Power Monkey Solar Charger (& Edge 305)

Jaeger

Hi all,

I am planning a LEJoG trip for the end of the month and think the best way for me to see areas I want, and avoiding main roads, is to plot all the days routes onto my Edge 305.

However, the battery on my edge is generally only good for about 8hrs, so will need recharging every day, which is likely to be a problem as I intend to camp most nights.

Does anyone have any experience with a Power Monkey (with or without Solar Charger) for such situations? I'd like to hear from experience of how much charge it will give the Garmin Edge 305, how long it takes to recharge itself, how much charge the solar panel gives etc. Also, can the solar panel be kept plugged in feeding juice to the Edge whilst en-route, or is there an issue with this?

Recommendations of ways around this problem (not use a map!) and/or similar products gratefully received!

Cheers!

Special K

Hi there,

I've found that solar chargers simply do not gather enough charge via the sun to fill their own batteries fast enough or completely enough to recharge a GPS on a daily basis. the test run for this was a two week tour of Greece where sunshine was not hard to come by. In the end, the best thing I could have done was take a full AC charger with me instead of the USB lead which I used to charge at the PCs of internet cafes, shops and campsites.

So, I used the solar element to trickle charge during the day, but even that meant that the GPS was dead at the end of the day, requiring the standard recharge.

I have used a Solio and a Freeloader, both of which dump their charge quickly into the GPS (within a couple of hours). If you charge up both units, AND you trickle charge during the day, then you are ok for a full day's cycling which let's face it is going to be longer than 8 hours (you don't want to be turning the unit on and off the whole time).

Via USB, the batteries tended to charge up within a couple of hours or from the time I arrived somewhere in the afternoon, until I turned in at night. Via AC about the same. Via sunlight, I have conducted experiments with the Solio and Freeloader, and the Freeloader has NEVER achieved a full charge from empty via sunlight. The tecnology is still a way off and for my next tour I will be considering the AA battery cradles as these batteries are so easy to pick up, plus you can also keep rechargeables and carry spares.

Of course if someone could invent a dynamo AA (?) battery charger for cyclists then I might think about buying that...

Hope this helps. Good luck with your trip

amaferanga

The Edge series are just not what you need for touring. My advice would be to invest in a Etrex Legend HCx. You can get them complete with UK and Europe mapping for less than £200. They use AA batteries - a set of duracells last me about 15-18 hours. Having mapping makes navigation much easier as well.

Jaeger

Hmmm, interesting to know that the Freeloader has never actually fully recharged in your experience. I'm not expecting miracles from these items, I mean £45 for a Power Monkey with all the tips and a solar panel seems good value but Solar is so expensive I guess the effectiveness of the panels may not be top notch. One benefit of taking a full Power Monkey with me (with a full Edge battery), would give approx. 1 day from the unit itslef, then a further 2.5days of charge from the PM as it holds approx. 2000mah of charge, whereas the battery in the Edge is approx. 850-900mah, so I should get a good 2 or 2.5 charges out of it. Hopefully that would give me enough time to find a cafe or B&B to re-charge everything. I'm just concerned that if i end up wild camping at times (which I expect to do) then I will end up computer-less and map-less. Maybe the AA battery cradles would be the best bet, like you say, and just carry spare batteries - much more reliable!?!

Thanks Amaferanga, but I'm hoping to be able to do the whole trip on about £200, so the ETrex might have to wait. Although, it would be good for walking/hiking too..............and MTB........ (Hmmmm, I'm such a sucker for gadgets!)

ralex

Special K wrote:

Of course if someone could invent a dynamo AA (?) battery charger for cyclists then I might think about buying that...

Busch & Muller 'Ride & Charge' does exactly that, although you also need to have an Ixon or Ixon IQ light to hold the batteries (unless you can build some kind of compatible battery holder, I think all the charging circuitry is in the Ride & Charge unit rather than in the lights but not sure). Hard to find it for sale anywhere though, mostly German sites. But Have a look at the information on this link :
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/b&m.asp
Also on the B&M website, look under 'catalogue' then 'accessories'
http://www.bumm.de/index-e.html

GeorgeShaw

You can buy a USB battery backup for the 305 - I used this on the Vatternrundan 300km ride in Sweden last year - a 10 hour ride and there was still plenty of juice left. I just put the battery into my small saddle pack (it's a bit larger than a mobile) and had a long USB cable between it and the stem attached with velcro strips. I can dig out the URL for the battery if it's useful.

