How long can an opus power the computer running without Durango running??

nolmscheid · 10-30-2002, 11:20 PM

Ok. I am doing a test on my system in my 2001 Dodge Durango.

Opus Power Supply
SV24 Motherboard
C3 900 Mhz processor
ATI All In Wonder Graphics Card
60 GB 7200 rpm Maxtor
10.4 Datalux Touch Screen 500 nit (capacitive)
Pioneer Slot Load DVD
USB Sound Card
Copilot GPS
Wireless keyboard/mouse

I have all this connected to my computer during this test. I am running Mp3 songs during the duration of this test using Winamp 3.

I turned the computer on, with the truck powered off at 5:10 pm. It is now 11:10 and the PC is still running and playing Mp3's happily.

Should we do bets on to how long it will last. This is just flooring me! Supposely the OPUS will power the PC down when it sees my truck battery get to low. I guess we will see if that really happens.

Nathan

P.S. I have the wifes car and jumper cables ready in case the opus doesn't sense my low batter in the truck! :-)

nolmscheid · 10-31-2002, 12:12 AM

The system ran for 7 hours and 50 minutes. However the OPUS did NOT leave me enough power to crank the engine. So it didn't turn it off soon enough. Ohh well. Don;t think I would ever leave it that long anway.,

If I can run full power for basically 8 hours, I should be able to run standby for a LONG time. So I am going to use that from now on to get a super fast boot time.

The saga has ended!

Nathan

Raas · 10-31-2002, 03:40 AM

Hi,

the battery may not have contained enough juice to start the car directly after the test.. maybe, if you´d wait for half an hour, the battery might recover, and ´recharge´ itself... only a few 0.* volts.. but that just might be enough to crank the engine !

anyways... you´re right.. the system isn´t using that much power when in standby..
you can start the car with leaving the dome-light in the car all night, and I don´t thing a computer in standby modus will use more power than this dome-light.

greetz,

nolmscheid · 10-31-2002, 07:20 AM

I have heard people's vehicles running in standby for 4-5 days.

If I would have waited I don't think it would have made a difference. I had a heck of a time getting it charged back up. I could get it to turn over but could not get it to idle. I very trickly threw it into reverse and headed out of the garage, then shifting back into drive was no easy task...I missed three stop signs, anytime I slowed down it wanted to die. I went a block or two and then headed onto a major hwy where the speed limit is 70. I drove for about 15 minutes each way. Its all charged up now.

freestyler · 10-31-2002, 08:18 AM

I don't think the speed limit is 70 there

good thing that good ole copper wasn't working

in any case that's pretty cool that your truck ran for that long, nathan was quite funny during this test, running up and down his stairs every hour to check it.

my inverter wines after 5 minutes

time to get an opus and a new batt...mine is so shot

nolmscheid · 10-31-2002, 08:42 AM

Yeah, Freestyler got the minute to minute status. My wife thought I was crazy....running from upstairs to downstairs out in the garage every 10 minutes.

If I would have been smart i would have parked the truck out side where I could see the screen from upstairs. I didn't think it would last that long so I never though of things like that.

If the OPUS guy reads this. Is there anything that I need to switch so it wouldn't have drained the battery quite so long. It had enouygh power to power interior lights, but thats all. It took a lot of driving before it would idle as well. So it must have been pretty dead.

Nathan

Twostep · 10-31-2002, 09:17 AM

Just a warning... Hopefully you won't be testing like that often, because running a car battery all the way flat as few as 10 times can completely wreck the battery. I also would be a bit weary of leaving your computer in standby all the time as well.

Car batteries are not deep cycle, which means they are designed to stay above 80 or 90% charged at all times. Taking them below that results in the lead flaking off the lead plates and collecting at the bottom of the battery. Once enough lead flakes off, the lead bridges the gap between the lead plates and you have a dead battery. Deep cycle batteries have lead plates that are shorter, so it takes more lead flakes to bridge the gap between the plates.

I find that XP or 2000 wake up from hibernate pretty darn quick, you might want to consider using that instead.

Twostep

nolmscheid · 10-31-2002, 09:20 AM

This was a one time deal.

I am just going to do standby during the day probably. I go out for lunch and stuff, so the battery would not get very low.

Telek · 11-01-2002, 11:16 AM

I would still be wary of long-time standbys...

Another point to remember is that car batteries are designed to give a LARGE power load for a SHORT period of time... You can get far more total power taking 60A than taking 0.5A. Even if standby only drains your battery 15% while you're using it, doing this on a daily basis will definitely wear out your battery much much sooner than if you weren't using it.

If you really wanna use standby, consider getting either a replacement or supplimental deep cycle battery... especially if you have a truck then you don't have to worry about space concerns.

However w2k and wxp do come out of hibernate really quickly if you have a small amount of memory (you don't need > 256MB in your in-car system)... Really it's only a few seconds difference between standby and hibernate, so why not just use hibernate? Save yourself some battery wear in the long run.

nolmscheid · 11-01-2002, 11:21 AM

I plan on trying out hibernate as well.

As far as the standby and wearing out the battery. I don't keep my vehicles long enough to have to worry about the battery wearing out? hehe Or I just throw a new one in, they aren't too expensive.

I will try both and see what kind of boot up times I get.

Someone on this board has been using standby for over a year. Can't remember who that was.

I know its probably not the best for the battery, but its a battery...they make more! :-)