Battery Buddy

[JLT]

Anybody tried one of these?

http://batterybuddy.com/welcome.html

Evidently, this new "Battery Brain" replaces the original "Battery Buddy," which is no longer being made. Since I've wanted to stay away from a dual-battery configuration for my Westy, this seems like a reasonable and cheaper alternative. But I'm wondering:

• Does it work as advertised? Any problems?
• What was it about the original model that persuaded them to discontinue it?

[Amskeptic]

Anybody tried one of these?
What was it about the original model that persuaded them to discontinue it?[/list]

Their ad copy pointed out that the old one was bigger and did not have an on/off switch.

I do not think that the Battery Brain necessarily knows that the FI requires a bit more of a charge than it might suspect. Under cranking voltage drop, the FI has to have 10 volts.
Colin

[JLT]

I do not think that the Battery Brain necessarily knows that the FI requires a bit more of a charge than it might suspect. Under cranking voltage drop, the FI has to have 10 volts.
Colin

Hmm. Good point. That may not be a factor with my bus, whose only critical electronic component is the Pertronix ignition, but it might be with my wife's Toyota Corolla (she sometimes leaves the lights on and comes back to find a dead battery).

[JLT]

An update of sorts on the Battery Buddy.

A friend of mine gave me his Mark I Battery Buddy because it didn't play well with the fuel injection, just as Colin had foretold. I put it in, but never actually ran down the battery enough to actuate it.

I got home late Thursday after a month's worth of travel. When I tried to start the bus, the battery was "dead" ... no lights, no solenoid click, no nothing. As I got out the jumper cables, I remembered that the Battery Buddy was installed. I pushed the reset button and presto, all the lights came on and there was plenty of power to start the bus. So it really does what it says it'll do.

The question, of course, is what made my bus's battery get low enough to trigger the BB after only a month's worth of sitting. I guess there's a short there I'll have to track down. (The battery is three years old, by the way.) I needed a fall project, anyway.

My wife, incidentally, solved the problem of the lights running down the battery in her '92 Corolla by going out last month and buying a 2010 Corolla. Drastic, but it solved the problem. The new one shuts off the headlights when the key goes out ... just like in my '71 bus.