extending battery life for nuvi

Hello All,

I received my ”AA Gomadic Charger Extender for the Garmin Nuvi 750” from GOMADIC.COM. about 12:30pm Sat afternoon. I loaded it with 4 new “Walgreens Ultra Alkaline Supercells” (the cheap kind you buy at Walgreens Drugs , 24 in a pack for $11.49). I had about a full charge on my 750. I turned the 750 off and then plugged the new battery charger extender into it using the Mini USB tip supplied with it into the 750 and turn on the battery pack at 1:50pm.

!!!!!! IT WORKED RIGHT!!!!!!! The 750 booted up in the search satellite mode!!!!!

I then reset all the TRIP READINGS back to ZERO and set the backlight to 20% (to save power). And waited and waited and waited, checking the trip readings periodically to see the accumulated time. At 2:am Sun morning it was still running (12 hours and 10 min). So I left it on and went to bed. Got up at 7:00am and found the 750 OFF. I then disconnected the battery pack and re-plugged the 750 into the Garmin wall charger. I rechecked the TRIP READINGS and the total time said 14 HOURS AND 22 MIN. !!!!!!!

It seems to work well for me. And will meet my needs for it. I use my GPS to track all my Amtrak and VIA trips around the USA and Canada. I was using a IQUE 3600 with battery extender. Now I can use my new Nuvi 750.

It seems the replaceable tip supplied with the battery pack for the Nuvi 750, must have the built in resistor so the 750 will recognize it. Go to the website and check it out it seems they make power accessories for just about everything.

http://www.gomadic.com/garmin-nuvi-750-emergency-aa-battery-...

H Hannah
Nuvi 750 and IQUE 3600

Great info. Anybody have a thought as to why they have different models of the charge extender for 750 and 660? Perhaps same unit with different number to track customers' GPS model?

I just looked at the TIP list and see that all Garmin Nuvi's 200 thru 5000: the Nuvi xxx Charge uses #73 and the Nuvi xxx USB uses # 21.

I ordered the Charge/Extender and I was sent the # 73 tip for my Nuvi 750 -

H HannahNuvi 750 and IQUE 3600

I just took a look at the tips that I have. The Powermonkey tip for motorola (mini USB), My motorola wall outlet tip, the Garmin nuvi Car tip, the USB tip and the Wall outlet tip. They all look exactly the same (5 metal connectors inside with the middle 3 set slightly back). So what makes it go into mass storage on the power monkey like the USB cable while the others power it? I tried hooking the power monkey mini USB tip to the computer and it does not list the nuvi? I would have thought that would have worked. So I guess the tip has something in it than just converter in the adapter? i.e. The Cigarette Adaptor and Wall Outlet adaptor? I ordered the XDA tip for the Garmin so I'll find out soon but didn't think it would make a difference!

Like when I plug the powermonkey to the nuvi it shows mass storage but will not let me turn it off to display charge mode. Earlier on someone mentioned it will charge in mass storage mode normally but for the car and wall outlet, I have always had to turn the nuvi back off to make it go into charge mode?

Just to confirm I hooked things up right, I plugged my motorola into the computer and it went right into charge mode.

The USB spec identifies one of the pins as a signal pin to allow devices to place themselves in "charge" mode vs "storage" mode. There have been many discussions on this topic. One such technical discussion was here; http://www.poi-factory.com/node/9330 Scrolling down about a third of the way through the discussion, a technical pinout and some following discussions of the resistance values applied to pin X can help to understand why some chargers may place the device in storage mode and others might not. You could modify your cable from the Power Monkey to include the proper resistor value to place the unit in charge mode instead.

So I just tried something a little different I read in the above linked thread.

Someone wrote that the side USB port is different from the port in the back used through the suction cup mount. I plugged it in and it works. I didn't check how long it will use the Powermonkey battery for but it did not go into mass storage and ran right off the powermonkey instead. when I removed the cord it asked to "continue on battery" and it also will go into charge mode when turned off.

I plugged in the solar panel and it ran directly off of it in the sun. When I moved out of the sun, I got the message "continue on battery power".

I just wanted to share with everyone that this item does work!

Now the only thing I would like to have as an accessory is a 3 foot angled male USB to straight female USB extension so I can put the solar panel on a back pack.

Has anyone tried this with the Nuvi 350?

http://www.gomadic.com/garmin-nuvi-350-emergency-aa-battery-...

Is the Nuvi 350 usable while connected..or do you have to wait for it to charge?

I've been doing battery life test and I built a 4-AA charger for my recently acquired Nuvi 205W.

Battery Life Tests:
20% BL, 100->0%, 5:06 H:M
80% BL, 100->0%, 3:14 H:M

My assumption from these tests is that Garmin's 4 hour rating is based on 50% back light. I selected 20% because the display is marginally readable if you can find any shade, but not readable in full sun. For my purposes, it would be best if the backlight would automatically turn off after 30-sec like my Venture, is their a way?

