Magellan Explorist GC Battery Life Problem

[+FredPhil96]

My Magellan Explorist GC started having problems a few weeks ago. The problem was that the GPS would think that it was out of batteries after less than 2 hours of use! It would then display the "GPS is almost out of batteries" message. I would chose the option to keep the GPS turned on and it would then give me many more hours of battery life. Yesterday, I updated to version 2.15. It still thinks that it is running out of batteries after less than 2 hours but this time it does not give me the option to keep the GPS on! Now, despite the GPS having tons of battery power left to use, it will turn off after 2 hours. This is rather frustrating and it is making it more difficult to geocache. If anyone could provide help that would be great.

[+cwgrizz]

My Magellan Explorist GC started having problems a few weeks ago. The problem was that the GPS would think that it was out of batteries after less than 2 hours of use! It would then display the "GPS is almost out of batteries" message. I would chose the option to keep the GPS turned on and it would then give me many more hours of battery life. Yesterday, I updated to version 2.15. It still thinks that it is running out of batteries after less than 2 hours but this time it does not give me the option to keep the GPS on! Now, despite the GPS having tons of battery power left to use, it will turn off after 2 hours. This is rather frustrating and it is making it more difficult to geocache. If anyone could provide help that would be great.

 

Just a thought, do you have the correct battery type selected in setup ie Lithium, NiMH, Alkaline, etc. That will make a difference (I think, Ha!) because of the max voltage difference available for the different types.

[+FredPhil96]

My Magellan Explorist GC started having problems a few weeks ago. The problem was that the GPS would think that it was out of batteries after less than 2 hours of use! It would then display the "GPS is almost out of batteries" message. I would chose the option to keep the GPS turned on and it would then give me many more hours of battery life. Yesterday, I updated to version 2.15. It still thinks that it is running out of batteries after less than 2 hours but this time it does not give me the option to keep the GPS on! Now, despite the GPS having tons of battery power left to use, it will turn off after 2 hours. This is rather frustrating and it is making it more difficult to geocache. If anyone could provide help that would be great.

 

Just a thought, do you have the correct battery type selected in setup ie Lithium, NiMH, Alkaline, etc. That will make a difference (I think, Ha!) because of the max voltage difference available for the different types.

 

That might be the problem. Thank you for your help.

[+ShaunEM]

You can also get this if the batteries are not very good. You can try turning down the brightness to see if the problem subsides. If you are using batteries that don't give out enough juice.. it can cause this.

 

The GC I had would go ALL DAY on one set of energizer rechargeable.

 

As I recall the battery gauge was never very reliable on that device. Never full. most of the time at 50% dropped lower right before it gave up the fight.

 

Shaun

[+FredPhil96]

You can also get this if the batteries are not very good. You can try turning down the brightness to see if the problem subsides. If you are using batteries that don't give out enough juice.. it can cause this.

 

The GC I had would go ALL DAY on one set of energizer rechargeable.

 

As I recall the battery gauge was never very reliable on that device. Never full. most of the time at 50% dropped lower right before it gave up the fight.

 

Shaun

 

I'm using normal Duracell batteries right now which should work well. When I went out caching yesterday I actually had the brightness at half but still had the same problem. I'm going out again today to see if I can figure out the problem.

[+FredPhil96]

My Magellan Explorist GC started having problems a few weeks ago. The problem was that the GPS would think that it was out of batteries after less than 2 hours of use! It would then display the "GPS is almost out of batteries" message. I would chose the option to keep the GPS turned on and it would then give me many more hours of battery life. Yesterday, I updated to version 2.15. It still thinks that it is running out of batteries after less than 2 hours but this time it does not give me the option to keep the GPS on! Now, despite the GPS having tons of battery power left to use, it will turn off after 2 hours. This is rather frustrating and it is making it more difficult to geocache. If anyone could provide help that would be great.

 

Just a thought, do you have the correct battery type selected in setup ie Lithium, NiMH, Alkaline, etc. That will make a difference (I think, Ha!) because of the max voltage difference available for the different types.

 

That might be the problem. Thank you for your help.

 

I think that was the problem. For some reason my GPS settings had my batteries listed as lithium batteries instead of alkaline (but for some reason I never had this problem before). After I changed the setting to alkaline, I went out caching and it worked fine. Thanks!

[+FredPhil96]

Well, it was good for a while but the problem has started up again. I was out for less than 3 hours when my batteries gave out (and this was with the backlight turned off!) Anyone have any ideas? If not, it might be time to get a new GPS.