Several Opus 150 problems...grrrrr

**camarossguy2** · 03-07-2005, 01:20 PM

Two things mostly.
1.My battery keeps dieing. after three days of sitting it will be so dead i cant even turn on the lights.
So i hooked up my fluke digital meter to the + terminal on the battery and the other side the to + cable to the car(seires basically with battery unhooked)

I have 2 drains. a .070 drain from my inside light fuse when the doors are shut i need to track down. and the 2nd come from my POWER ACCY fuse, but only when i have the opus plugged in. its .110 amps

So what do you think? i check to make sure the computer was shutting down and not standby....but i dont know what else to check. Im not running a radio, and the way i wired the opus was simply cut the old wirering harness and used the +, - and ign leads to wire the opus.

2. I cant get hybirnate to work with the opus. set the comp to hybirnate and turn the car off and it turns off...2 secs...turns on...boots...turns off..2 secs...turns on...boots....turns off....etc. I have to do a full shut down and reboot(witch takes 2 mins)...I would MUCH rather prefer to get hybirnate to work. help??

Also if the car is not running and i turn the key to on...it will turn on but shut down after maybe a minute(maybe drops below 12v???). I guessing some of these are related problems

PS battery is not an issue. I am using a optima now,(new) and before i have gone through several other batterys in the past year. the work fine in my other cars by die when they are succumed to the camaro.

Thanks guys

**jcdillin** · 03-07-2005, 03:15 PM

as far as the power drain, do you have a lot of USB devices?

and for the hibernation problem, if you are using XP then you need to go into control panel and go to power and make sure that the computer is set to hibernate when the power button is pressed.

and if that still does not work i would make sure you have the 2 pin connector coming from the opus plugged into the spot on the motherboard for the power button not the reset button or something else.

does the opus run correctly otherwise?

**rando** · 03-07-2005, 04:36 PM

The standby power drain issue is a well known feature of the Opus 150W and any other ATX compliant PSU. It' common for a standard isntall to pull 90mA+ even with your computer off (hibernate and standby are equivalent from a PSU standpoint). Search the forums to find a diagram of how to hook it up with a relay and a couple of diodes to completely kill the power. This will work for normal shutdowns and hibernate but not standby.

Your second problem is a bit more interesting. The only theory I can come up with is that your getting a significant voltage drop on your supply wires. Your factory wiring is probably only 18G -- far too small to power the Opus without a large voltage drop. Once you shut the car off, you car's power rail drops from 13.8V to around 12v. Your Opus is pulling 5A+ over that tiny 18G which could cause a drop of 1V or more (with connectors, etc factored in). At that point, the Opus sees an undervoltage condition and shutsdown. Once it's no longer pulling current, the voltage at its input rises and thus it powers back up. The cycle keeps repeating. Try hooking your Opus up directly to your battery using 8-10G for your power and ground wires and see if this problem doesn't go away.

The 70mA drain from the light in your car is suspicious also. Perhaps that one shuts down after a few minutes?

**jcdillin** · 03-07-2005, 04:41 PM

^ what he said

i'll go hide now

**camarossguy2** · 03-07-2005, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by jcdillin

as far as the power drain, do you have a lot of USB devices?

and for the hibernation problem, if you are using XP then you need to go into control panel and go to power and make sure that the computer is set to hibernate when the power button is pressed.

and if that still does not work i would make sure you have the 2 pin connector coming from the opus plugged into the spot on the motherboard for the power button not the reset button or something else.

does the opus run correctly otherwise?

The touch screen is my only USB device

i have it set up in the setting to go to hibernate...i guess im tending to agree with rando about the thin wires maybe not being able to hold the 12v. I will re-run the power wires directly from the battery and i guess and inline fuse?.

Hmm we will see. i will also looki nto this relay thing to totally kill opus power.

**jcdillin** · 03-07-2005, 04:56 PM

just seems strange, because I have a opus 150, I have a touchscreen attached to my USB and I only use standby. I have left my car that way for 4 days without a problem. my car battery is stock and about 2 years old.

**john1701** · 03-07-2005, 05:24 PM

here is the thread to disable the 5v on opus 150w
look at post #78 this will help you out.
Looking for a creative solution: USB bus still powered after CPU is off

also, i have the parts listed needed for this mod on fmev.com

**rando** · 03-08-2005, 02:14 AM

Originally Posted by john1701

also, i have the parts listed needed for this mod on fmev.com

Your color coded diagram of the relay hook-up is inconsistent with the schematic. First, there MUST be a diode on the ignition line. Second, unless you select a relay with a wide operating range, the second input to the relay coil should be the 12V line from the Opus, not the 5V line. Next, there really isn't a standard wire color of the ignition signal in cars though BLUE is typically used for this purpose. Finally, you should make your readers aware that not all ATX power connectors use the standard wire colors. It's always best to check with a meter.

**john1701** · 03-08-2005, 07:16 AM

First, it works with or without the diode.
second, the colors of the wires are from the OPUS. The yellow wire goes to ignition. RTFM!
third, its a guide, not etched in stone. It works. Been working for me now over two weeks with zero problems without the third diode.

**DeltaFX** · 03-08-2005, 08:08 AM

The 5V molex is off when PC is off/STD (at least my desktop works this way) so connect the relay's coil to 5v if it is a 5v relay, or to 12v if.. well you get the idea.

The diode is useless in this case. If the relay is controlled by some kind of open-collector control, then this diode MUST be present, or bad things will occur.