Timeline for When considering GPS battery life where are the best options?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 20, 2016 at 1:51 | comment | added | Tullochgorum | Another factor in the choice of dedicated vs smartphone is the cost of mapping. I've costed the dedicated maps for the walks on my bucket list and they total $$$ thousands. The same coverage would be very much cheaper on a smartphone. On long treks, the smartphone is also much more widely useful. So battery life is only part of the equation. | |
| Oct 13, 2016 at 21:03 | comment | added | Desorder | Sorry @Bob, you're right I'm over estimating the weights here. I usually do it as if I estimate my pack to 30kg and turners up to be only 25kg I'm winning. It might be a mind things. :) Although, we pack a phone (150g) and a lil solar panel (500g) and a couple of power banks (300g) cables and stuff that's almost a kg itself. Some people could end packing another that odd IPod for music and then another cable. That quickly adds up. | |
| Oct 13, 2016 at 6:51 | comment | added | Bob | @Desorder A 20000mAh battery pack weighs about 350g. Phones about 150g. Chargers less than that. 5+kg seems to be a rather high estimate. Even assuming a charge only lasts a day, 20000mAh would give you 5 charges, so 1kg would more than cover the entire 10 days. Though, the extra volume might be an issue, and if you really want to save weight the dedicated unit + batteries is probably still a bit lighter. | |
| Oct 4, 2016 at 20:22 | comment | added | Vladimir F Героям слава | I uave used a dedicated GPS for more than a week long trekking succesfully several times. Logging the position all the way 1 set of AA for Garmin etrex Venture Cx lasts more than 2 days. Just bring spares. If you don't log every move, you will save a lot. | |
| Sep 22, 2016 at 10:46 | comment | added | Tullochgorum | @mattnz - sure, you'd have to be careful. That's why people carry a couple of extra charges in case of slip-ups. I mainly walk above the treeline so a phone works for me, but I agree that in canyons or thick canopy a dedicated would probably work better. Alternatively, you can upgrade your smartphone GPS with a dongle such as the Garmin or Bad Elf. | |
| Sep 22, 2016 at 9:07 | comment | added | user5330 | Problem with highly optimised phone is one slip up driving it and you have a highly un-optimsed phone and flat battery. A dedicated GPS carries a larger antenna, making GPS reception possible in places like deep canyons and under thick canopy that a phone or watch has not hope. | |
| Sep 22, 2016 at 9:03 | comment | added | Tullochgorum | @Desorder - no need for 10-15 kilo base weights these days. My base weight is 4-5 kilos depending on the conditions, and I'm not cutting corners safety-wise. It does take an investment of time and cash to reach those levels though. With calorie dense food you can assume 0.8 kilos a day . So for 10 days I'm looking at 12-13 kilos (excluding water) which is workable. | |
| Sep 22, 2016 at 8:46 | comment | added | Tullochgorum | @Makyen - I'm summarising or the post would have been even longer. The 5% comes from Alan Dixon and his group in the quoted article - and they've done a lot of work on this with both iOS and Android. I've seen other writers quote similar figures. It would give you 2 days walking ten hours a day - I find it hard to imagine that people get more than this. Given the context of wilderness travel, we can assume an optimised phone with a low update rate, no towers in reach and cell reception turned off. | |
| Sep 22, 2016 at 1:10 | comment | added | Makyen | 5% depletion rate per hour (phone) sounds high. However, you provide no information as to the conditions under which this was tested/used (e.g. type of equipment, GPS location update rate, other functions active, SW setup to manage power, within cell reception range (if so how close is the tower), how easy did they make it to locate satellites (i.e. time spent searching), etc.). Thus, there is no way to even begin to make a comparison. | |
| Sep 22, 2016 at 1:07 | comment | added | Desorder | 10 days in the outdoors with no contact with civilization requires quite a bit of gear depending on the location. A normal pack would be roughly 10 to 15kg alone, When you add food for 10 days, it can quickly reach the 25kg. If one top up with batteries, chargers, extra phones one will be carrying +30kg pack. I just though we should observe some of those "non-functional requirements" | |
| Sep 22, 2016 at 0:04 | history | edited | Tullochgorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 4 characters in body
|
| Sep 21, 2016 at 23:38 | history | answered | Tullochgorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |