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Efficient battery usage while hiking

6243877
over 3 years ago

Hi All,

First long weekend out hiking (after COVID lockdown) with my Instinct Solar & despite it being a very sunny weekend, battery usage seemed extreme when in hike mode.

I have the HR monitor turned on - primary reason for having the watch is to try to catch HR fluctuation (or not) during dizzy episodes I've experienced when lightening activity intensity.

GPS route tracking and metres climbed is useful info.

Are there default features I'm likely to have turned on that I can turn off to preserve battery?

Any other suggestions gratefully received.

TIA

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    What is extreme battery usage? Does it differ according to the values from the manufacturer? It saves a lot of display backlighting and updating display values after 1 minute. During GPS activity, I have turned on tracking after 1 second and the GPS system. Endure them for more than 33 hours on GPS. Do you have it differently?

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    At the moment GPS technology is very power hungry. No solar charging can offset this, it can only slow the battery drain. My Instinct solar during a 10h hike in the sun with full tracking drops about 20-25% of it's battery which is amazing compared to previous gen and other GPS watches.

    In my case if I don't use GPS I only have to recharge my Instinct about every month, if I can be bothered to track my daily runs then every 2 weeks, or when I come back home after a weekend hiking tracking my km all day.

    This is the best you can get right now among any smart/hybrid/fitness watches.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to MattBigmonster

    Thanks Matt,

    Doesn't drain as quickly in bike or MTB mode - someone suggested the samplig rates might be different for these modes. 

    Need to see if I can adjust sampling rate for hiking mode

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 6243877

    I have the same battery pumping as the mat, I've already written that, while running, hiking and on MTB. I have it set up anyway. Didn't answer how you set it up? Don't you happen to have more GPS systems for walking and hiking? Or just GPS? For example, if you choose GPS + Glonass, the consumption is higher, but not dramatically by 10%, but the recording is more accurate then. What Mat describes is very similar to what is in the Garmin watch specification. We all have a similar experience. There are a few fibers of endurance, even daily records of how many percent has decreased, not increased battery capacity. It's nice for a solarium that if I don't have GPS activity and I'm in the sun for much of the day, I have 50% battery in the morning and 54% in the evening. That's really great. Stamina without gps activities is about a month. I have a GPS with a full battery in the summer when the sun is 35-37 hours (divided into several activities), when there is no sun it's around 30 hours.