Battery Marvel

[Notifier]

Anyone have any experience with this?



http://batterymarvel.com/

Saw a write-up in a magazine about it, looks promising...

[jmettee]

Really? That's pretty much an idiot light if I ever saw one. The DMC has a voltage gauge, much more useful than an idiot light.

And wow, instead of an actual product image, they use a MS Paint quality representation of it.

Sorry, I don't see the need or use. All cars have a gauge or idiot light already, so I don't see the purpose.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Basicaly a voltage detector but is says it has an audio alarm. Wonder if that alrarm shuts off after it warns you. Would not be fun to drive 20 miles to get the alternator replaced with that 100 dB buzzer going.

[Dangermouse]

mmm - designed to be installed on the battery itself.

On one hand, I like the idea of an LED on the battery to indicate "health" - OEM batteries should really come with one built-in.

On the other hand, the alarm would be really annoying if your battery is weakish and you are trying to start the car on a cold morning. Voltage drops, and alarm sounds everytime you start the car. On a regular car, at least that noise would be under the hood - in the D, 100dB going off right beside you would certainly waken you up!

[Farrar]

I like the idea of an LED on the battery to indicate "health"

Why not put it in the gauge cluster instead?

Farrar

[Notifier]

I saw it as a write up in an electronics magazine "Nuts and Volts". According to the article:

To support the analysis of battery condition, certain data are maintained in non-volatile Flash memory:
• A set of tables listing eight critical battery parameters vs. temperature (-40°F to 150°F).
• Historical data collected from your vehicle such as the number of engine cranks, number of engine starts, number of times the battery was disconnected, number and type of alerts issued, voltages observed, etc.
• An “abnormal” event log containing the last 64 “out of spec” events with time and temperature.
• A “normal” event log containing the last 64 “in spec” events with time and temperature.

I do agree, the 100dba warning is a little much! Figured it would be good for that vehicle that sits in the garage for a couple weeks and doesn't get driven. At least if the battery was getting drained down due to something silly like a interior light left on, you would get some sort of warning before the battery completely went dead.

I do know it's also sold as a kit, so you could probably relocate the LED to dash somewhere.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Does it have a USB port to read the history?

[Notifier]

Does it have a USB port to read the history?

Doesn't appear to. That's actually one thing a couple people are questioning about the article. There looks like there's a way to access the program if you are good at computers but the manufacturer doesn't want to make the source code available.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Doesn't appear to. That's actually one thing a couple people are questioning about the article. There looks like there's a way to access the program if you are good at computers but the manufacturer doesn't want to make the source code available.

It is probably doing what he claims since you can get a PIC with an A/D and flash memory for about one dollar. But I don't know of any set formulas with age, restart, etc. that would tell you you need a new battery. Reading the voltage can determine an open or shorted cell in the battery.