Battery drains fast

I have my inReach Mini at default settings - 10 minute tracking, 5 min log interval. Battery drains much faster than 50 hours when tracking (I am not sending messages) and even when device is just on.

Wearing the device, I often spend a good part of the day indoors with little to no satelite coverage - will this increase battery consumption, as the device perhaps re-tries to pull new messages from the server ? I have noticed how a mobile phone can drain fast, battery getting hot, when you have very poor coverage, perhaps SATCOM has the same issue ?

Regards
Michael

0 jsla7527 over 6 years ago

I think the 50 hours is more of a best case scenario. You need to be outdoors with relatively clear visibility of the sky the whole time. If you're in deep forest or canyon it will impact battery. With 10 minute tracking, the device tries to send trackpoint out to the satellites every 10 minutes. If you have good visibility, this can take perhaps 30 seconds. If not, it can take much longer, and inreach will keep trying until it succeeds, which impacts battery life a lot. Then there's the GPS - I think with longer log intervals, MINI will only turn GPS on for long enough to acquire coordinates but again, if your coverage is bad, that will take longer.

Now if you're indoors, it's probably much worse. This is not really device meant to be used indoors. Though it depends on the nature of the building. MINI works quite fine inside my apartment - but it's top floor in wooden building. It will not work at all in the steel office building where I work. Nothing will, you just can't get GPS there, let alone talk to the satellites.

0 wstraka over 6 years ago

Anything blocking your MINI's view of the satellites will consume charge while you have it on. As jsla notes, almost anything can reduce signal strength. So (1) you need as clear sky view as possible - meaning indoors in any building will reduce signal strength, the human body can reduce visibility of the Iridium sats, as can trees, your car's metal body and framework, valleys you drive through (including city buildings). Not knowing where you are located, if you can, get to a location that has a clear vision of the sky (180 degrees visible if possible). Try attaching the lanyard or loop so you can hang the MINI to the top of your pack or top of the packstrap.

0 Michael over 6 years ago

Thanks to both of you, it confirms my brief observations. I was playing around with the device, bringing it along for a jog/swim, but keeping it on and tracking while spending time indoors later in the day. That must have been what cut the battery life in about half. To be expected.

0 WD over 6 years ago

Actually, if you review the Support Section videos, Garmin says the device time of 50 hours is conservative, and in their tests, 75 is more of the actual life of a charge. They also have a list of configuration settings that vary the battery usage quite a bit.

I found mine drained a little fast than I anticipated when on a hike last weekend. So maybe its a future fix. Thats how I ended up watching all those use-case videos.

Goto Support - Mini - InReach Field Experience Videos. There are 5-6 in all.

Its in the video "InReach Webinar - Using the InReach Mini"

Sorry for all the updates...

0 pattyduffy over 6 years ago

Actually....I think you are on to something. I've recently returned from a 4 day backpack in the Sierra Nevada. I had my device on 10 minute tracking, 5 minute log interval also and sent just 1 or 2 preset messages each day. I will state that I was in dense tree cover occasionally. I was getting a low battery signal around 12 hours into my day of hiking. I recharged the device each night. The low battery signal happened each day. Now, I had an Inreach Explorer prior to this device. I often hiked 15 hour days when using the Explorer, in dense tree cover occasionally, and at the end of each day of hiking I still had approximately 50% of battery life yet. There is a big difference here!!!!

0 twolpert over 6 years ago

Garmin does not seem to quote battery capacity for any of their devices. They're all about "how long will it last" in such and such circumstances. You really can't compare Explorer battery life to Mini battery life. Given the form factor, you can be sure that the battery capacity of the Mini is less - possibly much less - than that of the Explorer.

Unless it's wet, deciduous foliage is not usually a significant issue for GPS reception or Iridium communication, particularly if you are moving . Sometimes evergreen cover can be a problem because of needle size. Particularly since you say "occasional tree cover", I doubt that tree cover is a significant factor in your short battery life. Unless the unit is defective, the single largest contributing factor which you can control is where and how you carry the Mini. Your body is mostly water. It does a fine job of blocking both GPS and Iridium signals. Carrying the unit in a pants pocket, on a belt loop, or in a shirt pocket is a recipe for poor communication - and attendant battery drain. The best place is usually on the shoulder strap of your pack. Your head still gets in the way, but it's certainly much better than a pants pocket, for example.

There are also factors you cannot control. In particular, things like narrow slot canyons, bluffs, and steep hills block a significant part of the GPS or Iridium constellations. However, you wouldn't expect to be in these situations continuously. Unless you were in poor conditions for a big part of your hiking day, you wouldn't expect this to be a significant factor in battery drain.

There are other things you can do to minimize battery drain. The biggest drains tend to be radios - GPS, Iridium, Bluetooth, ANT (probably in that order). If you're not linked to your phone or your watch, disable Bluetooth and ANT. In fact, if you use the phone only occasionally, turn Bluetooth off when not in use. Keep GPS radio use to a minimum by using the longest reasonable intervals between sent and logged track points. If you're going to send messages, try to find a place with a good clear sky view before doing so. The display backlight also causes a significant drain, but you don't use it much on a Mini. Computations involved in updating screen content can be a drain. For example, the location screen gets updated frequently when you're viewing it. However, the Mini tends to revert to less active widgets automatically. So you don't usually have to worry about that.

There are some imponderables. For example, following a route with the Mini probably results in more frequent GPS fixes. And you're staring at an actively update screen the whole time.

Bottom line on battery life is, of course, what YOU observe in your normal routine.