Author Topic: Garmin Edge 800 Qs (Read 20173 times)

caerau · « **on:** 25 January, 2013, 03:37:17 pm »

Idly wondering about a couple of things.

If the battery die on one of these en route - will it lose all data or does it go into a sort of hibernations a la laptop batteries? (and does it record the ride so far safe and sound?)

Also - if I have it set for turn-by turn directions - just how adversely does this affect the battery.

I'm doing a 200k audax tomorrow and trying to be prepared. I'll keep my smartphone with me also, turned off until/if I need it for similar porpoises.

Lightkeeper · « **Reply #1 on:** 25 January, 2013, 07:17:32 pm »

Quote from: Caerau on 25 January, 2013, 03:37:17 pm

If the battery die on one of these en route - will it lose all data or does it go into a sort of hibernations a la laptop batteries? (and does it record the ride so far safe and sound?)

I've had two experiences. An Edge 500 lasted all but the final 50 km of a 300 km GPS DIY Perm. The track up to the point it died was safe and sound, and Eck validated the ride on the basis of the track and a cashpoint receipt as the final control. An Edge 800, on the other hand, froze on me 500 km into a 600 km GPS DIY Perm. I had to reset it, and in the process lost the track and became a DNF.

To avoid that risk, I would now split a longer ride into sections and save the tracklog separately for each; record onto the SIM card, not the internal memory; and keep receipts etc as a back-up where possible in case of failure.

But I've never had a problem on a ride of 200 km or shorter.

Quote

Also - if I have it set for turn-by turn directions - just how adversely does this affect the battery.

I haven't tested that (because I have the luxury of being able to charge it on the go, from the dynamo). I think use of the backlight is likely to do more noticeable damage to the battery life.

Quote

I'm doing a 200k audax tomorrow and trying to be prepared. I'll keep my smartphone with me also, turned off until/if I need it for similar porpoises.

Are you riding to here, then?

caerau · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 January, 2013, 08:09:11 pm »

Oh I'm not using it for validation, just so I don't get lost - and for posting up the gps on facebook too of coure

No, south wales to Gloucester and back. Dr Foster's Winter Warmer

Thanks for answering what was probably the most numpty question in this forum

Lightkeeper · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 January, 2013, 08:15:07 pm »

Not a problem, then - the Garmin'll almost certainly be fine, and if it isn't you'll have a route-sheet. Enjoy the ride!

caerau · « **Reply #4 on:** 27 January, 2013, 01:21:32 pm »

Battery did run out in the end - but only after 105 miles already under the belt so I just used my nose from there.

Turn by turn directions helped a lot for the way out remote areas but chewed out the battery I think more that if I hadn't used them.

And the ride was great

eeymsmo · « **Reply #5 on:** 27 January, 2013, 01:34:01 pm »

The battery runs down a lot faster in cold weather. 10-12 hours is usually fine in warm weather but yesterday mine was almost completely drained after 5 hours.

Ive got a 3000mAh battery pack I carry in my carradice and a 2m USB cable I wrap around my cross bar. Enough power to get me comfortably round a 600 and charge the iPhone from the battery pack. For 1000km I've used 2 battery packs and had charge to spare

[Edited 15:11 27/01/2013 to correct phone auto corrections]

marcusjb · « **Reply #6 on:** 27 January, 2013, 01:39:40 pm »

^^^ totally right

The difference is quite remarkable really. I probably had to plug into the battery pack after around 7-8 hours yesterday (but things have got a lot milder again here in the south east), normally I would have to think about it after 10 or so hours.

StuAff · « **Reply #7 on:** 27 January, 2013, 03:03:51 pm »

+1 on both marcus & eenymsmo's points. Did postie's Winter Wind-up 200 at the end of January 2011, my 705's battery warning kicked off when I had a good three or four hours to ride (eight or nine hours done)- this was with just using it as a bike computer, minimal use of backlight..On a long run I use one of my AA-powered USB chargers in a tri-bag (got a two-battery one after aforementioned audax, more recently a three-battery one that has enough power to both run the Garmin and charge the internal battery) and with one of those I've done a 200 & multiple FNRttCs plus rides home without running out of power.

mrkwr · « **Reply #8 on:** 27 January, 2013, 03:42:44 pm »

I did the Winter Warmer yesterday with an 800 and the battery lasted fine for me (about 10.5 hours). I was using it without turn-turn though - mostly following route-sheet but checking against the Garmin where I was unsure (set the course to 'always display')

OTOH, the bloody thing locked up somewhere after the Millbrook stop and I didn't notice for maybe 10k. Frantic pressing of the various buttons get t to restart but luckily it hadn't lost the earliest data, so I ended up with a track with a hole in the middle.

