Jump to content

Gps Power Source


Budbrew

Recommended Posts

I use the 15 minute rechargable batteries from Rayovac and they seem to work wonderfully. I can go geocaching all day long and still be on the same two batteries. I also have a 60cs. And it really does only take 15 minutes to recharge them. The only downside is that they do discharge if you don't use them for a few weeks but I hardly find this to be a problem since I can recharge them in 15 minutes before I depart on a geocaching adventure.

Link to comment

I don't know why when I went to power it up the screen came up and then is fizzled out and shut down! Weird, I was pissed because I had already opened the pack of lithium batteries. It was Energizers top notch lithium battery. Has anyone tried those batteries in a 60CSx and had the same results?

Link to comment
I don't know why when I went to power it up the screen came up and then is fizzled out and shut down!

Not an auspicious sign. The Eveready lithiums are slightly higher voltage (about 1.7V) than regular alkalines, but well-designed electronics should be able to work with either, and also with the slightly lower voltage (1.2V) NiMH or NiCds. You might want to check with Garmin to see if that behavior indicates a defect.

 

I wouldn't recommend the lithiums for everday use just because of the cost. If you use your GPS frequently then NiMHs are by far the most cost-effective and they'll last about as long per charge as single-use alkalines. Lithiums will last even longer and have advantages in cold weather but are the most expensive per hour of use.

Link to comment

I have 3 GPS recievers, a digital camera, and two AA flashlights. After burning up a bunch of alkaline AA's I finally swithced to NiMh with an overnight charger. I have about 18 AA 2,500 NiMh's and as long as you keep track of the charged-dead ones- I think they are the way to go. I back ordered a "Rifle Cartrige Belt pouch" that holds 10 batteries on your side- ready to go. GPSr/camera dies? Put the dead ones in upside down and take out a couple freshies!

Link to comment

The Lithium Eveready cells work fine in my 60CSx. There should be no problen whatsoever. Garmin has even confirmed this to me as well.

Unfortunately, the battery type menu doesn't have a specific "lithium" choice, so the way lithium cells discharge may not be shown accurately by the unit's "gas guage".

Link to comment

I wonder if by chance I purchased a bad set of batteries? Let me rephrase that; I hope I purchased a bad set of batteries. I emailed garmin, so we will see what they say. The lithiums I used were the Energizer e2 lithium batteries. If anyone has used these in their new Garmin 60CSx unit please let me know. Thanks :(

Link to comment
I don't know why when I went to power it up the screen came up and then is fizzled out and shut down! Weird, I was pissed because I had already opened the pack of lithium batteries. It was Energizers top notch lithium battery. Has anyone tried those batteries in a 60CSx and had the same results?

Yeah, that would really TICK me off too. :(

Link to comment

Everready Lithium E2's work great in my Magellan Meridian and Garmin Etrex Venutre. They lasta LOOOONG time, but with the higher price, I came to the conclusion (about 6 mo ago) that they were not quite a good trade off against the alkaline disposables (if we are talking disposables). If the price comes down a litle more, they will be a better choice, IMHO. They are lighter, plus you can carry less for long trips.

Link to comment
Yeah, I put regular alkaline batteries in the my 60CSx and it works fine. I wonder if I got a bad pack of lithium batteries or something. I think I am going to try to purchase another brand and see what happens. I emailed Garmin, and we'll see what they have to say.

When I used "off-brand" NiMH batteries, I got poor performance in my GPSr. :(

 

I finally purchased the 15-minute Energizer charger and four Energizer batteries for $25.00 at Target and they work great! thumbsup.gif

 

If I had been using Alkalines over these past eight months, I would have spent a lot more money by now. These batteries have many, many more charging cycles left. If I had been using the Lithium batteries, I would have spent even more money. :(

 

You probably got some bad batteries. I would return them.

 

The Lithium batteries are a good choice if you are going to be using them in really cold weather.

Link to comment

Any brand name AA and most non-brand name AA's will work in any manufacturer's GPSr that is designed to operate on AA batteries. The useful life of these batteries will however vary by quite a wide margin. As a general rule, this also applies to any AA powered device. And yes, as with most things in life there will be exceptions. And also as a general rule, lithium batteries though more costly than alkalines will outlast them by a factor of three or four times depending upon the application.

