Hi all, I am after ideas please. i have a chinese android powered clip on rear view mirror, which has reverse camera, gps, dash cam etc in it.I have it in my PX ranger. The mirror has a cigarette adaptor which supplies the 5v to it. Previously I had it in the cigarette point in the ute, but had to remove it each night otherwise it would drain the ute battery as the points are always hot.
I have now hardwired it in under the dash so it only powers on when the key is on. My problem now is that because it uses android, it can take 40-50 seconds to boot up, which means the reverse camera wont work until then - by then im already down the road.
The battery in the mirror is only small, and I think stuffed now as it wont stay on without the power supply.
My ideas so far are to maybe buy a power bank that charges phones and wire that in to the power supply, so it has a larger battery and will stay on longer between using the vehicle, so its on already most of the time i get in. Whether this would work or not. probably not?
Otherwise is it possible to wire the power supply in somwhere so it powers on when I unlock the doors of the ute? The park lights come on when I unlock it so it may be possible? This would give that little bit more time maybe for it to boot up?
I could just put up with it, or scrap it and get a basic rear view camera mirror, but I find the gps function quite handy.
Sorry for the long story, any ideas please?
kazbanz,
Dec 1, 12:26am
My honest suggestion for you. get in and start car. Then put on seatbelt etc. Simply changing your routine count save a lot of worries
mdread,
Dec 1, 12:30am
Haha yea I know what you are saying, and I did try that. I still do that if I know I am reversing in a tight spot and need to see behind me, but generally dont bother anymore as it feels pointless sitting there that long when I know nothings behind me, but if it was working it just makes it that much safer and worthwhile.
tamarillo,
Dec 1, 1:07am
The device has a battery in it you say? Is it not replaceable? Pretty much any battery can be found online, I found new batteries for 15 yr old razor!
mdread,
Dec 1, 2:08am
Yes it does, I did think about that as well, although when it was new I think it didnt last long, I opened it up yesterday and its a 1200mah battery, I was thinking about trying to get in a larger capacity phone battery, but room is an issue. As kaz says, its probably in the too hard basket. I could always wire it constantly on and have a lighted switch for it so I dont forget to turn it off. I used to get away with leaving it plugged in overnight, but any longer than that wasnt good, nor was cold weather if I left it overnight.
lugee,
Dec 1, 2:29am
How long did it take to drain the utes battery? Weeks, months?
My Android phone takes about 1 watt with the screen on, so I can't see how a load like that could drain a car battery in any length of time that matters.
mdread,
Dec 1, 2:52am
If I left it plugged in when i get home at night, the next morning it would start - if it was a cold winters morning it woudl struggle. If I left it plugged in for two days without use over the weekend it would be flat enough to not be able to start the ute. Most vehicles I have ever had, just leaving the interior light on for a day or two would be enough to be too flat.
The mirror is basically like a android phone, is 5 volt usb power, and I guess constantly charging whether it was fully charged or not.
lugee,
Dec 1, 3:06am
Seems odd. A car battery has a capacity of about 1kWh. That's enough to power a 1W load for 1000 hours (battery would be pretty flat, but still).
Either your reversing thing is pulling some serious power, or you have a sick battery.
Although if I was designing such a device, I would make an allowance for an always-on and a switched power, like a head unit. This would trigger it to go into low power mode when the ignition is off (like your phone when you leave it alone). It would wake up in a couple of seconds when the ignition was switched back on.
mdread,
Dec 1, 3:33am
Yea I know what you are saying, but I have always known batteries to get flat if a light or radio etc is left on. Even a lot of vehicles these days seem to drain the battery just sitting there for a long period unless you disconnect the earth, mus be all the electronic stuff in the cars these days.
This mirror is obviously a 'cheap' chinese unit with little refinement. but I agree that with it sitting there without the screen on you wouldnt think it would drain that much power.
brapbrap8,
Dec 1, 5:29am
Upgrade to the newer Ranger that has GPS and reversing camera as standard on a big screen.
lookoutas,
Dec 1, 5:47am
Look - I'm no Sparkie, but No8 wire is hanging out of all my pockets. So I would suggest leaving it wired as it is, and tap another feed into those parklight ergs via a relay.
Got a similar issue to sort out with my electric fuel pump/primer. I don't want the pump going all the time, so at the moment I have it pirate-wired to a push-button that was originally intended to operate a boot release. But I've just fitted an electric boot latch, and need it now. It was always a bit of a pain sitting there pushing the button, and could also put an "ugly" switch in, which I don't really wanta do. I have thought of connecting the pump to the brake switch - so I get in the car, put foot on brake whilst sorting everything else out, and it's priming the fuel. OK - it will go every time I use the brakes, but I don't care about that. Only problem I can guess is that the brake fuse might need a rev-up.
Wait for Sparkies opinions.
2get1,
Dec 1, 1:29pm
New rangers aren't that easy to play with the wiring, as I found recently. Talk to,the service agent first. They have some weird modern working system that goes haywire easily when you try and tap and splice like you did in the old days. Case in point I wanted to hardware a radar detector in, in mine.
Previous vehicles, easy just tap and splice the wire to stereo that comes alive when key on. Couldn't do that with ranger.
Had to wire in a relay, feed that direct from battery, well I used one of the plug hot point feeds. Then trigger it off a wire from back of ignition that only came on when key in on position.
The wiring on rangers is complex.
matarautrader,
Dec 1, 6:37pm
Why don't you back into your drive the night before so you don't have to reverse out? I find that by doing that you are ready for next day, when backing in you have already scanned drive as you pulled up so you know its clear, when backing out in morning mirrors have dew etc on them so hard to see, and its easier to exit the drive in the morning to merge into the traffic.
tony9,
Dec 1, 6:50pm
An old sparkie trick - get a 1 minute time delay relay and wire it in backwards. That was typical advice to the apprentice, it usually kept him out of your hair for an hour or so.
mdread,
Aug 12, 9:35am
Thanks guys, no I wont be upgrading to the new model ranger just yet lol, strange how they didnt have a camera in the XLT to start with being larger vehicles.
I actually wired in my radar detector into the feed to the rain sensor in the hood lining no problem. Great not having cables dangling down to the power socket.
Backing into my drive at night - yes you are right and I used to do that, but I prefer to have it nose in now up my drive so there is less to see in my vehicle if dodgy people are walking by at night. And obviously it is everywhere the camera gets used, not just the driveway anyway. We are down end of a quiet culdesac so no traffice issues.
Had a play around last night within android to try and lower the boot up time, but all the tricks didnt really help with this unit.
Will just leave it as is for now I think, still I get teh urge another time to suss it out. thanks for all the advice.
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