And this wa the first time out with the replacement unit after the previous one got permanently stuck in diagnostics mode. These are surely the least reliable consumer electronics products on the market by some considerable margin

Lightkeeper · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 January, 2013, 07:56:13 pm »

I did a DIY-by-GPS 200 km today using a recently refurbished Edge 800. I was using turn-by-turn on a TCX file (with cafes marked

). It gave a "Battery low" warning after about 9 hours. I nursed it home by using an off-course route back into Edinburgh so the backlight wouldn't fire for turn indications. Was still going when I arrived (9h 45m). The Edge reported the average temperature as 1 degree C.

By the the accounts of others' experiences, I think mine did fairly well. But then, once out of Edinburgh, there aren't that many turns to indicate (route was Edin-Melrose-Moffat-Edin). In the Highlands, there cam be 80 km or more between route-sheet instructions.

Feanor · « **Reply #10 on:** 27 January, 2013, 08:11:09 pm »

Sounds about right.
My edge 800 is good for a 200k on it's internal battery, but that's about it.

I did a silly 200k that took nearly 14 hours last year, and it managed to record the whole tracklog, but I knew the way and never had it displaying the map page or turn instructions. It can last to about 14 hours if it's left as a dumb trip computer. It was complaining by the end though ( and so was I ). I suspect that's the absolute limit on the internal battery.

With navigation enabled, I'd say 10 hours is the max you can expect.
Less if you use the backlight much.

For 300+ events, expect to use an external battery pack.
I have an 11000mAH Technet external pack that lasted the BCM600 which took me about 36 hours.
The external pack was still almost full at that point, and that included a night section with the backlight on a lot.

Lightkeeper · « **Reply #11 on:** 27 January, 2013, 09:21:56 pm »

Quote from: Feanor on 27 January, 2013, 08:11:09 pm

For 300+ events, expect to use an external battery pack.

What are people's practices and experiences with using external batter packs? Specifically: how long does it take to charge up a GPS, and/or do people leave their devices plugged in all/most of the time?

I have a battery I use for my phone on business trips. It's not all that bike-portable. Wondering about putting it in a drop-bag (EDIT: for LEL, I mean), but I think it would be more useful to have it on the bike: could be a case of battery-pack n+1 coming on...

Feanor · « **Reply #12 on:** 27 January, 2013, 09:26:38 pm »

I don't use it to charge up a flat GPS late in the day: I keep the garmin plugged in all the time on longer events.

This is what I use:
http://www.tecknetonline.co.uk/products/TeckNet-iEP390-11000mAh-External-Battery-pack.html

Packs away on a bike OK.

Veloman · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 January, 2013, 10:13:06 pm »

Caerau and Lightkeeper

There have been lots of discussions about the Edge 800 in previous pages of GPS thread and well worth a look. (If you type in search Edge 800 you’ll find out about the screen/data dump after about 375 km, which I note Lightkeeper has already experienced!). Feanor is an expert on such matters, along with Bikey-Mikey and what to do to fix.

Power problems have also been discussed at length and completely agree with this from Feanor which is also my solution:

For 300+ events, expect to use an external battery pack.
I have an 11000mAH Technet external pack that lasted the BCM600 which took me about 36 hours.
The external pack was still almost full at that point, and that included a night section with the backlight on a lot.

But never done the experiment in terms of 5 days!

What is essential is that you deplete the external first as if you deplete 800 and then connect power pack, it will be trying to charge 800 and provide power for it to work, which is never a good idea.

Have a trawl through previous pages as there is loads of good stuff.

Lightkeeper · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 January, 2013, 11:12:52 pm »

Thanks, Veloman - will go and read.

caerau · « **Reply #15 on:** 28 January, 2013, 09:14:44 am »

Thanks all, will go and read too.

Hi mrkwr - yes I saw you were using an Edge 800 too - you were much wiser than me in actually taking off the bike at the Slimbridge stop - with security in mind I left it on my stem along with my iphone attached to the handlebars.
I will start having a think about an external battery pack myself.

