Garmin GPS: Disable compass, altimeter in 76CSx?

disable the compass by pressing & holding the PAGE button.
I've not found a way to disable the barometer... it probably doesnt use
much juice.

"kyot" <com> writes: 

Does the compass in the ..CSx models use that much current? I can't
see much effect on my ammeter, but then the current of my 60CSx
bounces around by about 30%, so any small changes are going to be hard
to spot.

-wolfgang
--
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/

Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote: 

Its constant use reportedly reduces battery life by 10-30%.

-Peter

I guess a compass sensor takes 20-30ma?
What's the range of your readings?

Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote: 

Hi,
 

what you need to measure is the total consumption over time, not the
individual readings. A practical way is the time to drain the
batteries, as I think you will not own a meter that has a function to
log consumption over time and is precise enough.

From experience on my 76S the compass shortened the battery life by
about 1/3, or with other words used 730mAh of the 2200mAh in about 6
hours = about 2mA/sec on average.
--

Ciao,
Holger (GUS-KOTAL, GUS#1100)

90-92 Honda CB400 10 Mm | 93-95 Yamaha TDM 850 26 Mm
95-97 KTM 620 LC4 13 Mm | seit 97 BMW R1100GS 50 Mm (Die Renndrecksau!)

cu @ http://www.issle.de

In news:googlegroups.com "kyot"
<com> wrote:
 

Oh. Just like it says in the manual!

I gotta start reading that thing :-)
 

Thanks.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN com

Bert Hyman wrote: 

Horrors!

Holger Issle wrote:
 

It's not clear to me what your actual measurement was above. Did your
76S only run fora total of 6 hours on freshly charged 2200 mA-hr cells
with the compass turned on? That seems very short. If that's what you
mean, then the compass used 730 mA-hr / 6 hrs = 122 mA (mA/sec doesn't
seem to be a meaningful unit in this context).

Results I've seen on the 76 and 60 CSx series is that they have a new
magnetic sensor that uses much less current. With fresh 2500 mA-hr
cells, those models run about 18 hours whether the compass is turned on
or not. But the magnetic sensor in the earlier 76S and 60 & 76 CS
models did substantially reduce battery life.

But even without the battery life issue, it's a good idea to shut off
the magnetic sensor when moving above a pretty low threshold speed
since at that point the GPS-based direction becomes more accurate,
isn't subject to interference from nearby magnetized objects, and
doesn't require that the unit be held level.