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Firmware 12.6 + gps 3.20 drain & other issues

Hey guys,
I though it might be useful to have a separate thread for this combination - fw 12.6 + gps 3.20. My experiences so far:

- restarted mid ride one time (!!!) - glad I noticed that ;-)
- battery gone from 100% to 68% in 2h:30min
- backligh at 30% + display timeout at 15 sec
- gps+ glonass
- hrm + stages pm

pretty bad, compared to what it used to be...
here's the fit file, in case somebody from garmin might want to have a look: 2018-04-28-08-37-34.fit

thanks,
Tudor

0 AndrewA_NZ over 7 years ago

FW12.6, 3.30GPS
3.44.10 riding time
4.48.21 elapsed time
50% backlit
Bluetooth on
15% battery left from 100% at start

Terrible - about to travel to Europe with it with multiple days of long rides that will exceed how long it will last. Worried!

What is the best fix available at this point?

Couldn't upload the FIT as too large even when compressed

0 barts27 over 7 years ago

Maybe a silly question, but can there be a difference in battery drain between Iphone and Android phone users?

0 triwolf3 over 7 years ago

I did contact support regarding battery run time of my Edge 520 and got an RMA for replacement under warranty. However, the replacement unit is slightly better i can get only 8 hours (about 7.5 with the previous one) of operation.
So, my assumption that the battery drain might be due to an aged battery seems to be wrong. Must be something that was implemented with any of the firmware updates applied in the past. It is still well within the specification of "up to 15 hours" but far off my expectation which is something like 12 to 15 hours.

0 KevinJames over 7 years ago

My wife and I went for a club ride this weekend, both using Edge 520 units running latest firmware (12.6 and 3.3 GPS). We were both following a course and started with 100% charge. My unit is a few years old now whereas my wife's is 6 months old.

We were connected to the following sensors:

Mine
Garmin speed sensor
Wahoo TICKR HRM
Vector 3 pedals

Hers
Garmin speed sensor
Garmin HRM
Garmin Cadence Sensor

Backlight settings were the same too.

The ride was 4 hours moving with a 45min cafe stop. At the end of the ride, I was at 4% and my wife's unit was a 60%. I can't imagine the Vector 3 pedals would contribute that much of a drain (although they were constantly dropping out - but that's another story).

The performance of my wife's unit is what I used to get before the recent firmware updates.Does Garmin have any feedback on this battery drain issue?

0 triwolf3 over 7 years ago

This thread has gone silent. Are battery issues resolved for most users or are they just tired posting here? My refurb Edge 520 which i received as a warranty replacement, still does not get any close to 10 hours.
Shawn-Garmin, what about investigation results of Garmin on the issue?

0 hoegni65 over 7 years ago

A lot of time has passed since the last update.
After all these problems lately, my device is out of warranty. My phone call to the service (Germany) was not very helpful after I said that my device is 27 months old.
Also the question about an upgrade (520Plus) was unfortunately unsuccessful.
I have invested a lot of time in the past to re-install the device over and over again.
I don't feel like it anymore! I'll probably buy a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt then, like many of my friends.

I still own a few Garmin devices....yet! Let's see how much longer ;-)

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

This thread has gone silent. Are battery issues resolved for most users or are they just tired posting here? My refurb Edge 520 which i received as a warranty replacement, still does not get any close to 10 hours.

My battery life is abysmal. I use my 2 year old 520 for following routes and find I need to use my battery powerpack on anything over 4 hour rides with a route running. I've resigned myself to this now and just get on with it.

0 tsofron over 7 years ago

This thread has gone silent. Are battery issues resolved for most users or are they just tired posting here? My refurb Edge 520 which i received as a warranty replacement, still does not get any close to 10 hours.
Shawn-Garmin, what about investigation results of Garmin on the issue?

just tired posting :-). I'm mostly using my 935 from tracking / saving the rides and the Edge just to display the data, and eventually to acknowledge afterwards a discharge rate between 10-12% - most probably for my 2 years old device the battery will last somewhere between 8-10 hours max. Anyway, for me it's ok-ish as the Edge doesn't have all the fancy metrics the 935 has...

Tudor

0 af0002 over 7 years ago

My experience with this device is:

1. Battery life was poor to begin with. Even early on, I realised that you had to manage the functions of the device, otherwise you might not even make it through one 6 hour + ride.

2. Each firmware release seemed to drain battery slightly faster.

3. The battery life has declined slightly with age (2 to 3 years).

4. Battery life on an old device is horrible in cold weather. With my current settings, at 25°C I can get 10 to 12 hours, at - 5°C I could get 6 hours. The battery life was no where near this bad in the cold when the device was new. Somewhere around 5°C and up battery life is not effected by cold that much.

The life span of every re-chargeable battery declines with age. So, there needs to be a expectation that the battery life is going to decline. However, the problem with this device is that the battery life was poor in the first place, so any decline practically makes the device unusable.

For the complaints on this form, I suspect that that the people with serious issues had battery failures at the same time as the firmware updates, thus leading them to the conclusions they came to.
????

0 Peter454 over 7 years ago

For my 520 FW 12.60 and GPS 3.30 fixed it. Nevertheless this was in May when the temperatures slightly raised. So I can't be 100% sure.
It's a pity, that Garmin never admitted this problem and never issued a respective statement with a firmware upgrade.

We will see in autumn what happens with battery life (but then with a 3 year old battery...)