So, looking for a nice long run time from my dakota I invested in some Duracell lithium batteries.
Looking forward to run times to surpass the standard disposables, I popped some in last night for a spin around the block, and after about 3km they showed half power level....
Not quite what I expected! Am I missing something here?
Settings are:
Battery set to lithium
Screen backlight 15s
Battery save on
It wasn't even navigating, just recording!
I find I get variable battery indicator readings on my Etrex 30. A new set of lithiums almost always shows 3/4 full. Run it for a few hours, it goes up to full
I still get 40 hours out of a pair though.
I find on my Dakota that the difference in screen brightness with regards to viewing doesn't correspond to battery life. i.e. If I have the screen set to the brightest setting it isn't that much brighter than dimmest but battery life diminishes greatly. Have a practice to see just how dim you can deal with! I run mine with the screen on all the time and 24hrs straight is no issue.
I was interested in Lithium when I read that on Ian's Lakes200 they lasted more than 27 hours.
But I wanted rechargeable, and they don't make lithium rechargeable.
Of the rechargeable batteries I was using one 'fully charged' set of 2 - but it showed 'Battery Low' on my Dakota 20, after only about 1 hour !
The problem was my recharger - Energizer NiMH AA/AAA (cheap at about a tenner) - it was taking over two days before the green light went out. Wait an hour, plug in again with same recharged batteries and it was on for 2 days again.
I bought an Ansmann Powerline 8 recharger, (£30) which does 8 at a time, including a discharge function. So far so good - it has indicators for each of the 8 cells.
I tested and got 17 hrs out of my 2 NIMH rechargeable batteries.
And you can buy 4 Ansmann 2850mAh AA NIMH batteries for £8.32
