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GPS 66 will not stop charging via usb


mikeD

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Any ideas please?

Had unit for 5 days and am using Garmin's AA cassette. (Not supplied with unit)

Cassette comes from my 750T

 

Having charged the latter and 64S before that via USB the charge usually completes after about 6 hours

 

Only once has the 66 stopped when full, first time of using . Since then it does not shut off.  After 12-15 hours it is still going

 

This is not right. You cannot tell if charge is complete

 

I charged the two cells of cassette separately out of the unit so I know it was full.  Reinserted cassette, tried again and still hours and hours later, it is still going

Have done this 3/4 times now

 

I have done a master reset, same Result.

Not seen this problem pop up in forums before

Any suggestions please ahead of me calling Garmin tomorrow

Thanks

Mike

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Thanks Mineral 2.

I will be on to them tomorrow ,first thing

 

as to your off topic question.

 

Friends call me  " gadget man"  !

but seriously

I have  a GPS 60, 62 -now with a friend, a 64S and latterly the 750T

I was drawn to the features of the 750T and have enjoyed its features over and above the 64S.

However it is the first touch screen I have had and the fact that it seems to go off and do its own thing when you put it in your pocket drives me to distraction.

It reorganises itself, dives off down various menus etc etc.

I picked up a shortcut, to program the user key to lock the screen. This was posted on this forum or the old Garmin one

 That works well but you have to remember to hit the user key.. I don't always

I have reset/reorganised it so many times

 

Even 5 days in with the 66 it is like having an old friend back.  It has all the features of the 750 and a few more .

It does not do its own thing and I can zip though the menus as quick as the 750

Early days with the unit and but for this charging issue I am pleased with it

Will keep you posted

Thanks

Mike

 

 

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Moun10Bike

 

Thanks for yours post

 

I have used USB charging using Garmins own cassette and bigger capacity Eneloop  AA batteries on both the 64s and the 750 T with no problems till now

 

Are you using one of the dedicated Cycle units?  or one of the GPSmap 6* series?

Did you raise the issues with Garmin or do you just live with it?

 

Mike

 

 

 

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19 minutes ago, mikeD said:

However it is the first touch screen I have had and the fact that it seems to go off and do its own thing when you put it in your pocket drives me to distraction.

This was more of a problem for me with the older Oregon 450 which was pressure sensitive to touch. The Oregon 600/700 is sensitive to weak electrical signals given off by your body, so objects in my bag won't set off the touch screen. Additionally, touching the screen shouldn't turn it on as happened with the 450, so make a habit of turning off the screen before putting it in your pocket and you'll be happy.

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Thanks

The short cut I have kicks in after  one press of the user key. { like you hitting the screen on/off on your power key]

what it does is lock the screen,  I can still see the active screen but it is locked 

Coupling the setting for the screen cut out    [off after 15/30 secs etc , not the  right term ?]  and   the display disappears

Press The on/off " power " button and it lights up but the screen is still locked

On locking the unit  the  " X " icon  [ back ] on the bottom left of the screen changes to a " padlock "

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1 hour ago, mikeD said:

Thanks

The short cut I have kicks in after  one press of the user key. { like you hitting the screen on/off on your power key]

what it does is lock the screen,  I can still see the active screen but it is locked 

Coupling the setting for the screen cut out    [off after 15/30 secs etc , not the  right term ?]  and   the display disappears

Press The on/off " power " button and it lights up but the screen is still locked

On locking the unit  the  " X " icon  [ back ] on the bottom left of the screen changes to a " padlock "

I do almost the same thing, but I have mine set to activate with a double tap of the user button. This way an accidental bump will not unlock a locked screen...

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7 hours ago, Moun10Bike said:

For what it's worth, I have seen this with every Garmin unit I've ever had. The charging simply never ends, and I am never sure if the battery pack is fully charged or not.

 

It does on a a 64S.  The bulk charging uses 450 mA.  Near the end, it cycles 710 mA to 150 mA.  When complete, the charging animation stops and the draw is 150 mA, which I assume is what is needed for the screen.

 

My suggestion is to connect a power meter and see if it actually does stop charging and it is just a software issue of not showing it.

