Is Low Voltage an Issue with Cam Pan

I had a Pan Cam and worked well for about 1 week, The Pan Cam was powered via a car battery, a 12V/5V car USB adaptor. Then would not connect with wi-fi whether connected via the battery setup or via mains power and USB outlet. Thankfully we were able to get a refund for it but i have since thrown caution to the wind and bought another Pan Cam. My question is - could low voltage via the battery have damaged the Pan Cam?

I have seen some power issues (cam reset, extra whirring and clicking than normal) using a USB backup battery with two power ports plugged into a single usb lighter adapter when charging a phone and running the cam. A higher Watt car adapter would prevent this most likely, but I stop phone charging before disconnecting from lighter adapter now without any hiccups just to be safe rather than sorry. Hope that helps out

Hi @rogets123 Its hard to tell without more detailed information.

What 12v/5v automotive USB adaptor was used and what are the specs. Is it rated to deliver 5V @ 2A continuously. I had a cheap charger rated at 1.5 amp for my cell phone but it would shutdown after five minutes (maybe cooling) and then startup again. It never felt hot to the touch, just didn’t work very well.

How far below 12.6V was the car battery discharged. If it fell below the minimum voltage for the USB adaptor to regulate it may have failed and delivered unregulated voltage to the Pan Cam. Even if this happened only for an instant would cause damage to your device.

The regulator could have been switching in/out causing voltage spikes on the 5V output.

All this is speculation. I suspect the USB adaptor failed to regulate and presented over 5V to the PanCam.

@dr.know is correct that damage could easily occur with insufficient power supply and more information is needed to do more than speculate.

My scenario/experience was with a v2 cam not the Pan Cam. Comparing apples to oranges, my bad.

@rogets123, for the Pan Cam, direct connecting the car battery to a DC → AC inverter of sufficient power capacity would be a safer and more reliable solution.

Do your homework and plan ahead for current and future needs when selecting an inverter; buy cheap and you will get cheap results. Inverters are rated for peak output, look closely at the specs for use with continuous high power demand devices.

for GP: Power (Watts) = Voltage X Amps
→ 5V x 2A = 10W
→ 12V x 2A = 24W