After having some problems with my new Garmin Mini 2 Dash Cam , I have finally ascertained the cause of my issues and thought I'd share my findings for others. (I thought that this may well help anyone following installation of the Garmin Parking Mode Cable! Link Here.)
In "short" My Garmin Mini would not stay "Alive" in Parking Mode from more than 2-3 hours and I have struggled to find out why and now fixed it!
The longer version however is:
I installed this cable and used what I considered to be a good earth point and power fed from the fuse box located my the drivers right knee:
I used a fuse taps on uses 33 and 41.
Once all wired and ready to go I plugged in the Garmin Mini 2 to the power cable and all initially worked as expected.
On turning off the ignition, the dash cam immediately switched to parking mode and I considered this to be a done job well. All was ok until the camera stopped showing its recording lights in parking mode 2 hours later.
So after a fiddle it was noted that turning on the ignition powered the dash cam back up.
Turning off the ignition allowed parking mode to resume, but not for long as parking mode stopped working again after an hour or so.
I thought that my problem maybe high resistance from my ground connection and so I went to the trouble to routing the negative cable back to my common earth which was a bore and guess what? This achieved absolutely nothing and the same symptom persisted!
After a bit of googling it seems that the Garmin Parking Cable is supposed to be set to cut power at 11.7 volts however for me this seemed to cut at 12.2 volts which my van often dips under even when driving.
By leaving my starter battery on charge for an extended period, with the dash cam alive, in parking mode, I was at least able to prove my theory that the issue rested with a volt drop problem.
So, this morning I have gotten rid of the permanent power feed from Fuse 33 in the fuse holder and installed a new power feed from my leisure battery to the permanent live of the Garmin parking cable (Yellow wire) and now all seems well with no drain at all on my starter battery unless the ignition is on.
This whole episode of faffing about, was not helped by my Ablemail AMT12-2 maintaining my battery voltage. I therefore kind of ruled out voltage as being the problem. With such a tiny trickle charge, spikes of low voltage still momentarily occur, which must be related to vehicle control units when locking/unlocking or "We Connect" checking to the status of the vehicle from time to time. Whenever I tested during this faff it was always well over 12.3 volts.)
Hopefully that is it and I'm now done....................What a faff!
At least it is neat and inconspicuous! (I worry a little that some people hate drivers with dashcams!)
In "short" My Garmin Mini would not stay "Alive" in Parking Mode from more than 2-3 hours and I have struggled to find out why and now fixed it!
The longer version however is:
I installed this cable and used what I considered to be a good earth point and power fed from the fuse box located my the drivers right knee:
I used a fuse taps on uses 33 and 41.
- Fuse 41 - Ignition switched live (To red cable on Garmin cable.)
- Fuse 33 - Permanent live (To yellow wire on Garmin cable)
Once all wired and ready to go I plugged in the Garmin Mini 2 to the power cable and all initially worked as expected.
On turning off the ignition, the dash cam immediately switched to parking mode and I considered this to be a done job well. All was ok until the camera stopped showing its recording lights in parking mode 2 hours later.
So after a fiddle it was noted that turning on the ignition powered the dash cam back up.
Turning off the ignition allowed parking mode to resume, but not for long as parking mode stopped working again after an hour or so.
I thought that my problem maybe high resistance from my ground connection and so I went to the trouble to routing the negative cable back to my common earth which was a bore and guess what? This achieved absolutely nothing and the same symptom persisted!
After a bit of googling it seems that the Garmin Parking Cable is supposed to be set to cut power at 11.7 volts however for me this seemed to cut at 12.2 volts which my van often dips under even when driving.
By leaving my starter battery on charge for an extended period, with the dash cam alive, in parking mode, I was at least able to prove my theory that the issue rested with a volt drop problem.
So, this morning I have gotten rid of the permanent power feed from Fuse 33 in the fuse holder and installed a new power feed from my leisure battery to the permanent live of the Garmin parking cable (Yellow wire) and now all seems well with no drain at all on my starter battery unless the ignition is on.
This whole episode of faffing about, was not helped by my Ablemail AMT12-2 maintaining my battery voltage. I therefore kind of ruled out voltage as being the problem. With such a tiny trickle charge, spikes of low voltage still momentarily occur, which must be related to vehicle control units when locking/unlocking or "We Connect" checking to the status of the vehicle from time to time. Whenever I tested during this faff it was always well over 12.3 volts.)
Hopefully that is it and I'm now done....................What a faff!
At least it is neat and inconspicuous! (I worry a little that some people hate drivers with dashcams!)
