Opus 150 Causing Drain or Bad Battery? Maybe 5vsb Issue?

JasonWW · 04-18-2006, 01:44 PM

My specs are in the sig.

2 weeks ago I got an Opus 150 and it's worked fine. During the week I drive the car every day and usually the off time is maybe 12 hours.
2 weekends ago I started using S3 standby during the week and it was fine. Then the weekend came and the car was off for over 24 hours and it cranked OK. I drove it around and the next day it wasn't OK. The car wouldn't crank. So I switched to Hibernation. This last weekend I had the car off for 30 hours and it cranked, but seemed a little slow. The voltage was 11.8v before I cranked it. So after driving around I left it off for about 24 hours again. This time I checked the voltage at the 15 hour mark and it was at 11.8v which is OK. I then checked on it after another 9 hours and the voltage was 9.8v!
How could it go down that low in only 9 hours?
Why did the Opus 150 let it get that low?
Won't the Opus turn off all power after 11volts? Or does the PC have to be running for it to do that?

I don't have any USB devices, but the mobo might be drawing a little from the 5vsb. Maybe that little extra drain is causing a mediocre battery to start to fail? I really can't explain a 3v drop in only 9 hours.
Do you think the battery is the problem?

I load tested the alternator with a sophisticated computer. It was putting out around 80 amps hot and under heavy load. It passed all the tests.

I'm going to try and run a battery test next.

Does anyone think the Opus can be drawing a little too much current when powered down?
Do you think I should mod the Opus to turn off the 5vsb, just in case?
Would doing so still allow the mobo to use S3 standby?

Any help would be appreciated.

JasonWW · 04-19-2006, 09:22 AM

Well, I tested the battery. The battery tester computer passed it the first time but I noticed that under the heavy load test the voltage got down to 9 something volts. So I decided to test it again without charging it. This time the voltage got down to 7.8 volts and it failed the test.

So it seems like this battery is OK for everyday driving, but as it goes down it loses voltage exponentially. Which makes sense due the large drop from 11.8v to 9.8v in only 9 hours with the PC off.

What a shame. My old battery was fine a month ago and then suddenly got an internal short and had to be changed. The current battery that I swapped in was from another car of mine I don't drive and was very reliable about holding a charge. Now it's going out too. Bummer.

Anyone have any recommendations for a good battery? I think the Optima Yellow Top is my best bet considering I have a big sound system, but it is pricy at $150 and has a not so good warranty. Any other suggestions?

Oh yea, the opus did shut down right at 11.3 volts. I was listening to it last night for about 20 minutes and it suddenly went into it's hibernation cycle. I thought I had bumped the key off of something, but I quickly glanced at my digital voltmeter and it was at 11.3. So I guess that Opus shutdown protection only works when it is running.

Can anyone else confirm this?

Pepe · 04-21-2006, 02:04 PM

Yes. Simple solution. Put a relay circuit inline with the Opus main power.
Problem solved.

JasonWW · 04-21-2006, 02:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Pepe

Yes. Simple solution. Put a relay circuit inline with the Opus main power.
Problem solved.

Nope, replacing battery.

Cutting the main power will not let you use suspend and I plan to use it.

CdRsKuLL · 04-21-2006, 02:53 PM

The opus will drain your battery FLAT.. it has no protection against draining your battery whilst its turned off, it drains it by supplying your MB with a constant current even when off. The protection it does have is that it will power down your MB if its turned on and the car battery drops below a certain voltage.

I went through 2 batterys with this.. I now run a M2 and i'm nearly happy.. lol

CdR

JasonWW · 04-21-2006, 09:21 PM

Do you know if the Opus protection circuit will work when the PC is in standby?

I'm also considering a solar charger in the passenger site t-top panel. I wonder if it will work well through the tint?

I'm also looking for a battery saving device. I haven't seen one in years, but they attach to the battery and monitor the voltage. They are like a smart circuit breaker. If it kicks in and cuts power to the car while in standby I think it will be OK as WN XP is pretty robust. Hopefully it won't be very often if at all. Anyone seen these devices?

BTW, I went through 3 of the M2's and they all had something wrong with them. I finally went with the opus 150 and it fired up the first time and has been perfect. The only other choice I see would be the DSATX 220 Watt. Anyone know if it has the low voltage protection when off?

chuckster · 04-21-2006, 09:37 PM

Don't want to thread jack here but do all Opus' have this problem? I think the newer ones have a fix for this as I have the Opus 120 and my truck was parked for two weeks while on vacation, back in Sept, and I had no problems starting it at all. In January I was on a week long vacation and I also had no problems at all. I assume there is very minimal draw with the 120. I know this subject is talked about a million times but it sounds like all Opus' would do this by reading cdrskull's message.

I was shutting down each time I turned off the ignition and I am now using hibernate which should be no different then a complete powerdown as far as the Opus is concerned. With standby there will always be draw on the battery but off course it should be minimal.

Chuck

JasonWW · 04-22-2006, 01:10 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JasonWW

I'm also looking for a battery saving device. I haven't seen one in years, but they attach to the battery and monitor the voltage. They are like a smart circuit breaker. If it kicks in and cuts power to the car while in standby I think it will be OK as WN XP is pretty robust. Hopefully it won't be very often if at all. Anyone seen these devices?

I found one! It 's called the Priority Start - Battery Power Saver.
http://www.lingenfelter.com/store/17758.html
It's a little pricey though. I don't like that it cuts power at 12v or the top mounts. I'll have to see if it will work for me and my application.

nkotch · 04-22-2006, 01:30 AM

In the manual it says it has protection from deep discharging of the battery. I personally just use Hibernation and have had no problems with mine. I bought mine from another user on here and he said he had it modded at OPUS to cut 5V power at shutdown so that is something you may want to look into. When you have it turned off put a meter on the 5V leads and see if there is still power there or not.

