OBD power draw?
 

Hello everybody,

I just purchased an OBD2 bluetooth dongle, which has an on/off switch on it. Can I be 100% sure that there will not be any power draw at all as long as the switch is on the "off" position?

Best regards,
Alex

I've had my OBDLink MX in two cars It doesn't have an on/off switch per se, but goes into sleep mode when the car is turned off. I've had no problems with it.

I have an MX and an LX. Both have failed to go into sleep mode and drained my battery when the car has been left sitting for a week. The MX worked okay for a while and then just stopped going into sleep mode at all.

You can't be sure of anything, but if it actually has a switch I would expect it to work. What brand/model is this?

Strange. I mounted an extension socket into the back of the cubby under the heater knobs. If I'm not using my LX while driving, it toggles between sleep and scan every 10 minutes. If I shut off the car, it stays asleep until the next time I unlock it.

I wonder if this ties into the mystery of the BRZ battery drainage. Perhaps the waking scanner is not the cause but rather a symptom of unwanted CAN bus activity.

I figured it was OBDLink firmware that just wasn't ready for prime time, but I guess it could be something in the car waking it up. When I would go out of town, if I forgot to take the unit out of the OBDII port my battery would be dead in the airport parking deck when I returned. That was also with the shitty OEM battery, so the AGM that's in it now may be able to hold a charge a little longer.

I would prefer a manual toggle. I had looked for one when I bought these, but nobody had one. Now I'm going shopping again.

It's an "ieGeek" adapater I found off of amazon. Not sure I'd recommend it though, or at least not yet. It was working fine for some time with OBDfusion but then the connection started getting unstable and would die every thirty seconds. Will have to check whether this is coming from the app or the adapter.

I haven't tested it in my FRS, but in my Miata the OBD would come out of sleep mode if I even touched the car, and that was without keyless ignition. I could tell by going in the garage at night. I could see it light up when it activated. For all I know, it might not be sleeping in the FRS because I drive it almost every day.