Sat Nav woes

[Kenneve]

+1  regarding the quickest route, as Jocko says, no point in trying to negotiate farm tracks et al.

I'm a bit confused with Culzean's comments about battery life. For me, sat nav never runs on battery alone, since it is plugged into the cigarette lighter socket and is running all the time the engine is on.  Engine off = sat nav off.

Overall I've found the Drive 51 model to be reliable and have no complaints.

[Jocko]

Culzean uses his for walking I believe.

[culzean]

Culzean uses his for walking I believe.

+1

I do like to take satnav with me when i park in a strange town, or hill walking / rambling,  i press the car icon on the screen and save that location just as 'car' - then i always know I can find car again.  with all my previous satnavs battery life has always been over 3 hours ( as I said original streepilot 510 was 8 hours ).

What really irks me about latest Garmin Drive 51 is that they claim battery life as 30 mins which it pitiful,  and every time I turn it off ( i hold down power button and wait until message appears do i want to turn off and acknowledge it ) - I just know that next time I turn it on outside the car to enter a destination that the battery low warning will be showing,  I have had correspondence with Garmin about it and they say I am 'not turning it off properly' - which puzzles me because I am doing exactly as they say in their emails....

So unless I get a power bank it is useless to take Drive 51 with me.. ( although ironically it does off off-road navigation )... Oh well

One good thing about the Drive 51 - is that the unit bongs when approaching a lower speed limit ( ignores if you are going into a higher limit ) and the speed limit shown on unit changes within a few metres of a sign...

[Jocko]

I have my Garmin 51 connected continuously to the power connector, and it comes on and off automatically with the ignition.
Last Wednesday I had an 80-mile trip then put the car away in the garage. When I brought it out this morning, the 51 displayed "Battery is low". As culzean says, doesn't say a lot for the battery that it goes flat in five days, WHEN NOT BEING USED.

[John A]

I have my Garmin 51 connected continuously to the power connector, and it comes on and off automatically with the ignition.
Last Wednesday I had an 80-mile trip then put the car away in the garage. When I brought it out this morning, the 51 displayed "Battery is low". As culzean says, doesn't say a lot for the battery that it goes flat in five days, WHEN NOT BEING USED.

If it's like all the other Garmin GPS's I've recently owned then you leaving it in standby is it being effectively being used.  A similar analogy, you wouldn't expect your car battery to last very long if you turned off the engine, but left the ignition on.

[culzean]

I have my Garmin 51 connected continuously to the power connector, and it comes on and off automatically with the ignition.
Last Wednesday I had an 80-mile trip then put the car away in the garage. When I brought it out this morning, the 51 displayed "Battery is low". As culzean says, doesn't say a lot for the battery that it goes flat in five days, WHEN NOT BEING USED.

If it's like all the other Garmin GPS's I've recently owned then you leaving it in standby is it being effectively being used.  A similar analogy, you wouldn't expect your car battery to last very long if you turned off the engine, but left the ignition on.

Yes but it is not in standby, that is my grouch - I have always pressed the power button for a long time until a message  'turn off the device'  with options 'cancel' and 'off' ( and pressed the off on the screen ) - which Garmin support assure me is the correct way to turn it of rather than just press the power button for a few seconds to put the unit into standby.. you can tell it is not in standby because unit will recover from standby state very quickly without having to reboot,  mine always fully reboots when I turn it on - but the battery icon is red and the message 'low battery' normally comes on pretty soon.

All garmin support could come up with was that I was not turning the unit off properly - or not charging it properly,  but I have been on trips of 5 hours or more with it plugged in and next day it still shows low battery,  but garmin refused to accept this as a fault...

They also confirmed that the battery life is a measly 30 minutes ( but i thought that was the life if you left it fully powered up,  seems i was wrong and that is actually the life of the battery when unit is fully turned off  ).

I never leave garmin plugged into the car when not using it - it is turned off and put in its case.

[John A]

So the battery is effectively only to cover transient power drop outs from the 12v supply? How useless.

[culzean]

So the battery is effectively only to cover transient power drop outs from the 12v supply? How useless.

Yes,  which means you cannot use it anywhere outside the car without a power bank of a decent size.  What is really annoying is that often you are in the house trying to enter new destinations and the battery low warning keeps nagging you,  lucky I have a 230 volt plug in power supply from a previous satnav with a mini USB plug on it - I can use that to keep unit alive at least while I enter new stuff -  but even after hours of charging on that I just know that when I turn the garmin on in a few days time the red battery warning will be on... proper pants..

Seems fairly common on newer satnavs now to get a short battery life compared to older ones,  maybe the A-h has been devalued and nobody told us..

[richardfrost]

Surely it would be easier to use a phone for navigation not in the car Culzean?

[guest9236]

Surely it would be easier to use a phone for navigation not in the car Culzean?

On occasions I use FREE  Here We Go mapping app suitable for Apple and Android phones  you can download map for the country you require ie Scotland Eng,and Wales or Individual countries such as France Germany etc,this saves storage on phones ,also it is enabled for Walking Cycling and Driving also can be set to use offline therefore no Internet access required have used it for years  also gives bus times locally and local stops but I have not personally used this facility.
I can recommend this as a first class app. have had no problems at all you can choose voice to suit, it also darkens at night for driving automatically.
Also free updates

[culzean]

Surely it would be easier to use a phone for navigation not in the car Culzean?

It would be if I had a smart phone   

[richardfrost]

Surely it would be easier to use a phone for navigation not in the car Culzean?

It would be if I had a smart phone 

Fair enough. As a runner, I have a Garmin smartwatch which has a battery that lasts for a week.

Even on GPS tracking mode it lasted for nearly a whole day when I ran a marathon last October.

Baffles my why the batteries in their car GPS units are so bad. I have two of them (bought years apart) and they are both the same. I can only blame the screens.

[sparky Paul]

Surely it would be easier to use a phone for navigation not in the car Culzean?

It would be if I had a smart phone 

You don't have to use it as a smart phone, or even a phone at all . An old hand me down, or secondhand android phone is a cheap, effective sat nav.

[Jocko]

An old hand me down, or secondhand android phone is a cheap, effective sat nav.

You have to have a SIM fitted and connection to a network, do you not?

[sparky Paul]

An old hand me down, or secondhand android phone is a cheap, effective sat nav.

You have to have a SIM fitted and connection to a network, do you not?

No

Just download the app and the maps whilst connected to your internet at home and you're away. There's a few nav apps that will work completely offline.