Satmap Fully Coast to Coasted

[marty-w]

I've had my Satmap for quite a while now but only used it for one or two days total at most.

So here was the big test would it survive the 14 day Coast to Coast mission.

Well, the answer is that it most definitely did.

I had the rechargeable battery in first fully charged and then switched to double AA's as I was mostly camping.

Got nearly 3 days walking use (around 20-22 hours I think) out of the rechargeable battery and then with the double AA's I was getting about 2 days walking use (around 16 hours I think).

It worked brilliantly getting a lock really quickly and was really accurate when double checking the route.(particularly on Greenup edge).

It was great to be able to plan some of the walks on the fly and again to use it to check the route.

It also survived a double soaking - first time when I had nine hours of incredibly heavy rain on the North Yorks Moors and the second time when I had even worse rain and 90mph winds going up and over Kidsty Pike from Haweswater.

Quite a few people were quite jealous when they saw it as I double checked the route.

I have to say that even though it was expensive it was definitely worth every penny and I've certainly got my moneys worth out of it.

The question is which long distance path to try it out on next!!

p.s one particularly worrying thing that I found doing the Coast to Coast was the number of people doing it with just the Stedman book and no OS maps or compass. Hopefully these people will just turn back if they get lost and not bother the Mountain Rescue people in the Lake District. I met one guy from Canada at Rosthwaite on his second day who wanted to know where all the signposts were!! Hmm!!

[satmapian]

Hi Marty,

thanks for the feedback. Sounds like you got similar battery life as I did on backpacking trips away from power sources.

Could you expand a little on which type of AAs you used, and the power settings you used.

I get the same battery life out of my AAs as the Li Poly battery, but I use Lithium Energizer Ultimate AAs. I guess you were on alkalines.

Also I used Advanced power saving, screen set to 40% brightness, and screen off after 15 secs. I only used the unit when needed (eg quite frequently in farmland, but infrequently on a long ridge stretch).

[marty-w]

yeah, I was using energizer lithium double aa's and the same power settings I think 40% brightness and display off after 15 secs.

I was also using it to plot the route on the device at night so was probably not far off the lithium rechargeable battery life.

the only downside with the lithium batteries is the full or not issue which I believe u just have to live with - the battery charge guide is really a waste of time as it just goes straight from full to zero when they run out.

a minor issue - I had enough replacements on my trip.

-martin-

[satmapian]

Agree with that, although I found that in the end I could predict within an hour or so when the AAs would run down. Then I'd keep a close eye on it, and spot the drop in battery level. Basiacally if it's just dropped a bar it's time to change as you've only got about 15 minutes left - even with screen off.

[FrequentFlyer]

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