[goldfilmr4]

I have a RAV4 2021 hybrid and a BlackVue 900X camera hardwired, with no extra battery pack. Parking mode is lasting about 8-10 hours overnight before cutting off. Then I drive for about 25 miles, I go back to parking mode for ~ 6 hours, and then drive back for 25 miles.

I’ve noticed in my way back that the hybrid battery monitor on screen shows about 20-30% charged, just a few lines, and a few times didn’t let me drive on EV mode because it said I didn’t have enough charge to drive fully on electric mode.

Is this related to the use of battery during parking mode? I’m confused because hybrid cars usually have two batteries, am I right? Is the camera wired to the hybrid battery or not, or even if not they are still related and the camera extended use IS affecting the hybrid batter somehow?

Would this stop happening if I buy an extra battery pack like the BlackVue 124X and wore my camera to an external battery and not the car battery?

 

[RobertB]

Camera is wired to 12v lead/acid auxiliary battery located under right side panel in cargo area. Hybrid or traction battery located under back seat usually floats around 50% or less. Only time it will charge above this is when descending a long hill that requires regenerative braking or during cold weather when cold engine startup sequence loads engine up for speedy warmup. This past winter our Rav was primarily used for short trips of less than a kilometer and charge floated around 90% but would drop very quickly when it hit the highway.

 

[mikefocke]

I have a RAV4 2021 hybrid and a BlackVue 900X camera hardwired, with no extra battery pack. Parking mode is lasting about 8-10 hours overnight before cutting off. Then I drive for about 25 miles, I go back to parking mode for ~ 6 hours, and then drive back for 25 miles.

I’ve noticed in my way back that the hybrid battery monitor on screen shows about 20-30% charged, just a few lines, and a few times didn’t let me drive on EV mode because it said I didn’t have enough charge to drive fully on electric mode.

Is this related to the use of battery during parking mode? I’m confused because hybrid cars usually have two batteries, am I right? Is the camera wired to the hybrid battery or not, or even if not they are still related and the camera extended use IS affecting the hybrid batter somehow?

Would this stop happening if I buy an extra battery pack like the BlackVue 124X and wore my camera to an external battery and not the car battery?

There is no such thing as free energy (even going down hill as you have to go back up). ICE charges hybrid battery which charges 12v. Use 12v energy and you gotta ultimately get it back from somewhere.

 

[goldfilmr4]

There is no such thing as free energy (even going down hill as you have to go back up). ICE charges hybrid battery which charges 12v. Use 12v energy and you gotta ultimately get it back from somewhere.

I understand this, my question is, does the dashcam drain the hybrid battery even if wired to the lead/acid one? Would I see the hybrid battery with more charge if I use an external battery for the cam?

 

[RobertB]

When car is off lead/acid battery is disconnected from traction battery. When car starts batteries reconnect and M/G immediately starts charging traction battery if required and 12v battery charges via converter connected to traction battery. Even if 12v battery was completely dead and had to be boosted to get car running it would have an insignificant effect on overall charge of traction battery. Hybrid battery will not exhibit more charge if using external battery for cam.

 

[dbkelly]

I understand this, my question is, does the dashcam drain the hybrid battery even if wired to the lead/acid one? Would I see the hybrid battery with more charge if I use an external battery for the cam?

Have you noticed that when you turn on the car you can hear two clicks from the battery area, that is a heavy duty relay that COMPLETELY disconnects the traction battery from the outside world.
And you camera will discharge the 12v battery and if it gets low you will need a jump start.

 

[goldfilmr4]

When car is off lead/acid battery is disconnected from traction battery. When car starts batteries reconnect and M/G immediately starts charging traction battery if required and 12v battery charges via converter connected to traction battery. Even if 12v battery was completely dead and had to be boosted to get car running it would have an insignificant effect on overall charge of traction battery. Hybrid battery will not exhibit more charge if using external battery for cam.

Thanks. So the fact that the 12v battery is being drained has no effect on traction battery, right? So it may be just coincidental that after a long use of parking mode on the camera, then the traction battery (not the 12v) also shows low power... but nothing to do with the camera use, right?

