So what's the best setup to get as much as possible out of the battery when navigating? My planned ride is about 15 hours, that's dangerously close to the official maximum runtime. Any hints are highly appreciated!
I've done 15+ Hour rides with maps, course navigation, Bluetooth, speed/cad sensors & had plenty battery remaining (20%). Nothing special about my setup other than ensuring the back-light is turned off & isn't set to auto brightness. Battery life on the 1030 is awesome
Agreed, I've done 7 hour rides that have used only 25% of the battery (allegedly!). Personally I switch off both WiFi and Bluetooth (and Segments, GroupTrack and Incident Detection), I don't need them for anything and arguably they make the device more likely to crash. If conditions are bright, I use the the lowest backlight timeout of 15 secs and turn off auto-brightness and set it to 10% instead (in daylight I find the screen very clear regardless of backlight). I also set it to run in 'night mode' - under the, possibly mistaken, belief that the darker display draws less power.
I also don't actually ask the device to navigate for me, but just enable the 'always display' setting on the chosen course to overlay it as a line on the map to follow - and swipe away from the map screen on sections where I know that I don't need it.
I do leave GPS and GLONASS enabled - but would disable the latter if I were really concerned about running out of battery life. Of course, you do also have the official 'battery save' mode - which could be handy in an emergency but it basically disables the display (whilst still recording) so isn't really an ideal option under normal circumstances.
I don't use any sensors either, I have no idea how much difference that makes - it's just one (or two) less things to go wrong in my view and I'm content to lose a bit of data/accuracy in that respect.
I also set it to run in 'night mode' - under the, possibly mistaken, belief that the darker display draws less power.
Yes, that belief is mistaken. (It draws more power but not enough to matter.)
LCD screens are, basically, an array of shutters that block (or filter light) coming from behind (one shutter per pixel).
Most LCD screens use a single source of light (the backlight).
Some larger LCD screens (much larger that the Garmins) might use multiple backlghts but they are all on (or all off).
LCD screens use more power with more dark area (since power is needed to turn on the shutter at a pixel). But, because LCD screens are so effecient, it's only a tiny bit more power. So, the night mode, actually, uses more power (but only a tiny bit more).
The screens used in the Garmins are "transreflective", which means that they have a mirror behind the LCD shutter layer that reflects light. This lets bright sunlight work as a (weak) backlight. That means the Garmin screens don't need a backlight in bright light.
(Some LCD screens, such as large TV's, have multiple backlights that can be turned off and on individually to make regions with black even darker.)
Yes, thanks, I thought I recalled reading something along these lines - but by that time I had already got used to the darker display and find the brightness of 'day mode' annoys me now! :)
Of course, Garmin decided to remove the night option in their latest EU map update so it's a moot point when on the map screen anyway. Unfortunately, whilst it my be great for battery life, my biggest frustration with the 1030 is actually poor colour differentiation in low light conditions. I ride a lot at night and the roads become a mix of pale greys, blues and pinks with a barely distinguishable route line. I'd happily have a mode that sacrificed 50% of the battery life to be able to read the map properly at night!
