7c8efd2228
- MCP server with stdio transport for local use - Search episodes, transcripts, hosts, and series - 4,511 episodes with metadata and transcripts - Data loader with in-memory JSON storage 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
77 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
77 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
Episode: 2298
|
|
Title: HPR2298: Phantom Power Drain
|
|
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2298/hpr2298.mp3
|
|
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 00:58:59
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
This is HPR episode 2298 entitled Phantom Powered Rain.
|
|
It is hosted by Brian and is about 5 minutes long, and Karim an exquisite flag.
|
|
The summary is, I am knowing a Phantom Powered Rain on an automobile.
|
|
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an Honesthost.com.
|
|
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15 that's HPR15.
|
|
Get your web hosting that's Honest and Fair at An Honesthost.com.
|
|
Hello, this is Hacker Public Radio, and I'm your host Brian, today I'm going to rehash
|
|
a few of the conversations that I've inserted myself into on August Planet on FreeNode.
|
|
I am a mechanic by pay, so that's what my brain's been focusing on, and I would really like
|
|
to do my second clay episode, but unfortunately my mind's not clear in that manner at the
|
|
moment, so we discussed finding a Phantom battery drain on one's vehicle, which is a fairly
|
|
simple thing to diagnose that you have.
|
|
Finding where it is is not always the easiest thing, but there are a few little steps you
|
|
can take to get yourself there.
|
|
One would be you begin disconnect one of your battery cables.
|
|
It doesn't matter which one, but I always recommend doing the negative.
|
|
It's safer that way on a 12 volt system, whether you're running your solar, your windmills,
|
|
or whatever, your vehicle.
|
|
It's always a good idea to connect your positive first so that any surges happen through
|
|
the ground.
|
|
There's other safety concerns there, but I'm not really concerned with those.
|
|
I just want to protect these machines that I'm trying to repair.
|
|
You disconnect your negative battery cable, you hook up your multimeter, and you read the
|
|
amps.
|
|
It's a good idea to have a multimeter that can handle, say, 10 amps, but you're looking for
|
|
about 20 milliamps.
|
|
20 milliamps is on the higher side of normal power draw from the memory and all the chips
|
|
and the vehicle and the radio stations and the clock and whatever else you may have hooked
|
|
up.
|
|
Usually, if you think you have a phantom power drain, it's something that you did, or there's
|
|
a broken wire somewhere.
|
|
I found a lot of broken wires that you just didn't think about it or went around the
|
|
corner somewhere or wore through the shielding.
|
|
You had a short, it's not enough to throw a code for the computer, but it's enough to
|
|
drain.
|
|
I actually fixed a phantom power drain on a suburban, and when I first measured it, I
|
|
had 15 milliamps, and I said, this is fine.
|
|
When I found one of the cooling fans had their power, the positive end, completely worn
|
|
away and in contact with a bunch of metal frame pieces.
|
|
Change that, and the power drain went from 15 milliamps to 14 milliamps, but that was
|
|
enough to solve this problem, so it's really nice to have a baseline to start with.
|
|
A good gauge is 15 milliamps is normal, some cars draw a little more depending on what
|
|
they're doing.
|
|
Now if you do suspect even afterwards that you have a phantom power drain, the next step
|
|
would be if that doesn't solve it for you.
|
|
You do the same milliamp draw, but you pull fuses from your fuse box one at a time from
|
|
accessories usually.
|
|
Start with things you have an aftermarket radio, start with the radio fuses, start with
|
|
those fuses that are on the separate lines that may be there.
|
|
As you pull the fuse, if you can see your draw drop, then you know that that's a significant
|
|
draw.
|
|
Well, there's the hacker public radio episode that was kind of not really much of an
|
|
episode, hopefully someone got something out of it.
|
|
That was babbling about a transmission issue on a gas planet, so I said I'm going to shut
|
|
up, and I'm just going to record an HPR, because Kim Fallon said, yeeks, today, four days
|
|
to the free slot.
|
|
Wow, maybe we'll be listening to this next week.
|
|
All right, have a good day.
|
|
You've been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio dot org.
|
|
We are a community podcast network that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday.
|
|
Today's show, like all our shows, was contributed by an HPR listener like yourself.
|
|
If you ever thought of recording a podcast, then click on our contributing to find out
|
|
how easy it really is.
|
|
Hacker Public Radio was founded by the digital dog pound and the Infonomicon Computer Club,
|
|
and is part of the binary revolution at binrev.com.
|
|
If you have comments on today's show, please email the host directly, leave a comment on
|
|
the website, or record a follow-up episode yourself.
|
|
Unless otherwise stated, today's show is released on the creative commons, attribution,
|
|
share a like, 3.0 license.
|