Edited by Team Cotati
Link to comment

It sounds like it is the batteries, wheww. :( I emailed garmin and the following was the response that was given:

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin:

 

It sounds like it is going to be the batteries especially if the unit is

working fine with alkaline batteries you might try another set of lithium

batteries and see what happens.

 

Best Regards,

 

Dustin B.

Aviation Support Specialist

Garmin International

1200 E. 151st

Olathe, KS 66062

techsupp@garmin.com

(T) 800.800.1020

(F) 913.440.5488

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Budbrew [mailto:]

Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 10:03 AM

To: techsupp@garmin.com

Subject: RE: Battery Question

 

Dustin,

 

I have tried regular alkaline batteries and the unit works just fine,

do you suppose it may have been the batteries, or is the unit defective?

 

Thanks,

Rich

 

Thank you for contacting Garmin:

 

Have you tried any other batteries since then? If you have and it is

not

working you might want to go back to the dealer that you bought it from

and

exchange it for another unit or we can bring it in and look at it and

fix

it.

 

Best Regards,

 

Dustin B.

Aviation Support Specialist

Garmin International

1200 E. 151st

Olathe, KS 66062

techsupp@garmin.com

(T) 800.800.1020

(F) 913.440.5488

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Budbrew [mailto:]

Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 8:18 AM

To: Garmin Technical Support

Subject: Tech support request for GPSMAP 60CSx

 

Problem:

I just purchased a Garmin 60CSx, and I also purchased some Energizer e2

Lithium batteries. When I put the new lithium batteries in my GPS I

powered

it on the welcome screen came on, but after about 2 seconds the screen

fizzled out and the unit shut down. Is this normal? Shouldn't lithium

batteries work in my GPS?

 

Request emailed to mobile@garmin.com

 

-------------------------

This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential material for

the sole use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended

recipient, please be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution

or use of this e-mail or any attachment is prohibited. If you have

received this e-mail in error, please contact the sender and delete all

copies.

Thank you for your cooperation

 

What is the verdict? DON'T USE ENERGIZER E2 LITHIUM BATTERIES THEY ARE NOT COMPATIBLE FOR SOME REASON WITH THE GARMIN 60CSx!!!

Link to comment

I'd say using the 15 minute or any charger would be the best in my book. Just be sure to buy quality batteries with high mah ratings. We use some 2200 mah which work fine and some 2500 mah which are great. I did have some lower mah before and they were a pain. The battery meter was never right, which I can deal with...but they didn't gradually fade away. It was like low battery, then dead. Not much warning.

Link to comment

"Rifle Cartrige Belt pouch" that holds 10 batteries on your side- ready to go. GPSr/camera dies? Put the dead ones in upside down and take out a couple freshies!

 

Sundogranch - That is a great idea !

 

I have been using the same 8 NiMH batteries in my Olympus camera for 2 yrs. and they are still working great, with lots of use. So I will be using NiMH's in my new 60csx also.

I say, as I start my search for the cartridge pouch......hmmmm, I think I may have one right hear in my hunting stuff.........

 

Thanks again SDR !

Link to comment

I use NiMH batteries in my digital camera while paddling and it's amazing how much longer they last.

 

I bought them at greenbatteries.comwhich has a great FAQ about battery life storage etc.

 

I got the Sanyo 2300 mAh - now they have the 2500.

 

Example - I used to use two AA Duracell batteries every 2 river trips. Now I use one charge of the NiMH batteries every 7 river trips! Each trip might last 5 hours but I'm turning on and off the camera ALOT so it's not on the entire time - just when I"m in a good place to stop and get a shot.

Edited by DangerJudy
Link to comment
How long can I store NiMH batteries before they lose there charge? Has this been a pain in the a** for anybody?

Since I can get fresh batteries in 15 minutes with my Energizer charger, this is not a PITA at all. If I have some batteries that haven't been used in a while, I just recharge them. :lol:

 

I have an inverter for my car, so I can even bring the charger with me and get fresh batteries on the road.

Link to comment
I use POWEREX 2500 MaHr rechargeables in both our MAP60Cs and they hold up really well. Fast chargers have their place .... but they cause the batteries to heat up more when fast charging which does shorten their life. :lol: ImpalaBob

I just picked up 8 batts and a charger from these guys. Their site sux (I think anyway) but it looks like they have some good stuff. Gotta love the free batt cases - perfect for caching and photography.

