THINKWARE iVolt Mini Hardwired External Battery Pack Dash Cams, 20-Hour Parking Mode, 45-Min Recharge

Review: After getting hit and run, I needed a external battery for the dash cam. This one works great. Essentially plug and play. Comes with fusetaps to hardwire and after it is all set up, there are no issues. Parking mode works right away after hardwiring Pros: -Included Hardwiring supplies -LiFePo Battery for better wear resistance. Cons: -Price

I was looking for alternatives to hard wiring a dash cam to my car to record while parked, and to have a longer battery life. Although this is pricey, it has held up just fine especially in extreme Florida heat for a summer. After a year I still get over 8 hours of footage after parked, and usually only takes about 10-15 minutes to charge it all the way.

(5/5) – Great support, clear instructions, just hope the new unit holds up I installed the iVolt Mini in my 4Runner to support a dash cam setup, and the installation guide was excellent — very clear and easy to follow, especially for someone who prefers doing things right the first time. The included fuse tap instructions and detailed wiring diagrams made the process simple. Unfortunately, after about 8 months, the battery suddenly stopped powering on. I used Thinkware’s online troubleshooting and self-diagnostic guide, which was straightforward and very clear. It helped me isolate the issue — power was reaching the unit, but the battery pack itself had failed. I reached out to Thinkware customer support and they were fantastic. They responded quickly to every email, confirmed the issue, and sent me a prepaid return label to send back the defective unit. A replacement is already on the way. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the 10/10 customer service. I just hope the new battery lasts longer — but if it doesn’t, at least I know their support is solid

I wasn't planning on getting an ext. battery pack for my Viofo A229 Plus, but after some consideration and not wanting to put unnecessary drain on the battery in my GLC43, I bit the bullet and bought this battery. Everything you need to install this ext. battery is included with the exception of your hardwire kit for your specific dashcam. That said, the output wire is a good length and once you solder/connect your hardwire kit to the wires, you'll have more than enough length to snake this around your car. I decided to place my battery under the cargo space next to my spare tire as this kept it away from vehicle guests kicking the battery if I were to place it under the driver's seat. Overall, the ease of installation and included wires is a nice touch. This ext. battery does support my Viofo A229 Plus, you just have to be mindful of the wiring. Between the output wire and the hardwire kit, ACC is yellow on the Viofo HK4 while ACC is red on the Thinkware iVolt. Once you connect the proper wires together, parking mode works flawlessly. It's not the most robust battery when you compare it to others in the market, no app, limited in how many hours it can record. Where it does excel is its small footprint, if you want to tuck it away somewhere in your car.

So this first review is testing of the battery pack in a controlled environment to ensure it worked before putting it in my car. So the dashcam battery comes with a few fuse taps, fuses, a cable to connect the fuse taps (from an ACC type fuse slot) to the dashcam battery, and an output 3 wire cable from the dashcam battery. That 3 wire cable goes to a separately purchased VIOFO HK4 Acc Hardwire Kit then to my VIOFO A119 Mini 2 dashcam. In my test environment I used a 0-30V 10 amp max power supply to act as my ACC input and set to 12.4 volts. I then hooked everything up and set the dashcam battery setting switch to low charging (5A or so max) for this test. Note that you should not go by colors of the wires, and instead go by the name labels on them when connecting the 3 wire output cable to the HK4 Hardwire kit. I then charged the battery via the power supply, although the battery was already about 95% charged out of the box. I then verified the dashcam was running in normal recording mode. I then shut off the power supply and the camera went into parking mode as expected. Previously I had set the camera to run a max of 24 hours in parking mode. So the camera did run 24 hours in parking mode then the camera shut off automatically. It probably could have run longer but I didn't check that out. The HK4 Hardwire kit connected to the dashcam draws some 182ma of current at the HK4 input (where the dashcam battery connects to it) when the dashcam is in low bit rate recording parking mode. So theoretically the dashcam battery could supply at least 4500mah/182ma = 24.7 hours at say around 12 volts or so in parking mode (more since the dashcam battery output is above 12 volts for the actual output at this mah rating), so the battery worked as expected. It is helpful knowing what your dashcam draws in parking mode at 12 volts to gauge how long the camera will run in parking mode before dying. I then turned the power supply back on at 12.4 volts and it took approx. 1 hour to charge the dashcam battery back to full (green light on) while the dashcam was still hooked up with the dashcam starting in normal recording mode at the start of this charging. Current draw during this charging was approx 5.6 amps max (which occurred at the start and slowly dropped off) So far, so good, and the external dashcam battery has operated as expected. Next part of the review will be after I have installed everything in the car. Update 2-17-2025: So have now installed it in my car and it works as expected. At around 32 deg F temperature it powered my dash cam in parking mode (my single dashcam in low bit rate parking mode draws 182ma of current at the 12 volt output of the Thinkware battery) for at least 24 hours. So now the only thing to see is if it last over time (how many years) and how much it degrades over that time.