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Oregon 650t


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I just bought the Oregon 650t about a week or so ago. I really like it, but the battery life isn't even close to what is advertised. I would like to know if others are having the same issue.

 

How long does your battery last during continuous geocaching? How long does your battery last on standby without turning on the screen?

 

On standby and without turning the screen on once, the battery lasts about 8 hours starting on a full charge. The battery lasts about 4 hours geocaching. I have the screen backlight set to 15 seconds. I don't turn it on much while walking between caches. I read that the battery should last 16 hours. I'd be happy to see 10-12 hours out of it....assuming the manufacturer inflates the battery life based on ideal conditions.

 

It also freezes here and there. Is this normal? I have to remove the battery and reinsert it and then the unit runs just fine.

 

Thanks!

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Both my son and I purchased Oregon 650's, and the battery life is less than thrilling. I have replaced the Garmin supplied batteries with rechargeable batteries from a national battery chain store. They do seem to last a bit longer. I got a set of 4 batteries (with an external charger), and this will last me a day or two.

 

I have managed to get the Oregon 650 to last 8 hours while geocaching, by running it in extreme battery save mode, blanking the screen after 15 seconds, and turning off the backlight.

 

I talked with the Garmin rep at the last Block Party. Battery life on the 650 was a generally recognized problem, and her suggestion was to replace the batteries, because "Garmin is not known for making good batteries".

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It likely depends how much you use the camera. If you don't use the camera, keep the backlight off, and batter save mode on, you should be able to get 16 hours of life using lithium AA batteries (this is what the battery ratings are based on). You'll get around 8 hours using Eneloops (2000 mAh rechargeables), and maybe 10-12 if you use the Eneloop XX. Regular alkalines perform the worst in any GPS.

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It likely depends how much you use the camera. If you don't use the camera, keep the backlight off, and batter save mode on, you should be able to get 16 hours of life using lithium AA batteries (this is what the battery ratings are based on). You'll get around 8 hours using Eneloops (2000 mAh rechargeables), and maybe 10-12 if you use the Eneloop XX. Regular alkalines perform the worst in any GPS.

If I'm going on a weekend trip, I pack lithium AAs. For a day trip, a half-dozen "Eneloop Pros". I think the OP is asking specifically about the rechargeable pack that comes with the device, and that battery life seems about right. Mine never charged when installed in my 650T. The pack easily twists apart so the batteries can be charged in any charger. But I haven't even used the factory pack lately.

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It also freezes here and there. Is this normal?

Mine's been great for a while. I once had an issue when trying to navigate to a new waypoint received from a Chirp. It consistently crashed until I removed then reinstalled the batteries. Now, no problem. Weird.

 

You should test it with fresh alkaline or lithium AAs. If you've installed the latest firmware, yet it's crashing kind of often, you should contact Garmin as soon as possible, while you still may get a replacement if necessary.

 

Various maps and even cache pages seem to still bedevil Garmin GPSrs. But until the battery gets low, mine seems to do pretty well about not crashing.

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I just bought the Oregon 650t about a week or so ago. I really like it, but the battery life isn't even close to what is advertised. I would like to know if others are having the same issue.

 

How long does your battery last during continuous geocaching? How long does your battery last on standby without turning on the screen?

 

On standby and without turning the screen on once, the battery lasts about 8 hours starting on a full charge. The battery lasts about 4 hours geocaching. I have the screen backlight set to 15 seconds. I don't turn it on much while walking between caches. I read that the battery should last 16 hours. I'd be happy to see 10-12 hours out of it....assuming the manufacturer inflates the battery life based on ideal conditions.

 

It also freezes here and there. Is this normal? I have to remove the battery and reinsert it and then the unit runs just fine.

 

Thanks!

 

The Garmin battery pack is an absolute disgrace and an utter waste of money. I wore mine out in about 3 weeks. I changed to Eneloop rechargeables and never looked back. I use the cheaper standard ones (white) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eneloop if I am caching for around 4 hours or so, and the Eneloop Pro ones (Black) for longer sessions. The Pro's aren't rated to recharge anywhere near as many times as the White ones but they will last you a very long time in the device.

 

As for the freezing. Mine 650t seems to freeze/crash quite often. The three scenarios it seems to happen quite often are

 


  1.  
  2. when I have found about 30 caches (such as on a power trail) without restarting it
  3. when I am plugging in updated coordinates such as when doing a multi-cache. It frequently just cuts out (i.e. turns itself off) when I do this. Sometimes it works just fine, other times it can crash again and again when I try and enter new coordinates for the same crash.
  4. Sending a cache or receiving a cache from another cacher with another garmin device that can send caches wirelessly

 

The updated coordinates one is by far the worst, but in the almost 3 years I have had mine I have learnt to live with it because the rest of the unit ticks most of the boxes I want it to tick. A faster processor (it gets quite slow when you load a lot of caches in to it) and Wherigo functionality would be my two main wants - but as my phone does Wherigo's quite well I get by.

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The Garmin battery pack is an absolute disgrace and an utter waste of money. I wore mine out in about 3 weeks. I changed to Eneloop rechargeables and never looked back. I use the cheaper standard ones (white) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eneloop if I am caching for around 4 hours or so, and the Eneloop Pro ones (Black) for longer sessions. The Pro's aren't rated to recharge anywhere near as many times as the White ones but they will last you a very long time in the device.

 

As for the freezing. Mine 650t seems to freeze/crash quite often.

 

+1 on the batteries - the Garmin branded one is junk, they should be ashamed to include it with the unit, especially when a pair of Eneloop Pros runs at about $15.....

 

With the Garmin battery, mine would drop to one bar after maybe 4hr of intensive caching, would be dead by 6hr maximum.

With the Eneloops, mine is still sitting at 4 bars at the 4hr mark, and maybe dropped to 2 or 3 bars after a full day.

No comparison......

 

I squeeze a piece of plastic under the Eneloops, and they charge in the unit no problem.

 

My 650 crashes a bit too. It is related to particular caches I'm 99% sure, although working out which one is the problem. I minimise problems now by trying to load only the minimum I need for a days caching.

 

Other advice - *always* lock the screen when not using it - bad things happen in your pocket with an unlocked screen.....

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What the CO is experiencing is about the same as I do with my 600 using Eneloop 1900mah batteries. Batteries last about 4 hours of normal geocaching usage. Yeah, it freezes once in a while, but not enough to get frustrated about. As it matures with future updates, I expect both issues to get resolved. But for now, I really love the large touch screen and bright display.

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What the CO is experiencing is about the same as I do with my 600 using Eneloop 1900mah batteries. Batteries last about 4 hours of normal geocaching usage. Yeah, it freezes once in a while, but not enough to get frustrated about. As it matures with future updates, I expect both issues to get resolved. But for now, I really love the large touch screen and bright display.

 

How do you only get 4 hours? I seem to get around 8 hours out of a pair of Eneloop 1900s.

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