Teltonika FMC234 - battery autonomy
Do you want to keep sending location even when your car is off? If not, maybe small battery is ok?
No, tracker should report location only while powered on.
In case I'd need a location while powered-off, I will acquire location by SMS command.
I assume small battery wont'be ok, according to the following math (model FMC920, 170mAh battery):
Power consumption
At 12V < 2 mA (Ultra Deep Sleep)
At 12V < 3 mA (Deep Sleep)
At 12V < 8mA (Online Deep Sleep)
At 12V < 12 mA (GPS Sleep)
At 12V < 28 mA (nominal with no load)
At 12V < 2 A Max. (with full Load / Peak)
For unit to receive SMS messages, it needs to be at leat in Online Deep Sleep mode, which consumes 8 mA.
170 mAh / 8mA = 21,25 hours
I keep my vehicle turned off several days. Battery would discharge in the meantime.
If your tracker battery is empty then logicly sms wont work since your tracker will switch off. Normally you would just connect the tracker to the car battery so it Will be powered on always.
I thought about that option, but I'm afraid tracker will discharge car battery (discharge just enough not to be able to turn the car on).
I also have dashcam connected - but car battery is protected by hardwire-kit.
I could also connect tracker to hardwire-kit, but for some reason I want to avoid that (too many what-if connections).
Maybe my fear is unjustified and tracker wouldn't affect car battery that much?
Why dont you devide the tracker power consumption as you describe here:
needs to be at leat in Online Deep Sleep mode, which consumes 8 mA.
170 mAh / 8mA = 21,25 hours
Do the same math (the track power consumption) with the car battery capacity. Then you will see is nearly zero.
I thought about that! :)
I'm certain that the fully charged car battery will provide long enough power for the tracker.
But... car battery serves also as a component to start the car - there needs to be certain amount of voltage or amperage in the battery to start the car. Despite tracker being low discharger I'm afraid it could discharge car battery just enough not being able to start the car!
And this is the field I'm not familiar with.
Already researching the internet about that (correlation between amperage and voltage on car battery).
If we have any car-electrician here, feel free to share this info :)
When you car battery is 60 AH then your tracker could run 7500 hours (very simple calculations can be easy with the use of free co-pilot or chat-gpt).
Do you really think it would make any impact if you do not use the car for one week with so little tracker battery drainage?
Besides the above you could also connect the tracker in a way that it only receives power when you switch on the car ignition (then you will still have a day tracking from the tracker battery after you switch of the ignition).
FMC234 is a good choice for devices which don't have their own battery, like a trailer. Using Online Deep Sleep mode on this series of trackers, you can set "Low Power Mode" which kicks in when there is no external power supply.
Using this setup, when an external power supply is provided and the device is asleep, it's about 8mA of current draw. When the external power supply is removed however, the Low Power Mode kicks in and you can control how often it will wake up to send its location, otherwise it stays in Deep Sleep mode and pulling about 3mA.
At about 3mA it will last like this roughly two weeks.
Kaldek, thanks for the info. Regarding the info I gathered here, I've decided to use FMC920 and connect it to a car battery.
FMC920 offers many features. I'll outstand only few of them which convinced me that FMC920 will be a good option:
- charging from car battery when needed
- SMS notification when tracker looses power from car battery (in case thief cuts the power)
- SMS notification on ignition - when unauthorized person (such as thief) turns the car on
What I need to research is how to activate the car's horn or how to install another horn and activate it by SMS command.
I already figured out the command but I'm investigating wiring and usage of additonal electronic components at the moment.
The method to trigger the horn is using the setdigout command: https://wiki.teltonika-gps.com/view/FMB_setdigout and a relay.
You can even use Teltonika Custom Scenarios with the newer firmwares to trigger DOUT1 based on whatever you like, including Movement detected without the Ignition ON. All sorts of stuff.
Don't need to use SMS, Traccar can send the commands in-band. Just configure your tracker to use TCP keepalives and hold the connection open, or force it to send records very frequently. As long as the TCP connection is open, your traccar commands will arrive immediately.
Don't use UDP, it's not reliable enough considering CGNAT in use by SIM card providers.
My use-case scenario is the following:
- when power is cut-off or when ignition is turned on (but neither of those is done by me) --> I trigger DigOUT and activate the horn.
So there is no need to use advanced scenarios. At least for the moment. But thanks for sharing that. I learn each day something new about this device!
And I totally forgot about this option - sending command from Traccar. I'll use this as primary way of communication and SMS-command as secondary one (might be more reliable). Thanks Kaldek!
- Another question arised. I want my horn to produce sound like this (similar to alarm sound):
BEEP (short pause), BEEP (short pause), BEEP (short pause)…
Is so-called flasher relay ok to use for that?
- Another option is to buy dedicated horn (siren) and install it into car. Something like this:
(please remove links if not allowed)
- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32653575229.html
- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008083432682.html
- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006856622922.html
Does anyone have experience with those sirens?
I tried getting help on official Teltonika forum, but unfortunately unsuccesfully.
My goal is to track my car if it gets stolen. Since I don't drive my car frequently (sometimes it sits 5 days unpowered), I want tracker with powerful battery.
I have my eyes on Teltonika trackers - FMC234, since it's equipped with 1000 mAh battery.
I will configure it to recharge only when powered on (ignition on)
...and to send me an SMS when car is powered on (as alert someone unauthorized turned it on).
I'm not sure why they suggested me an FMC920 with small battery (170 mAh) since it lasts only few hours?
https://community.teltonika.lt/t/battery-autonomy/15188
Any reccomendations for or against FMC234 ?