[Impy]

I will be going on an extended biking/camping trip without access to electricity. Are there battery or solar chargers available for the garmin 305? I'd love to track the entire week.

Apologies if this has been addressed before.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mx_599]

are you familiar with the battery extender you can make with cheap parts from radio shack? would you like me to post a link?

 

[beagledadi]

yes please....

on the link to build a charger....thanks

 

[Impy]

are you familiar with the battery extender you can make with cheap parts from radio shack? would you like me to post a link?

I am not familiar and would appreciate the link, thanks.

 

[mx_599]

it's nothing special, but here it is. you can probably even add more batteries in a way to not fry it.
what the heck...it won't let me upload it. i guess you can only upload 19kb of pdf? that is pretty useless

if you would like to pm me your email i would be more than happy to send it

 

[beagledadi]

Sorry about that....

I guess you guys need some alone time...

 

[mx_599]

I guess you guys need some alone time...

the same applies to you

 

[beagledadi]

Lol...

I read though most of the GPS posts, I remember reading something about a battery system you could purschase from Radio Shack. The downside was that you had to solder sp? some wires and Frankenstein something together that would allow you to run your 305on a battery system mainly as a back up.

This forum was as close as I got....
copy/paste it into your address bar;
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=256982&highlight=gps+garmin+radio+shack

 

[hobbers]

Something like this maybe?

http://www.siliconsolar.com/shop/catalog/SUNLINQ-Foldable-Solar-Chargers-p-16363.html

It's a flexible solar panel that can fold/roll up and weighs a couple ounces. I recall a reference to flexible solar panels that I checked out in the past, but never looked much further. So I don't know if this company is particularly good or not, but search around for "flexible solar panels" online and you should find some good information. This supplies the power, but you'll still need to figure out the adapters/chargers required to get the power to your batteries.

Edit: Here's another company.

http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/military/foldables/index.htm

 

[pacman]

I will be going on an extended biking/camping trip without access to electricity. Are there battery or solar chargers available for the garmin 305? I'd love to track the entire week.

Apologies if this has been addressed before.

Thanks in advance!

From the MotionBased web site (Garmin's site) here's nice start.

LINK

Or just go DELUXE.

 

[pokeyman]

low tech solution

I went low tech to solve the same problem.
I bought an external battery holder that has a USB jack on it, so I fill the holder with AA batteries, plug in a standard USB cable (A to mini-B) and it charges the unit for longer trips. This also works well for USB charged cell phones.
I got the external usb box from batteryspace dot com for under $10

 

[Soonerinfrisco]

Pokeyman is this the box you got?

Needing more juice for the Garmin is definitely a need for centuries and such. So being a very lo-tech guy, would you just add batteries and then hook up the USB cable and plug into the Garmin to get a charge?

thanks, jeff

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2970

 

[pokeyman]

That's the one.
Right, with a load of AAs, the box replaces your AC charger. You could run the GPS with the charger plugged in, or run it without until the batteries run low and then plug it in.
It's not the perfect solution since you have a cord coming out the back of your GPS while riding, but for me it was the best solution because it's non invasive, cheap, and simple.
And, you can replace the batteries or buy two boxes and swap the boxes without interrupting the GPS recording.
Keep in mind that having the cable plugged in does not provide the same weather proofing as the rubber cap, so getting moisture or dirt into the plug can be a concern if you have it bar mounted while charging.

 

[Soonerinfrisco]

Much Thanks!

This was the after-ride coffee house topic of discussion last Sat. I promise I will give you the credit when I dazzle them with my new charger device!

Actually I am going to order a few spares and help a brother out.

 

[beagledadi]

Great find!

I'm going to hit the local Radio Shack now that I have this information, they've got to have something like that....I'm sure it'll be a couple extra bucks though. I like to leave the store with things, I guess I'm impatient. Or maybe.....oohhhh "brother" Soonerinfrisco......kidding Thanks for the info everyone. :thumbsup:

 

[pacman]

If you read the article quoted from earlier posts you will see that AA alkalines may put out too much voltage for a USB device that expects 5V. I don't know the tolerances but I'm not risking my GPS.

 

[iviguy]

My Motorola V360 phone uses a USB connector as a charging port and a PC port just like the garmin and I was thinking my car charger should also work on the 305. Anyone have any knowledge of whether that would work or not? If so then if you have a car around you could recharge the garmin in your car.