Is Torque a battery-heavy app, or does my phone just suck? (Perm. mount idea)

Over the weekend I dug out my old Samsung S3 that still works and has Torque loaded on it.  Bought a $7 flat USB cable and a $20 CD slot mount (suggested when my old mount died and I requested ideas).

Yesterday was the first trial.  Battery around 60% and plugged in it was still pretty low when I got to work.  Left it on and at the end of the day the battery was dead.

Charged it overnight, plugged in and after a 1/2 hr drive it was at 93%.  I closed the app this time, hoping the battery will be good after work.

I've removed the SIM card, turned off WiFi.  Anything else that would help?

Hard wire the phone to power and use bluetooth ELM327 OBD2 adapter?

>Anything else that would help?

Replace the 6 year old battery with one that hasn't aged out.

red_stapler said:

>Anything else that would help?

Replace the 6 year old battery with one that hasn't aged out.

Yeah, that's one of the nice things about a GS3, you can get a new battery for it.

FWIW, I tried this in the SHO a while back. Bought a $50 used Droid Mini on eBay, turned off everything but Bluetooth, and permanently mounted it so I'd have a boost gauge and others. I hardwired it, and that little tiny-ass phone killed my car battery overnight. I figured the car battery must be toast, so I spent the bucks on a new Odyssey battery. Same thing. At that point, I gave up on my little experiment, and I just run Torque on my main phone when I'm not running Waze.

In reply to Tom_Spangler :

Old battery was my first thought.  Luckily I have my old S5 as an mp3 player, and probably replace the current S7 with a new S9 this holiday season.  (I seem to upgrade every other model...)

Think I'll try the S5 and see if it works better.  (And the USB port in the glove box and cigarette lighter both cut power when the car is off.)

There are ways to configure Android to turn on and off with the key, some are easier than others.

Tom_Spangler said:

red_stapler said:

>Anything else that would help?

Replace the 6 year old battery with one that hasn't aged out.

Yeah, that's one of the nice things about a GS3, you can get a new battery for it.

FWIW, I tried this in the SHO a while back. Bought a $50 used Droid Mini on eBay, turned off everything but Bluetooth, and permanently mounted it so I'd have a boost gauge and others. I hardwired it, and that little tiny-ass phone killed my car battery overnight. I figured the car battery must be toast, so I spent the bucks on a new Odyssey battery. Same thing. At that point, I gave up on my little experiment, and I just run Torque on my main phone when I'm not running Waze.

Doesn't seem like this would be a problem if you wired it into a switched 12v line? The phone would be running on its own battery overnight, but at least your car battery isn't dead.

morello159 said:

Doesn't seem like this would be a problem if you wired it into a switched 12v line? The phone would be running on its own battery overnight, but at least your car battery isn't dead.

Yes, I should have done that, it's how I wired my radar detector. But after it happened the first time, I tried unplugging the phone, then I just had a dead phone in the morning. I could have shut the phone off and unplugged it, but by that time I've missed out on a lot of the benefit of having the thing be there all the time, hence why I ditched the whole idea and just started using my regular phone.

Then I bought a mechanical boost gauge, but I can't find a good place to fish the line through the firewall. I think the universe is telling me I don't get a boost gauge in this car. 

https://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/android-tablet-carputer-169353.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/17cmty/the_android_car_tablet_isnt_practical_because_of/

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/29939/is-it-possible-to-turn-an-android-tablet-on-or-off-over-a-wired-connection-such

I use Torque Pro on a Asus tablet.  It is powered by plugging in to a switched outlet.  I close the app and turn off the tablet when I am going to park the car for the night.  I have run Torque on just the tablet battery for ~8 hours straight but the battery was almost dead at that time.

I used the slightly newer S5 on the way home, running Torque Pro plugged into the USB port in the glovebox.  I think it still dropped a few percent even while plugged in.  I don't mind closing the app each time I guess, but I don't want to turn off/restart the phone each time.  Wondering how much juice the USB port in the glovebox puts out.

Jerry said:

I used the slightly newer S5 on the way home, running Torque Pro plugged into the USB port in the glovebox.  I think it still dropped a few percent even while plugged in.  I don't mind closing the app each time I guess, but I don't want to turn off/restart the phone each time.  Wondering how much juice the USB port in the glovebox puts out.

Sounds like perhaps the cord isn't very good? That or you've only got a 1v outlet in the glovebox...very possible if it's an aux input

In reply to grover :

The port is intended for plugging in a flashdrive for music, I'm guessing it's very low power.  Maybe I'll try the cig lighter adapter and see if it works better.  Funny how such a minor "hey let's try something" is getting more and more involved.

My Miata came with a Nexus 7 mounted in the dash running Torque Pro. It was hardwired into the car would shut down and restart automatically when I start it up the car

It also didn't last very long. This particular tablet has known issue with the charging port, and it stopped talking a charge, so I pulled it out of the car. 

I have torque pro on my phone, but I've never been able to get my phone to pick up the Bluetooth signal from either of the two dongles I've tried. 

I also found that when the tablet still running in the Miata that it was inconsistent about reading the signal from the dongle. It usually worked, but not consistently.

Is there a way to hardwire a tablet or phone directly into the OBD port?

In reply to Floating Doc :

A USB-OTG cable is what you're looking for to plug a USB device into your android phone or tablet, though I'm not sure what OBD2 cable to use. Something like this should use the same protocol as the bluetooth version, and I think Torque supports USB:  https://www.amazon.com/HDE-ELM-327-Diagnostics-Cable/dp/B004B7PSA0

Most phones won't charge at the same time that they're in host mode, however, unless someone's developed a kernel hack for it (this was popular with the Nexus 7 so it could charge and run a USB device at the same time)

Last couple days with the S5 running Torque for 30 min commute while plugged into the cell phone charger (forgot my Verizon charger had a USB port on the back of it), the phone battery has been the same before and after.

Think this will do for now.

The standard for a USB port is 500ma.  

The USB port in the glove box is likely really only there for playing files off a USB drive, therefore it is only supplying 500ma  You need at least a 1a and preferably 2a