 

[dbkelly]

Thanks. So the fact that the 12v battery is being drained has no effect on traction battery, right? So it may be just coincidental that after a long use of parking mode on the camera, then the traction battery (not the 12v) also shows low power... but nothing to do with the camera use, right?

Yes, you should check out the Car Care Nut on youtube, he has a whole series of good videos on how everything on the hybrids work and a lot more.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEKt2bUDBoRUw3wpPpDOUaA

 

[goldfilmr4]

Yes, you should check out the Car Care Nut on youtube, he has a whole series of good videos on how everything on the hybrids work and a lot more.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEKt2bUDBoRUw3wpPpDOUaA

Thanks, great source the Care Nut!

 

[somms]

When car is off lead/acid battery is disconnected from traction battery. When car starts batteries reconnect and M/G immediately starts charging traction battery if required and 12v battery charges via converter connected to traction battery. Even if 12v battery was completely dead and had to be boosted to get car running it would have an insignificant effect on overall charge of traction battery. Hybrid battery will not exhibit more charge if using external battery for cam.

Is this the normal behavior on the Prime, reason I ask since I reference most of my limited knowledge of the gen1 volt which is similar to how the Prime operates (EREV):

When the volt is turned OFF, the DC to DC converter is powered off no longer providing DC voltage to AGM battery

If the volt is plugged in to charge L1/L2, the actual charger (AC to DC inverter) pumps DC voltage not only into the li-ion for charging but @14VDC into the AGM battery then once charging of the volt is complete, both DC voltage to the li-ion and AGM battery are removed

DAMN...disregard all the above Ended up in the wrong forum again;(

 

[gweiller]

I have a RAV4 2021 hybrid and a BlackVue 900X camera hardwired, with no extra battery pack. Parking mode is lasting about 8-10 hours overnight before cutting off. Then I drive for about 25 miles, I go back to parking mode for ~ 6 hours, and then drive back for 25 miles.

I’ve noticed in my way back that the hybrid battery monitor on screen shows about 20-30% charged, just a few lines, and a few times didn’t let me drive on EV mode because it said I didn’t have enough charge to drive fully on electric mode.

Is this related to the use of battery during parking mode? I’m confused because hybrid cars usually have two batteries, am I right? Is the camera wired to the hybrid battery or not, or even if not they are still related and the camera extended use IS affecting the hybrid batter somehow?

Would this stop happening if I buy an extra battery pack like the BlackVue 124X and wore my camera to an external battery and not the car battery?

I have a RAV4 2021 hybrid and a BlackVue 900X camera hardwired, with no extra battery pack. Parking mode is lasting about 8-10 hours overnight before cutting off. Then I drive for about 25 miles, I go back to parking mode for ~ 6 hours, and then drive back for 25 miles.

I’ve noticed in my way back that the hybrid battery monitor on screen shows about 20-30% charged, just a few lines, and a few times didn’t let me drive on EV mode because it said I didn’t have enough charge to drive fully on electric mode.

Is this related to the use of battery during parking mode? I’m confused because hybrid cars usually have two batteries, am I right? Is the camera wired to the hybrid battery or not, or even if not they are still related and the camera extended use IS affecting the hybrid batter somehow?

Would this stop happening if I buy an extra battery pack like the BlackVue 124X and wore my camera to an external battery and not the car battery?

I have a RAV4 2021 hybrid and a BlackVue 900X camera hardwired, with no extra battery pack. Parking mode is lasting about 8-10 hours overnight before cutting off. Then I drive for about 25 miles, I go back to parking mode for ~ 6 hours, and then drive back for 25 miles.

I’ve noticed in my way back that the hybrid battery monitor on screen shows about 20-30% charged, just a few lines, and a few times didn’t let me drive on EV mode because it said I didn’t have enough charge to drive fully on electric mode.

Is this related to the use of battery during parking mode? I’m confused because hybrid cars usually have two batteries, am I right? Is the camera wired to the hybrid battery or not, or even if not they are still related and the camera extended use IS affecting the hybrid batter somehow?

Would this stop happening if I buy an extra battery pack like the BlackVue 124X and wore my camera to an external battery and not the car battery?

