashcam would be its consumption while not recording.

If you're recording, then all you really are talking about is power draw of an active dashcam, which can be measured with a meter quite easily.

I think what you're investigating in this thread is the effects of additional devices on draining the 12v battery faster, causing it to do more recharge cycles.

Luckily there's a nice linear relationship and all we need to do is figure out the efficiency of the DC recharging mechanism. You can figure this out using the various energy displays already available in the car. And then use your average effeciency to determine your expected range reduction for each additiinal Watt of devices added to 12v outlet.

This is like worrying about the effects of center console screen brightness has on driving range.

 

[f-stop]

the Blackview 650 series dashcam's power consumption spec is <5.0W max when operating. I'm wondering if there is something else contributing to the high drain in the OP's numbers. I don't notice any such large difference before/after installation of my 650GW-2CH. Typically I might see about 4~6km vampire loss/24hrs - this is with Energy Saving = ON and Always Connected = OFF, and the Blackvue continuously powered (though parked in a dark garage overnight)

OTOH I notice significant increase in vampire drain (i.e >10 km/24hrs loss) if Always Connected is turned ON, and/or if I'm running VisibleTesla (which continuously polls the car). Perhaps check your energy settings - if Always Connected is On or if you're frequently checking the status of the car via smartphone app, I think the power consumption of the car's other systems & cellular connection should be far greater than the dashcam's

 

[isjka]

the Blackview 650 series dashcam's power consumption spec is <5.0W max when operating. I'm wondering if there is something else contributing to the high drain in the OP's numbers. I don't notice any such large difference before/after installation of my 650GW-2CH. Typically I might see about 4~6km vampire loss/24hrs - this is with Energy Saving = ON and Always Connected = OFF, and the Blackvue continuously powered (though parked in a dark garage overnight)

OTOH I notice significant increase in vampire drain (i.e >10 km/24hrs loss) if Always Connected is turned ON, and/or if I'm running VisibleTesla (which continuously polls the car). Perhaps check your energy settings - if Always Connected is On or if you're frequently checking the status of the car via smartphone app, I think the power consumption of the car's other systems & cellular connection should be far greater than the dashcam's

So basically the car will still sleep as normal even with the camera connected 24x7? I was thinking of purchasing the DR650S-2CH. My car sleeps for about 13 hours a day parked in a commuter lot. When it sleeps, there is no loss, if I set to record motion, will that "wake" the car and prevent it from sleeping again?

 

[CameronB]

I do have “always connected” set to on. I was aware of that but just forgot to mention it in my post. Thanks for the mention @f-stop

FWIW, I keep this on because when it’s not I often find the car doesn’t wake up fast enough to the presence of the fob and in parking situations where I am approaching from the rear (parked head first) I try to pop open the hatchback and...nothing. Having to use the fob, app or walk up to near the drivers door before then having to return to the hatch to open it was too much of a hassle. Turning this setting on solved that problem. I know that increases drain.

That said, it’s still an apples-to-apples comparison as w/ and w/o dash cam plugged in, the settings are the same.

Yes, I’d fully expect that turning this setting to off would drop vampire drain for both scenarios but I’d hypothesize that the relative difference would remain the same.

 

[Buster1]

Thanks for the analysis! I like!

 

[scottm]

So basically the car will still sleep as normal even with the camera connected 24x7? I was thinking of purchasing the DR650S-2CH. My car sleeps for about 13 hours a day parked in a commuter lot. When it sleeps, there is no loss, if I set to record motion, will that "wake" the car and prevent it from sleeping again?

Is your car a newer, facelift car?

If so, the keep alive power for Tesla circuits are powered off a mini DC-DC converter from the main pack. And your dashcam will be getting power from 12v battery side. Whether the car is in sleep mode or not, using dashcam while parked will drain and cause the 12v battery to cycle. Cycling the 12v will add up as some range loss over period of a day. If you're drawing about 5W for dashcam, on a newer car, my guess is you'll cycle the 12v twice per day.

 

[Buster1]

Can you easily choose to have the dash cams on or off while parked? For instance, in the garage I want them off, but when I drive over to Lowes for 10 minutes I would like them on in the parking lot.

 

[Robotpedlr]

Can you easily choose to have the dash cams on or off while parked? For instance, in the garage I want them off, but when I drive over to Lowes for 10 minutes I would like them on in the parking lot.

Not easily. I have the 2 channel blackvue 750 (newer version of 650) It does go into parking mode (sort of sleep for the camera) but wakes when it senses activity.

The other option would be to use a power controller like the power magic pro which can switch off the power after X hours and shut the camera down. The shortest duration is 12 hrs in the power magic settings. The other option is unplug the cord from the blackvue unit when you plan to park for several days and are worried about drain.

 

[AWDtsla]

3 or 4 days is not enough of a sample size to get a fair comparison, too much random usage.

For example, I have a DR650GW-2CH, and over 5 solid days of being parked my vampire drain was 2.6 miles per day. This is also the lowest I've ever seen it, and not guaranteed to be normal in the future. But the entire value is less than the delta between your two readings.

 

[Tozz]

There is no need to actually test this. Lets assume worst case scenario: The device is running all the time. According to the datasheet the camera uses 4.2W average with GPS and WiFi on. Lets round this up to 5W.

5W = 5Wh per hour. That is 120 Wh/day (5Wh x 24 hours)

If your typical range is 200 Wh/km (or ~320 Wh/mile) your drain from the camera is 0,6 km/day or 0,37 mile/day

 

[AWDtsla]

There is no need to actually test this. Lets assume worst case scenario: The device is running all the time. According to the datasheet the camera uses 4.2W average with GPS and WiFi on. Lets round this up to 5W.

5W = 5Wh per hour. That is 120 Wh/day (5Wh x 24 hours)

If your typical range is 200 Wh/km (or ~320 Wh/mile) your drain from the camera is 0,6 km/day or 0,37 mile/day

You're forgetting that 12V draw has a huge surcharge on pack energy. I wouldn't be surprised if the efficiency was below 50%.

But regardless, if people could practically apply math to real life, 95% of the posts on this forum would be gone.

 

[mattack4000]

So is the consensus to do full time on, or on when the car is on, or get a camera with true parking mode?

 

[CameronB]

Update...

I've run a few more tests and basically I have realized that the "Smart pre-conditioning" setting being on has a huge impact on 'vampire drain'. Makes perfect sense in retrospect but basically the cabin is being heated several degrees each morning a bit before 9am...even when I am out of town.

If Smart Preconditioning is turned OFF, then 'base' vampire drain drops to 4.3 miles (6.9km)/day with dash cams on. Turn off dash cams as well and it dropped to 3.2 miles (5.1km)/day. At least for my few tests so far.

I'll keep running experiments to get more data points. Here's what I have so far...