  • Upvote 1
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Update on Basic issue

 

Monday

Spoke to Garmin UK helpdesk.- 

Time spent explaining issue to agent who referred to his tech experts "Sounds like a software issue!"

Agreed constant charging was not right . Told that the unit does stop charging when full and will not overcharge.

Checked battery setting without battery cassette.  [ out of the box the unit is set to NiMh, ]  Changed setting to " pre-charged "

Agreed to give that a Go  see if that sorted things

Tried different already charged  cassettes,  still  the same result

 

Wednesday

Different agent, agreed issue was not right. 

Unit being replaced

 

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15 minutes ago, mikeD said:

Update on Basic issue

 

Monday

Spoke to Garmin UK helpdesk.- 

Time spent explaining issue to agent who referred to his tech experts "Sounds like a software issue!"

Agreed constant charging was not right . Told that the unit does stop charging when full and will not overcharge.

Checked battery setting without battery cassette.  [ out of the box the unit is set to NiMh, ]  Changed setting to " pre-charged "

Agreed to give that a Go  see if that sorted things

Tried different already charged  cassettes,  still  the same result

 

Wednesday

Different agent, agreed issue was not right. 

Unit being replaced

 

 

That's dumb. Problem will not re resolved with new hardware, it is a software issue.

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1 hour ago, Atlas Cached said:

 

That's dumb. Problem will not re resolved with new hardware, it is a software issue.

The one time I communicated with Garmin about an issue that seems to certainly be a software bug, and that others have also had, the rep was very quick to offer to exchange the unit.  I declined as overall I am happy with mine and the few issues hopefully will be addressed in software/firmware updates.  But they seem to offer up the exchange option very quickly and makes me wonder how closely they look at software reasons for the bugs we report?.  

Edited by Cheminer Will
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1 hour ago, Cheminer Will said:

The one time I communicated with Garmin about an issue that seems to certainly be a software bug, and that others have also had, the rep was very quick to offer to exchange the unit.  I declined as overall I am happy with mine and the few issues hopefully will be addressed in software/firmware updates.  But they seem to offer up the exchange option very quickly and makes me wonder how closely they look at software reasons for the bugs we report?.  

 

One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing. It is a form of appeasement that sours quickly when the user realizes all the time they spent setting up a completely new device was fruitless and the software issue remains.

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If you have access to an inline USB ammeter, you should be able to see the current drop to zero or extremely close to zero when it's done charging. See if any of your local friends have a "usb ammeter" - there is a ridiculous variety of choices from places like Amazon or from Asian companies like Banggood or Alibaba. You'll probably find it easier to put on the charging side than the Garmin side because these tend to be "big" and some Garmins make it hard to use cables with a slug on the end. (My Oregon 600 works badly with my miniB + Micro B retractable cables for this reason.)  When it really is done charging, you should see 5V still delivered over the wire, but nearly no current(A). These testers are gold when trying to diagnose USB charging issues or see the actual remaining battery capacity of your aging phone, etc.

It seems possible that the internal voltage sense across the battery (to know when it's full/empty) or the switching transistor (to disable the current to the batteries once full) is bad, but this is probably a level down from the core unit's software - the electronics are dead-easy and you want it to work when the unit is off - or the representation of that process as something readable to the CPU was buggered but it seems unlikely given the chorus of "me, too!" answers that they're actually defective and continuing to charge.  Honestly, if it continued to dump voltage into the batteries and the internal resistance resulted in enough current flow to be non-trivial, there would be more reports of batteries overheating, leaking, and causing physical damage to the device. If this shows a low current (below, say, .1A) and your screen says "charging", you can be sure your screen is fibbing. 

To Cheminer Will's observation, support techs are often measured by the number of problems they can solve per hour. After two or more techs have verified everything they can, replacement is kind of the "we've done everything we did for this customer" option. Strangely, in many companies, the number of units replaced for any given problem is usually how they measure when a problem is severe enough to escalate to engineering/manufacturing instead of the departments actually talking to each other. That really is the knowing-Hands issue that Atlas Cached described

Placebos are also very expensive to the maker. I used to work for a hardware manufacturer and we once calculated that once we RMA'ed a product, the profit on that device was some number that rounded to zero. The more surprising of that report was that once you RMA'ed *one* device for someone, the odds of being asked to do it again went WAY up - far disproportionate to the additional number of devices.

