Re: Garmin geko 201

From: pl (pl.carry_at_wanadoo.fr)
Date: 07/11/04 

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 20:29:13 +0200

I have tried solar and indeed the manufacturers do not refer to powering the
GPS directly, only reloading the batteries when you stress them bit on the
phone. With the Geko and the SportTrak map of Magellan they both do not
work with Solar. Carrying in on the backpack is dangerous for a relatively
fragile package. I met with a trekker who had the same ISun solar I have and
he said it reloads batteries more slowly than the GPS burns. Mind you it was
in Nepal where one follows cliffs often and do not have good sky coverage,
or sun for that matter.

The solution is not spare batteries in AAA, but external larger ones coupled
to deliver 3 volts.Weight for weight and price as well, large external
batteries is the better option.

The reason I want to keep it on all the time is:
1) I try to measure precisely the ups and downs. And in such areas as Nepal
you can do a lot of those simply because a "Nepalese flatland" is actually a
"roller coaster".
2) I keep the GPS in the backpack (top for better skyview) and do not want
to stop and off/on all the time, unload the sack, open, change the setting,
.... I have tried to wear it in my waist pocket, but a large section of the
sky is masked by the body, when there is already a steep hill on the other
side of the river and a cliff on this side. As a result the GPS does not
capture satellites enough. Thanks Shiva, there are not too many trees up
there.

"Dominic Sexton" <{d-sep03}@dscs.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:l$jT93QI3W8AFwcV@dscs.demon.co.uk...
> In article <ccrnbr$8sv$1@news-reader5.wanadoo.fr>, pl
> <pl.carry@wanadoo.fr> writes
> >Thanks for the tip.
> >
> >Now for the caveat: "poor conditions" I suspect is when the receiver
> >captures fewer satellites or with low reception on those.
>
> That is a fairly predictable state but perhaps not that common.
>
> > The system should
> >be able to make a determination of that.
> >Is the system not able then to switch automatically back to normal mode.
> >In other words is there not an extra layer of soft atop of "Economy" to
run
> >"IF conditions are good THEN run Economy, ELSE run Normal". And under
Normal
> >"If conditions are poor run Normal, ELSE run Economy".
> >Or is it too much to ask.
>
> I think that would be quite difficult to do in situations where the
> signals are dropping in and out due to obstructions (vegetation,
> buildings terrain).
>
> I never use battery/power save mode on my GPS receivers. I nearly always
> use NiMh batteries and am happy to carry enough spares to cover my
> needs.
> >
> >Then Dominic, since you appear knowledgeable on power.
> >out of 100% power consumption how much, roughly, goes to the Receiver
> >(normal mode), the Screen display, the Rest.
>
> I think very little power is used by the screen - almost all of it is
> used by the receiver and computation of the position solution.
>
> >I am anxious to find a GPS that turns the screen blank in Trace mode to
save
> >power, if it is significant.
>
> I very much doubt that it is significant.
>
> >I use the GPS only on treks where batteries are few, few and far, far
> >between
>
> Well you need to weigh up if you need to use the GPS all the time or
> only at specific points. You also want to consider if one of the longer
> battery life models that runs on AA batteries would better suit your
> application.
>
> You could also investigate a solar panel to charge batteries or even to
> power the GPS if you are out in reasonable sunshine much of the time.
>
> --
>
> Dominic Sexton
> http://www.dscs.demon.co.uk/

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