Thinkware F770

[alpesh26]

I recently hardwired a Thinkware F770 to my 2017 S3, but the parking mode only seems to be recording for around 30 mins before it shuts itself down due to low battery. I have wired the permanent live to the central locking circuit and the switched live to the 12v socket circuit.

I have the cut off voltage set to 12.2v and the car battery has been tested. The battery is throwing out more amps than stated on it so I know its a good battery. My daily commute is 20 miles each way so some charge is going back into the battery.

How long are you guys roughly getting on parking mode?

Also, the Thinkware app isn't working on iOS13 beta yet (I haven't tested on iOS 13.1 which was released last night). You can connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot that the camera creates, but this isn't getting passed through to the Thinkware app. I contacted Thinkware about this and they said that the "app is probably in development" which didn't fill me with much confidence. When I asked for a release date for the updated app, I didn't get a response back...

 

[KrisKrk]

I have same camera in duo (front and rear) package and I easily get overnight recording.
Arriving home 6:30pm and leaving for work next morning 8:30 allow me still see hear notification about switch from parking mode to continuous recording.
Once got even longer

I have hard wired mine according to online instructions but wasn't getting much parking mode either. After speaking to Thinkware tech support, been told the wires need to be swapped.
Did so and it worked

I run Android so cannot comment on iOS app version.

Sent from H P20 PRO

 

[alpesh26]

I have same camera in duo (front and rear) package and I easily get overnight recording.
Arriving home 6:30pm and leaving for work next morning 8:30 allow me still see hear notification about switch from parking mode to continuous recording.
Once got even longer

I have hard wired mine according to online instructions but wasn't getting much parking mode either. After speaking to Thinkware tech support, been told the wires need to be swapped.
Did so and it worked

I run Android so cannot comment on iOS app version.

Sent from H P20 PRO

How long of recording in parking mode were you getting before you switched the wiring around?

The iOS part of my original post was just to make people aware

 

[AlS3BE]

Set the voltage cut off to 12v and you should get a bit more.
I have the same problem. I roughly get a day or so with it set to 12v. Never had an issue starting the car more annoying than anything else as I am sometimes parked up for a few days at the airport and would like it to do its thing for all the time it’s parked.
Been looking at the thinkware battery pack but it only lasts like 30 hours so not much improvement for the price.

 

[DJAlix]

Change to 12v, set parking mode to motion and sensitivity to mid / low. Move your switched power to fuse F40 (cigg lighter 20amp) and your perma live ( battery to any empty fuse position on the top two rows.

 

[alpesh26]

Change to 12v, set parking mode to motion and sensitivity to mid / low. Move your switched power to fuse F40 (cigg lighter 20amp) and your perma live ( battery to any empty fuse position on the top two rows.

Cheers, I'll change the cut off to 12v. The switched power is already on F40 IIRC, I should be able to move the permanent live to the top row assuming I have the correct fuse tap size (I got the larger/normal sized ones). Job for the weekend!

 

[alpesh26]

Set the voltage cut off to 12v and you should get a bit more.
I have the same problem. I roughly get a day or so with it set to 12v. Never had an issue starting the car more annoying than anything else as I am sometimes parked up for a few days at the airport and would like it to do its thing for all the time it’s parked.
Been looking at the thinkware battery pack but it only lasts like 30 hours so not much improvement for the price.

Yep, parking mode was the main motivator for buying the dashcam so getting a full nights recording would be enough.

I've already had an attempted theft on the S3 a few months back and our area seems to be getting hit more recently. Not to mention people damaging cars in public car parks, my sisters new A class got hit yesterday and the driver just drove off!

 

[AlS3BE]

Yep, parking mode was the main motivator for buying the dashcam so getting a full nights recording would be enough.

I've already had an attempted theft on the S3 a few months back and our area seems to be getting hit more recently. Not to mention people damaging cars in public car parks, my sisters new A class got hit yesterday and the driver just drove off!

Luckily theft and vandalism is rare around here. It’s car parks especially airports that’s my biggest worry.
What I am trying to figure out at the moment is getting a battery pack like the thinkware one and when that pack runs out the camera starts drawing power from the car battery. My mates an electrical engineer he said it should be quite easy to build something to do that. I think that will give me 2 full days possibly more. Essentially the battery pack is just giving me a bit more juice as the car battery seems terrible if I do short journeys.

 

[DJAlix]

Luckily theft and vandalism is rare around here. It’s car parks especially airports that’s my biggest worry.
What I am trying to figure out at the moment is getting a battery pack like the thinkware one and when that pack runs out the camera starts drawing power from the car battery. My mates an electrical engineer he said it should be quite easy to build something to do that. I think that will give me 2 full days possibly more. Essentially the battery pack is just giving me a bit more juice as the car battery seems terrible if I do short journeys.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IROAD-Po...432906?hash=item4d8470488a:g:zn8AAOSwkQddMtVe

 

[AlS3BE]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IROAD-Po...432906?hash=item4d8470488a:g:zn8AAOSwkQddMtVe

Looks good. A bit pricey.
@DJAlix I just remember something. On the thinkware the shutdown time is 48 hours. Is there a way to extend this to let’s say 3-4-5 days instead as there’s not a huge point in the £400 battery if the camera shuts down after 2 days.
When I’m travelling my cars sits at the airport mon-fri so something like this will give me hopefully enough power to keep it running for a few days but not much point if the camera shuts down.

