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Technology and Cars


menthe
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Neither topic is exactly my "specialist subject" so please bear with me while I explain.

Changed my car to an on-line company and, in the interest of saving some dosh (see, right topic?) have opted for a device that tracks your trips and, if you only do low kilometrage, you get refunds throughout the year.

This is our smaller second car, so thought this would suit.

The insurers sent me a small gadget to plug into the OBD and it has fascinated me that I could track where I have been, what address I stopped at, for how long, and when I eventually return home.  Tells me the time of the trajets, the distance travelled, how much I have saved for the following month.

So far so good.....please be patient!! Precisely because this car is little used, I am now worried that the gadget might be draining my battery.  It winks even when the car is stationary in the garage.

Question:  can I detach the gadget if the car is unused for say several days and re-attach it as necessary?  I don't want to keep plugging it in and taking it out of the OBD which is in an awkward position below the driving wheel.  There is however, another connection along a cable that is more easily attached and unattached.  Can I therefore disconnect the gadget at the connection plug and would that ensure that it's not using up the battery?

Thank you for reading and of course thank you in advance for your answers.

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Difficult to answer accurately as you haven't told us how long the car is idle for, the car model and hence the likely capacity of the car battery.

The best thing to do would be to unplug it when the car isn't being used. 

Was there any technical information supplied with the tracking gadget which may indicate how much electrical drain it creates? - look for a figure in ma or Ma ( milliamps) or possibly watts or  even milliwatts.

I'm a bit puzzled by:-

"there is however, another connection along a cable that is more easily attached and unattached"

So you have 2 obd ports?

Edited by Harnser
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If you disconnect the device or the battery this will be recorded, so the record of the car's movements will not be complete. As far as your insurance company could tell, you could be driving hundreds of kilometers whilst it is disconnected.

Why don't you ask the company what the consumption is, and what they suggest?

If this is a newish car, disconnecting the battery could also cause problems, and is usually not recommended. Check the car's handbook.

A good reliable trickle charger is HERE . I have one in each of our vehicles, always connected to the battery, so we just open the bonnet to connect it with an extension cord.

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I would simply wait until a low charge battery problem occurs. Your security system is probably active throughout the down time when it is locked and idle. The device will automatically go into standby mode reducing the current drain while maintaining continuity with the driving record. Monitoring is usually carried out in regular, very short bursts of activity so the battery drain is minimised.

If you are leaving the car parked up for a week or more, it should be easy to discover if the battery is low when you first start the car again. Just be prepared to charge the battery if your fears are in fact correct ( and I am wrong - again ).

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OK, driven the car and it has recorded today's journey. 

In answer to Harnser's being puzzled by this: "there is however, another connection along a cable that is more easily attached and unattached", I would say that the second connection is just an extension plug, still along the same cable.

Ssomon, I might just get one of those as it could be a useful gadget to have for both cars

Hectorsdad, thank you....that is an excellent suggestion.

As to the "power" of the tracker, I read that it is less than 1 amp.  Do I stil need to verify the battery capacity? 

Thanks again, everyone.  I have learned from all the answers😁

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9 hours ago, ssomon said:

If this is a newish car, disconnecting the battery could also cause problems, and is usually not recommended.

Thank you ssomon for your timely intervention. I have a number of cars but none is less than ten years old ( heck one even has a crank as the emergency starter ). You were right to raise the alarm when I suggested disconnecting the battery. 👍

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On 12/01/2023 at 19:22, DaveLister said:

Thank you ssomon for your timely intervention. I have a number of cars but none is less than ten years old ( heck one even has a crank as the emergency starter ). You were right to raise the alarm when I suggested disconnecting the battery. 👍

We have one car 27 years old and another 29 years old.

If the battery is disconnected in the older car, all the calculated and stored corrections which have to be applied to the original settings for the fuel mixture and ignition timing etc. as the engine wears are lost, and the engine runs quite roughly for the next 30 to 50 km, until new corrections are established for specific driving conditions.

For the newer car, only the memory for the electric window open and closed positions for "one button" operation are lost. These can be reset by a procedure I can never remember, but eventually reset themselves after a day or two.

In any case, I use a MEMORY SAVER , which plugs into the lighter socket, to avoid any inconvenience if I have to disconnect either battery.

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Interesting. I don't think any of my cars are that clever😀. Most sit outside with the battery disconnected and I haven't noticed any of them running more roughly when I start them up (although I don't pretend to be an expert on these things). Certainly none of them have failed an emissions test during a Control Technique and I've had no comments from the garage when I've taken them in for service. In fact I think it was a mechanic who first suggested the interrupts.

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