Query on sat nav battery life

Green_Martian

Hi all,

I bought the Mrs a new Sat Nav yesterday evening in Halfords, its the one It has Bluetooth etc. so she can use it as a handsfree kit as well.

Anyway question I have is I think it might be a bad one as it does not seem to be holding a charge and cannot locate any Wifi signal to connect to.

I charged it last night overnight and Mrs said all was ok as she had it plugged in the car and no issues. She just drove from Dun Laoghaire to Cornelscourt, a short drive, and did not plug it in and it is now showing as low battery.

Am I right in thinking this unit could be bust, or is this how the new Sat Nav units.

Just want to get a few option before I bring it back

Cheers,
G

biko

What sat nav is it? We need the name and model.
Most only lasts a few hours, and even just one is not unheard of.

Gregor Samsa

Make and model will help with the specific capabilities of the unit you bought. But for example, both the Garmin DriveSmart 50LM 5 (which is the cheapest bluetooth Sat Nav Halfords have listed on their site) and the Garmin DriveLuxe 51 LMT-D (which is the most expensive) have "Up to 1 hour battery life".

So the 1 hour battery life will be under specific ideal conditions - i.e. when it's not being used to its full potential. The amount of time the screen is on, the brightness of the screen, how many re-calculations it's making, having bluetooth enabled (not to mention actually using the bluetooth for music or calls) and other such things will deplete the battery quicker.

Sat navs are really designed to be plugged in while driving. The battery part is really just there to allow them to be used for a short time outside of the car.

As for it not being able to locate a WiFi signal, do you mean in your house on your home WiFi? Because unless you happen to be in a location with municipal WiFi, or you're closely following a bus (yes, my wife once tried this) you're not going to be able to pick up a WiFi signal when driving.

Green_Martian

biko wrote: »

What sat nav is it? We need the name and model.
Most only lasts a few hours, and even just one is not unheard of.

I would be ok if it lasted a few hours, but this went from fully charged to low in the space of 1 to 20 mins

This is the model here:

Garmin DriveSmart 51LMT-D with UK and ROI Maps 5" Sat Nav

http://www.halfords.ie/technology/sat-nav/car-sat-nav/garmin-drivesmart-51lmt-d-with-uk-and-roi-maps-5-sat-nav

Thanks

Green_Martian

phutyle wrote: »

Make and model will help with the specific capabilities of the unit you bought. But for example, both the Garmin DriveSmart 50LM 5 (which is the cheapest bluetooth Sat Nav Halfords have listed on their site) and the Garmin DriveLuxe 51 LMT-D (which is the most expensive) have "Up to 1 hour battery life".

So the 1 hour battery life will be under specific ideal conditions - i.e. when it's not being used to its full potential. The amount of time the screen is on, the brightness of the screen, how many re-calculations it's making, having bluetooth enabled (not to mention actually using the bluetooth for music or calls) and other such things will deplete the battery quicker.

Sat navs are really designed to be plugged in while driving. The battery part is really just there to allow them to be used for a short time outside of the car.

As for it not being able to locate a WiFi signal, do you mean in your house on your home WiFi? Because unless you happen to be in a location with municipal WiFi, or you're closely following a bus (yes, my wife once tried this) you're not going to be able to pick up a WiFi signal when driving.

Yes house Wifi

Just strange that after charging for a few hours in the house on the mains, that when I unplugged it to have a look at features on it within 2 mins it flashed up with the low battery signal and turned off

Gregor Samsa

Green_Martian wrote: »

I would be ok if it lasted a few hours, but this went from fully charged to low in the space of 1 to 20 mins

This is the model here:

Garmin DriveSmart 51LMT-D with UK and ROI Maps 5" Sat Nav

http://www.halfords.ie/technology/sat-nav/car-sat-nav/garmin-drivesmart-51lmt-d-with-uk-and-roi-maps-5-sat-nav

Thanks

Yep, "up to 1 hour" battery life:

https://buy.garmin.com/en-IE/GB/p/552177#specs

The "up to" is significant.

Gregor Samsa

Green_Martian wrote: »

Yes house Wifi

Just strange that after charging for a few hours in the house on the mains, that when I unplugged it to have a look at features on it within 2 mins it flashed up with the low battery signal and turned off

Right, well it certainly should last more than a couple of minutes on a full charge for sure. No harm in bringing it back I'd say. Is the battery showing as fully charged after the few hours?

listermint

Sat Navs will last feck all time off the cable. Your better off wiring the cable from the fuse box (taped fuse) up around the A Pillar to wherever the unit is.

