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FYI - Solar Charging with Tactix Delta Solar

ZuhMan
over 4 years ago

For those who are interested, I have been experimenting with the solar charging characteristics of the Tactix Delta for a few days now. I have placed it in direct sunlight indoors behind a window pane on the ledge. The increase is 1 percent for every 3 to 4 hours of exposure. So you will get "forever power" if you just let it sit off your wrist (i.e. no GPS and no active monitoring). I also did this with Bluetooth and WiFi on. I suspect the charging performance would be better with both of these off. These numbers may be similar for the 6/6x Pro Solar models?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Tone Loke

    Great info, thanks for sharing this.

    I'm curious on your opinion of whether it seems worth it (to you) for someone with a non-solar Tactix or Fenix 6X to upgrade to a Tactix Solar?

    I've been on the fence about it for a while now. I love my 6X Sapphire, but I really want the Tactix Solar. I'm just not sure if I can justify the ~$400 it'll cost me to do that upgrade, when the only thing I'll gain is solar charging.

    So my question is - is it worth spending/losing ~$400 to gain solar charging?

    (I know it's totally subjective, that's why I'm just curious about your personal opinion/thoughts on that. I'm just having trouble deciding for myself if it's worth it. FWIW, I do a lot of outdoor activities, like backpacking and such, so it would get a lot of sun exposure)

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to C.sco

    Hey, I've had the 6X Pro Solar since it came out as I really wanted the solar charging capability. Living in Oz, I do get a lot of sun throughout the year and yet the impact I see on day-to-day watch battery is minimal. If you do a lot of hiking in the great outdoors with a lot of sun exposure, give it a go but don't expect much more than slightly slower battery drain on some occasions. Would I ever buy another Garmin without solar charging functionality? No, simply because I'm used to having it and I like the idea that should s**t hit the fan, it's yet another feature that can prolong the watch battery life. Is it a $400USD night & day differentiator? Only you can justify that :)

    Should Garmin manage to increase the charging capability in the next iteration of Power Glass by say another 10%, I can imagine it having a bigger and more noticeable impact. My two cents, YMMV Slight smile

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to FilipGregor1

    I pretty much agree with all that. To really impact batt life, I think they should embed solar cell tech into the bands, so that you don't have to be careful to orient the face to the sun. Even if you pumped up the solar power generation by 25%, still you have to have the face facing the sun, which is not likely if you are moving around. But as you said, I would not buy a watch with out the feature, in case of SHTF, there would be a way to keep the watch going forever.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Thanks for those thoughts - I think I've decided it's probably not worth it. It would've been worth it if I bought it originally, but now to sell my 6X at a loss and then buy the Tactix Solar, potentially selling it also for a loss if something better comes out in the next year, just makes it too expensive of an upgrade if it doesn't make a huge difference to battery life.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    what it would be interesting to try is to let the watch lose all of its charge at 0%. and then leave it to charge in the sun, we would really see if it is possible.