Removing power pack v's AA batteries

Mike777 · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 12, 2009 Posts: 99

I love rechargeable batteries so thought I would buy the Lithium Polymer rechargeable pack.

My problem is often I am out for a few days without access to power (on my bike!) I had a problem when it came to change the batteries pack and reinstall the cradle where the AA batteries would need to sit. I am concerned that this swapping over battery pack for cradle will over time weaken the power lead plug and points because it not that easy to pinch and remove the plug. I ended up having the pull the wires to remove the power plug from the active 10.

Does that make sense hope so ?

So my questions are

How do other people manage this

If I go back to just AA rechargeable batteries which are very easy to swap over which ones are the best is it simply the higher mAh are the best, what would people recommend and what sort of time are people getting out of such batteries.

Many thanks for your time and regards

Mike

philpugh · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:47 pm Post subject:

Mike,

This is a difficult one. I wouldn't really want to be continually changing from the rechargable pack to the AA carrier (and back) as I agree - the plug is just not designed to do this and pulling the leads will eventually end in a disaster.

In your situation I would stick with the AA pack and go for rechargeables. I haven't tried these in my Active 10 but in my GARMIN Colorado 300 I went for 2700mAH NiMH rechargeables and these gave at least double the life of standard AA cells (I managed nearly 9 hours with two of these). It will still add up to quite a few batteries though.

You should be able to get many hours out of your power pack. I haven't done anything really long distance/time with mine yet - but a recent 10+ hour walk dropped one bar on the battery meter - so I would have thought another 4-5 hours would be possible. (Battery meters never seem to be 'linear')!

I'm sure mikealder will be along soon - he has built a couple of battery life extenders - using many rechargeables - but it all adds weight.
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Phil

Claw-Of-Doom · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 26, 2009 Posts: 8

Hi Mike

I use a solio charger when i'm onn the fells for days on end. There great bits of kit. Kept my GPS and mobile fully charged when i was on Kilimanjaro last year Smile

http://www.solio.com/charger/

I just strap it to the top of my rucksack with a thin bungee

philpugh · Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:39 pm Post subject:

Claw-Of-Doom · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 26, 2009 Posts: 8

I pre charge the soilo internal battery before i go onto the hills and then i get 2 full charges of the lipol satmap battery before it runs out, bearing in mind that i can get 2 1/2 days use out of the A10 in powersave mode and the backlight turned reyt down which potentially gives me 7 days use Smile

BTW there is a solio classic available (the one i use) for £49. from the store but you can find it cheeper if you shop around on the net Smile

mikealder · Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:44 pm Post subject:

Most of the ones I have made in the past used 8 cells to produce 12V and the box was fitted with a car ciggy lighter socket, into this you plugged the car charger addaptor, another slightly better system was one I built in to an Otter box GPS pod. This worked very well until one night I plugged in the wrong charger and in the morning there were bits of exploded battery all over the kitchen!
Another one I made from large industrial capacity size D cells with a capacity of 13A/Hr, this was for a push bike lighting system but its would be rather heavy for walking with!

Rather than making a battery pack you can purchase small external packs such as This one made by U2O they used to make a 5400mA which is a great device - I have one of these and often take it out with me, the one in the link is 3600mA which enough to charge the active10 LiPol cell 1,5 times used carefully I would expect to get aroud 4 days constant use if you set out with a fully charged LiPol cell and a fully charged U2O pack, if you give GPS4Less a ring they might still have stock of the larger capacity 5400mA pack, but I cannot find it on their website at the moment - Mike

Mike777 · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 12, 2009 Posts: 99

mikealder · Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:46 am Post subject:

Yes thats the same device I use, you will get nearly a weeks use from an active 10 when combined with one of those and careful use of the backlight control - Mike

Mike777 · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 12, 2009 Posts: 99

mikealder · Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:00 am Post subject:

LostMike · Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:45 am Post subject:

Mike

It appears that you have removed the waterproof seal from the USB connector. Does this cause you problems or have you found a way around it?
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LostMike
Satmap A10. Platform 21
Software version 1.5.9193
Satsync 1.525

mikealder · Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 10:50 am Post subject:

Its only removed when charging which isn't done while I am using the device, although you could do as long as it isn't raining - I tend to wait till the end of the day to charge up the unit and if you set out with the built in LiPl battery fully charged it will outlast a single days walking. so the U2O pack only has to top up the active10 cells for a few hours to keep it charged - Mike

Mike777 · Regular Visitor Joined: Feb 12, 2009 Posts: 99

mikealder · Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:05 pm Post subject:

Darren · Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:35 pm Post subject:

FWIW I bought one of these and it has served me very well.

Not as large a battery as the i-UP but pretty versatile and robust.
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Darren Griffin

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