OBDII

[silverhorse]

2016.5 S90D:

Did a search and did not see this discussed. I am considering getting a dash cam (Ring) and some have suggested that continuous draw from the ODBII will destroy your traction battery, 12V battery, and electronics.

This seems far fetched. Anyone experience this?

- W

 

[beatle]

It is not true. Sentry mode uses far more battery than a dash cam and it's an advertised feature. An always-on dash cam does use battery, but it does not destroy it.

 

[ATPMSD]

That is pretty funny. Power from the ODB-II is un-switched power which comes from 12v system, it is not connected directly to the battery. All that will happen is when the car is asleep the 12V battery will drain a bit faster causing the car to wake up more often to recharge it. If you leave the dash cam powered-up all of the time all that happens is wasting some power.

 

[vcor]

Dashcams and Radar detectors consume so little power, if there were no other drains on your EV battery, they would be powered for years. Now ICE cars do have a far smaller battery, and it might discharge the 12v in weeks/months.

There are a number of good places to pull power for your dashcam, but it varies with your Tesla model/year. For example, the ODBII power is always on prior to 2021 LR/Plaid, and is switched with the 2020+ LR/Plaid. Here's a detailed analysis I made of different connection points for different variants and which are switched or always on: Accessory Power Guide 12v/5v – TeslaTap

For Tesla owners, I recommend using an always-on power for your dashcam, so it can record while parked.

 

[ATPMSD]

Dashcams and Radar detectors consume so little power, if there were no other drains on your EV battery, they would be powered for years. Now ICE cars do have a far smaller battery, and it might discharge the 12v in weeks/months.

To avoid confusion, for the EV you are talking about the HV battery and for the ICE car the 12V, right?

 

[JimmyB]

I have a Raspberry Pi connected to my OBD II (for CarPlay purposes) and have noticed no ill effects whatsoever

 

[vcor]

To avoid confusion, for the EV you are talking about the HV battery and for the ICE car the 12V, right?

Sort of. The EV's 12v battery is charged from the HV battery as needed, so even with a small 60 KWh battery, a 200 mA dashcam would last about 300,000 hours (34 years) if not charged and there were no other drains on the battery. Of course, the battery pack itself has some internal leakage, but that's hard to quantify! ICE cars, without charging the 12v battery, are not going to last nearly as long!

Companies like BlackVue offer a complex secondary battery system option for ICE cars with an automatic disconnect to avoid running down the 12v battery. It is totally unnecessary on an EV.

 

[JzCastle]

I had a Blackvue double dashcam setup in my 2017 Model S getting 24/7 power from the OBD2-port working for about 3,5 years without a single problem. The 12v battery is charged from the HW battery when needed.

 

[alienranch]

2021 refresh here, but I just hardwired my radar detector to the ODB connector with a 90 degree hardness off Amazon. Probably the easiest install out of 15+ I've done over the years.