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Question About Solar Charging.

7077201
over 3 years ago

Hi.

I've been browsing around the forums for an answer to this:

Does the Solar panel on the Fenix Solar actually charge the battery.

This seems like a simple question: "Obviously it does", but I'll go a little deeper into what I actually mean.

On some threads here people suggest that it is not actually charging the watch, but only slowing down the discharge. Meaning the caught "sunlight" isn't actually "added" to the battery, but only replacing the energy that otherwise would come from the battery to the watch.

This is however an important difference. If the watch does not actually charge the battery with the energy, an empty watch couldn't charge from the sun alone.

So my concrete question is: Can an empty Fenix 6 Solar charge up the battery with only sunlight? I know this will be at a very slow rate,if it does at all, and would probably requrie days of full sunlight to even allow it to boot. But nonetheless, it's an important detail that I would like to know.

Does it actually charge the watch, or does it only slow down the discharge without actually adding energy to the battery? And also: Does the solar charging work if the watch is powered off?

  • 0 over 3 years ago
    7077201 said:
    Does the solar charging work if the watch is powered off?
    7077201 said:
    Can an empty Fenix 6 Solar charge up the battery with only sunlight?

    YES

    https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=1KjlCNoRJe8o3Xq5qSx428

    7077201 said:
    Does it actually charge the watch, or does it only slow down the discharge without actually adding energy to the battery?

    Garmin solar watches use either Power Glass or Power Sapphire watch lenses to convert sunlight into battery power, extending your time between charges. The solar charging is not designed to be used as the primary charging source or to achieve indefinite power.

    https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=kGDYS8VOj30eMl3lMyqSi6

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to bluefish

    Your reply contradicts itself: It charges an empty watch, but what you link to states "Extending time between charges". These are two distinctly different things that I wanted clarified with this thread.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 7077201
    7077201 said:
    Your reply contradicts itself:

    I don't see that these statements contradict each other.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 7077201

    Garmin does describe it in the support articles. An empty battery can be recharged by solar energy. How many days this takes, I can not tell you. If you record an activity with the watch and also use GPS, the solar energy will never be enough to achieve a percentage increase in the battery display. The battery will then only discharge more slowly than without solar.

    bluefish said:
    The solar charging is not designed to be used as the primary charging source or to achieve indefinite power.
  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to bluefish
    bluefish said:
    Garmin does describe it in the support articles. An empty battery can be recharged by solar energy.

    It would be very helpful if you could post a link to where Garmin makes this statement.

    All I've ever seen is that the solar "charging" on the fenix 6 series watches will slow the rate of battery depletion, but will not increase the battery state of charge.

    TIA

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to gaijin
    gaijin said:
    All I've ever seen is that the solar "charging" on the fenix 6 series watches will slow the rate of battery depletion, but will not increase the battery state of charge.
    gaijin said:
    It would be very helpful if you could post a link to where Garmin makes this statement.

    I have published the corresponding support articles.


    The question was : will the watch be able to charge in the OFF state.

    7077201 said:
    Does the solar charging work if the watch is powered off?

    The answer is YES.

    I don't see how the watch consumes power while charging in the OFF state. Consequently, the battery charge must increase.

    Of course, this does not apply when the watch is switched on, as it then consumes more power than it is supplied with. I have also written this:

    bluefish said:
    If you record an activity with the watch and also use GPS, the solar energy will never be enough to achieve a percentage increase in the battery display. The battery will then only discharge more slowly than without solar.
  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to gaijin
    gaijin said:
    bluefish said:
    Garmin does describe it in the support articles. An empty battery can be recharged by solar energy.

    I assume that we agree that the watch is off when the battery is empty. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to bluefish

    Okay, to me it seemed some other questions/responses on the forum indicated that there was no circuitry present to route solar energy to the battery - thus making it imposible to charge the battery with sunlight alone. As in: it only "helps" slow down the discharging during usage of the active watch, but turned of receiving solar energy would not charge the battery as the energy would never reach the battery.

    The garmin support page does indeed indicate that solar charging does take place even with the watch being turned off, which is the same as saying that the energy does indeed reach the battery and charge it, even if it is at a very slow pace.

    However it does state Power Glass, my watch has Power Sapphire. I assume this material difference doesn't affect the way either watch is charged by the sun - I don't think they'd change the way of charging just because there is a different material on top of the solar "receiver".

    Thanks for your reply,

    Sorry for my broken English.