How to turn screen off via button

Hello,

How on earth do I turn the screen off by pushing a button? On my 700i, I can set what the button does. for me, single button brings down status page, and double press turns screen off...

on the 66i, single press brings status window and double press just changes brightness settings.

How do I turn the screen off? Sometimes I want to look at my route for 5 seconds and turn off screen to save battery life... sometimes I am literally looking at my screen tracking without touching buttons. so it depends what I'm doing... now my only option is turn off screen after 2 mins.

I want to be able to turn screen off when I want. It doesn't seem this is possible... why?

  • The 66i screen is designed to be visible in daylight without backlighting. The backlight is the only thing that consumes power. Just adjust the backlight downward.

    Note that it does cost something in CPU cycles to compute screen contents. Best not to let it sit on the map page.

  • Unfortunetly screen draw still draws battery hence why it's an option to turn off screen for "battery save" mode. 

    Since you didn't mention how screen turns off, I assume there is no way to turn off screen manually. Pretty absurd to me. I would assume it would add about 1-2% an hour depending on your map tracking (track/north up) and how often it has to redraw the screen. I changing the screen to menu is a good workaround, but still crazy when I can just shut screen off with a button lol.

    Very odd... Thanks

  • Cannot tell fro your post if you know about battery save mode or not. Main menu > Setup > Display > Battey Save does what you want after the backlight times out.

  • Unhelpful, but I too was looking for / expecting the same behaviour as you: ability to turn off the screen manually with a button press.

    Personally I'd prefer to operate this way, and with the timeout set to a longer value (10 mins+) just in case I forget to switch it off.

    I believe the thinking on the 66i is in 'normal' use for the screen to always on, with the timeout controlling just the backlight (and which under normal daylight conditions there's a good change you won't need). It's only with the additional battery saver setting does the screen actually switch off with the timeout.

    Relevant to this, as already mentioned: after the IR functionality, the screen BACKLIGHT is the next biggest consumer of battery, although screen redraw cycles do of course consume power. Turning the backlight down/off, either permanently or using the timeout, therefore reduces this significantly. Doesn't quite take the screen power usage down to negligible, but less of a concern.. unless you are trying to eek out every last minute/hour for a long trip.  

    Even so, the option to be able to toggle the screen on/off with the button would be way simpler / controllable / efficient!

  • Yeah. just an unorthodox way of doing things. My 700i let's me turn off screen... it also lets me control what power button does. I wish this was available on the 66i too.

    For the life of me, I can't decide which I prefer. I just really wish they made a quick attach/detach for the 700i so I could carry it with me a little easier like the 66i. 

    700i worked great today on the bike though. that big screen is awesome while on a mountain bike.