Warnings when using radio at drive-in theater

FtWorthKat · Nov 2, 2017

So I went to a drive-in theater a couple nights ago, and the movie theater was broadcasting the audio on an FM radio station. So I tried to listen to the radio with the car off, and every few minutes I kept getting a beep along with a battery discharge warning on the infortainment console. It was darned annoying. I managed to figure out how to turn the display off, but the warning kept popping up regardless. The alternative appeared to be to turn the car on and have the display panel above the steering wheel on instead, and even though I figured out how to dim that, it was still bright enough to be too distracting to the movie. It doesn't seem to me like listening to FM radio should generate this warning; every ICE I've ever owned can operate the radio at the drive-in, and why shouldn't my Soul EV? My date and I were at the theater from 7pm through 1am with no battery issues at the end from running the radio through two long movies.

Does anyone have a solution or workaround? It seems to me like there should be some setting to fix this problem, but I searched around and couldn't find it.

SoulEV2016 · Nov 2, 2017

it's a security feature for the ACID battery.
you can not change this.

in ACC (push ON/OFF without brake pedal), only ACID battery is used ... and with night light or heated seat/seering wheel enable, they drain too quickly this ACID battery and she DIE.

1/3 of all problems on electric car is this ACID battery.

so, turn car "on" always to "stay in the car for a long time" (ON/OFF + brake pedal pushed).
you can not use for long time, the ACC position.

FtWorthKat · Nov 3, 2017

I don't see why a 12V battery can't handle playing the radio...I could buy a radio that runs on a 1.5V battery. Maybe a little more juice for the speakers. Plus, it DID handle playing the radio for two long movies. The screen popups only used more juice unnecessarily.

But lets say that I did have the car on through the 2 movies...is there some way to disable all the extraneous LEDs? I don't think asking to watch a drive-in movie in relative peace and comfort is too much to ask of a brand new car...

notfred · Nov 3, 2017

A modern car Head Unit is so much more than a radio, it's more like a laptop and a home stereo system all combined in to one box. The power draw can be significant.

You could always just go for a low tech solution, power the car on and then put something in front of the dash lights - just remember to take it out before you drive away!

FtWorthKat · Nov 4, 2017

I tried putting a sweatshirt and towel up there, but it didn't fully conceal the lights and there were other LEDs on when the car was on. That's why I decided it was better to leave the car off, radio on, and drape the towel over the navigation screen to minimize the interruption of the discharge warning pop-up instead.

I am interested in a better work around to this problem if one exists, but the fact that this use case was not anticipated and/or designed for reduces my confidence in the engineering behind the Kia brand.