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Cellular forums Home > Archive > Magellan GPS > August 2006 > Rechargeable batteries?
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| Author |
Rechargeable batteries?
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| Dale Peterson 2006-08-17, 3:33 pm |
| I use a Gold Meridian GPS on my Motorcycle, I'd like to use Rechargeble battery's in it, I would like to know if the Motorcycle eletrical system will charge the battery's.
Thank You
Dale
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| On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:15:48 -0700, Dale Peterson wrote:
> I use a Gold Meridian GPS on my Motorcycle, I'd like to use Rechargeble battery's in it, I would like to know if the Motorcycle eletrical system will charge the battery's.
>
> Thank You
> Dale
No. Sorry.
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| Jack Erbes 2006-08-17, 3:33 pm |
| Dale Peterson wrote:
> I use a Gold Meridian GPS on my Motorcycle, I'd like to use
> Rechargeble battery's in it, I would like to know if the Motorcycle
> eletrical system will charge the battery's.
>
The Meridians won't recharge the internal AA batteries. You can get DC
adapters for those in either the DC outlet plug in style or with
stripped and tinned pigtail leads so it can be permanently wired in.
The DC adapters have a DC-DC inverter built into a small housing on the
cable that drops the 9-35VDC input voltage to 3.8VDC.
If you put 12VDC on the contacts on the back of the case (instead of
3.8V) it can damage the unit. Those can usually be found pretty cheap
on eBay. You want the one for the Meridian and Sportrak, not the one
for the older 3xx series or the newer eXplorist series.
Jack
--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)
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| Ron Hunter 2006-08-17, 10:33 pm |
| Dale Peterson wrote:
> I use a Gold Meridian GPS on my Motorcycle, I'd like to use
> Rechargeble battery's in it, I would like to know if the Motorcycle
> eletrical system will charge the battery's.
>
> Thank You
> Dale
You would need a car charger.
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| Jack Erbes 2006-08-17, 10:33 pm |
| Ron Hunter wrote:
> Dale Peterson wrote:
>
>
>
> You would need a car charger.
There are no chargers for Meridians, do you mean a DC adapter?
Jack
--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)
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| Ron Hunter 2006-08-17, 10:33 pm |
| Jack Erbes wrote:
> Ron Hunter wrote:
>
> There are no chargers for Meridians, do you mean a DC adapter?
>
> Jack
>
Yes. If the batteries aren't rechargeable, then a DC adapter should
take care of the problem.
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| "Bill" <0@none.net> wrote in message
news:190l1ku56ug7l.1bne6lu4u3smx$.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:15:48 -0700, Dale Peterson wrote:
>
>
> No. Sorry.
Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!
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| On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 21:54:51 -0700, News wrote:
> "Bill" <0@none.net> wrote in message
> news:190l1ku56ug7l.1bne6lu4u3smx$.dlg@40tude.net...
>
> Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!
No, you are wrong and also right - sort of.
The motorcycle's electrical system can recharge AA batteries providing they
are in a recharger that operates off 12vdc like a car cigerette lighter.
But the Merigold does not have such a recharger onboard and will not charge
it's batteries if you simply connect the Merigold to the 12vdc system via
the Magellan DC adapter. That seemed to be the intent of Mr. Peterson's
question and Jack Erbes answered it more completely than either you or I.
I bet if Mr. Peterson clarifies his question he actually wants to know if
he connects his Merigold to his motorcycle electrical system and has
rechargable batteries in the Merigold, will the motorcycle recharge those
batteries? And the answer is "no, sorry"
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| Jack Erbes 2006-08-18, 3:33 pm |
| Bill wrote:
<snip>
> No, you are wrong and also right - sort of.
>
> The motorcycle's electrical system can recharge AA batteries providing they
> are in a recharger that operates off 12vdc like a car cigerette lighter.
>
> But the Merigold does not have such a recharger onboard and will not charge
> it's batteries if you simply connect the Merigold to the 12vdc system via
> the Magellan DC adapter. That seemed to be the intent of Mr. Peterson's
> question and Jack Erbes answered it more completely than either you or I.
