Charging Garmin for 24 Hour Race

[CDollarsign]

My FIL is doing a 24 race in Southern California this fall. He has a garmin 820 and is wondering how he can use it for the full race. Will it work while being charged? Thinking we could hook up a portable cell phone charger deal to it.

I supported him in a RAAM ohio race and his garmin died and he missed a turn and was of course for a while. Don’t need to go through that again...

[sitzmark]

Yes - Garmin will function while being charged. Using a GoPro combo mount underneath a K-Edge, there's a pen light adapter that works perfectly with a lipstick charge pack.

The charge slot on the 820 is a tight fit when in the mount due to the small size of the 820. Need a charge cable with a very small connector - right angle connector even better. I have 820 and 510 - 510 bigger unit so easier to fit cable into charge slot.

$7 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Flashlight-Holder-Adapter-Interface/dp/B076V6HYK1/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1532802399&sr=8-4&keywords=gopro+flashlight

Anker batt is a solid product too: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Lipstick-Sized-Generation-Batteries/dp/B005X1Y7I2/ref=sr_1_9?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1532804210&sr=1-9&keywords=anker+battery

[ptourkin]

My FIL is doing a 24 race in Southern California this fall. He has a garmin 820 and is wondering how he can use it for the full race. Will it work while being charged? Thinking we could hook up a portable cell phone charger deal to it.

I supported him in a RAAM ohio race and his garmin died and he missed a turn and was of course for a while. Don’t need to go through that again...

Anker lipstick in bento box or attached with a strap is fine. He won't get lost on the Borrego 24 course, though. By the time his charge dies, he'll have done a ton of laps and there are always people in sight.

[AngryScientist]

concur that the garmin will work when plugged into a lipstick type charger.

my anecdotal testing says that you do better plugging it in from the start, rather than waiting for the garmin battery to drain and then plugging it in.

[ptourkin]

concur that the garmin will work when plugged into a lipstick type charger.

my anecdotal testing says that you do better plugging it in from the start, rather than waiting for the garmin battery to drain and then plugging it in.

I have heard this from others. Supposedly it draws less. Also good for night starts as the backlight stays on.

[unterhausen]

I put a lipstick battery in a twofish light holder or pump holder (depending on which direction I want the battery to point).

The advantage of the twofish holders is you can wrap the cable up in the velcro so it is held independently.

[Veloo]

I'm doing this with my sports cam.
Have a lipstick USB battery zip tied to a Twofish pump block and a rubber loop strap secures it to the stem. I kep it plugged in right form the get go cuz the camera would consume faster than it could charge if I plugged it in after the camera battery was dead.

For a 24 hour race you'd just have to figure out the mAh capacity you'd need.

[marciero]

concur that the garmin will work when plugged into a lipstick type charger.

my anecdotal testing says that you do better plugging it in from the start, rather than waiting for the garmin battery to drain and then plugging it in.

I have heard this from others. Supposedly it draws less. Also good for night starts as the backlight stays on.

Wondering what is better. I've not drained completely before plugging in, but mine charges to full in less than an hour while in use with bluetooth and navigation both on after being drained to 30 or 40%.
By "drawing less" are people suggesting that there is an inefficiency where some mha are lost; more so when the unit is low on charge? Or isnitnperhaps the the unit itself is more efficient when plugged into the charger?

I guess one big advantage of plugging in from the start is not actually having to fiddle with plugging it in during an event.

[kramnnim]

Just make sure to unplug it and put the rubber seal back on if it rains :eek:

[unterhausen]

By "drawing less" are people suggesting that there is an inefficiency where some mha are lost; more so when the unit is low on charge? Or isnitnperhaps the the unit itself is more efficient when plugged into the charger?
lithium cells don't have as much capacity if discharged at higher rates. Trickle charging the device uses the external battery cell at a discharge rate that is more efficient.

[C40_guy]

An alternative is to use two computers. Use one, charge the other in the chase vehicle.

Then, after the event is over, you can stitch the multiple ride log files together using notepad to have a single event record.

I had to do that once after my 800 failed on the second day of a ride. (I forgot to charge it overnight, d'oh). When it winked off 3 miles from the end, I started tracking with my Garmin watch...which gave me everything but cadence. Got home and did some research...it was pretty easy to combine the two files for a single ride log.

[unterhausen]

I think you would need 3 devices to get through 24 hours. At least that has always been true with my 800. I guess you could borrow a couple, but an external lipstick charger costs $10