I’m looking for some advice (and maybe a little validation) from my fellow Gen 2 owners.

I recently installed a VIOFO A229 Plus and hardwired it with the HK4 kit for 24/7 parking mode. Between the power draw of the dashcam and the cold snaps we’ve been having lately, my 151R battery isn't cutting it. Even though the battery is fairly new, it’s basically toast, as I’m having to jump-start the car every single time I want to go anywhere, even with parking mode now turned off.

I’m looking into doing the 51R battery swap, but I have a few questions for those who have been there:

Does this actually solve the problem? For those of you with dashcams or high-draw electronics, did moving to the 51R give you enough overhead to run parking mode without killing the battery?

For Gen 2 owners, was cutting/removing the battery tray enough? Or did you have to move anything around/make other modifications?

Any insight is appreciated.

 

Dang I am about to wire up my Viofo. Was debating on hard wiring or plugging into USB-C in cig lighter. Wonder why it smoked your battery

 

Could be many things. 151R is tiny. The weather got cold. I accidentally had the sensitivity on high when I live in a high-traffic area. Who knows? I'm not very well-versed with this stuff.

 

I made a thread probably around 2015 or 2016 when I did the swap. You would need to find the thread. Here in Canada, with the cold, the 51R was almost needed!

But I can't tell you anything about the dashcam because I don't have one...

 

The 51R will give you about 40% more capacity. Lead-acid batteries, especially starter batteries, don't do well with cycling applications (using significant amounts of their capacity on a regular basis). If your parking situation allows it (gets sun), a solar battery maintainer panel or two could help.

Looking at the Amazon product page, the hard-wire unit has a voltage selector switch on the side. That should be the voltage where it shuts off to prevent over-draining the battery. Set the switch to a higher voltage to retain more battery power. Make sure you have the ignition-switched-power and always-on power plugged into appropriate circuits - if the ignition-switched wire is getting always-on power, the dash cam will never go into park mode. The wire colors and functions shown on the product page are reversed from standard car-audio coloring. Car audio uses yellow for constant power, red for switched power, the hard-wire kit graphic shows the reverse.

Lithium batteries are much better suited to cycling - if you can figure out how the hard-wire kit is signaling ignition-off, it might be possible to run the cam off a dedicated power bank while parked.