Link to comment

Forgot this. I went with the slower charger. I figure two batteries in my unit will always last a day and I can have two fully charged spares with me just in case - my other four batts will be sitting in the charger ready to go when I need to swap sets. I fugure the batteries might charge better and last longer than the quick charger would allow.

Link to comment
I always avoid the quick chargers as they beat the crap out of rechargeables. I always buy the overnight chargers :lol: and always have ample battery supply.

That's exactly how I feel. I can see situations where they might be a good alternative but the quick charging doesn't really fit my usage. If I saw a car quick charger on a good sale I might throw it in the glove box - might be useful in an emergency.

Edited by OxygenDestroyer
Link to comment

dadgum - I'm forgetful...

 

Anyone know if there's any danger in overcharging 2500mah batts in a trickle charger? I figured I'd keep my 8 batts in sets of 4 and swap the whole set out each time i change them so only two of the 4 would get used each time. Is it hurting anything to recharge the two that didn't get used - are we supposed to drain NiMh batteries each time?

Link to comment
Someone with a 60CSx needs to try Energizer's E2 Lithium and let me know if they work in their GPS.

"Didjerrydo" already did way up above in this thread and said they worked fine in his. I suspect that your particular 60CSx is overly sensitive to the slightly higher battery voltage indicating some problem in the voltage regulation circuitry. It should be eligible for an exchange since these units should operate properly with the primary lithium cells like Eveready's.

Link to comment
I always avoid the quick chargers as they beat the crap out of rechargeables. I always buy the overnight chargers :) and always have ample battery supply.

I would recommend against this. Modern high capacity NiMH cells form a different crystal structure when fast and slow charged. The fast charge structure yields more capacity and a lower internal impedance--flatter discharge curve. Paradoxically, it's also easier to detect end of charge properly in a fast charger as the rate of voltage change vs unit time is higher in the fast charger. So there is less chance of overcharging the cell and damaging it.

 

Additionally, slow chargers tend to be *dumb* chargers and have no state of charge nor end of charge monitoring. So, they're a great way to cook a cell to death.

 

For me, I liked the Ray-O-Vac 15 minute charge system. I also love their 1 hour charger as a general purpose NiCd/NiMH charger--it'll charge all AA/AAA/9V cells/batteries. I have no experience with Duracell, but that's because I quit buying their products because they didn't perform well. Maybe they've improved.

Link to comment

Ok Fixed the most glaring errors :-) sorry about that

 

Ok batteries. this is a topic I am pretty good at and after the other discussion I have I really need to and want to give something useful back.

 

Alkaline - Rechargeable - Lithium

 

Capacity from highest to lowest

 

Lithium - Alkaline - Rechargable

 

Voltage Highest to lowest

 

Lithium - ALkaline - Rech.

 

Ability to HOLD voltage better first (this is the important one)

 

Lithium - Rech - Alkaline

 

Self Discharge Shortest to longest

 

Rech - Alkaline - Lithium

 

Ok first we have 2 figures to work with we have voltage and we have amperage which I will call capacity from now one.

 

Volts in most cases are irrelevant as long as your within the range the device can handle.

 

amps or capacity is also irrelevant - the ONLY difference to you between a 1000mah battery and a 3000mah battery is duration ie the 3k battery will power your device under the same load 3 times longer than the 1k battery.

 

Now an observant reader will have the following grumble. wait a minute alkaline is higher in capacity in your list than rech but I know my rech last longer than my alkaline in my camera etc..

 

thats right we will get to this it has to due with the ability to hold voltage.

 

an alkaline battery puts out around 1.56 volts with no load while a NIMH puts out about 1.25 volts a lithiumn AA puts out close to 1.7v

 

Alkalines have, on average, about TWICE as much capacity as NIMH batteries (about 4 times as much as most nicads) So you ask why do NIMH blow them away in high drain devices ?

 

Voltage. but you said voltage is largely irrelevant Yes your right but ability to HOLD voltage is critical.

 

electronic devices require a minimum amount of voltage to run. lets pull numbers out of my butt here just for the sake of examples.

