Battery Issues

[Petrite]

Ok... first "New Thread" for me...

I just ran into an odd situation that I'm still trying to find out what's going on.
Here's the short story.. All of a sudden, my battery seemed to not hold it's charge (Bluetooth disabled, nothing on the FM transmitter).

Here's the background info:
Got my Go 730 on xmas, made my full backup 3 days later (or so) after upgrading to the latest map.. etc. No problem there. All seemed well. Played with voices, played with pictures and MP3's. Somewhere in there I noticed that my picture I selected for my power-on splash screen was showing as scrambled but ONLY when I disconnected from Home. Determined I needed more memory (for PICS and MP3's). Went to Crucial.com and got their house brand 4G SDHC card (for $12). while waiting for it to arrive, had TWO single solitary instances of the computer voice stuttering. Read some posts on here and one or two members said that by shifting the entire contents of memory to the card that it sped things up and helped with the voice issues. So I started to draw a connection between file access and stuttering in my mind. I looked at my internal memory and actually defragmented it. It wasn't bad, but I wanted to see if it would help. No help as it stuttered once or twice more but my power-on splash screen is clear all the time now.

Memory arrived and I made a fresh backup and combined everything onto the memory card, and wiped the internal memory clean. Rebooted and it seemed normal at the time.

The next morning, I couldnt power the unit up. Ok.. maybe I didnt pay attention and hit the power button as I put it in my jacket to get ready for the next day. Powered it in my car (as usual)... small drives.. no issues. Came home, did my updates, disconnected..

next day.. no power. Again thinking I might be hitting it in my jacket, I went out and purchased a case (which I wanted anyways so I wouldnt scratch the thing.)

charged it overnight... Used it fine here and there through the day fine... Went out later in the day and went to show it to someone, it turned on for about 20 seconds before it locked up. Used the reset pin and it didn't power on again. NOW I'm suspicious that something's changed. Powered in my car for about one minute, I flip to the screen w/ the battery indicator.. pull my power cord and it's flashing red. (BTW.. I've NEVER seen my low battery warning splash screen).

I have now removed my SD card and reloaded my latest backup to internal memory getting me back to where I started and charged it overnight again. I've not had the charger on it all day and the battery is almost full still. I will leave it off the charger until I see I need to charge it again just to see how long I can go.

SO...
My question is this: Has anyone else seen or heard of a similar issue where an SD card can suck down your battery? These cards are non volatile so they don't require power to remember their data. This means when you turn the GPS off.. the power to the card should be secured.. you don't need a trickle charge to remain.

And what is the best method for utilizing your memory? ONLY pics and MP3's on it? EVERYTHING on it? or the NA map, pics, and MP3 folders on it with the rest of the files on internal memory?

Any insight would be helpful.

Thanks all.

 

[dhn]

I do believe the sd card is a red herring but don't precisely know what is causing the battery drain. You did charge the unit for about four hours prior to initial use?

For your model, since it uses the storage of the sdhc card **in addition** to internal, you can put whatever folders you wish wherever you wish. Personally, my map folder resides on a 4-gig card and everything else in the 2-gig internal of my 720 but I could have put the mp3 folder and the photos folder on the card as well.

There some reports of units automatically turning on and therefore draining the battery that way. Those reports have diminished (but not completely disappeared) as users move to firmware 8.3. Do you keep yours docked when not in use?

A few say a pin reset helps them to save the battery drain and, of course, there are battery savings preferences you can select as well.

 

[Petrite]

You did charge the unit for about four hours prior to initial use?

Do you keep yours docked when not in use?

there are battery savings preferences you can select as well.

Yes.. it was an overnight charge prior to first use.

I try to minimize charging it all the time when not in use. I know today's batteries are supposed to be able to handle it, but as a rule of thumb for me, I only charge it when I need it.

Under battery saving preferences I have like 2 options... "Dim between instructions" (I cant see this as being good for me while driving in daylight) and "switch off when external power is lost" which does what? it sounds like I wouldnt be able to use it in battery mode. Even if it let me power on in battery mode, I quite often grab the thing after parking my car, pull it out of the cradle and make my map correction annotations before I forget them.

From What I noticed the power drain occured while "waiting in the wings" as I usually plug it in whenever I'm in my car (except today as I was trying to test its battery drain).

 

[dhn]

Remember, the unit is meant to be used in conjunction with a car charger (hence the warning for shutting off when external power lost) though TT promises 'up to' 5 hours of battery life. In truth, even with bluetooth off, all battery savings options selected, nobody seems to get more than half that value ... at best.

What TT doesn't tell you is the thinner newer batteries in the Go series have much less power than the previous models' batteries did.

I would also send a pm to our resident battery gurus: GAW and Canderson if they don't reply in this thread soon.

 

[Petrite]

Yeah. I know I cant expect a long life with operating it unplugged. My issue was with it sitting overnight (not on a charger) it seemed to have no Juice in the morning or later in the day if I wanted to show it off.

Kinda embarrassing.

 

[canderson]

Yeah. I know I cant expect a long life with operating it unplugged. My issue was with it sitting overnight (not on a charger) it seemed to have no Juice in the morning or later in the day if I wanted to show it off.

Kinda embarrassing.

I have not had this problem myself, but have read others in threads here complain about BOTH the units turning off for no reason, AND turning on for no reason. Perhaps DHN has a better recollection since he's here constantly (speak up!).

If you have the latter problem, it would certainly add up perfectly. The TT turns itself on, drains down to nearly nothing and shuts off. You get the usual "bounce" after it shuts off, allowing it to run for a short time the next time you power it on.

Besides sleeping with the silly thing, I don't know how you can be 100% sure if this is happening or not.

 

[Petrite]

Gimme a couple of rubber bands and I'll strap the thing to my face like a night-mask!

Of course I may just end up dreaming that I'm driving in my sleep with Ozzy Ozbourne telling me that I've reached my %^&&^%@!@ destination.

Ha ha!

 

[frankxs]

I try to minimize charging it all the time when not in use. I know today's batteries are supposed to be able to handle it, but as a rule of thumb for me, I only charge it when I need it.

Just a note...

It's better not to wait to charge it. Just keep it topped off all the time.

http://www.centralhobbies.com/instructional/lithium.html

From the link above...

"1. Charge often. Don't try to fully discharge the battery packs frequently. This only adds strain. Several partial discharges (regular use) with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one total discharge."

-Frank