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GPSMAP 66i and external battery pack (charger)

jlg2
over 3 years ago

Why all of a sudden will external battery packs not charge my GPSMAP66i?  The same four battery packs (see picture) that used to charge my 66i won't charge it now.  My Windows PC USB outlet will charge it.  Every one of the many AC plug-in USB chargers will charge it.  An automobile cigarette lighter USB charger will charge it. The USB battery packs still charge every other other USB device in my pack (headlamp, kindle, camera, Steripen.)

Is this the result of an update?  Did I unwittingly change some setting?  Will a different lightweight 10WHr battery pack work?  If so, where do I get a couple of them right away?

I need a solution fast.  In two days, I leave the grid and won't have access to AC power, the Internet, cell service or resupply for almost four weeks.  During most of that time the 66i will be my only means of outside communication and my only electronic navigation.  In the past I've relied on the two black Anker chargers in the picture.  One provides a full 66i charge, the other provides about 1.3 66i charges.  Starting with a full charge, that's enough for more than three weeks of 66i use the way I use it.  But now it looks like I have a serious problem.

Just a guess: This has something to do with external battery packs shutting down when there is no current load.  This is to save energy in the external battery.  So it's not necessary for AC chargers.   

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to twolpert

    It looks rather like neither power bank nor the wall wart supplies somehow enough voltage during the charging to correctly charge the 66i. It looks like there is some regulation in the outlets 1A and less regulation in the 2A.

    There is no problem to charge the 66i on the 2A output

    It is some particularity of the source probably, not 66i

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to skyeye

    The amount of current drawn is up to the device, not the power source. The device identifies the current capacity of the source (1A or 2A in our example). The device draws current up to that limit. The device decides when to stop drawing. This is usually clear-cut when dealing with a "stupid" wall wart.

    It is not so clear cut when dealing with a power bank. The bank itself has some brains. It will typically shut down when the current draw drops below some pre-determined level. This can sometimes result in failure to charge the device fully. Even that is rare. And when it does occur, it typically occurs very near 100% charge. (Assuming, of course, that the bank does not run dry during the charge.)

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to twolpert

    I can just see what I can observe. My wall chargers which have those two outputs can not even charge my phone on the 1A output often. With one of those 'inline usb voltmeter' I can see that while charging, the voltage fluctuates much and drops under 4.9V also. This also hapens with the power bank with two outputs.

    No problem at all with much smaller power bank with one output only.

    The 1A outputs are not able to charge any bigger devices, not even my credit card sized LTE modem. It has to be connected to the 2A socket, otherwise it will stop charging and few minutes later the modem will go off.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    It appears I never closed out this thread.  The problem initially reported was almost certainly related to that specific unit.  Garmin sent a replacement that worked fine in all the same situations where the previous unit would not charge.