 

lets say a device requires a minimum of 3.0v to run. you could have a brand new fully charged battery the size of this planet but if its running at 2.99v your device will not turn on and will not run. period. THIS is where ability to hold voltage comes into play.

 

alkalines are very weak in this area even though they have twice the capacity of a 2300mah NIMH they can not hold this "minimum" needed voltage under a "load" so they appear dead when you have only maybe used 20-40% of there actual capacity. Thats why a set of alkalines will run a Digicam for 20 minutes and NIMHS will run it for over an hour.

 

When you place an Alkaline under load its voltage almost immediately drops to around 1.2v while a nimh only drops to ~1.1 under initial load. that is why they are so compatible in most devices.

 

BUT this is where the similarity ends. as the load persists the alkalines continue to DROP in voltage and eventually will go below the minimum voltage needed to RUN your gadget while the NIMH cells will MAINTAIN there ~1.1v until they are almost completly depleted.

 

So even though NIMHs have half the capacity of Alkalines you get almost 100% of that capacity while you might only get as little as 10% of the Alkalines capacity (in REALLY high drain devices)

 

So what have we learned today ? I will tell you, If using alkalines in HIGH drain devices what do you do once they are dead ? DONT throw them away they are usually quite good still :-) stick them in your CD Players or better your remote controls you might be surprised how much life is left in them and the Second lesson ?? NEVER EVER use alkalines in Digital Cameras your litterally throwing your money away :-)

 

NOW "current" gps units are on the fence here. Under LIGHT LOAD Alkalines trounce NIMHS

 

Example my Minidisc player will go for 50 hours on a single AA Alkaline but only about 20 or so hours on a NIMH cell. the MD player takes SOO little power to operate that it places a very small LOAD on the battery so the alkalines full capacity can be utilized and since it has twice the capacity of a NIMH cell it runs twice as long.

 

MY GPS the eXplorist XL runs on 4xAA cells. its rated for 10-14 hours and I would say this is pretty accurate. thats a medium drain device so it might actually go longer on Alkalines than NIMHS

 

I also like the 15min rech NIMHS and live by them. I will have to test this out and see which is better though that brings us to our next issue

 

Self Discharge. NIMHS self discharge very rapidly. I mean weeks here sometimes days in bad weather. so they are NOT good for the leave in the drawer or glove box for spur of the moment usage.

 

if the device is high drain enough it does not matter you have to use Nimh's anyway but if its in the middle it might be better to use alkalines.

 

CD Players are LOW drain now (My first portable CD player used 4xAA and killed them in 15 minutes if I skipped around 60-70 if I did nothing put play it) nowadays 2xAA for 20 hours is quite normal. Some sony units get twice that on SINGLE CELLS ! .

 

This makes them LOW drain but I still usually suggest NIMHS for 2 reasons. #1 cd players are something you use a LOT so even with 20+hour run times your gonna be changing batteries more often than not and #2 MOST portable CD players have a switch that lets you PLUG them into AC and "recharge" the batteries while they are inside the player (GOOD ones charge and play at the same time but most require you to turn it off for charging to commence)

 

Lithium batteries are the odd ones. MOST device run on them just fine but as you saw once in a while either by shoddy craftmanship or simple Design qualifications (IE the chip they used just cant run on that much volts even built well or not worth building better) makes Lithiums not work. (I had a Camera that even came with a paper saying DONT use lithiums and low and behold it would not turn on with lithiums inside) this is VERY RARE

 

Lithiums dont have "that" much more capacity than Alkalines (although IT IS higher in most cases) what they DO have however is NIMH's ability to HOLD there voltage there higher initial voltage and this better ability to hold it under load means when that lithium dies its REALLY dead. you got 100% of the capacity or damned close to it.

