Power Source

maheshwarrank · Post by **maheshwarrank** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 5:48 am

Is it necessary to connect the 12 V power source or can we just power Race Capture Pro using a power bank (using a USB to mini USB cable). What are the differences between the 2 cases?

ddimensia · Post by **ddimensia** » Mon Jun 13, 2016 5:20 pm

I have the same question, what's lost besides alternator output (battery gauge) if you run off the usb power?

The reason I'm interested is I'm still trying to solve the issue of having to cut full power to the care during refueling due to race regulations. I attempted to dual power the RCP, 12v + usb battery backup, but it still causes the RCP to power cycle when the 12v is cut. I think it's due to the Anker battery backup shutting down with no load after a few minutes.

My alternate is to inline a 12v battery backup that's isolated to the RCP.

ddimensia · Post by **ddimensia** » Mon Jun 13, 2016 6:23 pm

Maybe something like this would work to deal with my power switching issues.

http://www.mini-box.com/picoUPS-120-12V ... ery-backup

rdoherty · Post by **rdoherty** » Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:05 pm

For racing situations you will want to power RCP via the 12v input so the 5v reference works properly. Also, to run cellular telemetry RCP needs 12v power.

I'm curious, why do you want to keep RCP running when the car is shut off?

ddimensia · Post by **ddimensia** » Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:17 pm

Going to try https://www.amazon.com/CompuLab-fit-Upt ... entries*=0 which should do the trick for my needs, would be good to know the limitations of powering via 5v USB though. I would assume it may limit the current supply for the 5v reference given USB2 is spec'd at only 500ma until you go to USB-C.

ddimensia · Post by **ddimensia** » Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:26 pm

rdoherty wrote:For racing situations you will want to power RCP via the 12v input so the 5v reference works properly. Also, to run cellular telemetry RCP needs 12v power.

I'm curious, why do you want to keep RCP running when the car is shut off?

Well the car is only off for a few minutes for fueling but we've seen issues with the auto track selection not picking up the track after restart. We have moved the GPS antenna to the roof, was towards the top of the windshield inside before, and switched from 25hz to 10hz per the recommendations on the wiki which may help things. However, there's also the issue of lap data in podium, strange log output and other issues we saw at the last race. Didn't help we developed a short in the input voltage wire on the second day but I figured a lack of power cycling would reduce issues. Given all of our gauges, except low fuel light and tach, are now delivered via RCP to a tablet I want the thing as stable and reliable as I can get it.

aUzer · Post by **aUzer** » Fri Jun 12, 2020 10:07 pm

rdoherty wrote:... I'm curious, why do you want to keep RCP running when the car is shut off?

ddimensia wrote:... Well the car is only off for a few minutes for fueling but we've seen issues with the auto track selection not picking up the track after restart. ...

[yes, I know this is an old posting, but it's an important item]

The reason is because it will normally take 3-5 minutes to obtain a high-quality GPS lock when the RaceCapture unit is powered up, thus the issue mentioned by ddimensia.

shields8 · Post by **shields8** » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:46 pm

We have our RCP wired direct (fused and switched) separate from ignition. That way during fuelling we do not lose signal and have to go through a reboot and restart logging etc. Works well for us.

Autosport Labs

Power Source

Power Source

Re: Power Source