Expedition mode in 8.80 ?

after update to 8.80 , I was on a mission and have set a fully charged 66i to expedition mode (auto)

Surprised that instaed this would preserve power for longe time as I was used to before, this time the battery was drained to less then 5% after abt 12hrs

Is there some bug in exp mode in 8.80?

Top Replies

skyeye over 2 years ago +1

Can pls someone check with the 8.80 what the expedition mode does?

In the earlier FW, this was used to save battery power. It did not any logging, no BT or Wifi, less IR tracking points. Saving lot of…
7652493 over 2 years ago +1

It looks like version 8.80 is a step back. I recently installed it and was totally surprised how badly my device behaves now. Tracking? Forget it. Only the first point is recorded, after 2 minutes the…
skyeye over 2 years ago in reply to Jordan249 +1

I did this probably abt 30 times. It is an issue in the Firmware 8.80

All Replies

0 Jordan249 over 2 years ago in reply to mccgsm

Thanks. This morning, I reset to defaults using the page/enter method. I tested my Inreach connection and that’s good. And now I’ve started a new expedition simulation with everything else default settings. My battery was 100 percent. I’ll check on it tonight around 11 PM. If I get same results, I’ll call Garmin support this week and let you guys know what I find out.

0 skyeye over 2 years ago in reply to Jordan249

I did this probably abt 30 times. It is an issue in the Firmware 8.80

0 Jordan249 over 2 years ago in reply to skyeye

Yes, I just wanted to attempt with default settings before I called. I’ll check to see if they have an ETA on a beta firmware that fixes expedition that I can use.

0 skyeye over 2 years ago in reply to Jordan249

they do not disclose dates of next release. I expect this will be fixed in the next version. The devs are informed, but no one is able to tell when a release will come. It was planned to have in general substantial lower energy use by beginning of 2022, but all seem to have more less failed

0 Jordan249 over 2 years ago in reply to skyeye

Thanks. I'll call Garmin support on Thursday and listen to what they have to say. I doubt if they need me breathing down their neck though as I would imagine that Garmin Corporate legal department is already doing that.

Needless to say that my second simulation at expedition mode gave me the same 20 hour battery life. But you already knew that! ;)

0 skyeye over 2 years ago in reply to Jordan249

so far I tested, it does not much matter what other settings you make, the battery endurance will be similar. Even if you do not use the device otherwise, it will still take some 18-20h to fully drain the battery in expedition mode.

0 Jordan249 over 2 years ago in reply to skyeye

Thanks. What can I expect for battery life in "normal" default mode with bluetooth, wifi, and ANT+ radios disabled?

0 skyeye over 2 years ago in reply to Jordan249

just one test of mine:

IR tracking 10min moving, 4h stationary. Wifi, Ant, BT off, power safe mode (scrn off after 30sec) had some 10% battery left after 25h (FW 8.50)

Same with expedition mode abt 70h.

Two 66i took part in the test, doing same travelling and same times on-off. The first one was recharged after abt 25h and managed to reach this way 68h in total

0 jlg2 over 2 years ago

Garmin has started to roll out a 9.00 firmware version. No update history is published on the web yet. This update comes quickly since the release of ver 8.80. So there's reason to hope that the Expedition Mode behavior observed here has been changed. The 9.00 rollout became available to me some time in the last five days. I installed it today but haven't checked anything.

0 Jordan249 over 2 years ago in reply to jlg2

I did a quick 2 hour test with firmware 9.00 and it appears they fixed expedition mode.