rumrunn6

anyone using an external power bank for a sport cam? care to share pics & thoughts?

I got a gopro8 last February & just ordered a cpl wires & power banks. I can use them for other stuff like my phone maybe. anyway, been juggling batteries & that's ok, but winter is coming & I'm gonna try the power bank here & there & see it's worth the bother. haven't got it yet & haven't been riding much lately but I'll get it soon & hope to ride more

raqball 

I used and still have an Anker 313 Powerbank that's 10,000 mAh:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QXV6N1B...t_details&th=1

I am currently using an Anker 337 Powerbank that's 26,800 mAh:

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCo...01JIWQPMW?th=1

Either should work fine just depends on how much run time you want. With the 10,000 mAh I can get about 10 hours of 4K 120fps and with the 26,800 mAh I can get about 24 hours of 4K 120fps..

The 313 is a bargain at $21...

tempocyclist

When filming I use a 10,000mAh power bank connected to the GoPro. I use a small top-tube bag to stash it in, although there's probably cleaner looking solutions.

Troul 

10,0000mAh is about the lowest I'd go for a multiuse bank. Some come with other built-in features like a flash light or a cheap cumbersome plastic mount, I don't recommend it, but you may find use for those. buy from a trusted retailer.

rumrunn6

thank you

I've got a mountain feed bag in the corner, near the steam & bars, that it can ride in, when the cam is on the bars. when the cam is on the helmet I'll stick w/ the batteries. if/after the 3 batteries are used up, I can put the cam on the bars to finish the ride, w/ the power bank. I figure with the colder weather coming, the batteries will last for even shorter periods of time. I don't record entire rides, just the highlights, so not looking for long duration run time. but I guess that's a relative term

rumrunn6

cool, thank you
I have an older computer, so I'm just running at 1080 30 fps

raqball 

The 10,000 mAh would probably last you a very long time.. If you want something smaller then look at Anker 5,000 mAh battery packs. Some are pretty small cylinders like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCo...65&sr=8-1&th=1

rumrunn6

thank you. I can see zip tying that to my helmet ...

rumrunn6

follow-up question, do you have an issue w/ the power bank turning off? meaning you turn it on, start recording, then stop recording, say to wait for some ride highlight & when you go to turn the camera on again the power bank has timed out cuz there was no current draw. I suppose these things have an indicator light so I could check that it's on before turning the camera on

raqball 

Nope I've never had any issues with powerbanks. The only way it should turn off is if a) it's out of juice, b) it's disconnected from the camera or c) it's defective.

rumrunn6

cool thank you. I was youtoobing & someone brought that issue up

Troul 

i've had it happen with off brand cables used, power banks that were overly sensitive, poor connection, thermal issue, some or all the aforementioned in one.

I've yet to find a good, compact, & affordable 5,000 to 10,000 mAh bank that has a manual constant on switch.

BikeLite

Voltaic systems has "Standard Always On Feature for IoT and Time-Lapse Projects"
https://voltaicsystems.com/battery-packs

Troul 

I'd pay 2/3 of those prices to have that feature.

rumrunn6

assembling some components ...
got the off-brand door

bought a battery not realizing how big it was so I also got a smaller one

not sure where I'll be using the battery, relative to the camera placement, so got a cpl long wires & some short ones

short ones are fun looking

raqball 

When I had a saddle bag I ran the USB cable from the camera into the saddle bag and had the power pack in it. Now I have a frame bag and use a longer cable that runs down the seatpost and into it where the power pack is..

If you zoom into these photos and you should be able to see my cable routing.

rumrunn6

thank you. very cool. nice & neat!

raqball 

I try and keep the cables as clean looking as I can. If you are going to run from a front position to a rear saddle bag then zip ties along the top tube and seatpost would also work great. Just use some clear protective tape on the top tube and seatpost to prevent scratches.

rumrunn6

for my own record - last night I brought 1 external battery for the camera, the short red wire & the door w/ the hole in it. I had misplaced one of my 3 camera batteries, so I figured it would be a good nite to have the backup. never got to it. 1 little camera battery was enough for my 2 hrs on the bike (not 2 hrs of recording)

Daniel4

I have yet to test and record how long my camera batteries actually do last in extremely cold weather. My old Kaiser Baas X300 would last 30 minutes but 45 to 50 minutes in ideal warm temperatures.

My newer better cameras have batteries that last 1hr 45 minutes in warm weather. The thought of running charging cables all around my helmet and rear rack plus a method to secure the two power banks on both just doesn't appeal to me.


I have enough spare batteries for a six hour ride in warm weather. So if cold weather cuts that down to three hours, I should be ok too.

rumrunn6

yeah me neither. if it comes to that, the battery will be in my feed bag on the bars right next to the camera

canklecat

Back around 2016-2018 when I used an Ion Speed Pro with about 90 minute runtime (when new, gradually decreased to 30 or so minutes per charge), mounted on my helmet I used a generic USB power pack that was roughly the size of a C cell battery but triangular with rounded edges. It fit neatly into the helmet vents so I needed only a small velcro strap to hold it in place. That extended my camera runtime to the 3-5 hours I needed for most casual group rides, including the ride to and from the meetup.

For handlebar mounting, I use a Jackery 6,000mAh with a single USB port. That lasted many hours per charge, more than I needed for most long bike rides. I strapped them securely to the stem, handlebar or top tube. I dislike bags or pouches swinging around on the bar. A bit of rubbery bar wrap and velcro straps did the trick. Or duct tape if I planned to recharge the USB battery pack on the bike. I set up a charging station with long USB cable next to the spot where I parked my main errand/commuting bike.

Later I found a generic 6,000mAh power pack with dual USB ports, which was handy for fulltime running the video camera, with a second port for my phone (at the time an aging iPhone 4s that wouldn't hold a charge long).

But since late 2019 I've been using a pair of Drift Ghost X video cameras that came with 5 hour battery modules that lasted a true five hours per charge for the first year, and a little less the next year. I just replaced one battery module that finally wouldn't hold a charge, with Drift's newer 8 hour battery modules. These snap into the camera body and are weather sealed, no optional weather housing needed so far for the rainy rides I've encountered. No need for a backup battery for most long rides.

I highly recommend the Drift cameras for basic ride documentation for traffic safety and legal purposes. Beats messing with external battery packs for most other popular bike cams -- GoPro, Cycliq, etc. (In fact, the attorney who represented me after I was hit by a car a few years ago had the Cycliq and was disappointed in the runtime and reliability. I recommended the Drift cams.)

No image stabilization and not really needed if the cameras are mounted on the bike. For helmet mounting, yeah, it would help some. But my helmet mounted videos are still useful for mundane documentation purposes. I don't record video for entertainment or sharing online. If I really needed to I'd use a post processing stabilization program.

rumrunn6

finally got to experiment with theory in real life

worked out pretty well



when it was time to do a ride-by, I just took the whole helmet off & set it down

between recordings, the battery would turn off. so I had to get used to first pressing the tiny power button, then pressing the record button on the camera. if the time between recordings was short, then I could just press the record button. but for the most part, it was a 1-2 procedure. I was out in 17F degrees for a cpl hours & it was great having the external power supply

rumrunn6

had another ride, w/o charging the power bank. gotta say I like this a lot

rumrunn6

getting used to the features & benefits of this simple setup