Thread: car battery

stock

stock batteries work perfectly fine for carputers?

even if you have gps, odb-II, etc ....

Yes, your Stock battery will be perfectly fine for you carputer, when the car is running the system is working off of your alternator anyway, While sitting with the engine off it will run down your battery after a while, depending on how new and how good your battery is. My stock motorcraft mustang battery will let me run my computer for about an hour before losing enough power to crank the car back up. If you do kill your battery, you'll just have to recharge it or jump it off, it's a proven fact that killing the battery and jumping it off too much shortens the life of the battery, computer of not, but that's common knowledge, I reccomend you carry a jump box around with you (a self contained battery and jumper cable) you can pick one up from an auto parts store or Wal-Mart for around $50 or less, this way you'll have the security of knowing if you do kill the battery, you can quickly get your car going again

PS I recommend cranking up your car every 15 minutes or so to keep the battery charged until you know just how long it can last.

I think people describing the problems with letting the computer run too long is exactly why you should upgrade. I am looking at the Optima Yellow top so that I can let it run down without damaging it. This isn't often but sometimes I am installing something in the car and when it comes to setting up the software I don't want to have the car running while I troubleshoot issues. Most of my setup is in the car and can take awhile.

The stock battery is fine if you only want to power your computer while the car is running. if you want some extra time for playing around then look at a deep cycle battery.

Sleeka:

How long...

An Opus 150W can run for many hours before draining your battery and should shut off automatically leaving enough power to start the car. There's even a jumper to delay shutdown upto 1hr after turning off you car (auto sync mp3s unattended or whatever when you pull into your garage).

Hijinks even gets ~90min of play time with a 300W inverter. I think some inverters also come with low voltage shutoff circuits. If not, you can use an inline device that does the same thing and leaves enough power to start your car.

i've got an optima yellow top since i do show my car and leave the system and computer running for a couple hours on end w/out starting the car... works quite well