Psychaesthetic
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Posts posted by Psychaesthetic
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The explorer sux.
Exteme 12V holds a lot more grunt, and has both 5v usb and 12v outputs.
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A PowerMonkey Extreme 12V will keep it going for many hours. i'd have to know how many mA's your GPS uses to know for sure, but the PME12V's battery pack is 9000mAhs, so divide that by the mA rating for the gpsr.
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Tell ya what though, even though ai was wrong about the mAh rating, and realized that by the end of the post, I was right about the main point: Garmin batteries are s***, and a good pair of eleloops or other quality rechargables would still be an upgrade, I know I'm right about that much!
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I'll let you in on a little basic math secret here.
The battery pack that Garmin manufactures for the Oregon 6xx series is quite the excercise in marketting, no surprise, they *are* a corporation after all. At an energy rating of 2000mAh, the reality is this battery pack is only half the energy you'd get by simply using 2000mAh NiMh rechargables. I almost couldn't believe it myself, "surely they mean 2000mAh PER half" I thought.
Examining the pack though, you will see it's really just two AA's held together with a bit of plastic, and on each battery/side is the rating text:
"... Battery Pack Rating:
2.4V 2000mAh 4.8Wh"
Now, although they've cleverly printed this on each side/cell, the implication is absolutely misleading. AA batteries are 1.2V. It dosn't matter whether they're Alkaline, Lithium or rechargable NiMh, they're always 1.2V per battery, so a battery pack rated 2.4v and 2000mAh cannot possibly equate to more than 1000mAh per cell. Simple maths.
Anyhow, I received my Oregon 650 yesterday, and was surprised to find the battery pack only lasted about 5 hours. A quixk peek at the numbers uncovered why. Shame Garmin, shame. The two Eneloops I switched to, if i added them like Garmin does with it's "battery pack" equal a combined rating of 2.4V, 3800mAh and I'm not sure of their Whatt hourage, but you get the point. Get yourself some good 2000mAh NiMh's and you'll double your devices life on batteries: mathematically proven. [edited to remove inappropriate line]
It's really dumb, on Garmins part, to use cheap 1000mAh AAs to make their battery packs, because many users would quickly form the opinion that the Oregon is the greediest device they've used. The truth though, is Garmin's batt-packs are complete garbage.
I'm getting a cramp in my neck from staring down at my ipad acreen, but all you need to know about mAh is they tell you how LONG the battery will stay charged.
If you have a device that consumes 500mA, then it needs 500mA per hour to run. Now, two 2000mAh batteries will keep that device running for 8 hours, because ..
STOP, WAIT, I just remembered, that batteries that are parallel will add to each others mAh rating. Mm I'm wrong, now ai've typed all that out.
Batteries in series have the same mAh rating whether it's 1 cell or 6.
I don't want to delete the whole post now though, so zi'll just click submit.
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You'll like either, but my advice is to spend as much as you can, and avoid *wishing* you'd spend that extra $100 later.
I received my Oregon 650 yesterday, and mmalready had the v4 TOPOS SO DIDN't see any point paying for V6 or whichever version are pre-installed in the 650T. Some people, I've read, grab the 600 cos they don't need the camera: I wanted the camera, but didn't need to pay extra for the topos, for the aformentioned reasons.
The screen on the O650 is so bright outside, from every angle, it looks backlit even with the backlight completely off.
Edit: I haven't played with the 64s, but it *looks* more rugged, and touchscreens *can* get scratched ai spose, so it just depends how much abuse you plan to give your unit, or conversely, how careful you feel like being.
The O6xxs are no doubt heavier, so gravity will hurt them more, but conversely again, they don't have an antenna that can break off.
Decisions decisions!
I can confirm too, regarding the GGZ file thing, that geocaches from GCing.com - the GPX ones, download file, though I only did two pages of singles just to test it out, they install fine.
GPSMAP 64s vs Oregon 600
in GPS technology and devices
Posted · Edited by Psychaesthetic
The minor irks about the Oregon 650 I have are:
- USB port on a 90o angle to the unit, so the only way to lay it flat while plugged-in, is on it's screen and even then, the usb cord will be pointing up at the roof.
- Case has began squeaking. It's very slight, and caused by the stiffness of the rubber button-covers. It's not a huge issue, and only discernable when you're squeezing s*** oit the power-button really, and being a touchscreen unit you only need the larger, non-squeak-causing user button to toggle the screen so the squeaky thing's pretty irrelevant.
- Bluetooth. Bluetooth, that ONLY transfers to that crappy Basecamp mobile, and nothing else. Won't pair with anything except other Garmin GPSrs or the bascamp app. They can fix this in a firmware update, and I sure hope they do, because xferrimg pics means plugging the unit into your pc, at the moment.
Mmm what else. That's probably about all the irritations I have with the unit, oh, the power button! As mentioned, it's so tight you have to squeeze the guts oit of it, which makes a creak.
All that said, I don't feel like I made a bad choice, since the unit *is* a lovely device, the above points are just minor gripes and the only ones ai can think of.
I'll post any more if they pop-up, but overall it's a great device.