Car cam with no external power option?

On the default vehicle usage setting with my car in the garage and no detection events, the car cam turn off after about 12 hours. If there is no other external battery option, this become less of a security device and more of a drive cam. I bought it for security just like all my other Ring cameras, particularly when I need to leave it parked at an airport parking lot for a few days or a week. If I can’t plug this into an external battery pack for extended use, it will likely be going back to Ring in the next few weeks.

2 Likes

I’m surprised you got 12 hours mine turns off with default setting in less than 2. New car.

2 Likes

Agree. Mine shuts down every night and I drive my truck a lot during the day…

1 Like

They should have never released this product with all the problems that it has. It’s criminal… Bordering on felony fraud.

1 Like

The Ring Car Cam has a power management system which will turn itself off in advance of ever depleting the vehicle’s battery. When your vehicle is parked, the Car Cam goes into a low-power monitoring mode. After a drive, Car Cam may turn off once it detects a certain vehicle battery level in order to ensure you’re able to start your vehicle. The device will turn back on once the vehicle is started.

To control how long Car Cam stays active between drives, you can change the Vehicle Battery Usage setting in the Ring app. This setting allows you to determine how soon Car Cam shuts off based on your driving behavior, battery age, and the environment. Ring does not recommend you use Car Cam if your vehicle’s battery is past its service life.

Here are a few battery life tips:

• Vehicles need to be driven at highway speeds now and then to keep the battery charged.
• If Car Cam turns off too quickly, raise its Vehicle Battery Usage setting.
• If the vehicle won’t be used for a while, unplug accessories like Car Cam to protect its battery.

For a clean, easy and safe installation, Car Cam is designed to be powered by your vehicle’s battery. Presently, we do not support any external methods to power the device. We will continue to look at opportunities to make using Car Cam more convenient and enjoyable, so thank you for sharing your feedback. For any persistent power concerns, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here.

I’m also running into the same problem, I have a new car 2022 with only 6K miles… I set the vehicle battery usage to medium and can only get no more than 4-5 hours of usage from the camera before it shuts completely off. The problem is this device is very intrusive/large compared to other car cams so people can see it in the front windshield and sooner or later will attempt a break-in just for this camera. If it would stay on all night no problem but when it shuts down it does not record anything whatsoever. Kind of useless as a car security camera. If you park your car let’s say 2pm before night fall camera shuts down makes no sense. For 250.00 this should’ve been thought out.

2 Likes

“Time to time”. And not used “for awhile” are very vague statements. I bought this device for my camper van, which sits in a storage lot when I am not using it. We had a break in last year and this is why I got the car cam.

We drive the van about every three weeks. Does this qualify as “time to time”? Or “not used for awhile”? Will the camera shut off between uses? This makes it fairly useless for security I would say.

2 Likes

I’ve yet to have mine turn off in less than 24 hours and I have a one year old vehicle. It would be useless beyond a day at most for security.

1 Like

Mine is turning off within 2 hours of EVERY local drive. It’s totally USELESS for the reason purchased…

@Caitlyn_Ring

Could you please NOT keep marking solutions where there’s an obvious issue! And could you please provide more details of the voltage parameters and internal design? You have people running out and getting their batteries tested (other threads) and constantly blaming NEW vehicles of MANY users here. I feel the common denominator is the Car Cam, don’t you?

Also, please explain to all of us how the internal ‘super capacitor’ is charged and used… Yes, super capacitor… 4.0 Farad, 5.5 Volt.

4 Likes

Mine shuts down within 2 hours at night. 2020 Honda CRV. Honda says the battery is good. I drive highway 106 miles each day. Very disappointed, I like the product otherwise. Ring needs an external battery it could place in line with the On Board Diagnostics plug.

1 Like

IMO, Ring need to release a firmware update to lower the voltage triggering points IMMEDIATELY and stop all this nonsense! Otherwise the security portion of this product is useless, like in my case. Furthermore, many manufacturers within the past few years have implemented their own BMS (Battery Management System) in their vehicles that should be able manage to protect themselves against battery depletion. It’s possible the Ring never looked at this aspect…?? Ring just seems to be so hung-up with the various liability scenarios and enforcing technical limitations (on us) to the point the product fitment and performance suffers significantly. Then they’re totally vague on practically everything they say to attempt to appease us or ‘support us’. It’s starting to sound like a 3rd-party turn-key design solution for Ring, and they have not a clue how it really works (yet).

Oh, and speaking of firmware… I’d like to SEE the version I’m running (like the total rest of the world shows) not the simple ‘you’re up to date’ message… This is meaningless! You can tell me I’m up to date, but give me the version too, please.

18 day return window and counting down…

4 Likes

Amazon is a $944 Billion dollar company and they are too cheap to employ human support engineers. smdh

2 Likes

Well mine get powered off after 15 - 20 mins. I’ve already started the return process. This device is a good initiative. But its not production ready yet. They pushed the MVP for people to use which is bizzare.

They need to fix power issues. They should have used small battery for a backup. And the design with the long arm is perfect for adding a battery. They also need to fix downloading 20 seconds clip.

Overall if all the features work as advertised its a good dashcam.

I would love to buy next version with all the fixes I mentioned above. They should provide other powering options too like hardwire kits. Using OBD is not a good idea.

1 Like

Agreed. I called to initiate my return on Thursday. I’m still waiting for them to email me a prepaid shipping label. Not sure why after 3 days it still hasn’t come since they said it would take 24-48 hours. They even make the return process a challenge.

1 Like

Hi @Mark_CT. If you haven’t received your return label yet, be sure to check your junk or spam folders in your email inbox. If you still don’t see anything, I would follow up with support.

Your team has confirmed with me that they haven’t sent it yet. Every time I’ve called they say it is still processing. It should not take a week to send a label. Each time I’ve called they have told me my issue has been “escalated” yet nothing happens. It is getting beyond frustrating. I want my money back for this camera.

It’s silly. I have a Vantrue cam that can stay in parking mode using the hardwired kit for weeks. And I can download more than 20 seconds at a time :roll_eyes:. It cost like $100.

1 Like

Since so many people are having the same problem, surely a solution needs to be provided. How about an external battery to power the camera. Just engineer an adapter that sits between the OBD and the original provided OBD adapter. This new adapter should have a plug for an external battery and not use the cars’ battery at all. Or at least provide the OBD adapter wiring use so opensource hacks can fix the problem.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.