[mike]

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.
With my driving habits, I'm gonna have a perpetual dead battery.

Of course, this doesen't show up on the spec sheet.
I sent a note to customer service, but I don't expect a rational
reply from them. Is this a common problem?

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...;-)

Thanks, mike

[KU40]

your radio will draw some current so that it can keep your settings.
But I'm not sure how much that would be, 1/4 amp seems like too much.
but I don't know.

where is the main +12v power wire hooked up to? did you test on that
wire or the acc. wire (aka- red or yellow)?


--
KU40

[GregS]

In article , KU40 wrote:

your radio will draw some current so that it can keep your settings.
But I'm not sure how much that would be, 1/4 amp seems like too much.
but I don't know.

where is the main +12v power wire hooked up to? did you test on that
wire or the acc. wire (aka- red or yellow)?

If its a 1/4 amp fuse, thats Ok. One should like to have less than 10-20 ma
max draw from the battery for any great length of time. Even that is hard on a
battery if it sits for a week or two. Radio settings should be in the microamp
range.

greg

[Matt Ion]

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?

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).

[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

[Matt Ion]

mike wrote:

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.

It does indeed...

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?

I'd tend to think not... but then I've never measured a deck's idle current.

[Chad Wahls]

"Matt Ion" wrote in message
news:PFIhh.496825$1T2.457808@pd7urf2no...
mike wrote:

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.

It does indeed...

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?

I'd tend to think not... but then I've never measured a deck's idle
current.

But the red wire is switched so it's no problemo right?

Chad

[mike]

Chad Wahls wrote:
"Matt Ion" wrote in message
news:PFIhh.496825$1T2.457808@pd7urf2no...

mike wrote:


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.

It does indeed...


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?

I'd tend to think not... but then I've never measured a deck's idle
current.


But the red wire is switched so it's no problemo right?

Chad


Well...

The red wire is switched if you swtich it. I wasn't gonna.

But that's not the only issue. That much current drain when off, is a
serious design error. Yes, vendors sometimes do stupid things, but
you'd expect I'd not be the only one with an issue.

My "conclusion" is that mine's broke and current is going somewhere it
shouldn't...like
a leaky output amplifier. It's more likely to get worse than better.
It's a walmart special, so good luck getting parts.

I really like the radio. And it was cheap.

Looks like my options are down to piling test equipment into the truck
and driving way across town to test another one in the parking lot.
Be just my luck to get one with low drain but CD drive issues. It's
always something...

mike