AA Charger:
I got a $2 RS 4-AA holder, cut off the end of a USB cable and soldered it to the red & black leads. When plugged into the Nuvi, it acts exactly as if the USB is plugged into a PC. The "PC > cable > Nuvi" icon even displays.

My first attempt at charging, Batteries.com NiMH AA's, worked fine until ~55% charge. At which time the Nuvi started booting or power cycling and beeping. I concluded the battery voltage got low enough that the Nuvi thought it had been disconnected.

I'm now finishing the charge with some Powerex 2700 mAH AA's, so far so good.

As best as I can tell, the Nuvi will not operate as a GPS when it's being charged with my simple charger.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

.......and you should find the information you need.
And maybe even some you don't need.

Have a look at my "The End" Post in http://www.poi-factory.com/node/10701. I started it so figured it was finished with all the answers.

That tip they sell takes all the worry out of doing external power - then the only problem you have is which battery set you use and how you charge it.

Have fun.

For my purposes, the Gomadic solution was too big, the 90 deg bend you suggest would be ideal.

It was just quicker and smaller to use a USB cable tip with the RS 4-AA box.

Thanks for the reply.

Based on your note I ordered one for my Nuvi 750. The compartment is so tight that it will not accept 4 NiMh batteries. However, alkalines work fine.

The need is that we will be traveling to Europe soon and will not be using a car. The amount of daily anticipated usage may possibly exceed the capacity of it's internal battery. So, the Gomadic extender seemed like a good backup solution, especially since I have other devices using AA batteries and will be carrying a charger for them anyway.

Gomadic is aware of the situation and indicated that they intend to increase the compartment size sometime in the future. I think that they should have indicated the issue in their description of the product.

By way of comment, I think that it was a bad decision on Garmin's part to design the 700 series with non-replaceable batteries. Granted its sold aa an automotive device intended to be connected to the car's battery and is not waterproof. But, the device does offer pedestrian and bicycling modes for routing as well.

Lowering the brightness and reducing or muting the volume will save power.
Also, you can save power by reducing manual adjustments to the screen such as checking turns and switching back and forth from the route plan to the trip calculator.

To be fair, this is completely normal in today's industry of Li-Ion powered devices. iPods, PDA/Palm Pilots, GPS units, etc. all are designed without "user replaceable" batteries (note that "non-replaceable" is not really correct. You can replace them, but they are not made to be user replaceable.).

But yes, it would be nice if all those products used batteries like mobile phone so that you can easily keep a backup/spare or buy a new one when needed.

PT

I had the same problem and when I asked them they sent a different (and slightly larger) unit at no cost (all the way to Australia). Fitted NiMh just fine. Thought it was great service. Off to Europe in less than 24 hours to check it on the road (and in the air).

I find that the battery does not last long in a nuvi 660, maybe just over an hour and a half (what am I doing wrong besides not turning off the backlight). And that's after a 4+ hour charge. The solution would simply be to have a 2nd battery imho.

What happens when the battery dies, can the unit still be run on the ac adapter or lighter plug? Seriously, at work, I've seen BlackBerry batteries fail, and without being replaced, the BlackBerry no longer works. But at least the door can be popped and a new one put in.....

For those interested
Here is a list of replacement batteries available!
http://tinyurl.com/6ypbv4

REPAIR TORX T3 T4 T5 T6 & PRY TOOL
http://tinyurl.com/5dgtb4

Bob

I tried this one
http://www.gomadic.com/garmin-nuvi-250-emergency-aa-battery-...
it totally sucked and I returned it...
1. It couldn't take 4 AA rechargeable batteries - I tried with sanyo and powerex, the box was too small. I know rechargeables are bit bigger than standard batteries but gomadic state their device works with them
2. When I finally got to plug in my device and left it overnight it actually drained my nuvi battery instead of charging it
3. It would be nice if the cable was shorter so you could somehow attach the device to your unit if used on the track...

It reallyu is pretty simple to replace...hardest part is the antenna removal.

My solution to using low cost Garmin Nuvi 255 on my motorcycle was the use of a handlebar mount zipped case with a clear plastic front window.

This case offers some isolation from shocks and vibration as it is packed between foam rubber inside the zipped case.

It is NOT Waterproof (how can it be with rubber flap opening on the bottom for the 5V Power cable. It does seem to be water and dust reistant (thanks to some rubber like zipper cover that butts together to keep rain out. Drop your bike crossing a river, and the handlebar mount case went under water, not sure how well or for how long it might help keep the water out.pull it back out pretty quick (and open the case and take the Garmin Nuvi out to check if water got inside and wet the case? I hope that never happens and I do not need to find out?

The first problem is connecting a USB Mini-B Cable for the Power!

Better to find a 96 Degree Right 'elbow' USB Mini B 5Pin Connector Cable.

The question is, do they have any wire, soldered to Pin 4 (ID)

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/100cm-Right-Angled-90-degree-...

I think I have the answer with this DIY Plug:-

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/30sets-lot-Free-shipping-3-in...

I've used those usb battery packs. Used a car GPS for a little geocaching.