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Garmin (via Facebook) told me to contact support for an engineering ticket about other bugs, but I don’t think it’s worth the time.

Especially where others have the same problem. They would probably just tell you to do a master reset, which I’ve already done,

and maybe in the end, exchange the unit, but they might as well just swap units around amongst the people that returned them :D

 

Edited by _Art_
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13 hours ago, Red90 said:

As I mentioned earlier, on a 64, it does not drop to zero.  The screen stays on with half backlight.  It draws 150 mA when the charging is complete.

 

I am having similar results after testing my GPSMAP 66. Screen remains on at ~50% brightness and charging animation remains active while drawing 170mA after more than 14 hours connected to a power source and powered off.

 

I have contacted Garmin software engineers again....

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On 1/3/2019 at 3:21 PM, robertlipe said:

If you have access to an inline USB ammeter, you should be able to see the current drop to zero or extremely close to zero when it's done charging. See if any of your local friends have a "usb ammeter" - there is a ridiculous variety of choices from places like Amazon or from Asian companies like Banggood or Alibaba. 

Two or three years ago I ordered four(4) of the $9.99 DROK meters for USB 2.0 connectors only. Gave away two for Xmas stocking stuffers. Great little units, particularly in pairs because they were consistent enough to determine voltage drop on longer or smaller gauge cables.

 

As mentioned above, there are many more options today, but including one of the original DROKs in a purchase can come in very handy. FWIW. The DROKs can disable two of the four USB data pins thru a separate 2 pin connector.

Edited by 39_Steps
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I wonder what sort of current it takes to permanently damage the battery pack.

It’s a slow charge, but funny pondering the possibility that everyone leaves units on charge face down, so battery gunk leaks through the card slot, and ruins the PCBs.

 

It’s not a problem that particularly bothers me. At least it doesn’t interfere with the device working,

but I’d have thought it something the manufacturer should be concerned about.

 

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Thanks for your suggestion. I will be on to them first thing tomorrow.

Will let you know what happens

 

Why the 66?  

Well, friends call  me 'gadget man' but seriously..

I have a map 60,62 ( given to friend) and a 64s as well as the 750t

The latter was my first with a touch screen.

Mmm!?!

I like the size and the features but the way it goes off and does its own thing if you don't lock the screen every time you put it in your pocket, drives me to distraction.

I have reset/reorganised it so many times

Btw I picked up a handy tip to lock screen on the 750 by programming the user key from this forum or the old Garmin one. BUT you have to remember each time

 

Even 5 days in with the 66 it was like having an old friend back.

All the features of the 750 and a few more

It has a very fast log on as well

I can move around the menus just as quick as a touch screen

It is the same size as the 6* series, so bigger in your pocket than the Oregon but you can't have everything.

 

Will keep you posted

Mike

 

 

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Update on my " endless charging" issue

 

Garmin sent me a brand new unit. Only had the old one active for 5 days

It seems to work ok now

 

However I have moved on on the battery front

I got new Panasonic Eneloop Pro AA 2450 mAh. To replace existing ones

I also got an EBL fast charger

http://www.eblmall.com/product/ebl-40min-iquick-smart-usb-individual-rechargeable-battery-charger-for-aa-aaa-ni-mh-batteries/

 

This combination is IMHO is Excellent.

The batteries are charged in 40 mins which is much better than 6 + hrs on the internal charger

It also is fed by a USB. ( Less wires and power sources!)

I was using the same batteries previously and the " meter" on the unit dropped a "bar" after 90 mins or so of use

Not so now. 2/3 hours before it moves. Back in the charger batteries topped up again in 25 mins

I tried leaving the unit outside to see how long it lasts.

18 hrs. Good signal and screen off

15 hrs with the screen on 0%. 

( Turning off the screen doesn't seem to make that much difference)

On Robt. L's recommendation I have bought also a usb ammeter. 

It says how much has gone on into the batteries. One reading for 2 bats was 2400mAh.  It seems to be the same whether one batt or two.  Haven't used meter that much to be sure.

(Not as knowledgeable on these issues as others in this forum). 

Anyway

The external fast charger is doing it for me

Small, light and very portable

 

Is the internal charger to the 66 putting enough charge in. ?  I wonder

 

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