Question for GSRich or others.......Does Autocom drain the battery when not on?

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I have a 1200GS and generally keep it connected to the Optimate if not using it, however, in spite of using the bike regularly, since christmas, the bike has failed to start once as the engine would not turn quick enough and I have almost been caught out again but the bike fired up!!

The two year warranty is up in April, so took the bike up to John Clark in Aberdeen to have the battery checked. He did the initial check, which showed battery to by 92% charged when I arrived but he advised that because I have an Autocom fitted with a Garmin sat Nav, if he finds the fault to be caused by the non approved BMW items, I will get the bill and it won't be paid under warranty.

To be fair, he was only keeping me in the loop before he carried out a more detailed battery condition test.

When fitting the above, I piggy backed a BMW socket onto the rear of the BMW power socket under the seat, so that I can simply unplug the whole lot very simply.

I therefore have a couple of questions,

1. Will the Autocom drain the battery even although I am not using it and should I simply unplug it when not in use? Reading other threads most Tossers seem not to have the plug in option, so should be OK?

2. I also have a bluetooth dongle for my phone but assumed that if I didn't have the Autocom plugged to my helmet, then the phone would not answer. I was wrong.. When en route to JC's for this check, they phoned me and she advised that the phone answered but obviously I did not speak. My phone showed that I had received the call too! I don't want to switch off the bluetooth as its handy when I go into the car. Other than me unplugging the Autocom, is there anything else that I can do?

Thanks in anticipation.......
 
Don't need Rich to answer this one. If the gear is connected to the aux socket wiring on the 1200, it gets switched off automatically by the CANBUS system shortly after removing the key.

Also, there is no way that the equipmet you describe can drain the battery faster than the optimate can charge it, and if there were some sort of malfunction or signifiant current drain, the Optmate should show a red warning LED.

Oh, and the helmet is only the speaker/mic on an Autocom. The real magic is the wee black box and the dongle, both of which will do what they're supposed to do regardless of whether or not the speaker & mic are plugged in. Plug in the helmet, or switch off the bluetooth.
 
Thanks for quick reply, just as I thought really, think Craig was just covering his back and keeping me informed.

Any thoughts about the Bluetooth question?
 
Thanks for quick reply, just as I thought really, think Craig was just covering his back and keeping me informed.

Any thoughts about the Bluetooth question?

Just did an edit. Look to the sky young man!!! Well, the previous post, anyway :rolleyes:
 
1, Already been covered

2, The dongle auto connects with the phone so if you are not wanting the phnoe to be connected you will either have to unpair the phone or just unplug the dongle when you are not wanting to use it

Rich :beerjug:
 
Where do you have your GPS plugged into? I plugged mine into the BM socket near the headstock and if left for a while it seems to drain the battery. As near as I can make out it doesn't always switch itself off after a minute and as there is a transformer in my RAM mount it always draws a very small amount of current, even if the gps is not attached. I have read elswhere there is a software update which cures this but maybe worth a look...
 


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