Expedition mode 9.0

I tested expedition for 4 hours today.   Battery consumption was great.   0.5% per hour.  I didn’t have any problems with resume. It resumed instantly.  1 second.  I sent a couple Inreach test messages from my laptop and that worked fine.  I tested it outside at 0 degrees C which wasn’t ideal but still worked great. 
I’ll test for 22 hours tomorrow and see how it works.  (Battery and resume)

My settings were default except for:

1. I linked tracking and recording (in the tracking settings)

2. I have an OEM Garmin Huntview microsd map card installed in micro sd card slot. 

3. Expedition prompted (in the expedition settings)

4. FIT and GPX output format (recording settings)

All radios (Wi-Fi,BT,ANT+) disabled.

initially, within the first 2 hrs, the resume took some 30sec, but then ended up in infinite

my expedition mode was set to auto, otherwise all similar

now it seems the unit is off because the battery went low. I will charge it now and then see what to do.

BTW: how do you measure 0.5% per hour?

Here’s how I estimated 0.5% per hour.

1. I started with 100% battery and I tested outside for 4 hours in expedition mode (prompted)

2. After 4 hours, I tap the power button to “resume” while still outside.  I then went to settings and stopped tracking while still outside. I waited for 66i to make communication with satellite and then went inside house (typically within 45 seconds of hitting stop tracking)

3.  I then go to settings and set Expedition mode to “never”  and then press quit button on the device to refresh settings. And I also unlinked tracking and recording (toggled it off in the tracking settings)

4. I used the USB cable that came with 66i and an iPhone 5W USB power AC adapter and plug in to wall outlet in my house.  The 66i will begin charging and I immediately  press and hold the 66i power button until it shuts off and displays % battery. 

After my 4 hour test, it showed the battery was at 98%.    So 100% minus 98% gives me 2%.  

It used 2% battery in 4 hours so that would be 2 divided by 4 and that will give percent usage per hour. 

I’m testing right now for 22 hours in expedition simulation which will give me a much better estimation of % battery usage per hour and I’ll check speed of “resume”.   Four hours is really too short of a duration to test battery consumption, but so far so good.  I will check on it tonight at 10:20 pm CDT (after 22 hour test).   It’s currently 8 degrees C at my test location. The average temp of my 22 hour stationary test will be around 5 degrees C. 

I tested it outside for 20 hours undisturbed and stationary.  It resumed immediately (1 second) upon pressing power button after 20 hours.  Battery said 99% after 20 hours of stationary expedition.  All test messages were received.   I’ll try and test next week while moving instead of stationary.  Obviously it’s not using much battery while stationary in expedition mode.  I’ll also test default mode instead of expedition mode. 

Actually, I’m going to re-test that 20 hour expedition.  Something doesn’t seem right with having 99 percent battery left.  The pitfall of doing things at night in the pitch black dark.  I’m starting to wonder if it didn’t shut off.  1% battery usage for 20 hours might be too good to be true. 

So I did wait until battery fully down, then recharged and started again.

Outside, all normal first. Within the first 5h no problem to resume. The green LED was also flashing sometimes as it should during expedition mode. Battery consumption not 'measured' but was one dot less after those 5h.

Resuming tested few times, took some 30sec.

Now, after 15h from start, no green LED flash.

Attempt in resuming ended again in Resuming on the screen for ever, no control, can not be switched off or on. Have to wait until battery drained to use it again.

Just got info from support, the problem with the expedition mode is confirmed, there are more tickets open with those problems, work is in progress,

Thanks for the report.  I’m done testing.  Hopefully Garmin’s paid product testers can take it from here. Hopefully they test for 20 hours or more and fix problem soon.  

Found some more problems.

66i was in expedition mode, crashed few times and had to be restarted completely. Last night it did run, did send trackpoint every 4h. But then suddenly no more track points, no flashing green LED.

Pressing the power button did not bring the Resuming, but 66i did switch on as it was apparently down and it did switch off itself without any command to do so.

This means that 66i does switch off itself randomly.

Not what one does expect from safety device.