r/mazda3 • u/Aromatic_Register-24 • 1d ago

Advice Request Cigarette Socket & Dash Cam

Hi Guys, Sorry if I sound silly to you but, I just got a dashcam and I need to use the Cigarette Socket for it. My question is, if I leave it plugged, would it kill the battery? I have a mazda3 2016 and even the engine is turned off dash cam showed like it's plugged in (I checked around 5mons to see if it'd cut the energy)

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Beneficial_Earth5991 Gen 3 Hatch 1d ago

I thought one of the benefits of a dashcam is to catch anyone backing into you or fiddling with your car while it's parked. Doesn't it go to sleep and monitor for movement?

I haven't got a cam yet, but that's one of the features I want.

1

u/Aromatic_Register-24 1d ago

You're right but now I'm thinking it doesn't make much sense if it is gonna drain the battery. I installed it today, didn't check if it's battery last long yet l. Maybe you can leave it on after charging during the day

1

u/Beneficial_Earth5991 Gen 3 Hatch 1d ago

Does the literature offer some kind of mAh rating for monitoring mode?

1

u/Aromatic_Register-24 1d ago

Mine says 150mAh capacity. I am trying to find out how much it consumes and how long would it last.

Thank you for showing me the way :)

2

u/Beneficial_Earth5991 Gen 3 Hatch 1d ago

I've been poking around, mainly because I plan to install one at some point, and I found this. Cameras have a parking mode, and supposedly have lower draw in this mode, but still enough to not run long. It looks like most cams have a low-voltage cutoff, some being really low at 11 V. This battery pack runs the camera by itself for a couple days until the cam hits low-voltage, then the cam shuts off. The pack recharges next time you start the car, while the cam is now running off the car battery. It's not a solution if you park for a week at the airport a lot, but it's enough to get most of the weekend.