>
> I bet if Mr. Peterson clarifies his question he actually wants to know if
> he connects his Merigold to his motorcycle electrical system and has
> rechargable batteries in the Merigold, will the motorcycle recharge those
> batteries? And the answer is "no, sorry"
That is the way I read the question. And the point of my answer was
pretty much that, since he can't charge the batteries in the GPS, and
wants to use it on the motorcycle, why not use a DC adapter off the
motorcycle's electrical system for power? That way the batteries will
not be drained.
To me it would seem silly to try find some place to put an AA battery
charger on the bike and to have to shuffle the charged and depleted
batteries back and forth between the charger and the GPS.
Jack
--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)
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| Dale Peterson 2006-08-18, 3:33 pm |
|
"Jack Erbes" <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:X4ydnS2J_- mxn3vZnZ2dnUVZ_sOdnZ
2d@adelphia.com...
> Bill wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
Thanks to all, I do have a Magellan Meridian DC adapter that supply's 3
volts (aprox). I asked the question because I took a trip thru the Sierra /
Nevada mountains a couple days ago and the rechargeables went dead, outta
juice. I had thought the adapter would keep the batteries charged and I
thought the adaptor might have accomplished that if the adapter connector
hadn't come outta the cigar lighter. duh?
Dale
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| Frank Tabor 2006-08-18, 3:33 pm |
| On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:48:35 -0700, "Dale Peterson"
< dale_peterson@charte
r.net> wrote:
>
>"Jack Erbes" <jackerbes@adelphia.net> wrote in message
>news:X4ydnS2J_- mxn3vZnZ2dnUVZ_sOdnZ
2d@adelphia.com...
>
>Thanks to all, I do have a Magellan Meridian DC adapter that supply's 3
>volts (aprox). I asked the question because I took a trip thru the Sierra /
>Nevada mountains a couple days ago and the rechargeables went dead, outta
>juice. I had thought the adapter would keep the batteries charged and I
>thought the adaptor might have accomplished that if the adapter connector
>hadn't come outta the cigar lighter. duh?
>
>Dale
>
It would have kept them from discharging.
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| On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:48:35 -0700, Dale Peterson wrote:
> I had thought the adapter would keep the batteries charged and I
> thought the adaptor might have accomplished that if the adapter connector
> hadn't come outta the cigar lighter. duh?
IIRC, with some versions of Merigold firmware, when you lose external power
and the alarm triggers, it also initiates the backlight at full intensity
(which further depletes battery power) unless you press enter to
acknowledge the alarm and then hold down the power button for 4 seconds to
turn off the backlight.
<shrug> I don't get the logic behind that, unless you lose external power
at night
Bill
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| Jack Erbes 2006-08-18, 3:33 pm |
| Dale Peterson wrote:
> Thanks to all, I do have a Magellan Meridian DC adapter that supply's 3
> volts (aprox). I asked the question because I took a trip thru the Sierra /
> Nevada mountains a couple days ago and the rechargeables went dead, outta
> juice. I had thought the adapter would keep the batteries charged and I
> thought the adaptor might have accomplished that if the adapter connector
> hadn't come outta the cigar lighter. duh?
>
On the Satellite page, it will either show the battery or level or it
will say External Power if you are using the DC adapter.
Once your batteries were dead, and the DC adapter unplugged, you were
out of power.
If you try to use NiMH or Lithium Ion rechargeable or any battery type
except Alkaline, the battery level indicator will be inaccurate because
of the differences in starting voltages and the discharge curve in use
of different types of batteries. And you may encounter some other
issues too.
I think it is NiMH batteries that drop voltage quickly at first and then
provide sustained service at a lower voltage that would normally
signal a nearly depleted battery for an alkaline.
I'm not sure if it happens with the Meridians but some Garmin models
experienced problems with precautionary shutdowns because the voltages
on fresh NiMH or Lithium Ion batteries were too high. For those, you
could use the batteries in a flashlight for a while and get them down to
a level where the GPS would use them. Then, after all that, the GPS
would shut off with NiMH or Lithium Ion batteries that still had hours
of use left when the voltage dropped to a level that signaled a nearly
depleted alkaline.