Oddly, the gps file that survives has uploaded successfully to mapmyride and strava but for some reason I can't get it to upload to ... wait for it... garminconnect.

- it just gives me a fail every time and I can't get it there by downloading from strave or mapmyride either. A tad irritating as I have a mileage goal on garminconnect that this ride would take a nice healthy chunk out of.

frankly frankie · « **Reply #16 on:** 28 January, 2013, 09:18:08 am »

Consider getting a smaller pack for randonnees as 11000mAh is clearly overkill (though great for other things no doubt).

Veloman · « **Reply #17 on:** 28 January, 2013, 09:25:38 am »

Quote from: frankly frankie on 28 January, 2013, 09:18:08 am

Consider getting a smaller pack for randonnees as 11000mAh is clearly overkill (though great for other things no doubt).

Indeed it is overkill as it will easily cope with charging the phone and any other USB devices you may have as well as the 2 USB outlets can be useful.

Also, the weight and price difference is very small, so why not just go for something you will not need to upgrade and not worry about using it when it gets cold etc which will drain the juice more than on that blissful summer day that we all dream about.

caerau · « **Reply #18 on:** 29 January, 2013, 01:04:41 pm »

I just bought the next one up form Amazon (iep 392) - at £35.97 I thought fekkit, since I've spent that much more on other stuff in the past. It's 12000 mAh so even more overkill

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet®-12000mAH-Sensation-Thunderbolt-Blackberry/dp/B000X30AYA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359464593&sr=8-1

Feanor · « **Reply #19 on:** 29 January, 2013, 04:24:13 pm »

Quote from: Caerau on 28 January, 2013, 09:14:44 am

Oddly, the gps file that survives has uploaded successfully to mapmyride and strava but for some reason I can't get it to upload to ... wait for it... garminconnect. - it just gives me a fail every time and I can't get it there by downloading from strave or mapmyride either. A tad irritating as I have a mileage goal on garminconnect that this ride would take a nice healthy chunk out of.

In GarminConnect, are you trying to upload from the device directly using the communicator plug-in, or are you trying to do a manual upload of a file by simply browsing to it?

The 'Manual file upload' has shown some browser version sensitivity for me.
On my win7 / IE9 system, I need to click the 'broken page' Compatability View icon before I can get manual upload to work.

YMMV.

caerau · « **Reply #20 on:** 30 January, 2013, 09:19:42 am »

I tried both and both failed. However, I tried again by uploading the gpx download of the same file that I uploaded to mapmyride (if you follow) and eventually persuaded it to work.

It still comes up as a failed upload each day since though as the file is still on the garmin. I guess I should delete it to save the irritation factor.

Ningishzidda · « **Reply #21 on:** 31 January, 2013, 03:26:30 pm »

I built a mini USB battery box that takes 4 x AA cells. Its small and light enough to keep in my PRK. If I see the GPS running low, I pop in a shop and buy a pack of AA Alkalines. The battery pack elastic straps to the top tube.
The GPS indicates it is receiving an external power supply. When the indicator changes back to the battery icon, its time to renew the batteries.
Renewing the batteries like this renders the GPS ‘indefinite’.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #22 on:** 31 January, 2013, 06:51:45 pm »

Quote from: Ningishzidda on 31 January, 2013, 03:26:30 pm

Renewing the batteries like this renders the GPS ‘indefinite’.

But does that method avoid the data dump problem on longer rides?

caerau · « **Reply #23 on:** 03 February, 2013, 03:19:26 pm »

Right it's arrived and is lovely but the usb cable is not an ideal length.
Where does one get a longer USB cable with the correct socket at the end for the tecknet's adapters?

[edit] think before you post. Yes I've just realised I just need a long mini USB cable. Ignore ignore ignore!]

Veloman · « **Reply #24 on:** 03 February, 2013, 07:18:52 pm »

Quote from: Caerau on 03 February, 2013, 03:19:26 pm

Right it's arrived and is lovely but the usb cable is not an ideal length.
Where does one get a longer USB cable with the correct socket at the end for the tecknet's adapters?

[edit] think before you post. Yes I've just realised I just need a long mini USB cable. Ignore ignore ignore!]

Go for the cheaper option and just have a standard USB extension cable and ensure the join is bombproof/waterproof by using tape. This allows some to carry the external power in the saddlebag. Most seem to cope with a top-tube bag, the sort that is designed for gels in tri events, but some external power sources are just on the large size and are not an ideal fit.