APX APX8500 Battery Drain

[spanky192]

We just had a brand new APX8500 remote mount radio installed. Radio is programed for Soft Power off, the remote head has constant power to the red wire and ignition to the yellow wire, and the radio brain underneath the backseat is wired to constant power. When the vehicle is turned off and the remote head turns off but the radio brain is still pulling between 1.3-1.5 amps. I have checked the programming on the radio and updated to the latest firmware. From what I can find if the radio is powered on in an auto state, it should pull about 1.5 A but when it shut down, it should go into a sleep mode and pull about 100 mA. Has anybody ran into this issue before or how to fix it?

 

[W0JJK]

Ignition Switch shoule be set to Required. It should then turn off and on with the Ignition Source.

 

[ramal121]

Are you positive 100% sure the red power lead to the head DOES NOT go off with the ignition?

 

[Motoflightmedic]

Make sure the control head required for power up is checked in Radio Ergonomics Wide.

 

[spanky192]

Are you positive 100% sure the red power lead to the head DOES NOT go off with the ignition?

ramal121 funny you mention this. I had read somewhere else about sorta the same thing. I did find that the upfitter had installed a Brookings fuse block that has three ports that can be set to turn off after 30 min, 1hr, 2hr or 4hr. The constant power to the control head was on one of these ports and set to 30 min but the brain was on a constant power port. I switched the control head to another non-timed port and it seemed to drop the amp draw. I ran out of time today but will do more testing the weekend.

 

[ramal121]

So yea, if you drop power to the head of a remote mount APX (or XTL for that matter) but not the brick, there is no communication to the brick to shut down and will continue to do its thing and pull current. Use the yellow ignition wire only to shut the radio off. Common problem that has been around for a while. Check the install and let us know what you find.

 

[Tech21]

Make sure the ignition sense wire is tapped into a source that actually goes off with the key. Some modules in cars stay powered on for a few minutes after ignition is shut off.