GPS - garmin ique 3600 battery life

Author

garmin ique 3600 battery life

nospam@wtez.net

2005-08-23, 11:48 pm

I see a few complaints about the battery life of the Garmin ique 3600.
ie how long it runs on a charge. Just what is the typical time between
charges? I can see the biggest issue would be on a hike where you
might be away from a recharger for a few hours.

I have an old PalmIIIxe with the Navman pack. This only lasted for
about 45 minutes so I took the gps appart and put another lithium
battery in parallel and hot glued onto the back. Klugey, hopefully
wouldn't have to do that on this nice new garmin.

tks
Don

Joe Parsons

2005-08-24, 5:48 pm

On 23 Aug 2005 19:27:49 -0700, nospam@wtez.net wrote:

>I see a few complaints about the battery life of the Garmin ique 3600.
>ie how long it runs on a charge. Just what is the typical time between
>charges?

Battery life is arguably the biggest gripe about the otherwise lovable iQue
3600. To see what your batter life actually is, look for a program called
"Rundown." It'll keep your PDA running and write a log of the battery discharge
rate. If you go to the iQue forum on PDA Street
(www.pdastreet.com/forums/forumdispl...4e2&forumid=108)
you can see what other people experience in this regard.

Screen brightness has a lot to do with battery life. Another useful program,
Bright-iQ, can help you manage this. I think you can find it at
www.toolworks.com/bilofsky/brightiq. It's freeware.

>I can see the biggest issue would be on a hike where you
>might be away from a recharger for a few hours.

There are auxiliary battery packs available for Palm devices. There has been
some discussion of them on the iQue forum at PDAStreet.

HTH,
Joe Parsons

>
>I have an old PalmIIIxe with the Navman pack. This only lasted for
>about 45 minutes so I took the gps appart and put another lithium
>battery in parallel and hot glued onto the back. Klugey, hopefully
>wouldn't have to do that on this nice new garmin.
>
>tks
>Don

don.fuchik@gmail.com

2005-08-25, 5:48 pm

If I set the screen to hi brightness and just leave it on how long will
a fully charged battery last?

Joe Parsons

2005-08-26, 5:48 pm

On 25 Aug 2005 10:38:17 -0700, don.fuchik@gmail.com wrote:

>If I set the screen to hi brightness and just leave it on how long will
>a fully charged battery last?

Depends on whether the GPS on and the overall health of your battery, for
starters.

Look for the program, "rundown," and you can find out exactly for yourself.

Joe Parsons

nospam@wtez.net

2005-08-26, 5:48 pm

I don't have one. Thats why I'm asking.

Will typical usage like everyone expects to use it with gps on and some
screen on how long between charges.

1 minute

1 hr

5 hr

10 hr

24 hrs

I'm gonna guess based on the complaining something like 90 minutes max.
Not really long enough for a serious hike without having to recharge.

so just a ballpark number is all I'm looking for. If I had one I'd
know how long the battery lasts.

Joe Parsons wrote:
> On 25 Aug 2005 10:38:17 -0700, don.fuchik@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> Depends on whether the GPS on and the overall health of your battery, for
> starters.
>
> Look for the program, "rundown," and you can find out exactly for yourself.
>
> Joe Parsons

Joe Parsons

2005-08-28, 5:48 pm

On 26 Aug 2005 13:02:28 -0700, nospam@wtez.net wrote:

>I don't have one. Thats why I'm asking.
>
>Will typical usage like everyone expects to use it with gps on and some
>screen on how long between charges.
>
>1 minute
>
>1 hr
>
>5 hr
>
>10 hr
>
>24 hrs
>
>I'm gonna guess based on the complaining something like 90 minutes max.
> Not really long enough for a serious hike without having to recharge.
>
>so just a ballpark number is all I'm looking for. If I had one I'd
>know how long the battery lasts.

My last rundown test gave me 209 minutes. IIRC, I had the GPS running and the
screen brightness turned down pretty low.

I am a huge fan of the iQue--for me, it's the best piece of technology I've
acquired in years. I use mine primarily in the car on the cradle, so battery
life is less of an issue for me than for some other people.

The advantages for hiking would be the large color screen. I'd think topo maps
would look especially good.

On the other hand, battery life would definitely be an issue for your
application. The only way to make the iQue useful would be with some sort of
auxiliary battery pack. They're readily available, but you'd have to decide
whether the additional gear (and weight) would be worth the hassle.

I also have a Garmin Map76. It has a much longer battery life--when I use mine
on the water, it's good for a weekend without having to replace the AA
batteries. It also floats (don't ask). There are a number of other similar
dedicated GPS units out there, from Garmin and others. If you have no need of
maps loaded onto your GPS, you can get serviceable units for less than $100.

HTH,
Joe Parsons
[color=darkred]
>
>
>Joe Parsons wrote:

nospam@wtez.net

2005-08-29, 5:48 pm

Thanks Joe, that's what I needed just a ballpark estimate. I still
will probably buy one and just figure out a battery backup. 209
minutes is about long enough to get good and lost on a hike so that's
when you'd really need it.

The main thing I like about the ique is the PDA function. I have
Fugawi and with that I can make maps that run on a PDA so for me its an
important feature. I hike and go out to the coast. On my boat I have
a Lowrance 320 with all its maps and it works great but if you would
like to make your own map (things change on the gulf coast as the
hurricane hitting New Orleans indicates) you are stuck. With the PDA
GPS I can actually draw, scan, and calibrate my own custom maps. Not a
big deal but something I just want to do.

The Mapcreate that comes with Lowrance is ok but it is pretty weak on
ability to control. For example if you make a route out of a trail it
drops so many waypoints that it may look like you actually went over an
island rather than around it. Fugawi is quite a bit more
sophisticated.

My other option would be to run Fugawi for PC on a pocket pc with
bluetooth GPS and do it that wayl. Gets a bit more complicated. I'll
have to look at that a bit more.

tks for the answers.

Don

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