Gen 1 Vampire Drain (Possibly) Solved (or Hacked)

[NY_Rob]

Starting at 10PM last night, the truck slept for just over 4 hours, woke up for 90 minutes burning 230kwh

I'm guessing you meant 230wh (.23kWh) over 90 min?

And, thanks for your testing efforts! If your results prove that a good part of the vampire drain in Gen 1 vehicles is due to just keeping the 12V batts charged up, I'll be adding a battery tender that probably cost pennies/day to run.

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[CarlM408]

I'm guessing you meant 230wh (.23kWh) over 90 min?

Yes! Sorry, .230kwh is what I meant...now up to .69 for 11 hours worth of today. That's basically 'normal' in my book, it's going to be around 1%/24h, so not seeing any improvement.

The tender itself is consuming 1.9w, so when I check the cumulative use in an hour I'm expecting it to show ~24wh.

Sorry folks, really not looking like there's much here in the end.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Hey, whatever happened to those CTs that @OutofSpecKyle had gotten to measure this kind of stuff?

 

[NY_Rob]

Yes! Sorry, .230kwh is what I meant...now up to .69 for 11 hours worth of today. That's basically 'normal' in my book, it's going to be around 1%/24h, so not seeing any improvement.

The tender itself is consuming 1.9w, so when I check the cumulative use in an hour I'm expecting it to show ~24wh.

Sorry folks, really not looking like there's much here in the end.

Yikes, yeah that's about nominal for a vehicle without a 12V trickle charger connected.

Two thoughts:

1) Is the battery tender able to supply enough current when the Rivian is awake to keep the 12V battery "full" or is the Rivian also recharging the 12v battery when it's awake due to high current draw? I know the Battery Tender brand devices I have are meant for keeping batts topped up in systems that are "off" ie, under no load, batteries disconnected from systems and put away for the season, like my boat, etc... They can only output a few watts, nothing substantial. It's possible the battery tender is keeping the 12V batts topped up when the Rivian is asleep, but then the vehicle wakes to do housekeeping chores and quickly depletes the 12V batts, drawing more than the small battery tender can deliver, so the Rivian starts charging the 12V batts?

2) It will be interesting to see what happens if we don't pay for the new Connect+ subscription service as that will supposedly sever the LTE connection. With no LTE connection and no WiFi connection (make your Rivian forget your home network(s)) our vehicles should not be sending chunks of data day and night back to Rivian and might not wake as often because what would it need to do if it's not communicating with the mother-ship?

 

[CarlM408]

Scratch all my results, just went and checked and realized the tender was showing a fault, and cleared that by waking up the truck...I don't think the trailer hitch power feed is going to work for this. The draw from the wall was 1.9w, so I think that was just keeping the tender warm, and it wasn't working most the time. Doh.

NY_Rob for your #2 question, the subscription is just for the Hotspot function and future things like remote cam monitoring. The LTE connection is a thing regardless is my understanding.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Scratch all my results, just went and checked and realized the tender was showing a fault, and cleared that by waking up the truck...I don't think the trailer hitch power feed is going to work for this. The draw from the wall was 1.9w, so I think that was just keeping the tender warm, and it wasn't working the whole time. Doh.

NY_Rob for your #2 question, the subscription is just for the Hotspot function and future things like remote cam monitoring. The LTE connection is a thing regardless is my understanding.

I think you will have to connect the tender directly into the 12V battery under the cowling behind the frunk.

 

[NY_Rob]

Scratch all my results, just went and checked and realized the tender was showing a fault, and cleared that by waking up the truck...I don't think the trailer hitch power feed is going to work for this. The draw from the wall was 1.9w, so I think that was just keeping the tender warm, and it wasn't working the whole time. Doh.

Okay, well we all learned something from your efforts. So we will probably need a direct connection to the 12V batt(s)

NY_Rob for your #2 question, the subscription is just for the Hotspot function and future things like remote cam monitoring. The LTE connection is a thing regardless is my understanding.

I'm not sure about that because if I refuse to pay for Connect+, that means Rivian is still paying ATT for my vehicle's LTE connection every month? I don't think they (Rivian) would do that.. but I may well be incorrect as my wife likes to remind me all the time occasionally
Rivian has also stated the even without a Connect+ paid subscription the live traffic maps would continue to function. They could possibly mean that live traffic will continue to function if your vehicle is tethered to a phone? Rivian being Rivian, at this point it's kind of confusing as to what they'll do for those of us who will not pay for a Connect+ subscription.