The newer Garmins fixed the battery type issues, they allow you to
select the battery type (Alkaline, NiMH, or Lithium Ion) so the battery
display and shutdown voltage are correct.
The Garmins will take a wide range DC input voltage (9-35VDC I think)
and they regulate it internally to power the GPS. But the Garmins that
use AA cells do not charge the batteries when running on external power,
they are just like the meridians in that respect.
Anyone that is using a Magellan should take a serious look at the
Garmins before they buy another Magellan. I've shifted to a GPSMAP 76Cx
and it is head and shoulders better than my Meridians (Marine and Color)
on both hardware and software features.
Someone just bought the Magellan line from Thales, I'm not sure if their
intention is to loot the company and sell off all the assets or to try
to continue in business but they sure have their work cut out if they
want to try to catch up with Garmin.
Jack
--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jackerbes at adelphia dot net)
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine dot com)
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"Bill" <0@none.net> wrote in message
news:190l1ku56ug7l.1bne6lu4u3smx$.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:15:48 -0700, Dale Peterson wrote:
>
>
> No. Sorry.
Depends on the voltage of your bike system, there are a number of chargers
that will run of 12VDC, I use them on my boat.
Peter
| |
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| On Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:17:07 GMT, Peter wrote:
> "Bill" <0@none.net> wrote in message
> news:190l1ku56ug7l.1bne6lu4u3smx$.dlg@40tude.net...
>
> Depends on the voltage of your bike system, there are a number of chargers
> that will run of 12VDC, I use them on my boat.
>
> Peter
Thank you for your response. Perhaps you did not read this entire thread?
While a separate recharger will work very nicely on a boat, or in a car, or
in a house, or in an RV or perhaps even on the space shuttle, Mr. Peterson
was asking about using rechargeable batteries in his specific GPSr on his
motorcycle. Further, as an implied question he wanted to know, if he
connected his specific GPSr (Magellan Meridian Gold) to his motorcycle
electrical system, would his motorcycle recharge the batteries in the GPSr.
There was no mention of a separate recharger. And, while there is more room
on a boat, it does not make sense to run a recharger in the limiter space
available on a motorcycle - especially when his GPSr can operate quite
nicely off the motorcycle without draining (but not recharging) the GPSr
batteries. If he was on a road trip (and I envy him for taking his bike
through the Sierra Nevada mountains) he could recharge his GPSr batteries
as necessary when he stopped at night and use someone else's electricity.
Despite all this verbiage, the answer to Mr. Peterson's question is still,
succinctly, "No. Sorry."
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| Dale Peterson 2006-08-19, 3:33 pm |
|
"Bill" <no@dont.ask> wrote in message
news:1lp3j10nrtk4p.1xel90i5i1etb.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:17:07 GMT, Peter wrote:
>
>
>
> Thank you for your response. Perhaps you did not read this entire thread?
>
> While a separate recharger will work very nicely on a boat, or in a car,
> or
> in a house, or in an RV or perhaps even on the space shuttle, Mr. Peterson
> was asking about using rechargeable batteries in his specific GPSr on his
> motorcycle. Further, as an implied question he wanted to know, if he
> connected his specific GPSr (Magellan Meridian Gold) to his motorcycle
> electrical system, would his motorcycle recharge the batteries in the
> GPSr.
>
> There was no mention of a separate recharger. And, while there is more
> room
> on a boat, it does not make sense to run a recharger in the limiter space
> available on a motorcycle - especially when his GPSr can operate quite
> nicely off the motorcycle without draining (but not recharging) the GPSr
> batteries. If he was on a road trip (and I envy him for taking his bike
> through the Sierra Nevada mountains) he could recharge his GPSr batteries
> as necessary when he stopped at night and use someone else's electricity.
>
> Despite all this verbiage, the answer to Mr. Peterson's question is still,
> succinctly, "No. Sorry."
Nicely put Bill, Thank You
Dale P................
BTW, we live just 15 miles or so from Lake Tahoe in the Eastern
Sierra/Nevada so it's kinda normal to go for a ride in the Sierra's.
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