Looking to extend battery life in Legend

[spaz06]

I've had my legend for about 2 months and it seems to eat batteries. Presently I'm using Energizers & I'm getting about 4 hours of battery life from fresh batteries. What can I do to extend the battery life? A friend has the Yellow Etrex and he mentioned something about turning off the electronic compass. If I turn off the navigation page what features will be effected?

[peter]

Your friend must be thinking of the Vista since your Legend has no electronic compass.

 

Two things to check:

1) make sure the backlight is off and set it to turn off after 15 seconds just in case you're somehow turning it on inadvertently;

2) try the 'Battery Saver' mode of operation - this will turn off the radio receiver for a few seconds at a time and just take a reading every 5 seconds as long as your position remains fairly predictable.

 

If you still get such short battery life I would complain to Garmin (by phone) and see if you can exchange your unit under warranty since their specification is for 18 hours of operation. Note that the battery saver mode will make it more likely for the unit to lose lock under heavy tree cover or other marginal conditions, so you may want to revert to normal mode once you've checked battery life both ways.

 

BTW, rechargeable NiMH cells are a much better deal than disposable alkalines. The life per charge is about the same using the 1700-1800 mA-hr cells now available and you can recharge them about 500 times - makes the cost per use of a pair only a little over a penny.

But first do your tests with alkalines since that's how Garmin writes their battery life spec.

[+Dawgies]

I've had my Legend for about a week now. My 1st set of batteries went fast! I was using it during day caching and didn't realize my backlight was on.

 

Hey, I live and learn! Set it to 15 seconds and all has been fine.

 

Good luck with yours!

 

~Honest Value Never Fails~

[+geomapper]

I've had my Legend for about a year. I use rechargable 1700 mA-hr cells and generally get at least 10 to 12 hours per charge, maybe more. I almost always keep the tracking turned off. If I'm going to need help getting back to my car from a cache hunt I just set a waypoint before I leave. I also keep it plugged into the cigarette plug while in the car so I don't run the batterys down while driving around. It's also good to carry an extra set of rechargables with you just in case. I also agree with the previous posts.