I have a very similar problem with an Australian rav4 cruiser hybrid. The dealership has installed a Toyota OEM dashcam at the first 15k service. On the next day the 12v battery was flat. This happen 2 days later again. I brought the car back, but they simply charge the battery and claim that there is nothing wrong. Any decent electronic equipment in the car should measure the source voltage and switch off when it falls below 10V or earlier. I measured 5V on the dead battery. Definitely not right.

 

[roadster-GB]

The only relevance of the hybrid system is that the traction battery and motor-generator is used to start the engine in place of a starter motor. This means that the 12 volt battery is smaller than would normally be found in a 2.5 litre car. It does not have the capacity to run anything beyond internal systems for very long when the car is off. When switched to READY mode the 12 volt battery will be charged at quite a high rate if necessary, but this is not particularly good for battery life expectancy if the battery is regularly discharged to a nearly flat condition and left in this state. Note that the distance travelled has no relevance to 12volt battery charging since it is the time in ready mode that replenishes it from the traction battery, and there is always enough capacity to provide an optimal charging rate. But again lead-acid batteries cannot be charged too quickly too often without long-term damage and you would expect to need at least four hours of charging to be required in ready mode to fully replenish a flat battery. In the example mentioned above it is very likely that a battery discharged to 5V would suffer some permanent damage, and in order to prevent difficulty switching on the Rav Hybrid I would recommend that at a threshold of 12.0V ancillary devices should be switched off.

 

[gweiller]

I entierly agree that there should be a battery safer circuit that switches off paracitic drain around 12v. I am aware of the battery size, driving prius since 14y. Nevertheless the dashcam is advertised as a rav4 accessory, and has (or should have) a circuit that does not allow to drain the battery that far. I wonder too weather there is permanent battery damage, but if it is a deepcycle version it probably survives it. There must be something else going on. I wonder weather the parking brake starts playing up when the voltage drops to low? I thought I could hear it making noise.

 

[rngesus]

I have a RAV4 2021 hybrid and a BlackVue 900X camera hardwired, with no extra battery pack. Parking mode is lasting about 8-10 hours overnight before cutting off. Then I drive for about 25 miles, I go back to parking mode for ~ 6 hours, and then drive back for 25 miles.

I have a very similar problem with an Australian rav4 cruiser hybrid. The dealership has installed a Toyota OEM dashcam at the first 15k service. On the next day the 12v battery was flat. This happen 2 days later again. I brought the car back, but they simply charge the battery and claim that there is nothing wrong. Any decent electronic equipment in the car should measure the source voltage and switch off when it falls below 10V or earlier. I measured 5V on the dead battery. Definitely not right.

i have the same setup as goldfilmr4 but location wise, i'm in gweiller's situation (Australian rav4 cruiser hybride). dashcam worked fine in parking mode but then after about 4 months, dashcam would switch off virtually as soon as you turned the car off.

called toyota and they sent me to the guys who installed the dashcam. they tested the battery and found the voltage was 11.8v and said it was a dud battery. took it back to toyota and they said it was the dashcam draining the battery and that they rewired the dashcam so that it now switches off when the car is turned off. 12 days later that week, i tested the battery myself and the voltage was 11.9 (diff multimeter though). tested it again about a month later and it was 12.03 (same MM as the 11.9) and this was just after driving home from work (about 30min in traffic). left the car for about 2 hours and tested it again and it was 12.01.

gweiller, does the toyota dashcam even have a parking mode? when i went back to the dealership, the guy there said the toyota dashcam had its own external battery and would only record if it detected the car was hit.

 

[Maudie]

I entierly agree that there should be a battery safer circuit that switches off paracitic drain around 12v. I am aware of the battery size, driving prius since 14y. Nevertheless the dashcam is advertised as a rav4 accessory, and has (or should have) a circuit that does not allow to drain the battery that far. I wonder too weather there is permanent battery damage, but if it is a deepcycle version it probably survives it. There must be something else going on. I wonder weather the parking brake starts playing up when the voltage drops to low? I thought I could hear it making noise.

