barry_swanne

I'm on the verge of installing my car PC and will soon be hooking it up to the battery. I'm worried though that the stock battery will not be poweful enough to do the job.

The car PC uses an M1-ATX (90w) and I plan to use this in the '5-sec/Never' mode meaning it will go into hibernation 5 seconds after the ignition if turned off and will continue to be powered (about 100ma on the 5V rail) indefinately unless the voltage of the battery drops below 11v in which case power will be cut off.

Has anyone used the M1-ATX or similar with the stock battery in this way? If so does this cause any problems?

I should mention that abouut 8 months ago I completely discharged (then had to recharge) the battery when the engine flooded after I stupidly moved the car 2 feet without letting the engine warm up and then going on holiday for a week. Would this have affected its performance? It's been fine ever since.

Also, last week when I was reinstalling the nav screen I had the doors open for a few hours and the car had been sat for 4 days without running, the next morning the battery 'sounded' weak when I started the car, it did eventually start and after a 20 mile journey has been fine ever since.

Last question: Does anyone know what the specs of the stock battery (i.e AH/CCA) are?

Thanks in advance for your help!

barry_swanne

Ok, well I'm thinking of getting one of these: http://www.tayna.co.uk/088-Numax-Car-Battery-P1007.html I know everyone rates the Optima yellow tops but they cost between £249 and £319 which is a bit pricey.

What do ppl think?

alz0rz

iTrader: (41)

i never had a problem with my m2atx in my carpc

i set it to hibernate/standby 5 min after the key was fully off and to just stay like that.

the m2atx has a safety feature built in where it will shut down the PC after the battery drops below a certain voltage, it won't even let the computer start up (even manually) until its above the voltage safety threshold

i never had a problem with a drained battery

barry_swanne

Thanks, that's what I wanted to hear. I think I'll see how it goes with the stock battery then.

barry_swanne

Well I was installing everything today, disconnected the battery while I was wiring things up, reconnected the battery once everything was in place and the PC worked fine first time.

I had to do some confuguration in centrafuse as the GPS wasn't working and while I was doing this the PC was running with the engine off and doors open for about 45 minutes.

This was enough to drain my battery completely and it is now currently charging.

Now I'm worred that If I leave the PC in hiberation mode overnight (once the battery has been charged), the car won't start.

Any advice on what I should do, new battery?