Date:         Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:53:15 -0800
Reply-To:     Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      Re: Radio Rap...friday
Comments: To: mcneely4@COX.NET
In-Reply-To:  <20111230141254.FJOS7.175820.imail@eastrmwml108>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Some head units suck power even with it turned off. I found that taking the face plate off mine reduced current draw form something like 80-100 mA to around 25 mA. It is crazy I know, for the buggers to suck power like that, but so it goes.

alistair
On 2011-12-30, at 11:12 AM, Dave Mcneely wrote:

> ---- Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> First, to add to a recent thread about radios and wiring them in:  My Sony
>> unit, when wired into my vehicle battery...it would take the battery down
>> in about 5 days from a full charge/excellent battery.  A standard new NAPA
>> battery would simply not start the van after that time, without it being
>> run in the interim.   I added a toggle switch to kill the power to the
>> radio when it's not in use and all is good now.
> 
> Why not just switch the radio off?  That's what I do.  It does not run my battery down that way.  Now, having learned a long time ago that batteries do discharge over time whether any draw is hooked to them or not, I do run my van occasionally to keep it up.  Procrastination has kept me from getting a solar charger to keep it up.  Got to do that.  But it won't help much when we have day on day of gray weather.  mcneely