Advice on extending battery life on phone...
- Thread starter Mazz
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
I use komoot for 2 week trips in europe and the UK travelling about 80 miles per day. I've never had problems with it. I put my phone in a waterproof case on the bars so I can see the maps during the journey and use bluetoothed ear pieces for the voiced directions. I get about 7% battery usage per hour with a samsung A12 phone. The Komoot settings I use are: the route is stored for offline use on the phone, voice is on, wakeup display is on. The phone settings are: max brightness (so I can read map in sunshine), 5 min screen timeout, flight mode on. Good luck! I'm just over 100,000 miles lifetime touring and Komoot has made the experience even more pleasureable
UPDATE: I bought a secondhand Garmin Edge 510 for a tenner. Seems in good working condition, but I've never had a bike GPS before. Unfortunately it didn't come with the cable - not sure if it's a Garmin specific cable I need, but it looks like an old style mobile phone connector socket.
QUESTION: Does anyone know how I can download a GPX file to the device? Do I need to create an account on Garmin to do this?
P.s. I notice there's a Bluetooth symbol on power up, so maybe that's an alternative way to transfer a file without a cable.
Thanks in advance.
QUESTION: Does anyone know how I can download a GPX file to the device? Do I need to create an account on Garmin to do this?
P.s. I notice there's a Bluetooth symbol on power up, so maybe that's an alternative way to transfer a file without a cable.
Thanks in advance.
Last edited:
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
lazybloke
Considering a new username
- Location
- Leafy Surrey
Got a new Garmin recently, but still have my old 510 in the drawer as my son has his eye on it (maybe).
Yes, a mini USB cable can transfer a GPX route to it, eg from a Windows PC (other operating systems are available!).
1 Start with the 510 switched off. Plug the cable into your PC and the 510.
2 The 510 will switch on and will either show a charging symbol or a message about switching to 'mass storage' mode (or something similar) if the cable is a proper data cable.
3 If it's a data cable, then a new drive letter appears on your PC after about 20 seconds. D: on mine.
4 Copy the GPX file to an existing folder called D:\Garmin\Newfiles
Next time you reboot the Garmin it will recognise and process the new file, and it'll appear in the menu.
You can also use different route files, eg FIT and TCX.
From what I recall, bluetooth is ONLY for communication between the 510 and Garmin Connect on a phone/tablet.
So if you have a route in Garmin connect and do a sync, that'll put it down your 510 too
Nice one mate, thanks for taking the time to help me out. I just need to find a suitable cable really. I might have one of those in a biscuit tin somewhere (original contents was consumed several years ago).
froze
Über Member
- Location
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
I tried using my phone for that but it ran down the battery too far even with it on battery saver mode. Even though when I tour or go camping on the bike I use a solar charger, I was uncomfortable with the phone going down that low, then it takes about 3 hours to charge, so I went with the Garmin. Now the phone will only be about 10% discharged by the time I get someplace and only takes half an hour to charge.
Solar panels can be too heavy if you get more than 3 panels, and if you get less than 3 panels it takes too long to charge up anything, and those small one-panel combination power packs are just plain useless for the sun to do any charging unless you have 3 to 5 days to let the darn thing sit in the sun to charge it up. I also carry an Anker slim power bank, not a lot of storage but it can charge up my phone from dead 3 times, which I've never didn't have enough sun 3 days in a row, but now with the Garmin the phone never gets down low enough to worry about it. The solar panels also charge up the lights I use on the bike, and the power bank when needed, as well as the Garmin.
If anyone decides to try a solar unit make sure it's compatible with your phone, some are not compatible with certain brands.
Solar panels can be too heavy if you get more than 3 panels, and if you get less than 3 panels it takes too long to charge up anything, and those small one-panel combination power packs are just plain useless for the sun to do any charging unless you have 3 to 5 days to let the darn thing sit in the sun to charge it up. I also carry an Anker slim power bank, not a lot of storage but it can charge up my phone from dead 3 times, which I've never didn't have enough sun 3 days in a row, but now with the Garmin the phone never gets down low enough to worry about it. The solar panels also charge up the lights I use on the bike, and the power bank when needed, as well as the Garmin.
If anyone decides to try a solar unit make sure it's compatible with your phone, some are not compatible with certain brands.
HobbesOnTour
Guru
- Location
- España
Could you elaborate on this, please? It's not something I've come across before.
Personally, having both a hubdynamo and a solar panel (heatwave conditions in Spain) I wouldn't normally attempt to charge my phone directly from either. Less "smart" tech is fine but to recharge my phone on the road I charge a powerbank and from that, the phone.
albion
Guru
- Location
- South Tyneside
If you consider a good 400w roof one is 2m square then for 20w you need a good 0.1m square. So it needs the solar part of the panel to be 27cm x 37cm.
The problem is many of the cheap ones hardly get above 10% maximum efficiency.
The problem is many of the cheap ones hardly get above 10% maximum efficiency.
Last edited:
ClichéGuevara
Legendary Member
- Location
- Kingston upon the River Hull
albion
Guru
- Location
- South Tyneside
I noticed that the 50w panel from a legitimate seller, Renology is only 15.3% efficient so just maybe flexible technology is still way behind that of the rigid ones, making my prior calculation just a bit too low.
I think there's a maximum theoretical
Efficiency for Solar Panels. The ones on the space station use a couple of different materials to maximise the useful spectrum of light. You can get them commercially but they're extremely expensive.
albion
Guru
- Location
- South Tyneside
Perovskite + silicon solar panels hit efficiencies of over 30%.
However they have not found a way to stop rapid detoriation so research continues.
Ultra cheap rigid panels are hitting 22% now, 21% being the norm.
However they have not found a way to stop rapid detoriation so research continues.
Ultra cheap rigid panels are hitting 22% now, 21% being the norm.
That's the one, I follow the science but my memory is a bit rubbish. Had SolarPV fitted last month and it's interesting to notice that there's a brightness threshold where they spring into life ( though our perception of illumination is non linear)
froze
Über Member
- Location
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
There isn't much to elaborate about. I got my Solar thing from Amazon, and some brands would say they were compatible with iPhones, the ones that were not, and people who bought them without reading the fine print found out after they bought them that the solar panel didn't want to charge their iPhones. That's why you need to make sure if you buy a solar charger that it will work with your phone, if the description doesn't mention anything then ask the community at Amazon. There is a side panel on the left side of the Amazon screen when you are shopping for solar chargers for backpacking that gives you the option to select one of 4 different kinds of phones.
I take both, a slim Anker power bank and the solar charger, I have yet to run short on power doing it that way. My phone is not a high-demand phone, it's the X series iPhone, it's smaller than other phones which is what I wanted, and the battery is smaller thus doesn't take as long to charge as a larger battery would, and when on the power bank it wouldn't drain it as fast. They make larger power banks but they weigh more too, so I felt the slim version had the right combination of weight, space, and storage.
Those solar charges have grommets built in so you can strap it down onto the back of your bike and be charging while riding.
