Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

? Best way to navigate for as long as possible with the 820

smarkgee
over 8 years ago
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: How can I maximise the battery life of the 820 whilst navigating accurately
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

caveats:

I have a 10 hour PLUS trail that I need to be carefully guided over by the 820. I will mostly be following two separate gpx routes in their entirety.

the 820 needs to do as good a job as it can for as long as it can but ONLY AT NAVIGATING - I will record the ride with a wrist watch

so i'm not going to have anything paired to the 820
but i'm not sure if things like ULTRATRAC actually affect the quality of the navigation or just what is recorded

so how could this setup be improved please?

1. SMART recording ON
2. GPS on (normal/best)
3. GLONASS off (I don't need GLONASS)
4. Is there a way to just ride and be guided without the annoying 'you haven't pressed go' alert coming up?
5. I think I enabled HRV ages ago by copying the fit file...do I need to undo that somehow? even if i'm not recording hr.
6. remove all sensors from the sensor pool
7. I will probably need the audio alerts to notify me if I go wrong
8. Might breaking up the route into smaller gpx files help in the event of needing to replan the route after a wrong turn or recover from the often-experienced 'course navigation error'
9. Just have the minimal number of screens eg one/no data screen and just the navigation screen in the profile (to reduce the chance of me being unable to use the touchscreen to get back to the nav screen)
10. ULTRATRAC off

many thanks in advance for any and all help !

PS a factory reset made my touchscreen a bit better + 6.3
  • 0 over 8 years ago
    4. Is there a way to just ride and be guided without the annoying 'you haven't pressed go' alert coming up?

    No, there isn't. The device actually uses it for navigating.

    8. Might breaking up the route into smaller gpx files help in the event of needing to replan the route after a wrong turn or recover from the often-experienced 'course navigation error'

    Yes, this a good idea. There might be "natural" places to break up the route (at rest stops, for example).

    ================

    The 820 (and other units) provide three modes of navigating (it's really two modes because 2 of the three are related).

    1) "turn guidance" (big white arrows). This requires that the track closely follows roads/trails that are on the map installed on the device (and routable). This is complicate and more likely to have problems working.

    2) Track following/off-course warnings. For this, you basically keep your location to follow along the track. If you get too far away from the track, the device buzzes and pops-up an "off course warning". This is a basic feature and pretty-much will always work (it is dependent on GPS reception).

    3) "course points". These are a feature of tcx files. These are basically waypoints that are part of the track. If the tcx file has course points, the device will display them as pop-ups as you arrive at their coordinates. This is part of "track following". This is reliable but very dependent on location. Where these are placed on a map might not be quite where you are riding. There aren't many ways of getting the course points. Ridewithgps writes its cuesheet items out as course points and you can add your own custom cuesheet items in ridewithgps.

    Of course, keeping an eye on the map is useful too. If you miss a turn, you should see that you are off course. Also, you might see that there's a turn coming up before the unit notifies you.
  • 0 over 8 years ago
    I take you want maximum battery life? There is a battery saving mode which switches off the screen when there isn't any turn coming up.

    I'd also disable bluetooth and any sensors you can live without.

    Most USB battery packs should be suitable to charge it up, when you stop for a coffee you could connect it.