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Battery save on Garmin GPSMAP 64s: what does it exactly do?


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Hi,

 

I bought a GPSMAP 64s a few days ago, and I am learning to use it. One of my usages, in addition to geocaching, will be to use this device as a GPS logger to later geotag my pictures. In this mode, I want to get the maximum longevity from my batteries, as I will turn on the unit early in the morning and off in the evening, while recording my position every 5 seconds.

 

The "Battery save" option seems interesting, as it turns off the screen. But what about the GPS track? Will it continue to record it with the same precision?

 

Thanks,

Patrick

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Yes. All it does it turn off the screen. The device is still running.

 

I read on a forum that battery saver mode also disables WAAS/EGNOS. This is for GPSMAP 76C, but maybe it's the same for the 64s... It's a shame that Garmin does not document clearly these important things.

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See page 8 on the manual, couldn't be more 'documented'!!

 

Problem is too few bother to read manuals these days :)

 

I read the manual, even more than once, and here is what it says about battery save: "Battery Save: Saves the battery power and prolongs the battery life by turning off the screen when the backlight times out."

But can we trust the manual to describe everything a function does? I don't think so... For example, when you read about WAAS/EGNOS, it is nowhere mentioned that on the satellite page, some "D" will appear to indicate that a correction is applied.

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The "Battery save" option seems interesting, as it turns off the screen. But what about the GPS track? Will it continue to record it with the same precision?

Yes the track is unaffected. Twisting all the bits to display the screen updates consumes about half the system power, so big savings.

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I made some testing with the Battery save setting active, and I can confirm that the accuracy of the track is not affected when the screen is off.

Concerning the WAAS/EGNOS, I can also confirm that it is not disabled when the Battery save function is on: I put the 64s on a table outside, displaying the satellite page, until some Ds appeared, showing that a correction was applied by WAAS/EGNOS. I then let the screen turn off for an hour, and when I pressed a button to turn it on again, there were still some Ds displayed on some satellites, so it was still active.

 

Thanks for your answers,

Patrick

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