Charging Garmin 800 mid ride

drlodge

I'm doing 160 miles on Sunday and Garmin 800 battery life will be marginal.

I have a battery charger (its a big battery that charges other batteries via USB) and was wondering if at the mid way point I can turn the garmin off, plug in the charger for an hour or so, turn the garmin back on and continue the same route?

The Garmin works fine if turned off then back on - everything picks up includng the route etc, but would plugging in a charger "reset" the ride?

(There will be a support vehicle so won't be carrying a large battery on my back :shock: )

andrewjoseph

If you can manage without the Garmin for an hour or so do you need it at all?

My 800 lasts for 8 hours or more.

drlodge

andrewjoseph wrote:

If you can manage without the Garmin for an hour or so do you need it at all?

My 800 lasts for 8 hours or more.

I can manage without it for the hour I am having lunch! But I want to record the whole ride as its the longest ride I will have done (and I have everything recorded on Strava). Plus it has the route on it...

I did 144 miles last year which was about 9 or 10 hours, and it was down to 15-20% charge. So it may last, but is marginal especially since this time its with a club and there will be more stops.

arthur_scrimshaw

drlodge wrote:

I'm doing 160 miles on Sunday and Garmin 800 battery life will be marginal.

I have a battery charger (its a big battery that charges other batteries via USB) and was wondering if at the mid way point I can turn the garmin off, plug in the charger for an hour or so, turn the garmin back on and continue the same route?

The Garmin works fine if turned off then back on - everything picks up includng the route etc, but would plugging in a charger "reset" the ride?

(There will be a support vehicle so won't be carrying a large battery on my back :shock: )

You don't need to turn off the Garmin, on long audaxes I've just plugged in a backup battery into the mini usb port and the Garmin carries on as normal and charges at the same time. Edit, I use a 'Tri' bag to hold the backup battery as it's a small one but big enough to charge the Garmin back up to 80% plus charge from flat. It's this one http://unleashthephones.com/2011/10/23/ ... pack-2000/

zx6man

As long as you dont hold the left button to save the activity it will carry on even when turned off then back on again. Done this on a few runs over a couple of days/ 200 miles, and charging overnight didnt affect it.

Slight Hijack, where is the 160 miles taking you?

slowbike

As has been said - you can run the 800 on an external power source without it powering down - so you could have one on your bike - power on the external pack for the first few hours and once the pack has run out of power the 800 will carry on on it's own.

And you can turn the 800 off and on as many times as you like - until you press and hold reset for 5 seconds or attach it to a computer it will just add to the previously recorded ride. (careful with an 810 - it's a bit more faniticy - my wife seems to have got the hang of that one though)

drlodge

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

You don't need to turn off the Garmin, on long audaxes I've just plugged in a backup battery into the mini usb port and the Garmin carries on as normal and charges at the same time. Edit, I use a 'Tri' bag to hold the backup battery as it's a small one but big enough to charge the Garmin back up to 80% plus charge from flat. It's this one http://unleashthephones.com/2011/10/23/ ... pack-2000/

Yeh my charger is like that, just bigger (about 5Ah I think) with 2 USB outputs. Will give it a go tonight I think...that way I can be sure. It will just need a top up at lunchtime, but good to know I don't need to turn it off, although I guess it wil charge slower if left on.

CiB

If it does fail and you end up with two rides, upload them both to Strava / RideWithGPS / your site of choice and then export them as TCX / GPX files. There are loads of tools on the net that join rides together into one - it's a fairly easy thing to do programmatically, even easier with Notepad etc if you aren't too worried about mangling up the time stamps.

drlodge

Slowbike wrote:

And you can turn the 800 off and on as many times as you like - until you press and hold reset for 5 seconds or attach it to a computer it will just add to the previously recorded ride.

This is what I'm wondering i.e. if I plug in a USB cable to charge it, will the 800 think its a PC and "stop" the ride.

@zx6man - its Guildford to Beachy Head and back (hopefully not just the one way ending with a jump).

drlodge

This is the charger, a *15* Ah power pack so quite heavy!!

slowbike

drlodge wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

And you can turn the 800 off and on as many times as you like - until you press and hold reset for 5 seconds or attach it to a computer it will just add to the previously recorded ride.

This is what I'm wondering i.e. if I plug in a USB cable to charge it, will the 800 think its a PC and "stop" the ride.

Not with the 800 ... apparently the 500 does think it's a PC ... but the 800 will (or should be!) fine - mine's fine.

I sometimes charge mine from a USB wall charger rather than the PC - just have to remember to turn it off as it auto-powers on when it detects an external power source. It'll only go into PC mode when it sees a computer at the other end ...
At least - that's my experience.

Sounds like a good ride - have fun

arthur_scrimshaw

drlodge wrote:

This is the charger, a *15* Ah power pack so quite heavy!!

