Battery life on the Garmin Edge 305

[SKINNY]

I've had my edge for about 6mo.. and the battery life on it is crap.. I cant go more than 1 day without charging it.. If I do a ride and dont charge the thing that day it wont make it through the next ride.. anyone else having this problem? I would expect the thing to last a bit longer.

[kanga]

Unless you're riding really long rides, I've been able to get about 11 hours (one continuous ride) out of mine, but for my usual 3 - 5 hour rides, I do re-charge after every ride when I download the most recent data into the computer.

For the occasional longer ride, I built an external USB power supply out of a 9V battery, an old USB cable, and a voltage regulator chip. But I've only used that on rides 12 hours or more.

[SKINNY]

hm... my rides are usually pretty short.. rarely go over 1.5 hours..

its almost like the charge leaks when the unit is turned off..

[kanga]

This thread may be helpful on Motionbased:

http://forums.motionbased.com/smf/in...p?topic=4480.0

If it's draining overnight it may be that the unit is turning on after you unplug it. If mine is plugged in to the computer's USB and I shut down the computer, the GPS will turn itself on. If I disconnect the GPS then shut down the computer it doesn't turn on. Occasionally I forget about this little quirk of the unit software but usually I hear the audio tones as it turns itself on.

[Abui]

Originally Posted by SKINNY

hm... my rides are usually pretty short.. rarely go over 1.5 hours..

its almost like the charge leaks when the unit is turned off..

What does the battery meter show when you turn it off? Full?

Do you use the HR or cadence sensor?
Do you record in every-second mode?

[SKINNY]

I'll check the battery gague when i turn it on today.. It has been on the charger for a couple days.. My computer is always on so I just leave it plugged in to the USB port when not in use.. I unplugged it this morning at about 730am and will be riding at lunchtime.. I use the HR monitor and record in Auto mode..

[dubjay]

I just had my 305 repaired (for different reasons) and battery life is back where it used to be. I was out recently for 6 hours and still had 2 bars showing.

Before the repair, it wouldn't last more than 3-4 hours total.

I think the battery ended up having a problem with peak detection. I actually see "Charge Complete" now when it's plugged in after a while. It would keep saying it was charging previously.

[kanga]

Yesterday's ride for me: left the house at 8:00 a.m. rode all day with the unit turned on, got back to the house at 4:35 p.m with one bar left on the battery meter.

After the last bar disappears, I've been able to get at least a couple of hours before the low battery warning, and then about 20 minutes more after the low battery warning. I'd guess I had a good 2 1/2 hours left after 8 1/2 of riding. I ran out of daylight, not out of battery!

If it continues, it could be a warranty issue. They're pretty responsive and when mine went back under warranty it was only gone for about ten days. The replacement unit looked brand new with a new serial number and all...

[cbHarping]

I guess I've been lucky. I just got one, and I've taken it out on 3 long rides (between 3-4 hours each) and haven't had to charge it in-between.

I guess it gets a quick bit of re-charge when I plug it in to the computer to upload the ride info, but I unplug it right away.

[ghixon]

If you're not using the heart rate or cadence monitors, turn them off in the unit. It's looking for/sending out the signal and will sometimes drain the battery faster.

[SKINNY]

Originally Posted by ghixon

If you're not using the heart rate or cadence monitors, turn them off in the unit. It's looking for/sending out the signal and will sometimes drain the battery faster.

Nice.. I'll check that the cadence feature is OFF.

[J_Sims]

This thread got me thinking about my 305 that has been sitting on my handlebars that have been hanging in the garage for almost a month. I checked it today and I still have 3 bars, exactly where it was last time I turned it off... so your unit should not be going dead while turned off, I would check to ensure that you are leaving it in the off position..

[92se-r]

You might have a low power USB port that is not fully charging it. My gf's 305 has great battery life in the double digits. Does yours have a wall adapter? If not, get an AC adapter to USB charger from ebay. One of my mp3 players had CRAP battery life. THen I used an AC adapter to USB charger on it instead of charging with my computer, and I got a lot better battery life.