Garmin DriveSmart 50 LMT Battery

 

Have the Garmin DriveSmart 50 LMT and after a complete full charge of the battery, I fully turn off the unit and within a couple a weeks, turn the unit on and the battery is nearly dead.

Anyone else experience this?

I have double checked and made sure they the unit is fully powered down and not in the standby mode.

Nope

Not noticed it in my DriveSmart but then it's rarely left for two or more weeks without some use.

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Where there's a will ... there's a way ... DriveSmart51LMT-S, DriveSmart50LMT-D, Nuvi 2508LMT-D, 1490LMT, 1310, Montana 650T, Etrex 20

Thanks

Thanks for your input, I may just call Garmin and see if this is an issue to be concerned about.

Short Battery Life

Garmin info claims DriveSmart %0LMTHD gets 1 hour of run time on fully charged battery. With that said, remember Lithium-Ion batteries use their charge relatively fast...if unit is sitting on your shelf for 2 or more weeks it can be reasoned charge will be fairly well depleted.

I just took delivery of a refurb'd DriveSmart 50LMTHD. I plan on being very mindful of charge state...if I'm not going to use unit for a week or more I'm going to top off charge every so often to avoid letting battery run down to nothing. Lithium-Ion battery life is really shortened when charge is allowed to drain down to zero.

Thanks for the advice

Thanks for the advice on keeping the unit fully charged. I do miss the fact that it doesn’t show the percentage of the charge state but rather just a green, yellow or red battery icon. I know when I plug it into the computer using a USB cord, my computer will tell me to the actual percentage of the charge state which is nice, but it’s a painfullly slow way to charge the unit.

I have a drive assist 50

I have a drive assist 50 which I notice goes through the battery pretty quickly

That explains it

My DS50 sits completely turned off and loses charge quickly. Now I know it's not just mine!

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Nuvi 2797LMT, DriveSmart 50 LMT-HD, Using Windows 10. DashCam A108C with GPS.

are you certain it is really off?

Melaqueman wrote:

My DS50 sits completely turned off and loses charge quickly. Now I know it's not just mine!

the "50" like many newer Garmins has a power saving mode and a fully off mode. To turn off the device completely, hold the power key until a prompt appears on the screen, and select Off. It takes about 5 seconds for the prompt to appear. If you release the power key before the prompt appears, the device enters power saving mode.

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John from PA

I think we should all

I think we should all remember that these devices are not meant to be used as a portable GPS device, they are meant to be plugged in to the car's power source.

That said, if your car's 12v source is shut off when the car is off, and you don't completely shut down the GPS unit it will go into power saving mode and the battery could run down. My unit is always mounted in the car so I make sure to power it down before I leave the car overnight. Something I never had to do with the Nuvi 50 because when it lost power it completely shut off.

My wife had this problem when she went on a trip without her car and left the unit in sleep mode. We had to bring it in the house and use a wall charger to recharge the battery. It took about an hour, or more, before the unit would even get past the GARMIN screen. Lesson learned.

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I never get lost, but I do explore new territory every now and then.

.

I noticed with my 50 was if I let it shut off by turning the engine off, it seemed to go into a sleep more. Not fully turning off and yes a couple of weeks later it was dead. I have been pushing the power button and holding it until the power off window appears and selecting to shut down. Doing this, the battery lasts longer and still has power. This is the first Garmin I've had that goes into sleep mode.

I use the term sleep like my laptop. Sleep mode over a full shut down.

Well, that's my observation and what I do,

I'm going to step out on a

I'm going to step out on a limb and say that all Garmin devices exhibit the same behavior. When the power is cut off, they go into sleep mode/standby.

Now, somebody cut the limb off that I'm standing on.

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

Disconnecting the device from the vehicle power cable

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Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

Chop(?)

phranc wrote:

I'm going to step out on a limb and say that all Garmin devices exhibit the same behavior. When the power is cut off, they go into sleep mode/standby.

Now, somebody cut the limb off that I'm standing on.

I believe the nuvi 7x0 and earlier series did not have a sleep mode. Maybe or maybe not the 7x5 and earlier. Starting at least with the nuvi 8x5 series, I believe you're right and all of these use sleep unless forced to power off with a 'long press" of the power switch.

I'm also on a limb and may remember this incorrectly.

All in all, it may be that somewhere in the 2007-2009 time frame, the switch from On/Off to On/Sleep/Off occurred:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/42240

Sleep mode.

I think you are generally correct CraigW, although I am not sure that the 1xxx and 2xxx series nuvi's all had sleep mode. Maybe folks who own these devices will enlighten me.

The 8xx series was kind of an anomaly in that these devices had sleep mode only ... there was no "power off" function. The only way to completely shut them down was to remove their (removable) battery. Another interesting thing about this series is that they will operate without a battery when plugged in. In fact, the nuvi 5000 which was similar to the 8xx series didn't have a battery at all. I don't think most of the Garmin road devices will turn on if you remove the battery, even if you plug them in.

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Alan - Android Auto, DriveLuxe 51LMT-S, DriveLuxe 50LMTHD, Nuvi 3597LMTHD, Oregon 550T, Nuvi 855, Nuvi 755T, Lowrance Endura Sierra, Bosch Nyon

No sleep on my 2460

alandb wrote:

I think you are generally correct CraigW, although I am not sure that the 1xxx and 2xxx series nuvi's all had sleep mode. Maybe folks who own these devices will enlighten me.

The 8xx series was kind of an anomaly in that these devices had sleep mode only ... there was no "power off" function. The only way to completely shut them down was to remove their (removable) battery. Another interesting thing about this series is that they will operate without a battery when plugged in. In fact, the nuvi 5000 which was similar to the 8xx series didn't have a battery at all. I don't think most of the Garmin road devices will turn on if you remove the battery, even if you plug them in.

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Nuvi 2460LMT.

You're right

pwohlrab wrote:

No Sleep On My 2460

I checked and you are correct, the 2460 has no sleep mode even though it was released in 2011. So apparently there was no clean break timewise between models without sleep and those with it. Live and learn.