Dont bother using them off cable its pointless waist of time. The screens data processing and constant live gps requests mean battery life is sub par.

Green_Martian

phutyle wrote: »

Right, well it certainly should last more than a couple of minutes on a full charge for sure. No harm in bringing it back I'd say. Is the battery showing as fully charged after the few hours?

I agree, would be ok if it even lasted 45 mins unplugged.

When it was plugged in charging it showed the charge sign on the battery, when I unplugged the cable it showed full green, then yellow then red within a minute. I don't think it is holding a charge.

I might bring it back to them and ask them to change it for another one

Green_Martian

Hi all,

Just an update.

Stay away from this model, nothing but problems with it. Garmin DriveSmart 51LMT-D with UK and ROI Maps 5" Sat Nav

As originally stated there was a problem with the WIFI connection, brought it back to Halfords in Blanch on Sunday, so unit only 6 days old, first guy we got was very rude wanted to know why I wanted to return unit and what was wrong, these are normal questions but not when used with an attitude and a refusal to look at you while asking the questions.

His colleague was more helpful. Well guess what, the WIFI worked in the shop, so on we went home thinking we had being doing something wrong. Got home and unit could not find our phone hotspot or our home WIFI, couldn't recognise any connections.

Decided to bring it back to Halfords in Coolock last night, with photos etc of no connection. The bloke could not have been nicer and said that's the second unit he has had back with this issue in the last few weeks, offered a full refund or new unit, only problem he had no new units but had them in Swords.

So of to Swords , they exchanged unit and apologised etc. got home with brand new unit. Guess what, unit was charging for about 1.5 hours, would not take charge, could not fund WIFI connections and to top it all off the blue charge light kept pulsing when turning unit on and then switching unit off with crazy white lines on the screen, like it was trying to reboot.
Herself decided last night she has had enough and what's money back so guess where im going this evening

Worst thing was I bought it as a present for her for her new job

bazz26

Do people still buy portable sat navs? I thought they went the way of the dvd.

ohnonotgmail

bazz26 wrote: »

Do people still buy portable sat navs? I thought they went the way of the dvd.

I'm baffled by this as well. Google maps is much better especially with traffic updates.

Green_Martian

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

I'm baffled by this as well. Google maps is much better especially with traffic updates.

She was using her phone but this was best option as my wife would be on the road and could also use it as a Bluetooth to answer calls hands free.

Also you can't rely on Google maps in the middle of nowhere when you lose your phone signal now can ya

ohnonotgmail

Green_Martian wrote: »

She was using her phone but this was best option as my wife would be on the road and could also use it as a Bluetooth to answer calls hands free.

Also you can't rely on Google maps in the middle of nowhere when you lose your phone signal now can ya

you know you can download the map for an area to your phone so you dont need a signal to use the map?

bazz26

Green_Martian wrote: »

She was using her phone but this was best option as my wife would be on the road and could also use it as a Bluetooth to answer calls hands free.

Also you can't rely on Google maps in the middle of nowhere when you lose your phone signal now can ya

1999 just called and said hello.

Every heard of downloading the offline maps?

Borderfox

Download maps offline in google maps so you can navigate when signal is lost

Wildcard7

Green_Martian wrote: »

She was using her phone but this was best option as my wife would be on the road and could also use it as a Bluetooth to answer calls hands free.

Also you can't rely on Google maps in the middle of nowhere when you lose your phone signal now can ya

"Up to 1h of battery life" = under ideal circumstances you might get 40 minutes, until the battery has been charged a few times and it halves. That battery isn't intended to be used for navigating, but so you can take the device out of your car and set up your route while you grab a quick coffee.





Google maps caches the map for your trip, so if you started somewhere where you have a signal, you're grand for the trip. You can also download entire areas if you want.



As another option, Sygic is a great turn by turn sat nav for Android and iOS, and costs IIRC 20 quid for EU maps with lifelong updates.


Add charger and and cradle and you have a complete, always up to date sat nav for less than 50€. If you switch your phone to a newer device, with a quicker processor and a bigger screen, you can keep using it there as well.



Or buy a standalone sat nav f0r 200.- that is based on 10 year old hardware, with a touch screen that's a pain to handle, and a processor and GPS module that's as slow as the proverbial turtle, and only covers UK&IE.



Sorry, I don't want to add insult to injury But why anyone would spend 200.- for third grade hardware if they already have first grade hardware in their pocket is beyond me.

Green_Martian

bazz26 wrote: »

1999 just called and said hello.

Every heard of downloading the offline maps?

:D:D