Garmin GPS

Pat said:

I want to take my Garmin Etrex Vista to Ireland on my self-supported bike
tour in September. One problem: how do I recharge the batteries? Or do I
just resign myself to purchasing new batteries every so often?

Pat in TX

I'm assuming you plug it in to recharge. You can buy a converter to use
in Ireland (I have a kit that has ac-dc converter, plus converters to
fit into various shaped plugs in europe) Its small and lightweight.

Janet

: >I want to take my Garmin Etrex Vista to Ireland on my self-supported bike
: >tour in September. One problem: how do I recharge the batteries?
:
: Buy a small, 2 cell, overnight charger. Too heavy? I guess you're
: buying alkalines the entire trip.
:
: Garmin eTrex GPS units will not charge batteries internally.

I guess this rules out my plans to use my tent for camping....

Pat in TX

Pat said:

: >I want to take my Garmin Etrex Vista to Ireland on my self-supported bike
: >tour in September. One problem: how do I recharge the batteries?
:
: Buy a small, 2 cell, overnight charger. Too heavy? I guess you're
: buying alkalines the entire trip.
:
: Garmin eTrex GPS units will not charge batteries internally.

I guess this rules out my plans to use my tent for camping....

I've thought about trying one of these, but have never done a thorough
investigation.
http://www.siliconsolar.com/aa,_aaa,_c,_d_solar_battery_charger.htm

The key for you would be how well they work in cloudy conditions.

Google 'solar battery chargers' to see more.

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
Integrity is obvious.
The lack of it is common.
*****************************

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In article <[email hidden]>,

Chuck Anderson said:

Pat said:

: >I want to take my Garmin Etrex Vista to Ireland on my self-supported bike
: >tour in September. One problem: how do I recharge the batteries?
:
: Buy a small, 2 cell, overnight charger. Too heavy? I guess you're
: buying alkalines the entire trip.
:
: Garmin eTrex GPS units will not charge batteries internally.

I guess this rules out my plans to use my tent for camping....

I've thought about trying one of these, but have never done a thorough
investigation.
http://www.siliconsolar.com/aa,_aaa,_c,_d_solar_battery_charger.htm

_ These do work, but not very fast. Even in Sunny California they
take 2-3 days to fully charge AA's.

Quoted message said:

The key for you would be how well they work in cloudy conditions.

_ They don't. No solar charger works well if at all in anything
but bright sunny conditions and even then you need a pretty big
panel to get a full charge on AA's in the available hours of a
single day. A rechargeable AA is roughly 2000 mille-amp
hours. In order to charge two double AA's every day you'd need
something on the order of at least a 1000 mille-amp panel. That's
the Marine Charger, relatively big and bulky. However, there are
now small AA chargers that accept 12 volt input, so that part
would be easy.

_ On a bike the best solution would be to rig some kind of
charger hooked up to a generator wheel. Expensive in many
ways. IMHO, the best solution is to buy lithium AA's and only
turn the GPS on when you really need it. Lithiums last about
twice as long as alkaline ( but are at least 4x expensive). I
generally get a whole winter's worth of backcountry skiing out of
a single set in my Etrex, but I only turn it on to mark waypoints
and when I really need to know which way to go.

_ If you are bound and determined to do the all day tracking
thing, lithiums are much lighter than regular batteries.
For the price and weight of a real panel ( $100 - $200 ),
you can buy and carry a lot of lithiums.

_ Booker C. Bense

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2

iQCVAwUBQrmqdWTWTAjn5N/lAQG+vQQAqaZzxL7HCiqWGrdfpcjhYmg5DB5jS++t
FEMmzvgR3J5ntWXCO+RNh4gCvNuBn8xzP5M2U8XIVk/C8UEF0Wo8tyOABMm8ig24
ECVBKVUoEfhpqmNrTMpPK53LJBqy4iRlZkc6C30LgqTDtPtRplaFVRcqyqqSIDTj
mn07TJ6jpZE=
=GZ3T
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Resign yourself to carrying a spare set of batteries and buying new
one's every X days. I found on my recent trip to France/Spain that the
batteries in the Vista lasted about 2.5 days of riding. So, take a
spare set and buy a new 4 pack every 4-5 days.

- rick