Garmin Edge 305

[steve]

My Garmin Edge appears to have died. Yesterday I downloaded a ride and
left it connected to my computer to charge. When It said charging
complete I removed it but it failed to come on. Also it won't
communicate with the computer. The computer behaves as if nothing is
there. I suspect the lithium ion battery died. Is this a reasonable?
It did something similar last week when it failed to come on at a TT
and then when I got home and charged it at first nothing happened but
then it took a charge. I took this yo mean that at first the battery
was so drained that communication & display were not possible. It then
worked for a 3 hour ride but now nothing.

I'm not sure how old it is I know it is > 3 years.

Thanks
Steve G

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Mon, 13 May 2013 07:30:22 -0700 (PDT), steve
<SJger...@yahoo.com> wrote:

>My Garmin Edge appears to have died. Yesterday I downloaded a ride and
>left it connected to my computer to charge. When It said charging
>complete I removed it but it failed to come on. Also it won't
>communicate with the computer. The computer behaves as if nothing is
>there. I suspect the lithium ion battery died. Is this a reasonable?

Yes. Open it up and see if it's bulging. If yes, get it out of there
before it does some damage[1]. Replacement batteries are commonly
available for about $15:
<http://www.ebay.com/itm/370662406243>
Incidentally, the best way to kill a LiIon battery is with heat and a
constant full charge.
<http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries>
That means don't leave it in the sun for too long and don't leave it
plugged into the charger forever. The charger issue is complex. Bug
me for details. Meanwhile, this may help:
<http://www.mpoweruk.com/lithium_failures.htm>

>It did something similar last week when it failed to come on at a TT
>and then when I got home and charged it at first nothing happened but
>then it took a charge. I took this yo mean that at first the battery
>was so drained that communication & display were not possible. It then
>worked for a 3 hour ride but now nothing.
>
>I'm not sure how old it is I know it is > 3 years.

If a new battery doesn't fix it, here's the bad news:
<http://www8.garmin.com/support/outofwarranty.html>
$79/hr plus shipping to repair by Garmin. Ouch.

Good luck.



[1] I just had a customer drag in a MacBook Pro with a severely
bulging battery. The complaint wasn't that it wouldn't run or charge,
but rather that the buttons on the touch pad wouldn't work. The
battery had bulged enough to bend and almost break the adjacent
touchpad, but I caught it in time. I've seen similar LiIon bulging
problems with smartphones.

--
Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[Joe Riel]

Did you try resetting it?

--
Joe Riel

[James]

On 14/05/13 00:30, steve wrote:
> My Garmin Edge appears to have died. Yesterday I downloaded a ride and
> left it connected to my computer to charge. When It said charging
> complete I removed it but it failed to come on. Also it won't
> communicate with the computer. The computer behaves as if nothing is
> there. I suspect the lithium ion battery died. Is this a reasonable?
> It did something similar last week when it failed to come on at a TT
> and then when I got home and charged it at first nothing happened but
> then it took a charge. I took this yo mean that at first the battery

> was so drained that communication& display were not possible. It then

> worked for a 3 hour ride but now nothing.
>
> I'm not sure how old it is I know it is> 3 years.

The firmware can lockup and it wont reset or turn on. The only solution
is to wait a day or so. Eventually the battery gets so low it turns
itself off (even though there is nothing on the display).

Then when you plug it back in it will charge as normal and work fine again.

That is unless the battery or charge circuit is truly dead. It is
possible to replace the battery, as Jeff said. I have done it before.
Mine is now with the Gods of dead electronics. The charge controller
circuit died, and the battery doesn't charge at all. I ordered a NOH
Edge 500 for $150 from Wiggle (.co.uk)

--
JS.

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Mon, 13 May 2013 20:55:03 +0100, Phil W Lee <ph...@lee-family.me.uk>
wrote:

>It's probably worth skipping the flight if you notice that the
>aircraft is bulging then?
>
>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-24/faa-said-to-learn-about-787-lithium-batteries-on-the-job.html

Chuckle. I've done a bit of reading and ranting on the Dreamliner
battery problem. The Boeing "solution" is rather comical. Rather
than go back to an older NiMH battery technology or a safer LiIon
chemistry, such as Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4),
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery#Safety>
Boeing is trying to save recertification time by armor plating the
battery pack. Let it burn seems to be the guiding principle:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/business/boeing-details-its-fixes-for-787.html?_r=0>
Adding armor plate to the battery case makes it heavier than the
equivalent NiMH battery (which was the whole point of using LiIon).

Note that swelling is NORMAL for a LiIon battery pack:
<http://www.electrochem.org/dl/ma/203/pdfs/0110.pdf>
You could build a state of charge meter by simply measuring how much
the casing bulge.

My rants on the Dreamliner battery problem:
<http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.design/msg/fcf9657f4e6ee7a7>
<http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.design/msg/f12d1a228846754d>
<http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.design/msg/983a3d91f6d92c8b>
<http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.design/msg/76efc27b55a4c681>