Jaeger

GeorgeShaw wrote:

You can buy a USB battery backup for the 305 - I used this on the Vatternrundan 300km ride in Sweden last year - a 10 hour ride and there was still plenty of juice left. I just put the battery into my small saddle pack (it's a bit larger than a mobile) and had a long USB cable between it and the stem attached with velcro strips. I can dig out the URL for the battery if it's useful.

If you can find the URL that'd be great!

I'm going to rig up something similar for my Ay-Up Lights, so the battery sits in the saddle bag or strapped to the seatpost. Much neater up front!

andymiller

Charge the Garmin at the campsites - there's almost always a shaver socket or something around.

But as usual amafarenga has said what I would have said. I got my Legend HCx, with decent UK/European mapping, from Amazon. If you are planning on doing a lot of touring, then it's worth getting the City Navigator on DVD (not memory card) direct from Garmin. Also make sure youu get the HCx rather than the HC.

amaferanga

andymiller wrote:

Charge the Garmin at the campsites - there's almost always a shaver socket or something around.

But as usual amafarenga has said what I would have said. I got my Legend HCx, with decent UK/European mapping, from Amazon. If you are planning on doing a lot of touring, then it's worth getting the City Navigator on DVD (not memory card) direct from Garmin. Also make sure youu get the HCx rather than the HC.

I think I actually bought my Legend HCx after a recommendation from you on this forum. One of the best bits of gear I ever bought....

Jaeger

I'm expecting/hoping to be able to do a little 'wild' camping, so no chance to recharge at campsites.

Will either take a Battery cradle to re-charge the Garmin as required, or may revert to OS Maps and my trusty old Polar CS100.

Thanks for the help guys!

GeorgeShaw

Jaeger wrote:

GeorgeShaw wrote:

You can buy a USB battery backup for the 305 - I used this on the Vatternrundan 300km ride in Sweden last year - a 10 hour ride and there was still plenty of juice left. I just put the battery into my small saddle pack (it's a bit larger than a mobile) and had a long USB cable between it and the stem attached with velcro strips. I can dig out the URL for the battery if it's useful.

If you can find the URL that'd be great!

I'm going to rig up something similar for my Ay-Up Lights, so the battery sits in the saddle bag or strapped to the seatpost. Much neater up front!

Here is the URL for the same company I bought from, but the battery seems to be a newer model now:

http://www.portablepowersupplies.co.uk/ ... rypack.htm

Garmin say that any device will do providing it supplies a regulated 5 volt supply.

Jaeger

Thanks for all responses, I think I might go for the Power Monkey, which should carry enough charge (2000mah) to re-charge my Edge 305 at least twice (850-900mah).

That will give me 3 full days riding, plus a bit, before I have to worry about recharging all units. Plus, it has the versatility to use AA batteries, rather than just plugging in.

The jury's still out on the effectiveness of Solar at this price by the looks of it, including me, although for £45 for the Power Monkey Explorer I'm tempted to investigate....

neilwragg

https://powertraveller.com/news/detail. ... 000296ower Traveller & Garmin have released a new device https://powertraveller.com/news/detail.php?id=000296

andrew_s

There's a Powerchimp that is similar to the Powermonkey, except it has 2 AA NiMh rechargeables inside instead of a LI-ion rechargeable. It holds less juice, but you can open it up and replace the rechargeable AAs with disposable AAs that you buy in shops as you go along.

andymiller

andrew_s wrote:

There's a Powerchimp that is similar to the Powermonkey, except it has 2 AA NiMh rechargeables inside instead of a LI-ion rechargeable. It holds less juice, but you can open it up and replace the rechargeable AAs with disposable AAs that you buy in shops as you go along.

You can indeed although I found the results, recharging an IPod, somewhat disappointing and unpredictable, in that even relatively expensive batteries didn't actually do very much. IIRC Duracell Ultra were the best. The AA batteries stop charging at a certain point even though not fully discharged so you are left with the dilemma of what to do with them.

I know I'm repeating a point made earlier, but the best and simplest solution is still to get a device that runs on AA batteries (and use a Powerchimp to recharge them.

Dr U Idh

I used n Edge 705 and a cheapo solar charger from Madison for a couple of 3/4 day tours last spring in Scotland. The charger easily restored the battery life in the Edge (it was running at around 40-50% after 8 hours riding.

I have now invested in a Power Monkey (with solar panel) and that has more capacity.

BTW - I had the solar panel in the map pocket of an Ortleib handebar bag.