Thread: battery drain questions (lilliputs run on AC power)

Originally Posted by CTdubbin

how long can you guys leave your carPC's on without the car running before you drain your battery and can't start your car again? i'm not looking for "well depends on the voltage your regulator puts out and how old your battery is" kinda stuff, but just general terms. 5 minutes? half hour? all day? if the answer really is depending on your setup, how long have you personally done it for? i'm just looking for ballpark #s.

second, now that my tax return $ is here, it's time to start my plans for the ol' carpc again. but reading through some topics, i came across concerns that even while the computer is off, USB devices still eat power. I'm getting an opus 150W to run my system, and it has the shutdown feature on it where the PS will shut down the system after the ignition is switched off. i got 2 questions concerning this.

1: when the computer is off, do the USB devices still eat power?
2: if it does, does the opus PSU shut everything off and put 0V to the computer, or will it still let the USB devices function?

i'm thinking that I also want an override switch for my opus. how's about putting a switch on the 12V regulated (ignition) wire?

also, depending on how long you can run the computer with the alternator not running, I might want to wire my carputer so it only turns on/off with the motor running. any ideas on where i could put the ingition wire of my opus to accomplish that?

It is depending on your system and your battery, if you run a pure 12v system I would say ages on a good battery +6hours, if you run an inverter setup, then alot less, maybe 2 - 3 hours with pc on, if your battery is old then 10 mins will kill it

Good luck