[mike]

Matt Ion wrote:
mike wrote:

I bought a car radio/cd player.
Vr-3 VRCD400-SDU
I'd like to leave it powered and use it's on/off switch
to turn it on/off.
But the darn thing draws 1/4 AMP when it's turned off.


Where are you measuring this?

It's on the bench using a power supply.
The yellow backup wire draws essentially zero. The PS meter
has only 1mA resolution and I've not bothered to measure any more
precicely than ~zero mA.
The Red power wire is the one consuming 230mA.
Speakers are disconnected, output from PreOut to amplified speakers.
System draws 800mA or so average playing a mp3 CD.
230mA when switched off sounds excessive.

Of course, this doesen't show up on the spec sheet.


Of course not. A deck's idle current isn't generally a concern to people.

I sent a note to customer service, but I don't expect a rational
reply from them. Is this a common problem?


What, not expecting a rational reply from customer service? Far TOO
common, alas.

When I take it back and go looking for a better one, how do I find out
without buying it? I have a clamp-on current probe, maybe I'll
sneak behind the demo panel...;-)


I don't think you'll find anything particularly "better", unless your
specific deck actually has something wrong with it. The only thing it
needs to draw current for when off is the memory backup, and that will
be mostly the same for any deck (although personally, I don't know why
they even bother anymore - they solved the problem with shuttle decks
years ago).

Well, that was my quesiton. Is 1/4A when off typical?

mike