Battery Saver

[+dumketu]

Anyone know what the battery saver feature does on Garmin units? I have the 60csx. I just wonder what I loose when it is on.

 

Brian

[+Renegade Knight]

On my V it slows down the refresh rate among other things.

[peter]

Don't know about the 60CSx specifically, but on most Garmins it switches the radio receiver circuits off for a few seconds between fixes as long as your position is changing in a predictable way.

 

So after initially finding your position and heading it turns off the receiver circuits to save power for a few seconds and then switches back on to reacquire the signals after 5 seconds. If the position is about where it was expected based on the previous data then it again switches off briefly. Whenever the position is far from the expected location the unit will leave the receiver circuits on continuously until things become more predictable again.

 

Therefore the 'Battery Saver' mode is most effective under good reception conditions where the receiver can rapidly reacquire signals and if you're either standing still or moving in a reasonably straight line. The drawbacks are that the receiver may sometimes have trouble reacquiring signals if you move into an area with poor reception and the recorded tracklog might be a little less accurate since you're not getting position updates as frequently.

[+dumketu]

Don't know about the 60CSx specifically, but on most Garmins it switches the radio receiver circuits off for a few seconds between fixes as long as your position is changing in a predictable way.

 

So after initially finding your position and heading it turns off the receiver circuits to save power for a few seconds and then switches back on to reacquire the signals after 5 seconds. If the position is about where it was expected based on the previous data then it again switches off briefly. Whenever the position is far from the expected location the unit will leave the receiver circuits on continuously until things become more predictable again.

 

Therefore the 'Battery Saver' mode is most effective under good reception conditions where the receiver can rapidly reacquire signals and if you're either standing still or moving in a reasonably straight line. The drawbacks are that the receiver may sometimes have trouble reacquiring signals if you move into an area with poor reception and the recorded tracklog might be a little less accurate since you're not getting position updates as frequently.

 

Interesting that they don't explain any of this in the manual.

 

Thanks.

 

Brian

[NewZealand]

Peter has explained it very well.

Therefore batterysave buys you most, when you drive on a straight street for a long time, or when you cross a lake keeping a straight course.

I once tested my CSX placing it on a location with bad reception (so that the position calculation was not very accurate, what simulated continuing moves of up to 100 feet):

In normal mode it was online for 19 hours, in batterysave mode it was online for slightly less than 24 hours

(compass and backlight turned off, WAAS turned off (in normal mode, because in batterysave mode it is off by default)).

I used 2900 mAh NiMH accus.

Edited May 15, 2006 by NewZealand