Turn your car into a Mobile Hotspot - Page 3

forestacademy · 08-06-2009, 03:11 PM

Wrong thread, Try Cell phone use while driving?

Is it still driving if your engine is off, If your waiting for a train or a bridge, your engine should be off. If all else fails, lean over to the pasenger seat

That said, I have heard of folks being busted for dui while sleeping drunk in their pick up truck. The laws take on it was as long as they were in posetion of the keys and thus control of the vehicle while drunk they were driving drunk. Not that I agree with that interpritation of the law.

NCC1701 · 08-06-2009, 05:05 PM

Well, I called the manufacturer for specifics. I was told the Autonet Mobile router draws 2 Amps while in operation. The pleasant lady I spoke with was not aware of the optional 3 Watt amplifier sold as an accessory on their web site ... so she couldn't tell me how much additional power it draws. But, she verified that other people do use this ISP in the manner I have been contemplating. i.e., as mobile broadband as well as at home from the car parked outside.

She said there would not be a problem draining the car's battery in 24 hours of non-running use, and that it did have low voltage protection (shutting itself off if the car's voltage dropped too low).

So, with that concern out of the way I can now address the price.

YouTube - Cheap Autonet Mobile KT-ANMRTR-01...

YouTube - Autonet

John_H · 08-06-2009, 11:56 PM

The Optima 34R battery is only 50 Amp Hours? If the 3W amplifier took 0.5A (reasonable: 50% power, 50% efficient) the battery would drain in 20 hours of non-use.

I don't like the idea of a 25W or 30W light bulb staying on in my car overnight.

I honestly think the unplugged car would be unhealthy if the hotspot is drawing a constant 2A. I'd talk to the tech support folks rather than customer service. It's possible that most of the time when unused, the power draw is much less.

bcope01 · 08-07-2009, 07:48 AM

Crutchfield has the Autonet Mobile discounted to $199 ($200 rebate):

Autonet Mobile Router Wireless Internet service provider for your car at Crutchfield.com

**jwight** · 08-07-2009, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by forestacademy

That said, I have heard of folks being busted for dui while sleeping drunk in their pick up truck. The laws take on it was as long as they were in posetion of the keys and thus control of the vehicle while drunk they were driving drunk. Not that I agree with that interpritation of the law.

In Ohio it's called having physical control of a vehicle while intoxicated; similar in most states I believe.

Physical Control of a Vehicle While Intoxicated

shack01 · 08-07-2009, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PerryA

Next they'll outlaw texting while dining.

Hey, that's already a law at my house!

tm

NCC1701 · 08-07-2009, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_H

The Optima 34R battery is only 50 Amp Hours? If the 3W amplifier took 0.5A (reasonable: 50% power, 50% efficient) the battery would drain in 20 hours of non-use.

I don't like the idea of a 25W or 30W light bulb staying on in my car overnight.

I honestly think the unplugged car would be unhealthy if the hotspot is drawing a constant 2A. I'd talk to the tech support folks rather than customer service. It's possible that most of the time when unused, the power draw is much less.

From what I've been able to determine, the 34R has 50 Amp Hours, with 800 to 850 Cold Cranking Amps. I don't know what the difference is though.

? Are you comparing a 25 watt light with the current draw from this router?

I downloaded the owner's manual. In it there is a reference to the router going into sleep or standby mode if there is no activity for a period of time.

I'm afraid I've missed my chance to speak with technical support until at least Mondy. I did see the post here that Crutchfield is offering a $200 rebate. I sure hate rebates, I've never sent one in so I usually ignore them and make a purchase decision based on the regular price.

But, $200 may just be substantial enough to bother with it, LOL

John_H · 08-07-2009, 05:42 PM

Power is measured in Watts which is Volts * Amps.
A 2 Amp circuit powered by 12 Volts is 24 Watts.

If the 2A is specified for a different voltage, a switching converter could deliver most of the watts to the desired voltage from your car battery without significant loss. If it's designed for a car, I'd expect the voltage is 12V.

Batteries are rated in Amp Hours - because of the battery chemistry - rather than the way you by your electricity which is in Watt Hours (a measure of energy rather than power).

If you have a current rating of 2A at the battery voltage and a 50 Amp Hour rating, the division gives you 25 hours of run time at 2A. Bump it to 2.5A and you're at the point where the battery capacity is actually specified at 50Ah for a 20 hour run. The 880 cold-cranking amps just means you could wire 440 of these devices up and power them for several seconds as you would want to do starting a car.

You'd need to verify the currents are specified for 12V, know the active power or current (is it really 2A or is that a maximum?), standby power or current, and how much of the day it's active. It's just the active hours times active current added to the standby hours times standby current and you have the overall drain.

Whether your car charges back up in the daily use is another kettle of wax. Ball of fish? A box of Kleenex issue.

The MiFi suggests that it can run well off a small enclosed battery. At 3.6V and 780mAh my cell phone battery would run a 12V, 2A device for about 7 minutes. That doesn't compare properly to the MiFi. I'm wondering if there's something very wrong with the numbers you got.

NCC1701 · 08-07-2009, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_H

The MiFi suggests that it can run well off a small enclosed battery. At 3.6V and 780mAh my cell phone battery would run a 12V, 2A device for about 7 minutes. That doesn't compare properly to the MiFi. I'm wondering if there's something very wrong with the numbers you got.

I greatly appreciate the feedback John. More data (or more credible data) seems to be called for. Have to wait until Monday.

BobDiaz · 08-08-2009, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_H

Power is measured in Watts which is Volts * Amps.
A 2 Amp circuit powered by 12 Volts is 24 Watts.

If the 2A is specified for a different voltage, a switching converter could deliver most of the watts to the desired voltage from your car battery without significant loss. If it's designed for a car, I'd expect the voltage is 12V.

Batteries are rated in Amp Hours - because of the battery chemistry - rather than the way you by your electricity which is in Watt Hours (a measure of energy rather than power).

If you have a current rating of 2A at the battery voltage and a 50 Amp Hour rating, the division gives you 25 hours of run time at 2A. Bump it to 2.5A and you're at the point where the battery capacity is actually specified at 50Ah for a 20 hour run. The 880 cold-cranking amps just means you could wire 440 of these devices up and power them for several seconds as you would want to do starting a car.

You'd need to verify the currents are specified for 12V, know the active power or current (is it really 2A or is that a maximum?), standby power or current, and how much of the day it's active. It's just the active hours times active current added to the standby hours times standby current and you have the overall drain.

Whether your car charges back up in the daily use is another kettle of wax. Ball of fish? A box of Kleenex issue.

The MiFi suggests that it can run well off a small enclosed battery. At 3.6V and 780mAh my cell phone battery would run a 12V, 2A device for about 7 minutes. That doesn't compare properly to the MiFi. I'm wondering if there's something very wrong with the numbers you got.

Let me step in and provide a definition of these terms...

Batteries are rated in AH (amp hours) or mAH (milliamp hours, 1/1,000 of an amp hours); however at the rated capacity the battery it's ending voltage is lower than the starting voltage value of the battery. One would need to look at the chart for the battery to see if the ending voltage is too low for your application.

The AH capacity varies with the amount of current being drawn from the battery. A large current will give you a smaller AH capacity than a small current. See links:

Calculating the battery runtime

http://www.arttec.net/Solar_Mower/4_...20Charging.pdf

The term, cold-cranking amps, has NOTHING to do with capacity. This is more of a marketing term that says a fully charged battery will produce xxx amps in the first few seconds. I consider the specification worthless, but people like seeing big numbers....

I hope this helps...

Bob Diaz