I've got the Technet version http://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet%C2%AE-1 ... B00FAU7ZB2

Used it on my recent Jogle and was invaluable as staying in Youth(!) Hostels power sockets were often in short supply! It's a bit of a lump though, but fitted into a handlebar bag ok.

marcusjb

As others have said, it will be fine. Do it all the time with my 800 on long rides. Never stop it or anything though (reset it every 300km due to the 350-400km bug on the 800). Battery pack in saddlebag, USB cable wrapped around top tube, done. I have kept the garmin on for 96 hours this way.

But it would take you minutes to check it yourself with your cables, battery pack etc.

For this weekend, I can't carry a battery pack, so will use 2 garmins to record (start with one, swap out at 8 hours, leave garmin 1 to charge whilst the next 8 hours with garmin 2, then swap at 16 hours back onto the now charged garmin 1).

drlodge

Just tried it...all works fine. Can charge while its on or turn it off I guess to charge it a little faster.

markhewitt1978

I've seen lots of mentions of charging the 800/810 while riding, but no mention of how to mount the external battery / cabling while this is going on? Or is it a matter of having to charge while you're not riding?

The vast majority of my rides are under 5 hours so not an issue but I've got at least one planned for this year which will take me over 12 hours and I don't want to be even close on the battery life.

homers_double

If mine dies on the fred I'll be seriously annoyed, I'll just turn everything off I don't need and hope for the best.

Man Of Lard

markhewitt1978 wrote:

I've seen lots of mentions of charging the 800/810 while riding, but no mention of how to mount the external battery / cabling while this is going on? Or is it a matter of having to charge while you're not riding?

The vast majority of my rides are under 5 hours so not an issue but I've got at least one planned for this year which will take me over 12 hours and I don't want to be even close on the battery life.

Cable ties... lots of cable ties. External battery plugged in from the start so you're constantly "topping up" the 800/810 until the external battery goes flat then you have a full 800/810 charge after that.

markhewitt1978

Yeah I was thinking that or some of those elastic band type things, I thought someone may have a more,, elegant, solution!

Man Of Lard

Then you need suitably upmarket (Rapha, etc) elastic bands

southdownswolf

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Yeah I was thinking that or some of those elastic band type things, I thought someone may have a more,, elegant, solution!

How about something like this?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/deuter-triangle-bag/

homers_double

MY EYES...

markhewitt1978

What with a long wire going to the Garmin? I can't see that working entirely well.

onemoresolo

I've got about 14 hours of life out of a Garmin, main things are turn the backlight down, don't use turn by turn nav and don't leave it on the map screen if you can avoid it.

neeb

I think I agree with the above, that it will probably be able to last the ride if you tweak the settings to prolong battery life (especially keeping the backlight down to a low setting).

Another option (or a backup option) - borrow a friend's unit (i.e. take two), and swap them when the battery dies? You would need to start a new activity, but you could merge them together afterwards.

arthur_scrimshaw

On longer Audaxes I use a small tri bag behind the steerer/on top of the top tube. Just big enough to fit a backup battery and a very short cable to the charge port on the Garmin (100mm)

cswitch

I don't charge mine very often I think I get that kind of distance from a single charge, though the screen light is usually off.

buckmulligan

I guess it all depends on how large your external battery pack is, but if you're any sort of self-respecting roadie you're going to want something reasonably lightweight. A nice, slimline one like this would easily fit into a small top-tube bag like this for a neat, compact and mostly waterproof solution.

Normally I wouldn't countenance the idea of an extraneous bag like that, but it's not too offensive and if you're on a ride of that length you're probably going to want somewhere to stuff some extra food etc.

diy

you can get 18650 based USB packs off ebay for about £2. A single 18650 will charge a garmin edge twice. I have a twin 18650 USB pack, which I velcro to the toptube.

you can get the cells out of old laptop batteries.

or you can make your own using this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-7V-Li-ion-B ... 2ed24e9bc4

The 800 runs quite well as long as you keep off the map screen.

Unfortunately a fully charged 4.2v 18650 isn't quite enough to trigger the power input direct wired to a USB cable.

nweststeyn

As someone said above ^^^ - this doesn't work with Garmin 500s, incase someone is reading this thread and thinking they'll try it. Plugging anything into the USB port mid ride will save and reset the computer and you have to tag the two parts of the ride together, I had to do this on a 340km outing and it was annoying but solveable!

Paul 8v

Thread resurrection...

Anyone know if the 810 suffers the problem where it thinks a computer is being plugged in and saves?

I'm doing the Dynamo and back which is going to be about 320km, no way it will last that long on a single charge and I was going to charge the battery with an external pack at the rest stop.

I'm hoping this can be done...

slowmart

My 800 was fine on a 12 hour audax with an external charger. No issues although my mate who lent me the charger informed me in hot weather it can cause a reset. Oh how I laughed as we had 4 hours already in the rain with another 2 to go......