Electronic Diet

RE: Electronic Diet

mcb1 — Fri, 23 Mar 2018 05:10:09 GMT

So part 2 is here https://www.element14.com/community/people/mcb1/blog/2018/03/23/electronic-diet-part-2

RE: Electronic Diet

three-phase — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 19:44:29 GMT

Look forward to following the project and seeing what your solution will be.

I have a second car stored away that suffers from the same issue and have wondered if there is a battery monitor module that would send a text message out when the voltage dropped below a preset level.

Kind regards

RE: Electronic Diet

DAB — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 19:17:18 GMT

Great idea Mark.

You need to understand the problem before you run off an make a lot of changes.

I look forward to seeing what you find.

DAB

RE: Electronic Diet

genebren — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 14:02:37 GMT

Mark,

Nice blog with some interesting thoughts. The constant drain on the battery is most likely the issue. An interesting approach to solving this might be augmenting the fuse block with the ability to shut off some of the circuits while the vehicle is parked for an extended time. The fuses could be replaced with jumpers to a fused and switchable circuit on another board. You might also be able to instrument a proto-board into this position to measure and log current flow to determine which circuits are responsible for the drain.

If all else fails, the solar panel trickle charger is a great idea.

Good luck,

Gene

RE: Electronic Diet

koudelad — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 07:59:17 GMT

Hello,

Just a few ideas to think about:

is the car battery in a good condition?
do you plan to build a circuit to estimate the capacity of the battery?
is the car parked somewhere near a power outlet, so you could equip it with a permanent charger that will take care of the battery? or maybe add some solar panel to just cover the consumption of the alarm?

The thing with car batteries is, that most of the people don't know about the condition (oxidized contacts, acid level, lead plates state) and the perception of the battery is different than in a cell phone / laptop / torch light etc. The car will start with any capacity let's say from 10 % to 100 % (if it provides enough current) and will recharge the battery (assuming the alternator is OK) during the drive. This really masks the real condition and I personally experienced a situation twice, when I started the car one day, drove 100 km, slept overnight and the next day was the battery dead. There was never a user observable indication that this would happen.

David

RE: Electronic Diet

jw0752 — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 04:42:58 GMT

Hi Mark,

I look forward to following this adventure. Thanks for the post.

John