Oregon Battery Life vs. Accuracy

[+binzi]

I have an Oregon 300 and lately I noticed that the accuracy as well as the update frequency of the compass seems to go down if the battery strength drops below a certain level. Does anyone know whether there actually is a connection between battery life and accuracy/update frequency of the compass?

 

I am using relatively new NIMH 2700 rechargeable batteries. As long as they are fully charged the compass needle will update frequently when moving around and/or turning the Oregon. However, once the batteries are down to a remaining life time of around 2 hours the compass needle will only rarely update its direction. Sometimes it doesn't update at all or only after what seems to be an eternity... As soon as I exchange the batteries with some fully charged ones it is back to normal again.

 

Did someone notice the same behavior? Does the Oregon go into some kind of energy saving mode once the battery life drops below a certain level? Is there a setting which keeps the Oregon from doing that?

[+g-o-cashers]

I'm not aware of any power saving in the Oregon. You didn't mention in your post if you have the electronic compass enabled (i.e. is the Compass in Auto mode)?

 

GO$Rs

[+Tequila]

I have heard others mention that any GPS is not as accurate when the batteries run down but I have seen no "expert" confirmation.

[+binzi]

The compass was set to auto mode and I was thus using the electronic compass.

 

Sometimes when I stand still I notice that the electronic compass does not seem to update itself anymore. I then turn the Oregon to see whether the compass updates its direction. If it doesn't I will replace the batteries and it usually starts to update again more frequently.

 

Maybe it doesn't have to do with battery life but with restarting the unit...

[+Butano]

I don't know about the compass, or the Oregon for that matter, but I have noticed that on the Colorado the accuraccy suffers significantly about 15 minutes before it says the batteries are low.

[+g-o-cashers]

You might want to disable the electronic compass to see if it is related to having the compass on as the battery is nearly discharged.

 

GO$Rs

[+g-o-cashers]

double post

Edited November 12, 2008 by g-o-cashers

[+RRLover]

The compass was set to auto mode and I was thus using the electronic compass.

 

Sometimes when I stand still I notice that the electronic compass does not seem to update itself anymore. I then turn the Oregon to see whether the compass updates its direction. If it doesn't I will replace the batteries and it usually starts to update again more frequently.

 

Maybe it doesn't have to do with battery life but with restarting the unit...

Don't most GPSrs use "satellite fix" when in auto(mobile) mode, and rely on the electronic compass when 1) on

foot, or 2) below a certain speed threshold? Does the compass in the OR use one of these "overrides"?

 

Norm

Edited November 13, 2008 by RRLover

[+twolpert]

Don't most GPSrs use "satellite fix" when in auto(mobile) mode, and rely on the electronic compass when 1) on

foot, or 2) below a certain speed threshold? Does the compass in the OR use one of these "overrides"?

 

Norm

In this context, "auto" mode refers to the compass set-up. On the Oregon and Colorado, the compass is either "off" or "auto". In auto mode, the unit uses the compass to establish direction of travel at low speeds or when stopped. At higher speeds, it uses the satellite information. According to the wikis, the threshold speed is about 10 mph for the Colorado, but only 1-2 mph for the Oregon. With the compass "off", the unit always uses satellite information.

 

No idea whether or not it's true on the Oregon, but I have observed some delays in shifting from one type of data to the other with the Colorado. If I drive with the unit on and compass in auto mode (so we are using satellite data for direction of travel), there is sometimes a delay in switching to compass data when I stop. The pointer (which is relative to direction of travel) locks up for a period of time (never timed it, but certainly less than a minute). Eventually, it corrects itself and starts to reflect the compass information. I have never looked at the compass itself in this situation, but I assume it is similarly locked up with regard to current heading. My guess is that this is related to the Colorado's track smoothing algorithms, but I don't really know.

 

I do not recall whether or not I have seen this behavior since switching GPS firmware 2.8 (2.7/2.8).