K3 power supply

[Hans]

Hi Norman,
The blue LED stays on, even when the ignition is off.
If the blue LED lights up continuously, the battery voltage is sufficient to use parking mode. If the LED flashes, this battery voltage is too low for packing mode, but the K3 will otherwise function normally.

[Norman]

Many thanks for the info Hans 👍

[Norman]

Hi in my previous message I asked is it normal for their to be a soiled blue light when the bike is off, now I’ve noticed the light is red when the bike is off 🤔

[Hans]

Hi Norman,
I suspect your battery is starting to go bad. Can you measure it with a multimeter? I think the battery voltage has dropped below 12V.

[Norman]

As long as the red light doesn’t indicate a fault that’s great, the another thing that worries me I’m using a thunder box for my switch live, surely that wouldn’t be a problem.

One other thing Hans, I went for a test ride earlier just to check camera positioning and when I came back and checked the footage on the SD card It recorded everything until I set off, very strange I must say.

[Hans]

A voltage that is too low can indeed cause problems. Perhaps this is also the reason why no recordings of the driving were made.

The Thunderbox does not switch off the yellow wire when you start driving? Because then the K3 switches off.
Perhaps there was also a (too) large voltage drop during starting, causing the K3 not to start up properly anymore.

[Frostie]

The status of the LED is quite simple.

When the Camera is off:

Solid blue LED => Battery voltage is > 12.4V. Parking Mode is available

Slid red LED => Battery voltage is < 12.4V. Parking Mode unavailable to prevent battery drain.

With ignition on (12V at the yellow cable)

Blinking blue LED indicates that the power module started the camera.

To my knowledge there is no status for a voltage < 12.4V while the camera is running, as in this state the engine should be running and the voltage should always be around 14.4V due to the running alternator. If you see a red LED on the power module while the engine is running, then there is something wrong on your bike.

So in fact it can cause unexpected behaviour if the voltage drops below 12V while the camera is running.

I experienced this myself a month ago. My bike (R1250GS) was in technical service and got its mandatory 2-year safety check. The whole time they kept the ignition on, but the motor off. So the K3 was running all the time and the battery voltages surely droppped notably. After that day, the K3 showed some strange behaviour. Instead of recording 10 min videos, as configured, the videos randomly stopped earlier (8:32, 7:45, etc.) with a 20 sec gap betweent the videos. So obviously the K3 sometimes restarted while riding. At some point it resetet itself to 1 min videos.

So I had to re-flash the firmware to bring everything back to normal operations.

[Norman]

I had the bike out for a long run on Sunday and viewed the footage when I got home and just to report everything is working as it should 👍

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help me with my issues 👌

[Hans]

Hi Norman,
Thanks for the feedback.
Have fun with the K3.