Don't Let Your Dash Cam Drain Your Battery

What happened

Dieter Santy discovered this problem after purchasing a Vantrue dash cam and its matching hardwire kit. VoltGuard is an open source board that cuts power before your battery goes dead.

Dash cams can be useful for recording accidents, vandalism, and other incidents, even when a vehicle is parked. But keeping a camera running while the ignition is off comes with a risk: draining the car's 12 V battery.

Commercial hardwire kits are supposed to prevent this by automatically disconnecting power when the battery voltage drops too low. Unfortunately, those protections don't always work as advertised.