[destroyer]

I have a ipod nano connected in my glove box that I leave connected all the time. i didnt think anything of it until today. The nano has an external speaker. With that being said my car was shut off for a few minutes today and when I re-entered I heard it playing in the glove box which means it was on. So tonight I opened the glove box and no sound was coming out but it was on. Now it is unplugged but im wondering if this taxed my battery??? Can I leave it connected all the time or do I have to plug it in everytime I wanna use it
?

 

[richysh]

yeaa it will kill your battery because i have an external USB with a light that turns on when connected and it stays on even with the car off.

 

[destroyer]

OK so this is bad news. Now I have to unplug and plug my ipod in evrytime I wanna use it ???????

 

[Gstom1]

destroyer, I think you might have figured out the reason why your battery recently died . .

:dunno:

 

[PhilZJ]

Actually, the on and off is related to you opening / closing your door.
I just went in my van which had been sitting for a while, open the door and the glove box real quick and my ipod was in a quick wakeup screen, then a second after it loaded the album art and all that.
I also noticed this because 2 weeks after purchase something went bad with my cd changer and it was making some grinding (grrk grrgk) sounds even if no cds were loaded. Anyways, that sound occured everytime I opened a door even if the key was not in the vehicle. Also, now I could clearly hear some stuff spooling up in the center cluster area where the cd changer is.

I'm betting that if you stay in the car long enough (probably 5-15minutes) it'll shut off the usb again, until you open your door. I wish I could remember if it was for all the doors that it was doing this (so tied to the dome lights waking up) or if it was strictly the 2 front doors opening. But it certainly did it for the front passenger and driver door, that I am certain of.

 

[OdyDudy]

The iPod doesn't stay powered when you turn off your car. Sometimes in fact, the iPod will stay on and eventually its battery will drain and when you start up your car, you'll get a message that the iPod isn't available until it does its lengthy start up process. Then it will try and reindex the voice commands for the titles.

 

[Shazzam]

Here is how it works (iPod Touch):

When you plug the USB cable into the iPod in the glove box, it sits in the "off" position until you turn the power on in the vehicle. It remains off until you select it through the USB button on the vehicle control unit. When you do so, it will resume playing where it left off last time you used it. If you try and access the iPod icon on the iPod Touch display (while it is connected and already playing via a command from the vehicle's audio system), it returns a message on a white screen saying "Accessory Connected".

Even if you power off the iPod, it will continue to play as long as it is selected by the vehicle's control unit and the vehicle power is on. When you shut the vehicle off, the iPod stays on momentarily and then shuts itself off.

The bottom line is I don't think the iPod can drain the vehicle's battery and the iPod Touch shuts itself off after the vehicle is shut off. I've had mine connected full time for almost 3 months. The iPod battery shows 100% charge all of the time and I've had no issues with the connection leaving it in the glove box and forgetting it.

 

[Frogger]

I keep my bluetooth phone in the iPod dock plugged into the USB to keep it's battery charged. It does not charge when the vehicle is off.