It should be fine if you always park under shade. Supercaps can last 10c higher than lithium batteries. Supercap is not perfect either. So if the car is super hot, it will still get damaged. Also for brands like 70mai, I believe they also sell replacement batteries which can be swapped quite easily.

Addon: supercaps also have issue storing the power for long time. It's power will discharged faster than lithium. Which means it's won't work long under parking mode. That is why ddpai's parking mode now they must have hardwire kit in order to work.

Here is how parking mode in DDPAI mini3 works for those interested:
How mini3's parking monitor works:
1), When car engine is on, the camera will start to record normally based on 30FPS;
2), When car engine is off, the hardwire will detect the voltage change and then the camera changes to parking mode 1FPS time lapse recording immediately;
3), When car battery voltage lower than 12.4V or 12V or 11.8V ( you could choose in APP ), then the hardwire will cut off power automatically;
4), The defaulted maximum time of parking monitor is 24 hours, i.e. no matter if the voltage of car battery lower than the set voltage or not, the hardwire kit will cut off power automatically;

This post has been edited by abubin: May 11 2022, 03:36 PM

Really? My experience with supercapacitor is, the settings won't last as long as li-ion. After like a day of parking, there will not be enough power to even retain the settings of the dashcam. Maybe I was using lousy brand. It would be good if the supercaps in ddpai can last longer so that I don't need to keep re-doing the settings for the car that I seldom drive.

This post has been edited by abubin: May 11 2022, 05:38 PM

Thank you for the information. Will definitely test out the Z40 supercaps once I receive it. Cheers!

Is it possible that cheap dashcams don't have RTC battery?

This is the discharge diagram of lead acid battery and lifepo4. Should not let the battery discharge to lower than 11v. Depending on cars and battery health, sometimes min voltage need to be higher.

That is why getting a good hardwire kit is important as it will cut off the power if voltage is at certain threshold. So that it's doesn't drain your battery until you cannot start the car.

oh wow..this is good deal. Too bad I bought already! Dang it.

When I was buying, I also narrowed down to Mola N3 and Z40. Decided to go with Z40 because of the screen. I had to sacrifice GPS for Z40 because of my budget. I also plan to set only recording to 2k to reduce the storage usage.

Since there is a promo of RM399 for the Z40+rear+gps, go for it. The hardwire kit is around 49. So end up below your RM500 budget.

Mola N3 pro is sufficient if you just want the dashcam to record accidents. It can see plates good enough. Also get the hardwire kit for parking mode recording.

Save the money and but other things like bigger SD card 128gb or 256gb.

What's your requirement? Do you need rear cam? Do you need screen? Capacitor or li-ion battery?

My suggestion is ddpai mola is you don't need screen. Cause sacrificing the screen, you get higher spec. If you need screen then ddpai z40. Both are good quality at it's price point.

Yes, capacitor can handle malaysia sun better. If your car always parked indoor then battery is good enough for you.

As for getting rear dash, some sells it in one set, some sell separately..up to you to buy.

Interesting. How does dashcam record 10s before an impact/motion happen? It's always saving into the buffer?

Here is a PSA for those finding dashcam. Get one with hardwire and is recording even when car is parked. I have had 2 incidents where my car is recording accidents nearby while car is parked. It is very useful feature.