Digital ally trouble shoot

TLE911 LLC.

Member
Jan 2, 2016
58
Nebraska
I have a couple of digital ally DVM 800 in-car cameras that were installed recently. Since they have been in, the vehicle batteries have been draining over a course of a couple of days. Camera is hooked up to spec. Everything in on an ignition wire except the main power and power for body mic are hooked up hot as instructed. The cameras have beeb set on an internal 2 hour shut down timer. I have checked connections and power sources and they are only getting power when they're supposed to. Called digital ally and they want to try new firm ware which I don't believe is the issue. Has anyone else had this problem at all? How would I go about finding where the battery drain is coming from? I've done what I can think of and this problem didn't occur until new cameras were installed. One is in a 2013 charger and other in 2015 Ford interceptor utility.
 

buddek09

Member
Aug 15, 2012
339
US, Ohio
In order to find the problem you need a multi-meter to measure current so you can do a parasitic draw test. Unhook the negative battery cable and hook up the multi-meter between the battery cable and the battery.

You should now get a current reading, I don't remember what the Chargers should read, because it's been a couple years since I've had to do one, but it should be a few hundred milliamps to several. This reading depends on how much equipment is installed but it should not be over 1amp, if it is then you defiantly have a problem. Start pulling fuses one at a time, re-installing them before you move on to the next one. When you get to one that drops the current significantly, not just a couple milliamps, then you have found your problem. Start with the camera system first since it was the last thing to be installed.

Important notes: After the multi-meter is hooked up the cars computer systems will start up for a short period. It's best to watch the meter for a small drop in current to ensure the computers have went into sleep mode and won't give you a false positive making you think you found a problem. Sometimes you can hear them turn on and off.
It's the same reason to shut off the interior lights or wait for them to time out, if you can turn them off do so or find and pull the fuse for them. On the charger I usually unplug the light in the trunk during the test.
It's also a good idea to open all the doors because if you open a door during the test you will cause the vehicles computers to come out of sleep mode.
Finally, if you start the car up or trigger the ignition you will have to wait for all the equipment to fully shut down. So you will have to wait 2 hrs before doing the test to let the camera system turn off or reprogram it to turn off sooner for the tests.
 

bullfrog4ever

Member
May 29, 2014
336
Indiana
I have a couple of digital ally DVM 800 in-car cameras that were installed recently. Since they have been in, the vehicle batteries have been draining over a course of a couple of days. Camera is hooked up to spec. Everything in on an ignition wire except the main power and power for body mic are hooked up hot as instructed. The cameras have beeb set on an internal 2 hour shut down timer. I have checked connections and power sources and they are only getting power when they're supposed to. Called digital ally and they want to try new firm ware which I don't believe is the issue. Has anyone else had this problem at all? How would I go about finding where the battery drain is coming from? I've done what I can think of and this problem didn't occur until new cameras were installed. One is in a 2013 charger and other in 2015 Ford interceptor utility.

I know this has been a while, but did you ever find the solution to this? I'm having the same issue in a 09 Tahoe. Everything hooked to spec and have the WiFi and GPS hooked up to. Mine is still at the default 30 min shut down time (not sure how to change that or any other options). They only provided the installation manual, but there's no voltage and amperage listed. There's gotta be something that makes this have significantly more parasitic draw than the older models.
 

TLE911 LLC.

Member
Jan 2, 2016
58
Nebraska
you have to use the vuvault software which I'd download able from digital ally. they are only going to provide it to the agency unless you purchase it though. you can go in and change about everything. the ones I had, had a bad firmware. agency contacted them and they sent out new firmware. haven't had that issue since and they are set to a 2 hour shutdown now
 

bullfrog4ever

Member
May 29, 2014
336
Indiana
Perfect! Thanks so much! I'll go ahead and have the agency contact them for updated firmware. Appreciate the help!
 

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