Vampire Drain Fix: How to solve in under a minute (indoor or outdoor)

[SSteveEV]

Closing the bear discussion out, my campsite (Pinnacles NP) only had raccoons, and yes I agree, bear bag is best.

Thank goodness you don't have a Cybertruck. Whoops wrong thread

@gultin
Love your A-D list, I'm mostly B with a little E.
E. People that speed to the airport and don't want to worry if the latest update will cause them to lose 20% while parked for a week. It's almost always VD that makes me charge on the way home.

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[Fmc]

The vampire drain is mostly an annoyance..$80+k vehicle that wastes energy for no apparent reason. A friend wants to buy a RIVN but there is heaps of reservations on recommending one

 

[Riviot]

The 12V systems can't be drawing 135 amps all the time, right? I assume you're referring to the maximum rating or something like CCA? My question was more along the lines of the actual/typical power usage when screens and HVAC are running. I'd have expected that to be something around a few hundred Watts. Knowing this may help folks make a more informed decision on the BT or solar panel size to pick.

No air running, it was like 1.2-1.5amps. AC running had it going up to 5.1amps.

Interesting to see the 12V spikes at 19V sometimes, and has gone all the way to 3V... Which is concerning.

 

[MacO512]

For R1T: Someone should design a foldable tonneau cover made of PV material and combine it with a charging system with a separate LiFePo 12V battery that could live in the compartment where the OEM cover stacks. This battery would be connected to a relay that closes at a voltage before the DC/DC charger kicks in (I think around 12.6V) and disconnects when the charging voltage reaches 13Vor so. The tonneau cover area could easily support 200W, which would be enough to charge the auxiliary battery to > 14V to cover VD over a 24hr period on many days. This would also extend the life of the 12V battery.

Great idea ... I've been thinking how to keep a spare lifepo battery in the frunk that is a tender for the stock battery. Setting those voltage for the dc to DC charger to work is what I could do.

The reason I want this in the frunk is I can use manual tolls stored in the trailer hitch to open the frunk if the 12v dies and I'm stranded. Had that happen to my Tesla on Saturday and it sucked! So the spare lifepo could jump the Rivian if I had a 12v failure, especially if I was camping or somewhere remote.

I'm not as worried about charging with solar ..... If there was a way to have the relay setup to charge the lifepo when the Rivian is awake that could work great.

 

[gultin]

No air running, it was like 1.2-1.5amps. AC running had it going up to 5.1amps.

Interesting to see the 12V spikes at 19V sometimes, and has gone all the way to 3V... Which is concerning.

Very interesting, how did you get this data? So the 1.5/5.1 amps is coming out of the HV, correct? That would put it at roughly 2 kW (assuming 400V nominal for the pack) for running the HVAC (along with others), and roughly 600W without the HVAC. That sounds about right, and I assume a big chunk of the 600W might be the DC-to-DC conversion losses.

Also, curious if there's some way to measure the total current draw directly out of the 12V?

 

[Riviot]

Very interesting, how did you get this data? So the 1.5/5.1 amps is coming out of the HV, correct? That would put it at roughly 2 kW (assuming 400V nominal for the pack) for running the HVAC (along with others), and roughly 600W without the HVAC. That sounds about right, and I assume a big chunk of the 600W might be the DC-to-DC conversion losses.

Also, curious if there's some way to measure the total current draw directly out of the 12V?

Amperage coming from HV, correct, but it says negative so I imagine it's feeding 12V.

Low voltage page doesn't give amperage, only the HV page.

 

[hammick]

Also, curious if there's some way to measure the total current draw directly out of the 12V?

Yes with a clamp multi-meter like below. I have one and it's very accurate.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O1Q2HOQ?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0&th=1

 

[SadHill]

Question… there was another post here a month ago pretty much showing the same set up except plugged into the wall. So I purchased the two pieces, trickle charger and adapter to the plug by the footwell.
the adapter finally came yesterday after Amazon taking 3 weeks to ship. I plugged it in last night with 223 miles of range, this morning, 219 miles. So not sure it is working for me.
do I need to do anything else for it to charge the 12v batteries (yes I have an OG with 2 batteries)? The charger is lit up green but doesn’t say it is charging.
Thx for your help!

 

[gultin]

Question… there was another post here a month ago pretty much showing the same set up except plugged into the wall. So I purchased the two pieces, trickle charger and adapter to the plug by the footwell.
the adapter finally came yesterday after Amazon taking 3 weeks to ship. I plugged it in last night with 223 miles of range, this morning, 219 miles. So not sure it is working for me.
do I need to do anything else for it to charge the 12v batteries (yes I have an OG with 2 batteries)? The charger is lit up green but doesn’t say it is charging.
Thx for your help!

You may want to post links to the products you used and which thread/post you're referring to. Also pictures of what your charger and setup looks like when it's all connected like might help. Without any of that, the only thing that comes to mind is possibly the wrong polarity being applied.

FWIW, I bought the wall charger and OBD adapter mentioned in the first post on this thread via Amazon and it arrived in a couple of days.

 

[SadHill]

After following advice of posters on these forums as well as this youtube I was able to solve phantom/vampire battery drain easily.

I got a 12 volt battery tender, and an OBD3 port adaptor off amazon and leave it plugged in while the car is at home.

Instead of losing nearly 1.5kwh a night, the tender draws .16kwh.

Photos show the setup in my garage, the drain before and after from ElectriFi and a screenshot of my smart plug that measures throughput.

(The TL;DR reason is folks have found is is the 12 volt battery is too small to keep the rivian asleep all night so it drains and dies, then the rivian wakes up and runs all its electronics and computers out of sleep mode to recharge the 12 volt for 3 hours.)

I found it. Here it is the link to the last post. I purchased the same charger and adapter as posted.
I prob should (and will) reply to that thread. Thx

 

[MacO512]

I found it. Here it is the link to the last post. I purchased the same charger and adapter as posted.
I prob should (and will) reply to that thread. Thx

I personally ordered the battery tender brand products which have a 3amp charger. Id be concerned that 1.5 amp might not be enough, plus the battery tender brand seems better quality to me.

Still id think your setup should 95% work. I assume you plugged the charger into ac, charger to obd cable, and obd into Rivian. Did you select the 12v on the charger? Read the charger instructions? Not sure if you need to select AGM or the type of battery on the charger. Maybe a picture of the charger when it's on so we can see what lights are displayed would help if you still can't get it working.

 

[SadHill]

Nope. This was all me. I am a dooof.
I unplugged it all and then plugged back in and now it says charging. Ugh. Will check on it tomorrow morn as I am not going anywhere so I will see if I lose anything. Sorry all!

 

[gultin]

Nope. This was all me. I am a dooof.
I unplugged it all and then plugged back in and now it says charging. Ugh. Will check on it tomorrow morn as I am not going anywhere so I will see if I lose anything. Sorry all!

Glad to hear it works. BTW what was your typical 24-hour VD prior to this experiment? And did you have proximity lock/unlock and gear guard etc enabled?

 

[SadHill]

Glad to hear it works. BTW what was your typical 24-hour VD prior to this experiment? And did you have proximity lock/unlock and gear guard etc enabled?

Depending on the environment (temps) anywhere from 5-12 miles in a 24 hour period. The lower the percentage of charge the less I would lose.
most tests done at home with everything off when there.

 

[Yossarian]

. . .
Interesting to see the 12V spikes at 19V sometimes, and has gone all the way to 3V... Which is concerning.

If our 12v batteries are really seeing that kind of voltage swing, particularly discharging to 3v routinely, it's no wonder that they have such a short service life.

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