Conditions influencing battery life

[larshgf]

Starting from an experience this very day I would like to ask a few questions. Today my batteries in my etrex30 died after 2 hours of walking. This morning I placed whati Thought was batteries onl y used a little and the battery icon (is shown when pressing the "light" button) showed 3/4 full. I use a kmz-file in the CustomMap folder in contrast to a vector-map. Also my Recording Interval was set to "Most Often" in contrast to "Normal".
So the questions are two:
1: Is it not possible to trust the battery icon when it tells you your batteries are 3/4 full?
2: Wonder what influences battery-life
- Recording Interval?
- Type of map (kmz more "battery-hungry" than vector maps?
- Other conditions?
Well I've learned one lesson today: NEVER, EVER go for hiking without two extra fresh batteries 
 

[babj615]

What brand type style mAH rating batteries?

Do you have GLONASS enabled?

Do you have the correct Battery Selected in Setup? (Only affects reported battery level, not usage)

2 hrs sounds extremely unfavorable!

[Seldom]

Do you have GLONASS enabled?

I've read (but not tested) that GLONASS doesn't have a significant effect on battery life.

Do you have the correct Battery Selected in Setup? (Only affects reported battery level, not usage)

If larsgf was using lithium batteries, but had the selection to alkaline or nimh rechargeable, that could explain it.  Lithium's hold there voltage 'til a lot closer to full depletion.

[larshgf]

I use Alkaline. Having GLONASS enabled.

[babj615]

I use Alkaline. Having GLONASS enabled.

Brand? mAH?

Can you try a set of lithium batteries, or a different brand Alkaline?

Do you have the Battery type set properly in Setup?

[larshgf]

I used Duracell and my battery setting are OK.
I guess the batteries I mentioned must have been more powerless than I expected. But what is funny though is that the battery icon showed 3/4 full.
In the future I will not trust this icon but be sure I have an extra set of fresh batteries in my bag. 

[Seldom]

Spare batteries are always a good idea, but be sure to check your tracklog.  There may be more there than you think.  I've had my OR300 record for at least an hour after the screen went blank.  Not dead, but not enough energy to drive the display.

[maps4gps]

If by 3/4 you mean 3 bars out of 4; this does not appear to mean 75%.
My OR300 with NiH batteries will have 4 bars until about only 10% of the total time remains (about 2 to 2-1/2 hours).

[larshgf]

If by 3/4 you mean 3 bars out of 4; this does not appear to mean 75%.
My OR300 with NiH batteries will have 4 bars until about only 10% of the total time remains (about 2 to 2-1/2 hours).

After all I think it was a pair of flat batteries I used. And since the amount of bars in the batteryicon obviously not reflects the amount of energy in percentage terms everything is explainable.
Nevertheless I would like to discuss which circumstances are influenzing battery lifetime. I've also asked the question in the Garmin support and if anything new comes up I'll come back to this thread. 

[larshgf]

(Here comes the answer from the danish Garmin Support. My questions in blue)

Hi Lars, 

Thank you for your inquiry. 

1. If I increase the interval for recording coordinates to the maximum - will it have an  impact on battery life? Yes this will drain your batteries faster than normal. This happens because it must update your coordinates more often. 

2. If I use a raster-map in the form of a kmz file in the folder CustomMap instead of a vector-map - will it have any impact on battery life? No, this will not drain your batteries faster than normal. 

Could you in general send me some material about this issue - the user manual is (unfortunately also in this area) very sparse with information? This is unfortunately not a product where there is additional information besides the accompanying user manual. 

Sincerely / Best regards 
Jesper Olesen

[Seldom]

Could you in general send me some material about this issue - the user manual is (unfortunately also in this area) very sparse with information? This is unfortunately not a product where there is additional information besides the accompanying user manual. 

You did a little better with the Danes than I'm doing with the Americans.  I can't find anybody at Garmin support who will tell me why my trip computer varies from my track log.  The just tell me to do a factory reset.

[Boyd]

That issue has been discussed WRT other Garmin devices. The trip computer samples your position once per second. If you set your track preference to time and 1 second, it should match the trip computer.

The difference is due to the sample interval. If you visualize a track that is sampled every second, it will look like a zig-zag as you zoom way in because there are small position errors in each position fix. If you sample the track less often, the points are spaced father apart. With the one second samples, all those zig-zags add up to more distance than less frequent samples.