 

NOW in the proper application Lithiums are CHEAPER than Alkalines. my first "good" digicam was a Casio QV-10A QVGA with an LCD swivel screen. it would slurp down a set of 4xAA alkaline in about 20-30 minutes. a Set of Lithiums would go for DAYS of usage. Alkalines $5 a pack Lithiums $14 a pack, Lithiums 5-8 TIMES the run time of alkalines. you do the math :-) it was cheaper to use lithiums in the long run just more expensive "at the counter"

 

So in my youth (this was 10 years ago) what do I do I go hey lets put these in my 20 hour CD player maybe I will get 100 hours. Nope almost the SAME exact run time. (it was that ability to hold voltage thing again ie thats why the akalines were so bad in cameras but perfectly fine in a CD player)

 

Lithiums DO have one other HUGE advantage. Shelf Life ie Self Discharge. I ONLY use lithium batteries in my emergency "kits" because I know I can "forget" them for 10 even 15 years and I know when it comes time to use them they will be ready and be good. they have extremely low self discharge. Alkalines will give you 5 or 6 years but lose a bit of power in that time. With Lithiums your likely to lose the kit before they go bad. add in a few Cell Swappers (cases to use a AA as a C and a C as a D) and all you need is a few packs of AA Lithiums in your kit.

 

Lithiums are also good as backup on vacations. your NIMHS die and your stuck away from the charger for the day. whip out that pack of lithiums and they are very likely to take you through the whole day till you get back to your charger. (and they weign almost nothing :-) its scary how light they are.

 

SO to recap

 

Alkalines. High capacity Low self discharge POOR ability to hold voltage under load. Great for low drain or medium drain intermittant usage HORRENDOUS to almost useless for High Drain.

 

NIMHS - Low capacity Bad Self Discharge but EXCELLENT ability to hold voltage which is really the only thing that counts in some applications. Especially good for high drain or "heavy usage" devices. Nimhs do not like getting HOT it hurts them.

 

Lithium - HIGH Capacity - Excellent Shelf Life - Great ability to hold voltage BUT very expensive non rechargeable and sometimes too much voltage for some gadgets.

 

Nicads ? useless for most of our applications when compared to the alternatives but they do have one advantage that trumps ALL other batteries and this is why they are still used. they can dump a SH$% load of amps on demand without hurting themselves. Taking a Nicad Sub C cell RC pack and dumping 20-30 and even for a short time 40 amps from them is NOT unheard of and is infact normal. DO the math. a 2000mah Nicd pack drained by an RC car in 4 minutes or less :-) 2000mah means it can maintain a 2amp load for 1 hour. so if it runs 30 minutes thats 4 amps 15min 8 amps 7 minutes 16 amps 3.5 minutes 32amps :-) Nimhs will fry if you try to draw that from them and Lithiums will either just shut down or EXPLODE if your not so lucky :-) Alkalines the volts will drop so low the device just wont even go and the Alkalines will probably melt.

 

UNDER NO CONDITIONS ever use HEAVY DUTY or Super Heavy Duty. most of our gadgets wont even acknowledge you have batteries in the device if you put these in there and they leak about 90% of the time. Acid and Gadgets don't go so well together :-)

 

Well I hope that explains a lot of this stuff. if you have any questions or want clarification by all means ask away.

 

Chris Taylor

http://www.nerys.com/

Edited by nerys
Link to comment

Woah... has anyone else tried lithium batteries in their 60 "x" model? I just stuck a pair in my 60Cx and can confirm Budbrew's results: the unit beeps, the "GPSmap 60Cx" screen comes up for a moment, and then the screen fades out. The batteries are at 1.77v each, and they work perfect in my Legend. Energizer 2500 mAh NiMH batteries have been working fine in the 60Cx.

Link to comment

15 Minute chargers DESTROY the batteries they charge. NOW that is by design. you are taking a trade off here. Fast charge for MUCH shorter overall battery life.

 

Slower (not slow) charging is always best for rechargeable batteries of any kind. but this DOES assume your using an intelligent charger. IE constant trickle chargers dont hurt them from trickle charging they hurt them by OVERCHARGING.

 

Also individual cell intelligence is critical to long full battery life (the 15min chargers are good at this they charge EACH cell individually)

 

Now why are they bad ? Nickel Metal Hydride batteries DO NOT LIKE HEAT - it "destroys" them and rapidly. 15 minute NIMHS have about HALF the lifespan of properly charged Regular NIMHS but this trade off is WORTH IT since they charge in 15 minutes instead of 2-4 hours.

 

All batteries do not like heat NIMH and LITHIUM are especially succeptable to heat in that they really dont like it. :-)

 

the faster you charge a battery the hotter it gets. anyone here who has 15min batteries are very aware of this as they sometimes come out of the charger ALMOST too hot to hold in your hand.

