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How do these cell systems respond to the network no longer existing? Do they continue trying to ping towers that no longer exist? Do they give up eventually

How do these cell systems respond to the network no longer existing? Do they continue trying to ping towers that no longer exist? Do they give up eventually and turn themselves off forever?

toast0 4y ago
Probably try forever. The last head unit firmware added a deep sleep so it doesn't drain the battery and polled much less frequently (this was before 3g shut down and made the telematics much less useful anyway). Might have just been parked in an underground garage or driving through tunnels everywhere. I really should pull the fuse though.
- Arrath 4y ago
  The classic "my phone just munched 35% of its battery on a short subway ride frantically thrashing the radio in a search for signal" scenario.
dangrossman 4y ago
When the 2G networks were sunset, Nissan offered a voluntary service campaign for some of their cars with 2G modems: either pay $200 to get a replacement telematics unit with a 3G modem, or they'll disable the 2G modem for free so it doesn't drain your battery trying to connect to a non-existent network 24/7.
- mikestew 4y ago
  But did Nissan disable the "we're collecting data and sending it off to the homeland: OK/Cancel" startup screen? No. So now every time I drive the thing, I have to push a button that does nothing so that I can see the screen. One of but many little duck bites that has us firmly in the "never buy another Nissan" camp.
  - hunter2_ 4y ago
    On Volkswagens, nag screens like that (and "menu disabled while vehicle is in motion" lockouts, and a million other things) can be tweaked with cheap dongles that let you change settings using your phone or laptop. Maybe there's something similar for Nissan?
    - mikestew 4y ago
      Ya know, now that you mention it, there are apparently dongles of some sort (perhaps OBDC? It's been a while...) that give all kinds of extra info, maybe there's something like you mention. It's been a while since I've been over to mynissanleaf.com, perhaps it's time to go pay a visit for a search. Thanks for the prompting. EDIT: though it does not look like the tool will disable the nag screen, LeafSpy Pro does a lot of other things Leaf owners might find handy, such as change the backup warning tone, door unlock/lock behavior, et. al.
      - KMag 4y ago
        > door unlock/lock behavior I just imagined the wireless unlock button sequentially stepping through the 16 lock/unlock states for a 4-door vehicle. "The car is locked. 13 quick clicks later, both front doors are unlocked and both back doors are locked."
      - hunter2_ 4y ago
        OBD2 / OBDII refers to generic powertrain diagnostics (engine, emissions, etc) for all vehicles. Plenty of dongles for that. But I mean something that emulates the tool a dealership would have for specific makes of vehicle, which goes far beyond just the engine, extending into every module, possibly like what you found. Although usually it would be for a family of makes, not just a family of models. For VW/Audi/Skoda/Seat the popular ones are VCDS and OBDeleven (the name of the latter being a play on OBDII, confusingly, being that I am trying to differentiate actual OBDII... ugh).
        mikestew 4y ago
mikeryan 4y ago
My Volvo has had this happen. I have no idea if it still pings anything but the app access has been shut down. Annoyingly every so often the car gives me a warning that the Volvo service has expired. I’d love to turn that off. But it must still be trying to connect to something.
- toast0 4y ago
  Yeah, I still get the warning every so often that Ford has access to my GPS for trip tracking... I think if I factory reset the headunit, that'll go away, but then I lose my presets. If I had thought about it, I could have deassociated while the modem was online. :(

How do these cell systems respond to the network no longer existing? Do they continue trying to ping towers that no longer exist? Do they give up eventually and turn themselves off forever?

toast0 4y ago

Probably try forever. The last head unit firmware added a deep sleep so it doesn't drain the battery and polled much less frequently (this was before 3g shut down and made the telematics much less useful anyway). Might have just been parked in an underground garage or driving through tunnels everywhere. I really should pull the fuse though.

Arrath 4y ago
The classic "my phone just munched 35% of its battery on a short subway ride frantically thrashing the radio in a search for signal" scenario.

dangrossman 4y ago

When the 2G networks were sunset, Nissan offered a voluntary service campaign for some of their cars with 2G modems: either pay $200 to get a replacement telematics unit with a 3G modem, or they'll disable the 2G modem for free so it doesn't drain your battery trying to connect to a non-existent network 24/7.

mikestew 4y ago
But did Nissan disable the "we're collecting data and sending it off to the homeland: OK/Cancel" startup screen? No. So now every time I drive the thing, I have to push a button that does nothing so that I can see the screen. One of but many little duck bites that has us firmly in the "never buy another Nissan" camp.
- hunter2_ 4y ago
  On Volkswagens, nag screens like that (and "menu disabled while vehicle is in motion" lockouts, and a million other things) can be tweaked with cheap dongles that let you change settings using your phone or laptop. Maybe there's something similar for Nissan?
  - mikestew 4y ago
    Ya know, now that you mention it, there are apparently dongles of some sort (perhaps OBDC? It's been a while...) that give all kinds of extra info, maybe there's something like you mention. It's been a while since I've been over to mynissanleaf.com, perhaps it's time to go pay a visit for a search. Thanks for the prompting. EDIT: though it does not look like the tool will disable the nag screen, LeafSpy Pro does a lot of other things Leaf owners might find handy, such as change the backup warning tone, door unlock/lock behavior, et. al.
    - KMag 4y ago
      > door unlock/lock behavior I just imagined the wireless unlock button sequentially stepping through the 16 lock/unlock states for a 4-door vehicle. "The car is locked. 13 quick clicks later, both front doors are unlocked and both back doors are locked."
    - hunter2_ 4y ago
      OBD2 / OBDII refers to generic powertrain diagnostics (engine, emissions, etc) for all vehicles. Plenty of dongles for that. But I mean something that emulates the tool a dealership would have for specific makes of vehicle, which goes far beyond just the engine, extending into every module, possibly like what you found. Although usually it would be for a family of makes, not just a family of models. For VW/Audi/Skoda/Seat the popular ones are VCDS and OBDeleven (the name of the latter being a play on OBDII, confusingly, being that I am trying to differentiate actual OBDII... ugh).
      - mikestew 4y ago

mikeryan 4y ago

My Volvo has had this happen. I have no idea if it still pings anything but the app access has been shut down. Annoyingly every so often the car gives me a warning that the Volvo service has expired. I’d love to turn that off. But it must still be trying to connect to something.

toast0 4y ago
Yeah, I still get the warning every so often that Ford has access to my GPS for trip tracking... I think if I factory reset the headunit, that'll go away, but then I lose my presets. If I had thought about it, I could have deassociated while the modem was online. :(