Finally did the "djbahool battery conversion".
The new battery: (3.7V 370mAh 502530 lipo)
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/33022971789.html?spm=a219c.12010615.8148356.1.1d871321vHMXG6
Did not make…
Why has Garmin been so conspicuously silent on this?
Well, seems the only big issue for this great device is solved now.
I replaced the original (4x20x28) Li-ion battery to a bigger (5x25x30) Li-polimer battery.
First testdrive was today:
AVG temp: 6 C
…Anybody who has fixed one and has a spare big battery around, want to fix mine? Ok if it blows up/you break it, the batt life is so low and I don't have all the gizmos (soldering iron, etc). Happy to chip in for there and back again along with bounty money. paypal/crypto/cash w/ unit are all ok with me
The issue for me seems to be the battery can't provide power when cold, rather than the battery losing all of it's charge. Today I was riding at just above freezing, The device shut down after less than 2 hours (no sensors, not connected to phone). When I got home I turned it on straight into the service menu. It was on 1% battery but this quickly increased even though it wasn't charging. After about 10-15 mins the battery was back up to 52% and the temp was 20 degrees Celsius. So the battery still had half of it's charge left when it shut down. I reckon if the device could be kept warmer the battery would last longer. My phone (in a fleece jacket pocket) was still on 92% at the end of the ride and my Vivoactive watch only lost a few percent even though I used it to track the last 10 miles of my ride. I do have a silicone skin but that doesn't seem to provide much insulation. I guess the device doesn't generate much heat and the battery just gets really cold, or the sensor that measures the charge is not working well in the cold? So I can't see that replacing the battery will make a difference, unless some batteries are better in the cold.
I successfully followed these instructions. Thanks so much!
I can't yet speak to longevity, but some thoughts on the process:
Two PSAs, as I used to write safety material for the big grid-connected Li-ion battery systems:
They rejected my warranty request for this issue.
I noticed that the GPS was off in the software after I put it all back together... I'd turned it on when it was open to confirm the connections were good, so perhaps it'd been unable to see the GPS antenna and gone into trainer mode??? Dunno. But I was worried I'd broken the GPS antenna during the process of wiring the new battery. Fortunately I spotted that; I've had it go into trainer mode when turned on indoors in the past.
I have. I’ve been riding over the winter period in barely freezing conditions so at about 0deg and found the device unreliable. I even tried the idea of insulating it. I just find all that is stated for these devices never quite stacks up.
After a 3 month wait my battery has finally arrived from China. Good job as when out in the cold the existing one only lasted 20 minutes!
Just got to change it now fortunately with the details on here it looks straight forward.
I’d be interested how you get on with the replacement.
I have changed my battery. Reasonably straight forward except for the following:
But the biggest issue now is I cant get a GPS signal. I have tried deleting the EPO.BIN file and resyncing but still nothing.
I hope I havent broken the GPS chip. Any suggestions?
Mine switched to indoor trainer mode when I did all this - - just go in to the settings and turn GPS back on.