 

They get so hot in fact that they have vents to release the gases generated from this rapid charging.

 

They are working on batteries that can be hyper charged without this heat build up but its a ways off yet. Once nice thing is they are also working on NIMH that DONT self discharge anywhere near as fast as current NIMHS. this is awesome and we might see this REALLY soon IIRC. 15 min Nimhs that dont self discharge. Its a Dream of mine :-) hehe

 

Chris Taylor

http://www.nerys.com/

Link to comment

Nerys,

 

What you say about 15 minute cells is partially right if you will include a caviat. That being they are not the Ray-O-Vac 15 minute style of cells. They have a 'switch' inside them that opens when the gas pressure builds up. And, it's a bit simplistic to say that heat is what kills NiMH cells. You need to know the source of the heat to fully explain the issue. There are three main sources of heat in the charging of a NiMH cell:

1) resistive losses in the cell

2) the charging reaction is exothermic--it releases heat (NiCd charging is endothermic--they actually suck in heat when they charge)

3) Heat given off by the recombination of oxygen and hydrogen that is electrolysed out of the water in the cell after the cell is fully charged

 

The first point is going to get worse with higher charge currents, but with modern cell design isn't really a factor until you get to *very* high currents, so we can mostly ignore it.

 

The second point isn't particularly large--the amount of heat released by the reaction isn't very great.

 

The first two points together *do* cause a noticable increase in cell temperature as it charges--and many good chargers monitor this as a 'state of charge' indicator.

 

The last point is the real killer as it causes two problems. One, if the cell is an older NiMH (probably around the 1600mAh generation of domestic cells, possibly up to 1800mAh for asian cells) design, they lack the ability to recombine the gasses quickly enough to tolerate much overcharge. Such cells may burst if overcharged. Newer cells have a much more agressive catalyst system for recombining H2 and O2. *But*, that just means they convert all overcharge energy into heat--but at least they don't explode!

 

The Ray-O-Vac cells address point 3 with their internal pressure switch. So, with the Ray-O-Vac 15 minute system, there is no reason for them not to have a nice long life. As I said in a different post, I don't know if the Duracell 15 minute system is similar. It very well may be the cell voltage change detection type normally found in the 30 minute to 60 minute style of fast chargers. At 60 minutes, the fast chargers can detect full charge safely and not compromise the cycle life of the cells, but that's very hard to do at 30 minutes/charge as the contact resistances of the cells at that high of charge current becomes problematic.

 

That's why most 'smart chargers' at those rates use a pulse method of charge. They dump a lot of current into the cell for a while and then shut off and let the cell voltage come back down to the 'rest' value. This eliminated the contact resistance issue. But, it's still a bit chemestry dependent. So, for the 30 minute chargers, you *really* want to make sure you're just using them on the proper 30 minute cells.

 

IMHO, a 60 minute charger is completely safe and nearly ideal for modern NiMH cells. The 15 minute chargers are only safe for their own specific cells. And, at that, 15 minutes only gets them to 80% of charge. It takes an hour or so after that to get them to 100%. They have to stop before 100% full charge simply due to the danger of overcharging. Think of it, the 2000mAh cells in the Ray-O-Vac 15 minute system charge at over 8A! It doesn't take much overcharge before something horrible happens. :)

 

I hope that clarifies things a bit. I think we mostly agree, but I just wanted to restate things to make sure we both were properly understood.

 

Cheers,

David

Link to comment

ahh yes I did not even consider that aspect and you are absolutely correct on all counts

 

but you missed the one I was pointing to and thats heat. not heat from charging just "heat" in general

 

Heat in general is damaging to NIMH and LITHIUM batteries there chemistries dont like it (Lithium being MUCH more sensitive to it)

 

so just USING nimhs in higher temperatures is damaging to them. So if I use some in Vermont and you used some in the Sahara in the same equipment mine would last a lot longer than yours would (overall lifespan). a HUGE amount longer for lithium. I even tell people dont leave lithium batteries in the car if you can help it in the summer the heat just kills them.

 

the 15minute chargers expose you to 3 and 4 times sahara heat every time they charge so on top of what you mentioned take the overall heat damage into the equation. this is why they are usually only rated for 500-800 or so cycles instead of 1000-1200 cycles.

