Battery for c550

 

My c550 dies down after about half an hour on battery power, that's why I always keep it connected to the car charger. Does anyone else have the same issue? Has anyone tried replacing the battery themselves? Thanks.

BATTERY

tunasashimi wrote:

My c550 dies down after about half an hour on battery power, that's why I always keep it connected to the car charger. Does anyone else have the same issue? Has anyone tried replacing the battery themselves? Thanks.

how long have you had it? if under a year call Garmin!

--
Everyday is a GREAT day :)

Battery replacement

If worse comes to worst, replacing the battery should not be too big a job. I've replaced batteries in two of my PDA's and it's pretty simple. Caveat: I don't have a C550 so I don't know what kind of battery it uses. But from the looks of it, there's more room inside than there is in a PDA.

--
"Recalculating... drive 0.2 miles, then abandon vehicle." ------------- [ETrex Venture CX; Nüvi 40; Drive 52]

User replacement is possible...

tunasashimi wrote:

Has anyone tried replacing the battery themselves?

Probably the most difficult part of the task, is finding a battery supplier smile

There's only 4 screws holding the unit together - the back half of the case contains the battery and speakers. They are all connected to the same plug that connects to the main board in the front half.

So you've got to:

  1. Remove front bezel.
  2. Remove 4 screws.
  3. Carefully pull front far enough forward to remove plug (antenna/aerial slides along a slot in back part of case).
  4. Snip two wires to battery.
  5. Undo screws, securing battery strap to case.
  6. Replace battery.
  7. Remake severed connections (ie solder and insulate). Note: there may be safety issues I'm not aware of, regarding heat near Lithium batteries. I wouldn't solder anything to the battery itself - only to any connecting leads its supplied with.
  8. Plug connector back into front half.
  9. Re-assemble two halves of case, cursing for a while as you struggle to get the antenna bit to go back in its slot!
  10. Replace screws and bezel.

EDIT:
It's actually very, very similar to this procedure detailed here, for the C3xx:
arrow http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=67938

That particular battery appears to have been supplied with tags - and the author survived soldering them wink ... so there's presumably no problem with heat...

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »      

thanks everyone!

werskine wrote:

how long have you had it? if under a year call Garmin!

i actually called them when it was still under warranty, and they said that i needed to charge it with an external adapter, that the car adapter only maintained current charge. i didn't quite understand that but i said, ok i'll give it a shot. well, it still didn't work and before i knew it, I had passed my warrant period.

thank you all for the reply. i'll try to tinker around with my Garmin to find out what type of battery it uses and if i could order it online.

dsorgnzd and hornbyp, thanks for the tips. i'll post here once i replace my battery.

!!

tunasashimi wrote:

they said that i needed to charge it with an external adapter, that the car adapter only maintained current charge.

They do talk some nonsense, sometimes sad How much more external can you get?

The car adapter is just straight-through; no active components at all.

BTW - if you hold your thumb on the "Time" for 6 or 7 seconds, so that the Diagnostics are displayed - the first page on the C5xx has some rudimentary battery-state information.

--
------------------------ Phil Hornby, Stockport, England ----------------------               http://GeePeeEx.com - Garmin POI Creation made easy           »