Settings to maximise Vista HCx battery life

[Sergeant Pluck]

Hi all

Another query - what menu settings are best for maintaining battery life?

SP

[Maladict]

Switch the backlight to auto on/off based on sunset and turn it to the minimum nonzero level.

Turn off the compass.  You don't need it at cycling speeds.  It can be useful when stationary though, but you can turn it on quickly if needed.

[CathH]

You also might want to try GP Recyko+ rechargable batteries with it.  Works well with mine and it's nice to not have to worry about turning it off the instant you arrive at home/pub/work.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I got about 10 or 11 hours out of a set of 2100 mAh NiMH cells - but that was with a lot of setting up, and a lot of backlight, and with compass in use.

How long do you have after the low battery warning comes on?

[Maladict]

I got about 10 or 11 hours out of a set of 2100 mAh NiMH cells - but that was with a lot of setting up, and a lot of backlight, and with compass in use.

How long do you have after the low battery warning comes on?

Not all that long IME.  Make sure you use the correct battery type setting.

I use 2500-2700mAh batteries typically and I reckon they'll easily last a 300 - 15-20h of use.  It's claimed they'll do 25h but I haven't started a 400 with a fresh set to test that yet.  Perhaps I'll give it a go on the Manningtree 400 and report back then.

Make sure you set the backlight timeout nice and short too.  I haven't any specific "power saving" features other than what I've already mentioned.

[frankly frankie]

Turn off WAAS/EGNOS.  That's about a 20% battery hit, and you don't need the extra accuracy it gives.

The backlight isn't too bad - at full backlight 100% of the time it would still be only about 100% battery hit - at 40% light say 10% of the time its almost negligible.

Battery Save mode extends life by about 30%, no more, OTOH it doesn't affect performance much either.

Hybrid-type battery cells are pointless unless you are unable to recharge immediately before the trip.  The break-even point is around 5-6 days - if you can't recharge within 6 days of your trip, use hybrids - otherwise, no point.

Always match the cell type in the menus (Alkaline, NiMH etc) to what is actually fitted.

[andrew_s]

Turn off WAAS/EGNOS.  That's about a 20% battery hit, and you don't need the extra accuracy it gives.

Always match the cell type in the menus (Alkaline, NiMH etc) to what is actually fitted.

Since selective availability got turned off, most of the time you don't get all that much extra accuracy with WAAS/EGNOS anyway.

The cell type setting in the menus is there so that the battery indicator bars give a reasonably useful indication of remaining life. It won't affect actual battery life - ie time to auto-shutdown.
Set wrongly, you might either find that you've got 3 or 4 bars until just before the thing shuts itself down, or that it goes down to 1 bar quite quickly and remains there for ages.

[frankly frankie]

The cell type setting in the menus is there so that the battery indicator bars give a reasonably useful indication of remaining life. It won't affect actual battery life - ie time to auto-shutdown.

That's interesting - I assumed the purpose of auto-shutdown was to protect the battery from deep discharge, which is only necessary with rechargables.    With alkalines the shutdown could be set to the lowest voltage the device can sustain, or just disabled so it can simply die for lack of volts.

[andrew_s]

I can't remember where I heard that it was just for the life indicator, but it always seemed reasonable to me.
The indicator being a voltmeter and two or 3 sets of threshold values for the bars.

I thought it was just lead acid and Li-ion that objected particularly to deep discharge. I've seen it recommended that nickel cells should be deep discharged occasionally to help maintain full capacity.

[frankly frankie]

Hm.  With the greatest respect (what an insulting phrase that is) I think I'll test this for myself.  I'll report back in about a year   ;- )