 

Chris Taylor

http://www.nerys.com/

Edited by nerys
Link to comment

Well I got lithium batteries to work in my Garmin 60CSx. It is weird, I had to power the GPS up 3 times to get them to work. The 1st time I turn it on the welcome screen came up and fizzled out, as well as both the 2nd and 3rd time. The fourth try, my gps stayed on and did not fizzle out. I figure the lithiums when they are fresh, are to potent for the GPS to handle. Therefore, from now on I will run them in another device to weaken them a bit and then put them in my unit. Weird huh! :D

Link to comment

thats probably exactly what happened. although you SHOULD be ok I must warn you if its does NOT have protection circuitry built in you are potentiall damaging or wearing out in an accelerated manner some components by using lithiums.

 

Just be careful. Killing your cool toy over a set of batteries would blow :-)

 

Once nice thing is that they are not nearly so affected by cold temperatures though I cant say that we have even HAD a winter this year. it has never REALLY gotten gold for more than a day or two. sad I like winter. (19057)

 

Chris Taylor

http://www.nerys.com/

Link to comment
do you think that is normal for my GPS to respond to lithiums that way, or do you think that is the sign of a defective product?

I would classify it as a defect, especially since the manual suggests the use of lithium cells for situations where you might have cold temperatures. These Energizer cells have been around for long enough that designers of equipment using AA cells should make sure that it operates properly on the slightly higher voltage.

 

Since the problem seems to occur in quite a few units it's presumably a problem with the design rather than just an individual bad component. But it could also be a whole batch of components that are a little out of the proper specification. Other reports have indicated that when the unit shuts down with lithium cells that there's a message on the error log page indicating 'High Battery.' So the unit is recognizing the higher voltage and deliberately shutting down to protect itself. If it's just an overly cautious setting then it's possible that a firmware fix could resolve it.

 

In any event, Garmin should be notified by those who experience the problem. That way they can determine the cause of the problem and develop a solution. Having your problem report in their records should also protect you if your unit does later fail from something related to this issue - even if it might be a bit outside the warranty period by then.

Link to comment
You mentioned other reports of lithium problems. Where have you noticed these other reports? I thought I was the only one having this problem!

There was this note and some discussion following it on the Yahoo 60c/cs group today [note that it refers to the thread here]:

 

"I just got wind of a problem on the Geocaching forums (

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=121427 ) Many of

the x models don't work with lithium batteries. After reading the post

I immediately put a couple in my 60CSx and verified that I have the

problem. Several people have confirmed the problem, and others report

no problems, so it appears to be a on some units only. Some have

contacted Garmin and Garmin replied that there should not be a problem

(in fact Garmin recommends the lithiums in the manual). I would

recommend that everybody getting the new units check them for use with

lithiums."

Link to comment

it is and it isnt a problem with the GPS

 

this is assuming it works fine with Alkaline batteries.

 

assuming you device takes 2 batteries ?? that means your putting over a half a volt too much power into the device.

 

now most gadgets dont care but if for some reason the components they used have tolerances that are NOT wide enough to account for this over voltage (and this is not commong but certaintly not rare) then when you put lithiums in it WILL not work properly best case scenario Damage your gadget worst case scenario (not likely though but dont take my word for it :-)

 

NOW if they SUGGEST using lithiums they YES something is wrong with it (either defective gadget or defective design I dont know)

 

if they do NOT suggest lithium then its just a case of it (lithium) eing outside of its voltage limitations.

 

Chris Taylor

http://www.nerys.com/

Link to comment

im using 2300 mah canon batteries and they work great. I am not sure how many hours i have put on these but it has been at close to 20 and they are still reading half.

 

i have before siad that it recharges them from the usb port on my computer. I am going to try it again today and leave it plugged in to see if i was correct or not..

Link to comment

For quite awhile I've been using NiMH batteries for all my electronics that use AA or AAA batteries and have really enjoyed the performance.

 

I have two chargers. The one I use the most is my Maha MH-C801D charger. I've been able to keep my batteries performing well by running them through a conditioning cycle every few months, but otherwise they usually just keep on trucking.

 

These days for AA NiMH batteries I tend to stick with the Energizer or Powerex 2500mAh batteries, but I'm sure most of the major brands will work just as well.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...