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Battery Life With Vista C


osnica

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Hi everyone,

 

I'm quite new to these forums and to GPS receivers, and I'm sure this has already been discussed here, but I need suggestion regarding the batter life on my brand new Garmin Vista C unit.

 

I got a pair of new Varta PhotoAccus (NiMH, 2300mAh), which have been recharge about 3-4 times. I have tried to test the battery life of the unit by turning it on with batteries fully charged in the morning, and leaving it on throughout the day with backlight off and compass off. It turned off with batteries low after about 12-13 hours of operation.

 

According to the manual, the battery life should be 20 hours. And this is what I found in this review: Battery life was measured at 29 hours for the Vista-C with the backlight and compass OFF and 18 hours with the compass ON.

 

I guess they used alkalines, but then I guess that it shouldn't be too much of a difference between a 2300mAh rechargeables and alkalines, should it?

 

So the question is: What is your battery life when using NiMHs in Vista C? Is 12 hours good? bad? If it's bad, could it be the charger?

 

I'm using an older Hama charger which can charge AAAs, AAs, Cs and Ds (in pairs) and features conditioner (discharge before charge) as well as trickle charge to keep them charged after the fast charge is complete. The charging current is 800mA.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Rado

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Rechargeable batteries are very different. A friend had an off-brand set of batteries and his GPS Map60CS would only work for a couple of hours, if that. I also had problems with some off-brand batteries in my Vista.

 

That convinced me to invest in four 2300 mAmp 15-minute Energizer batteries and the 15-minute charger. It cost me $25.00 at Target.

 

I haven't used my new Vista C for enough hours continuously to get a low battery warning yet, but it works for ten hours with those batteries.

Edited by idiosyncratic
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We have a Vista C and use Energizer 2200mAH rechargeables. It takes about 10-12 hours to drop down to one strength-bar, at which point I usually swap them out for a fresh pair. I haven't had it actually run all the way until it shuts itself off due to insufficient battery strength, so I don't know how long that would take.

 

I was wondering if it matters which screen you use -- I have it on the map screen most of the time, and I know it takes some effort for it to keep redrawing the map. Maybe the batteries would last longer if I left it on the compass screen? Just a baseless guess.

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One more question, does the battery type setting in the unit (NiMH or Alkaline) has any effect on the operation or battery load?

It might . . . they put that option there for a reason. :rolleyes: I have changed it in my new GPSr to match the NiMH batteries I use.

AFAIK, the only reason they let you change the battery type setting is to make the meter a bit more accurate. It should have no effect on the operation or power consumption of the GPSr.

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Thanks, idiosyncratic, for your response.

 

Rechargeable batteries are very different. A friend had an off-brand set of batteries and his GPS Map60CS would only work for a couple of hours, if that. I also had problems with some off-brand batteries in my Vista.

 

I always considered Varta's to be one of the top brands in the battery industry, and never had a single problem with them so I don't know... I guess I'll try different rechargeables, or a different charger to see if it makes any difference...

 

I haven't used my new Vista C for enough hours continuously to get a low battery warning yet, but it works for ten hours with those batteries.

 

What level (how many bars) will your battery indicator show after 10 hours use?

 

Thanks again,

Rado

Edited by osnica
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One more question, does the battery type setting in the unit (NiMH or Alkaline) has any effect on the operation or battery load?

 

Yes - it adjusts the battery meter to indicate remaining battery life correctly with the lower voltage of nimh batteries - 1.25v as compared to alkaline at 1.5v.

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We have a Vista C and use Energizer 2200mAH rechargeables.  It takes about 10-12 hours to drop down to one strength-bar, at which point I usually swap them out for a fresh pair.  I haven't had it actually run all the way until it shuts itself off due to insufficient battery strength, so I don't know how long that would take.

 

Well, in my case it only took about 1 hour for the unit to drop from 1 bar to 0 and a little more time for it to power off.

 

I was wondering if it matters which screen you use -- I have it on the map screen most of the time, and I know it takes some effort for it to keep redrawing the map. Maybe the batteries would last longer if I left it on the compass screen? Just a baseless guess.

 

You may be right, the map drawing and redrawing certainly puts a load on the CPU, but during my test I had it on the satellites screen 95% of the time, it was just laying next to my kitchen window all the time.

 

I guess I'll try a different set of batteries.

 

Thanks,

Rado

Edited by osnica
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I bought a set of 2300 mAh Ni-MH and a 60 mins. charger. The brand is Digital!! I accept that these batteries must be charged and decharged a few times to get full effect. But after several chargings only two of the batteries took more than 60 mins. to recharge. The rest varied from 25 to 35 mins. And the performance was thereafter. :unsure:

 

So then I invested in Sony's 2100mAh's(and sonys charger; 6 Hours). New world. The 2100mAh's lasts considerably longer than the Digital brand. 20-30 hours maybe more?

 

So what do I think of cheap batteries :rolleyes: Do not by cheap!

Edited by baø
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I have some of those Digital batteries and only use them in my TV remote, in a small, rarely-used flashlight, and my electric, lighted pepper grinder :rolleyes: .

 

They are terrible, but no worse than the NoMemPro batteries I also have.

 

Getting name-brand rechargeable batteries is very important, and the higher mAmp you can get the better.

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I just finished up two days of caching. I kept the same batteries in the unit the second day to see how long they would last. I didn't get a "Batteries Low" message until I had used the batteries for about 15 hours. Nine hours the first day; six hours the second day.

 

I still don't know how long the Vista C would have stayed on after the "batteries low" warning appeared. It had been on for more than half an hour when I finally decided to go ahead and change the batteries.

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