How Much Time Should You Expect From NiMH's

[Didjerrydo]

I don't seem to really be getting any kind of great battery life from NiMH batteries in my Colorado 300 even after the latest firmware update.

I realize lithiums are a hard act to follow. I have been trying Duracell 2650 mAh ( about 4-5 hours) and a battery from Battery Station, Power2000 2900 mAh (better, at about 8-10 hours). Maybe this ia about all one should be expecting out of re-chargables. Using anything less than the 2650 mAh batteries is hardly worth fooling with though! I like the idea of rechargables, but to me personally, they've always been a dissapointment.

[+The Other Stu]

I don't seem to really be getting any kind of great battery life from NiMH batteries in my Colorado 300 even after the latest firmware update.

I realize lithiums are a hard act to follow. I have been trying Duracell 2650 mAh ( about 4-5 hours) and a battery from Battery Station, Power2000 2900 mAh (better, at about 8-10 hours). Maybe this ia about all one should be expecting out of re-chargables. Using anything less than the 2650 mAh batteries is hardly worth fooling with though! I like the idea of rechargables, but to me personally, they've always been a dissapointment.

 

I have some 2700s in mine. They last about 5-7 hours

 

T'other half has 2600s. They last less than 4!

 

Not good really.

 

Fortunately, I have a USB charger in my car (and keep at least 2 spares)

 

Stu

[toddm]

with new 2650 duracells and 75% backlight brightness I get about 8 hours in the unit I'm playing with. Not very impressive since my 76csx will push 14+ and my legend hcx about 18 on the same batteries.

 

Perhaps garmin can enhance this a little with software updates but I'd doubt much.

 

For hiking it's not that huge of a deal, as I could easily use the 30 second backlight timer, but for cycling having to mess with the backlight on the bike would be annoying. For car use, definitely going to need the auto adapter. Using the cycling and HRM sensors will probably pull some power as well to monitor them, not sure haven't tested that.

 

Compass on, backlight timer off, backlighting at 75%, clear view of satellites, tones off, track recording on.

 

Batteries and chargers are a big issue as well, for example all 2500 mah batteries are not created equal and most of the energizer/duracell chargers you get are junk. A good charger like a la crosse or maha these days is less than $40 and in the case of the la crosse it will tell you measured battery capacity for each cell, so you can see how difference batteries compare, and if one cell is dropping off over time. The also charge and monitor each battery separately instead of in pairs, and you can adjust the charging current, do discharge and conditioning cycles etc. I have resisted this for awhile now but I have a la crosse on order because I know enough photo guys who get significantly better results from their batteries with a good charger and they can keep tabs on when their batteries start to loose capacity. I also ordered some power 2700 batteries to test in comparison to the duracell 2650's as the maha batteries have a impressive reputation, it will be interesting to see how they compare in measured capacity. I may have to try some of the power2000 2900mah cells as well.

Edited February 25, 2008 by toddm

[+Marky]

If you want a good test, you need to state what you are testing. Since there are a lot of factors, they need to be specified:

Compass: on or off

Backlight timer: on or off

Backlighing: full on or off

Clear view of satellites: yes or no

 

etc.