 

[shrink]

1-week update:

8/9/2024 to 8/16/2024:

1% loss from the high voltage battery
(69% to 68%)

I’ll update the original post with the above.

A few general observations. The vehicle has mostly been sleeping when I glance at the status. I did notice the vehicle awake 2 days ago, though, and it stayed awake for an hour. I saw the SOC drop to 68% during this period. I think it was downloading the software update over LTE. I don’t know for sure because the car is in shipping mode. I probably should have mentioned that earlier. Since I leave the car sitting so often, I’ve tried to do the following to minimize drain (and it’s still been a consistent 1-2% per day drain when plugged in).

- Shipping Mode
- AC, Proximity, WiFi, Hotspot, and Bluetooth off
- Data sharing - all off except for location

Anyway, I just woke up the vehicle from sleep to get exact status after 7 days/168 hours and the SOC reads 68%.

I will get an energy monitor on the battery charger/maintainer when I return. From past experience, I know the unit I have will do a charge cycle, monitor intermittently, then top off as needed while still plugged in. Definitely curious how much juice it’s been using.

 

[usulio]

I'm not sure about that because if I refuse to pay for Connect+, that means Rivian is still paying ATT for my vehicle's LTE connection every month? I don't think they (Rivian) would do that.. but I may well be incorrect as my wife likes to remind me all the time occasionally
Rivian has also stated the even without a Connect+ paid subscription the live traffic maps would continue to function. They could possibly mean that live traffic will continue to function if your vehicle is tethered to a phone? Rivian being Rivian, at this point it's kind of confusing as to what they'll do for those of us who will not pay for a Connect+ subscription.

I'm guessing Rivian will keep LTE on every vehicle because Rivian wants to reliably collect data on us, and as a secondary reason to ensure that updates get pushed.

 

[Zoidz]

I'm not sure about that because if I refuse to pay for Connect+, that means Rivian is still paying ATT for my vehicle's LTE connection every month? I don't think they (Rivian) would do that.. but I may well be incorrect as my wife likes to remind me all the time occasionally
Rivian has also stated the even without a Connect+ paid subscription the live traffic maps would continue to function. They could possibly mean that live traffic will continue to function if your vehicle is tethered to a phone? Rivian being Rivian, at this point it's kind of confusing as to what they'll do for those of us who will not pay for a Connect+ subscription.

Yes, Rivian has said that basic services such as OTA updates, etc. will be continued if you do not have Connect +. In that scenario going forward, Rivian likely has negotiated a bulk agreement with AT&T and will pay a few $$ per month per vehicle with a data cap. Rivian can manage that as they see fit to stay under the cap. For all we know, ATT may give the OEM limited data service to them for "free" in exchange for an exclusive agreement that Rivian will permanently lock all vehicles to ATT service, guaranteeing revenue for ATT. Don't underestimate the creative agreements these companies will make. Also keep in mind that Rivian is collecting valuable data usage and demographics from our vehicles, and is likely selling it (anonomized) which helps to reduce or eliminate their expenses.

 

[Ow My Balls]

I just spent a week in Hawaii and was interested in seeing how much drain I had as well. Rivian was parked in garage with gear guard turned off, proximity open turned off since it was at home, and connected to home WiFi. Ended up losing 3% over the course of 7 days (Saturday to Saturday) and which included download of the latest update. It went to 4% loss when I installed the update and messed with music for a bit so I think the loss was likely closer to 4%. Was surprised since I was expecting a greater loss. This is a DM MP.

 

[HyperionMark]

So no good feeding juice back through the trailer 7 pin? My camping results were inconclusive on it.

 

[CBRacerX]

So no good feeding juice back through the trailer 7 pin? My camping results were inconclusive on it.

Would love an update on this approach.

 

[CarlM408]

FWIW here's some baseline data, a full midnight-to-midnight 24 hours of my R1T PDM Max unplugged at a moderate SOC, no gear guard or proximity locking and of course no driving, and a very typical 1.60kwh gone like the wind:

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