Also, even though your alternator tested fine that one time, you may want to try again at different times or at least try another time or so if you have access to the equipment. I had some battery problems about a month ago. Went to the shop, alternator tested perfect the first time, replaced the battery, and it died again. Tested alternator again and it was "inconclusive", apparently they say that an alternator that is going bad can be weird, sometimes it may test fine, other times it may be on the verge of going..... kind of depends on when you catch it. Could also just completely disconnect the OPUS for a couple days and see if you still have battery problems.

JasonWW · 04-22-2006, 10:17 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by nkotch

I bought mine from another user on here and he said he had it modded at OPUS to cut 5V power at shutdown so that is something you may want to look into.

I have, modding it will cause you to loose the suspend functionality. So I don't want to do that.

Quote: Originally Posted by nkotch

Also, even though your alternator tested fine that one time, you may want to try again at different times or at least try another time or so if you have access to the equipment. I had some battery problems about a month ago. Went to the shop, alternator tested perfect the first time, replaced the battery, and it died again. Tested alternator again and it was "inconclusive", apparently they say that an alternator that is going bad can be weird, sometimes it may test fine, other times it may be on the verge of going..... kind of depends on when you catch it.

I replaced the original alternator about 6 months ago because a bearing was making a noise. So I got a new factory alternator under warranty. When I had battery problems about a month ago the charging characteristics struck me as being fine. The battery shorted internally and constantly ran down even with no load on it, but I tested the alternator just to be sure. I work at a Pontiac dealership so I checked it with a GM computerized tester that can load it down while measuring the amperage it's putting out. You can't get much better than that. So I really don't think I have an alternator problem. I've rebuilt numerous alternators and know them inside and out, but I might check it again, just for the hell of it.

Quote: Originally Posted by nkotch

Could also just completely disconnect the OPUS for a couple days and see if you still have battery problems.

I don't think I can go without music for that long.

I'm using hibernation right now and since it's the weekend I may not drive anywhere for 24 or 30 hours, so I'll pull the power plug on it and see how it does. I know the PC is drawing some power, but I don't think it's excessive. I don't want to have to unplug the PC every weekend. I'm definately going to replace this battery and then I should be able to go back to using S3 suspend.

It's a cheap Walmart battery around 3 years old so I'm not too surprised anyway. I'm just trying to decide what battery to get. There's Optima Yellow Top, Stinger SP1000, Deka Intimidator, Exide Select Orbital XCD or Odyssey 925.

JasonWW · 04-22-2006, 10:38 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by chuckster

Don't want to thread jack here but do all Opus' have this problem? I think the newer ones have a fix for this as I have the Opus 120 and my truck was parked for two weeks while on vacation, back in Sept, and I had no problems starting it at all.

The 120's are different from the 150's. Opus is offering to mod the 150's to cut the 5vsb, but not eveyone want's that. I don't.
I would have got the 120 as I hear it's better, but I think I needed the beefier 150. My setup doesn't use as much power as most people think, but I don't know if a 120 would be OK for it.

I want to use S3 standby, so I didn't really think about needing the "hard off" ability that the M2 and maybe 120 has. Or maybe the 120 has the low voltage protection when off, I dont know. Anyway, I wish the 150 had low voltage protection when off. It just makes sense, you know?

JasonWW · 04-25-2006, 10:58 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by nkotch

Could also just completely disconnect the OPUS for a couple days and see if you still have battery problems.

This weekend I unplugged the main power while it sat all day. The voltage seemed fine and the battery didn't go down much at all. I know it's still a flakey battery by not being able to recover from a high load so I'm going to get a Optima red top next week.

So know I wanted to know how much current the PC was drawing when off, so I went out and bought a new DMM. I measured my current draw by putting the leads inline between the power wires.

Off it was 330mA!
I turned the PC on and then let it go off again and it went down to 190mA. There is something about cutting power and then connecting it again that makes it draw the higher 330mA. Once the PC cycles once it returns to the normal 190mA which is about average I think.

S3 standby/suspend was 280mA. Also average I believe. So I guess it's just my battery being old, going out and not being able to handle this small load for long.

BTW, my PC was drawing about 4.5amps when running which is less than I thought it would be. I know the Opus 150 has a 15A fuse which is about it's limit before something will melt. During start up I saw around 6.3 amps at it's highest.

nkotch · 04-25-2006, 11:11 AM

So the 330mA and then the 190mA were using Standby?

When you did hibernation the 280mA was just the PSU drawing power and should just be it keeping 5V powered because a computer in hibernation uses no power at all. Mine has that 5v mod done and I use hibernation so when I get a sec I may go check the draw on it with everything off just to see what it's drawing at the bare minimum (no 5v, computer in hibernation, etc..)

JasonWW · 04-25-2006, 11:13 AM

Sorry to confuse you, I wrote the wrong thing. I corrected it.

My DMM can handle up to 10 amps, BTW so anyone checking the running current needs to make sure their DMM can handle at least 10 amps. Most DMM are fused and will blow it if it goes over 10amps, but some are not fused.

judge g · 05-15-2006, 12:48 PM

Has anyone wired up 2 batteries? I have a standard battery on my vito and a leisure battery alongside it. I have a trickle charge to the leisure battery, but this won't be enough to keep it charged. Has anyone linked up both batteries in parrallel via a relay??
Cheers
JG