 

[KrisKrk]

Roughly same like you, 30min?

Reducing setting of motion helped also.

Sent from H P20 PRO

 

[DJAlix]

Looks good. A bit pricey.
@DJAlix I just remember something. On the thinkware the shutdown time is 48 hours. Is there a way to extend this to let’s say 3-4-5 days instead as there’s not a huge point in the £400 battery if the camera shuts down after 2 days.
When I’m travelling my cars sits at the airport mon-fri so something like this will give me hopefully enough power to keep it running for a few days but not much point if the camera shuts down.

Problem with the thinkware is they only now supply the Mini to the EU due to transport regulations for Batteries. Once the mini is installed it will fast charge from the vehicle while the ignition is on and supply power to the dashcam once the ignition is off, basically disconnecting the dashcam from the vehicles battery. The stats on the mini would suggest less parking mode time than what I currently get from my vehicles battery when set to 12v. Unless you want to protect your vehicles battery then there is no point in having a mini.

I am looking at the iroad as it has USB ports to charge my laptops etc but for you a cellink B, possibly even a couple daisy chained might be the way to go.

 

[AlS3BE]

Problem with the thinkware is they only now supply the Mini to the EU due to transport regulations for Batteries. Once the mini is installed it will fast charge from the vehicle while the ignition is on and supply power to the dashcam once the ignition is off, basically disconnecting the dashcam from the vehicles battery. The stats on the mini would suggest less parking mode time than what I currently get from my vehicles battery when set to 12v. Unless you want to protect your vehicles battery then there is no point in having a mini.

I am looking at the iroad as it has USB ports to charge my laptops etc but for you a cellink B, possibly even a couple daisy chained might be the way to go.

Do you know when having the battery, whether Cellink or thinkware, allow me to change the f770 to not go off after 48hours?

Maximum I can set this to is 48hours.
I haven’t managed to have it working for more than a day on the car battery so don’t even know if it does shut down after 48h.

 

[alpesh26]

Maximum I can set this to is 48hours.
I haven’t managed to have it working for more than a day on the car battery so don’t even know if it does shut down after 48h.

Maybe try leaving the car connected to a battery charger over the weekend to see if it shuts down?

 

[alpesh26]

Change to 12v, set parking mode to motion and sensitivity to mid / low. Move your switched power to fuse F40 (cigg lighter 20amp) and your perma live ( battery to any empty fuse position on the top two rows.

Do you recommend changing the cut off voltage to 12.1v in winter or will 12v suffice?

 

[cuke2u]

I recently hardwired a Thinkware F770 to my 2017 S3, but the parking mode only seems to be recording for around 30 mins before it shuts itself down due to low battery. I have wired the permanent live to the central locking circuit and the switched live to the 12v socket circuit.

I have the cut off voltage set to 12.2v and the car battery has been tested. The battery is throwing out more amps than stated on it so I know its a good battery. My daily commute is 20 miles each way so some charge is going back into the battery.

How long are you guys roughly getting on parking mode?

Also, the Thinkware app isn't working on iOS13 beta yet (I haven't tested on iOS 13.1 which was released last night). You can connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot that the camera creates, but this isn't getting passed through to the Thinkware app. I contacted Thinkware about this and they said that the "app is probably in development" which didn't fill me with much confidence. When I asked for a release date for the updated app, I didn't get a response back...

20 mins commute isn't probably long enough to keep the car battery fully charged. Setting the minimum level to 12v of the thinkware will help. If it has timelapse setting in park that will also increase the time the cam will run for. Also ensure the sensitivity settings aren't too high and it isn't recording unnecessarily...

 

[DJAlix]

Do you recommend changing the cut off voltage to 12.1v in winter or will 12v suffice?

Mine is set to 12v all year round and never had an issue. Your parking mode / "standby" time is going to be based on size of battery, power draw from the camera unit and the amount of recording it does. If you are parking in a driveway on a quite street then you might record the odd person walking by or a fox / cat playing around at night and not use much power. If you park facing a supermarket then your battery is gonna run down in no time due to all the motion based triggers.

 

[alpesh26]

Mine is set to 12v all year round and never had an issue. Your parking mode / "standby" time is going to be based on size of battery, power draw from the camera unit and the amount of recording it does. If you are parking in a driveway on a quite street then you might record the odd person walking by or a fox / cat playing around at night and not use much power. If you park facing a supermarket then your battery is gonna run down in no time due to all the motion based triggers.

Got it, we're in a cul de sac so not much activity there. Work is a bit different where our car park is small and people going in and out of the building all the time. I set the voltage limit to 12v at lunchtime and it was still recording at 4pm so I think amending that setting should have solved it. I will see if its still recording in the morning when I leave for work.

 

[cuke2u]

It can be also dependent upon how often the car is used. Usually mine can last through the night, if I'm working, however on weekends and school holidays forget it...