I have a Toyota factory dash cam on a Cruiser Hybrid, no problems with battery. Sounds like faulty installation.

 

[gweiller]

i have the same setup as goldfilmr4 but location wise, i'm in gweiller's situation (Australian rav4 cruiser hybride). dashcam worked fine in parking mode but then after about 4 months, dashcam would switch off virtually as soon as you turned the car off.

called toyota and they sent me to the guys who installed the dashcam. they tested the battery and found the voltage was 11.8v and said it was a dud battery. took it back to toyota and they said it was the dashcam draining the battery and that they rewired the dashcam so that it now switches off when the car is turned off. 12 days later that week, i tested the battery myself and the voltage was 11.9 (diff multimeter though). tested it again about a month later and it was 12.03 (same MM as the 11.9) and this was just after driving home from work (about 30min in traffic). left the car for about 2 hours and tested it again and it was 12.01.

gweiller, does the toyota dashcam even have a parking mode? when i went back to the dealership, the guy there said the toyota dashcam had its own external battery and would only record if it detected the car was hit.

The Toyota dashcam has no internal battery. It has a parking mode that comes on ca 4sec after the car is hit, or in fast mode, 1 sec after the car is hit. The fast mode consumes a lot of battery and is meant to switch itselve off when the car battery gets low. Mine works currently, but the car is used daily and the car battery hovers around 12.3V, which is low in my books.

 

[Variman]

On a related tangent, if I wanted to use parking mode long term (6+ hours) with my dashcam I would use a dedicated battery for this purpose. The 12 volt AGM battery is too small and too expensive to use for this purpose. I suppose there is some efficiency loss when a dedicated dashcam battery is charged while running the car but there is no free lunch. Looks like when a dedicated LiFePo battery is hardwired, it fully charges in less than an hour when the car is in ready mode.

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[rngesus]

one thing i don't understand about the dedicated battery pack is that it gets its charge from the 12v. so wouldn't the drain essentially be the same? or is it a case of the dedicated battery pack only getting a charge from "excess" energy from the 12v?

 

[roadster-GB]

There is no easy way to keep the 12 volt system fully charged, whether using the car's battery or a supplementary one, if the time in READY mode is not sufficient to replenish the energy lost when draining via the camera. Note that it is time, not distance or engine rpm, that matters. While in READY mode electronics will always charge the 12 volt systems at the maximum rate which is consistent with best battery life for a 12 volt lead-acid battery. Even having a battery of greater capacity will not help if there is never time to replenish the energy lost during off time. Regularly using an external charger would help especially if there was an auxiliary battery too.

It is also possible to leave the car in READY mode while parked up with everything switched off provided there are no security concerns. The traction battery will charge the 12 volt one and the engine may start up occasionally if the traction battery is depleted or for maintenance of engine operating temperature.

 

[Dave81]

I have a RAV4 2021 hybrid and a BlackVue 900X camera hardwired, with no extra battery pack. Parking mode is lasting about 8-10 hours overnight before cutting off. Then I drive for about 25 miles, I go back to parking mode for ~ 6 hours, and then drive back for 25 miles.

I’ve noticed in my way back that the hybrid battery monitor on screen shows about 20-30% charged, just a few lines, and a few times didn’t let me drive on EV mode because it said I didn’t have enough charge to drive fully on electric mode.

Is this related to the use of battery during parking mode? I’m confused because hybrid cars usually have two batteries, am I right? Is the camera wired to the hybrid battery or not, or even if not they are still related and the camera extended use IS affecting the hybrid batter somehow?

Would this stop happening if I buy an extra battery pack like the BlackVue 124X and wore my camera to an external battery and not the car battery?

It would seem they have not wired in an extra device or have set it up correctly to turn off the dashcam whilst in park mode. If the device detects the voltage has dipped below a set voltage. The Blackvue dashcams do not come with the battery protection device. Can pick them up fairly cheaply, ebay was the cheapest for me when I bought mine. There are a few on the market that would help stop the constant drain on the battery. Power Magic Pro box was the device that was recommended by dashcams Australia website. I hope this helps sort out the flat battery issue!