garmin blue tooth and battery drain

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fromtrektocolnago
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by fromtrektocolnago

anyone know how much keeping blue tooth on accelerates battery drain?
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Calnago
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by Calnago

I don’t know exactly how much faster it drains but it certainly does. When I got my Garmin 1000, I basically turned everything “on”, WiFi, Bluetooth, Livetracking, 1 second recording, Glonass GPS, turn by turn Nav.,etc. I wanted to know the max battery life. I figured it’s somewhere between 7-7.5 hours. Sometimes I go for all day rides... (70+ Miles, 2 hamburgers (or fish n chips if I’m by the ocean), some coffee stops, and wine tasting near the end :) ). So I need good battery life.
It’s almost impossible to say exactly how long it will last because it depends on the above and other conditions, like temperature, whether you put it to sleep manually or automatically or just let it run during stops etc.
But turning off Bluetooth/WiFi will certainly help if you find yourself running short. How much?... test it out in your conditions to know for sure I guess.

Edit: Oh, and a breakfast stop if I leave early enough.
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fromtrektocolnago
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by fromtrektocolnago

7-8 hours would not work at all for me. It's not unusual for my weekend rides to lapse 8-10 hours with rest stops. With my Garmin 810 I'll normally finish the worst rides with 20% battery and that includes following a route. Doing the Marmotte, hopefully the longer battery life of the 1030 and turning off bluetooth will do the trick.
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Calnago
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by Calnago

Yes, that’s a big reason I’d look at the 1030 as well. The battery life is much better. And the screen is bigger. I used to think not by much but I was comparing my 1000 with a friends new 1030 the other day and for a little bit extra overall size, the display just seems more than proportionately bigger. And that’s great if you’re using maps and navigation at all, or just could use a bigger display due to aging eyes. Who’d a thunk our tiny micro Cateyes from years gone by would be replaced by mini laptops.
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fromtrektocolnago
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by fromtrektocolnago

Cycling computers would rank as my favorite bike advancement of the last several years. It's not just being able to follow a route, but knowing the gradient and elevation have bene instrumental in my being able to climb a hill effectively. On a trip to the Pyrenees it rained and my 810 temporarily stopped reporting accurate gradient. i wasn't able to manage my power effectively on the climbs.
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Calnago
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by Calnago

You could have died :) . Get the 1030.
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fromtrektocolnago
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by fromtrektocolnago

I did! I did!! Three months from now I won't remember ever spending the money
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fromtrektocolnago
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by fromtrektocolnago

Well first true ride of the 1030. Battery drain is excellent. I did a 9+ hour ride and finished with over 65% battery reserve. The unit has a couple nice feature compared to my old 810 such as ability to recover and continue if you accidentally end a ride, plus the display is nicer. Is it worth the money. Probably not but this was never a practical decision.
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TonyM
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by TonyM

Today 200km and at the end 3% left on my Garmin Edge 820.
The battery used to be stronger but I used it quite a lot.

AJS914
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by AJS914

Every now and then my 510 uses up the battery in just one short ride. I've been speculating that it's bluetooth related. I think it's talking or trying to talk to my phone constantly and it drains the battery.

I've experimented with turning bluetooth off during rides and battery drain is much lower.
Last edited by AJS914 on Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

fromtrektocolnago
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by fromtrektocolnago

that sort of happened to my previous samsung galaxy s-5. one day it after four years it just started running low on battery constantly. turning off wifi and blue tooth helped. any communication other than making a call drained the battery at a wicked rate. i tied it down to an ap but it was more of an operating system ap so i wound up getting a new phone. always theorized that an update to the o.s. was the culprit.
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TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

I recently did a 120mi 6300ft ride with turn-by-turn on my 1030. It still had 60% of its battery left after 7 hours of moving time. I leave BLE on since it really doesn’t use that much battery and the 1030 can easily go 18-20 hours on a charge when new.

It’s been sort of a revelation... The one major bug causing it to shutdown during some live segments has been fixed as of last week.

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eaglejackson
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by eaglejackson

I have a couple year old 520 and after a <1 hr ride the battery is only 40% left or less. I got a 520 plus and for a 1:30 hr ride, there was 60% left. Still not very impressive. I also got a 1030 for longer rides and following routes on longer rides. The battery life on the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt is excellent, but when I travel with my bike, I like using routes and for those, the Garmin is better, especially the 1030.

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