 

[Ormesome]

Just a thought, how do you guys know its shut down? Are the exterior lights on or off? mine appears like it is doing nothing/shutting down too as there are no lights distinguishing what it is doing as i have turned them off in the settings menu. However, after connecting to the app I can see that the motion detection easily records things overnight and into the next day. I have used DJalix recommendations for settings.

The app defo needs a spruce up! its pretty ancient, does the job though....

 

[AlS3BE]

Just a thought, how do you guys know its shut down? Are the exterior lights on or off? mine appears like it is doing nothing/shutting down too as there are no lights distinguishing what it is doing as i have turned them off in the settings menu. However, after connecting to the app I can see that the motion detection easily records things overnight and into the next day. I have used DJalix recommendations for settings.

The app defo needs a spruce up! its pretty ancient, does the job though....

Leds are off or when I look at footage there’s nothing after a specific time

 

[Ormesome]

Leds are off or when I look at footage there’s nothing after a specific time

Give "motion detection" in settings a go instead of "time-lapse" in parking mode? Mine records me going to the car to get in 1st thing in the morning. Put all the sensors to the lowest level perhaps too? Will it shut down if the memory card is full? my 32gb thinkware card gets full quickly. I changed the settings and allowed it to write over parking mode incidents now. I know i get more than a day worth of recording with overwrite disabled anyway so i know im safe.

 

[alpesh26]

Just a thought, how do you guys know its shut down? Are the exterior lights on or off? mine appears like it is doing nothing/shutting down too as there are no lights distinguishing what it is doing as i have turned them off in the settings menu. However, after connecting to the app I can see that the motion detection easily records things overnight and into the next day. I have used DJalix recommendations for settings.

The app defo needs a spruce up! its pretty ancient, does the job though....

I’ve been using the rear camera blue indicator light as a reference. I turned the front ones off to save the battery haha

agreed on the app, needs a bit of a tidy up...and for it to work on iOS 13. I tested it on iOS 13.1 beta today but it still doesn’t work

 

[AlS3BE]

Give "motion detection" in settings a go instead of "time-lapse" in parking mode? Mine records me going to the car to get in 1st thing in the morning. Put all the sensors to the lowest level perhaps too? Will it shut down if the memory card is full? my 32gb thinkware card gets full quickly. I changed the settings and allowed it to write over parking mode incidents now. I know i get more than a day worth of recording with overwrite disabled anyway so i know im safe.

It’s all set like that already.
I’m using a 64gb card with overwrite on so if it’s doing it’s thing that’s at least a 2-3 days of footage. Camera is shutting down. Been a few times I get back to car after a few days and I get a low battery warning on the dash but car starts anyway.

 

[alpesh26]

It’s all set like that already.
I’m using a 64gb card with overwrite on so if it’s doing it’s thing that’s at least a 2-3 days of footage. Camera is shutting down. Been a few times I get back to car after a few days and I get a low battery warning on the dash but car starts anyway.

Are you using a genuine thinkware microSD card? I was reading online that some people are having issues with non “genuine” microSD cards

 

[AlS3BE]

Are you using a genuine thinkware microSD card? I was reading online that some people are having issues with non “genuine” microSD cards

Sandisk I think. Got so many memory cards lying around from old gadgets. I had to format it before it worked I remember that much.
Footage seems pretty good. Not had any corruptions.

 

[alpesh26]

Sandisk I think. Got so many memory cards lying around from old gadgets. I had to format it before it worked I remember that much.
Footage seems pretty good. Not had any corruptions.

I’ll probably get a Sandisk 64gb for mine once I’m sure it’s lasting the night for recording

 

[AlS3BE]

I’ll probably get a Sandisk 64gb for mine once I’m sure it’s lasting the night for recording

Might as well get the 128gb
It’s £13 on Amazon

 

[zaka7]

Mine is set to 12v all year round and never had an issue. Your parking mode / "standby" time is going to be based on size of battery, power draw from the camera unit and the amount of recording it does. If you are parking in a driveway on a quite street then you might record the odd person walking by or a fox / cat playing around at night and not use much power. If you park facing a supermarket then your battery is gonna run down in no time due to all the motion based triggers.

Sorry to hijack, what would you recommend? I have a F+R F800 pro which i got mainly for parking mode, what settings would you recommend?

I am not sure what voltage it is set too, so will check this, but i have parking mode set to 'motion detection' and it's lowest sensitivity on parking mode yet it seems to trigger at a car 50m down the road, and I can get 20/30 triggers in a very short period, so my camera doesn't last the night or sometimes even the day in the office (My commute to work is about a 5-10 min drive which is not enough to charge) Would i get more juice if i changed to time lapse? I dread to think how many recordings i would get if i had the motion sensitivity on it's highest setting!

 

[alpesh26]

Got it, we're in a cul de sac so not much activity there. Work is a bit different where our car park is small and people going in and out of the building all the time. I set the voltage limit to 12v at lunchtime and it was still recording at 4pm so I think amending that setting should have solved it. I will see if its still recording in the morning when I leave for work.

It's still recording now (8.57am) after leaving the car parked up from 7.20pm last night so it looks like this "issue" is sorted now. Cheers for the input everyone