Optima Battery survive crank

michaelrj9 · 04-12-2005, 03:35 PM

Hi all,

Thanks for Looking

I was wondering if anyone knows will an Optima Battery or similar type battery help survive crank? Or it will not help at all?

I need to get a new battery for my car because of the old batteries age and because of my stereo system anyway so I was thinking maybe of getting a Optima Battery or similar type battery if it would help survive crank.

It will be the only battery in the car.

I am using an inverter.

Or Will I still need CarPC Tank EZ v1.0 - The Simple Tank or similar device?

Thanks for your advice

Scouse Monkey · 04-12-2005, 03:46 PM

It depends what you are using to power your PC. I have a 4 year old crappy battery and my 300W belkin inverter survives crank fine, not even causing trouble to a booting or playing divX laptop with the battery removed with the headlights and stereo on (a 'worse possible scenario' test i ran to check for cranking issues)

Dudes99 · 04-12-2005, 03:57 PM

umm, does your inverter power off when you crank currently? Try testing it with some sort of similiar load on it.

antimatter · 04-12-2005, 04:13 PM

yes it will help. I had an opus 90w and still couldn't survive crank untill i upgraded the wiring to 8gauge and put in the yellowtop. I am using it as the only battery in my car for about 1 year now with no problems

Sonicxtacy02 · 04-12-2005, 04:14 PM

what type of inverter? An inverters abililty to survive crank is pretty much dependant on its wattage and how you have it connected. A yellow/red top should certainly help but only if the inverter is connected directly to the battery and properly grounded. I own a yellow top and i've never had my inverter fall flat during crank.

michaelrj9 · 04-12-2005, 05:05 PM

thanks for all your help
I am using a 700 watt inverter not sure what brand?
which will not survive crank...

using a shuttle pc amd 2400 thoroughbred chip
1 usb port being used.
2 serial ports being used
512 ram
WD 250 GB Hard Drive

I had a cobra 400 watt inverter lying around just tried that out and it survives crank every time ( tried about 20 times all in about 5 minute time) but maybe 1 out of 7 times when I shut the car off it shuts down for a second just enough to reboot the PC.

maybe it will be ok if i do not turn on and off the car like i did to test it?
maybe in the real world it will be better?
what you think?

The inverter is conected straight to the battery.It is not on switched ignition.

on the cobra inverter I had a volt meter on it with the car off and inverter off (just to test voltage in trunk from battery in front) it was about 12.5v. and with the inverter and pc running with the car off it was about 11.50v with the car started with inverter and pc running it was about 13.5v.

that is with using only 14 ga power wire from battery to trunk.
I think it might be time to upgrade wire to 8 ga or 6 ga?

could I use the 1/0 power cable running to my amps?
or am I going to have problems using the same wire?
1/0 cable is for 1 Orion 2500d amp pushing 2 orion 12" h2 subs. and 1 Orion 800x4 amp for the 2 sets of orion P-SERIES components.
would the 1/0 cable be able to handle the extra wattage from the inverter and PC?

Thanks for all your help.

michaelrj9 · 04-12-2005, 09:22 PM

I still Don't understand why the cobra inverter will kill the PC when I turn off the car (sometimes not all the time).when the inverter is conected straight to the battery it seems like it should not mater if i turn off the car but it does survive crank every time.

The other inverter never had a problem when I shut off the car but it would never survive crank.

Its like my problem just reversed itself when i switched inverters.

any sugestions?

Thanks

khemical · 04-12-2005, 10:16 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sonicxtacy02

A yellow/red top should certainly help but only if the inverter is connected directly to the battery and properly grounded.

Red = bad, just stick to Blue/Yellow tops (yellow being the more common for car audio, blue has more crank amps)

WebDog · 04-12-2005, 10:31 PM

Red is good for starting engine, yellow is good for electronics.

I have both connected as one big battery right now.

Dudes99 · 04-13-2005, 08:15 AM

Michael, I would thnk that the 400 watt inv would work for that system wouldn't it? Have you tried that set up?

Sonicxtacy02 · 04-13-2005, 09:09 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by khemical

Red = bad, just stick to Blue/Yellow tops (yellow being the more common for car audio, blue has more crank amps)

Um blue is used in marine applications, red is the battery with the cranking amps. I think you are confused. I've never seen somenoe with an optima BLUE top in the car.

michaelrj9 · 04-13-2005, 09:10 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Dudes99

Michael, I would thnk that the 400 watt inv would work for that system wouldn't it? Have you tried that set up?

hi,
yes i have THE 400 WATT INV in the car now but like i said it will not survive being shut off (sometimes) it survives crank everytime but once maybe 1 out of 7 times when i shut the car off it imediatly shuts down for a second just enough time to reboot the PC not letting the CarPC Pro v.2.4 shut down unit do its job.

any ideas?

Thanks

Dudes99 · 04-13-2005, 12:13 PM

Hmmmm, considering that maybe you ought to look into that tank circuit. Sorry I couldn't help.

I personally am looking into the second battery option (not just for the PC though).

migel628 · 04-13-2005, 01:01 PM

Given the yellow vs red discussion, is yellow really good for car audio as well as the car pc? I was under the impression that the red top was better for this app. Just curious...

khemical · 04-13-2005, 02:13 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sonicxtacy02

Um blue is used in marine applications, red is the battery with the cranking amps. I think you are confused. I've never seen somenoe with an optima BLUE top in the car.

Your right. I havent been looking for batteries for a while and got some details crossed. The red-tops are not deep-cycle, but have more CCA. The yellow-tops are deep-cycle, but don't have as many CCA. (And I use blue tops too, boats need subwoofers too

) So, for the OP, if you are playing your system while the car is off for extended periods of time, you probably would want to get a yellow top under the hood. Personally, i would go with a dual battery setup (two yellows, or OEM(hood)/yellow(back) or red(hood)/back).

Depending on your setup (comp and audio), you may be tolling your car more than you think. Maybe if you post your "stereo system" specs, and the amperage of that invertor, someone could point you in the direction you should be headed for clean system. Something you could do to help, rather cheaply at that, is the "Big 3" (replacing the wires from alt->battery, battery->fusebox, battery->good ground with low gauge (4-8) wire). Oh and how is your invertor connected? straight to battery (assuming this)? what gauge wire?

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