eTrex Legend Battery Compartment

[moonpup]

Just got my new Legend and absolutely love it! One thing I am curious about is the battery compartment. I noticed that the left side has the typical spring to hold the battery in place and the right side has the more rigid 2 metal tabs.

 

Is this a normal configuration in the Legend or just mismatched parts? Other than that the unit is perfect and works great!

[+mrp]

It used to be that there were springs on both sides on the top. This was changed for a coupla-three reasons.

 

First, some people found it confusing. Usually the spring tells you where the negative end is supposed to go, and that could lead you to install one of the AA cells backward.

 

There has also been at least one reported case where the spring on the positive terminal slipped sideways and ended up shorting the positive cap with the negative body of the battery, which got very hot and nearly caught fire. (I think if you search on this forum for "flaming etrex" you can find it.)

 

There have been some reports of problems with vibration causing momentary loss of contact with the batteries which causes the unit to shut off. I think the change might have helped fix that (somewhat anyway).

 

-- Pneumatic

 

Update -- Markwell

 

[This message was edited by Pneumatic on September 27, 2003 at 03:10 AM.]