drive in cinema

[markeyszoo]

Witton park , near Blackburn is to open a drive in cinema. I can remember these in Johannesburg many years ago and you hung a speaker on the inside of your window.

It seems now that the system is to use your car radio to get the soundtrack.

I believe that if my ignition is on for that length of time, with no engine running, then my Battery will be so flat that my car will not start?

I have worked on the car with ignition on for half an hour and it flattens the Battery to nowt even with no ac nor radio.

Am i right or should the Battery be able to run ignition and radio/nav pack for a couple of hours?

[ahmed24]

17 minutes ago, markeyszoo said:

Witton park , near Blackburn is to open a drive in cinema. I can remember these in Johannesburg many years ago and you hung a speaker on the inside of your window.

It seems now that the system is to use your car radio to get the soundtrack.

I believe that if my ignition is on for that length of time, with no engine running, then my battery will be so flat that my car will not start?

I have worked on the car with ignition on for half an hour and it flattens the battery to nowt even with no ac nor radio.

Am i right or should the battery be able to run ignition and radio/nav pack for a couple of hours?

I wouldn't run on ignition for that long even if everything is off and you just have the sound system on. You are risking draining the Battery quite low. You will be using the amp which has quite a high power consumption. And remember that a car Battery is not designed to be totally discharged, yes it can recharge with the alternator but the Battery isn't designed for that and it will degrade prematurely and have shorter lifespan. It's supposed to hold enough charge to start up the car and replenish this once the car is started up. Deep cycle batteries are for that and can withstand several hundred total discharge/recharge cycles.

[Farqui]

Hi Mike, I think you are right and that it will flatten your Battery unless you have the engine running.

Many cars these days seem to struggle running their radios/etc, Civic's are definitely prone to it.

It's interesting that it took a brief (hopefully) pandemic and quarantine for someone to think a drive in cinema was a good idea. 

I know that there were plenty in the USA years ago but now and did the UK ever have any?

[ahmed24]

Also, quite a lot of european cars actually tell you to start the engine if you leave it on ignition for a while listening to radio. When I last checked a few it was like 5-10mins max before the car tells you to start the car. Lexus don't have this Battery monitoring system but instead let you drain the battery 😀

[Farqui]

Ah, here's a recent news report; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-53006214

I doubt they'll last long as we now have great set-ups at home with movies on demand.

Plus the fridge is nearby to satisfy any cravings 😋

[NemesisUK]

Come the colder weather no one will want to be sitting in a quickly cooling car, hardly able to see out the misting up windows, the barely big enough screen obscured by the driving rain.....

[ahmed24]

2 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

Come the colder weather no one will want to be sitting in a quickly cooling car, hardly able to see out the misting up windows, the barely big enough screen obscured by the driving rain.....

haha don't like the sound of that at all. prefer the warmth of my living room 😀

[J88TEO]

4 hours ago, Farqui said:

Hi Mike, I think you are right and that it will flatten your battery unless you have the engine running.

Many cars these days seem to struggle running their radios/etc, Civic's are definitely prone to it.

It's interesting that it took a brief (hopefully) pandemic and quarantine for someone to think a drive in cinema was a good idea. 

I know that there were plenty in the USA years ago but now and did the UK ever have any?

You are right. I was working on my car with the music on and when I was done she would not start! Luckily after letting her rest for more than an hour the Battery had just about enough juice to crank the engine, but barely. I was lucky. So I reminded myself not to do the same whenever I work on her again.