Really not sure what you're all talking about regarding needing a special cable for charging the Garmin Edge series GPS computers while on a ride. I've got an external battery pack that I use with any old USB cable that I've got lying around, not the one that came with my Edge 800.
To get the GPS to charge or run on external battery power without shutting down and going into the recharge mode, here's all you have to do: Plug the Edge into your external power source while the GPS is already
on and
started. As long as it's started, when you plug it in, it will just keep running and recording your ride. I've done this many dozens of times over the years that I've owned the Edge and it has always worked, no matter what USB cable I've used. The longest I've ever kept it going is about 40 hours and it worked fine.
My bigger issue with the Edge 800 is that if you have a route loaded and running and at the same time you're recording a long ride, it seems to be a bit more than the 800 can handle. On many occasions I've had the thing crash and lose all the data I've recorded. Nowadays, I'm mostly able to get around this by saving my longer rides in about 100 mile increments as I pedal. I just reach down, press stop, then hold the reset/save button until the data is saved. Then I restart the computer and begin my next 100 mile segment. It's annoying, but at least I get my entire ride recorded, no matter how long it happens to be.
Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
I've looked into it too, and as I've said twice, the power cord that comes with the Garmin charger is that special cord. It happens to be short, and that's an easy way to tell it from the usual USB cable, however its key attribute is that is comes from Garmin wired like your "power hack" indicates. When I plug my battery pack into my Edge 800, using the Garmin charger cord, I get a lightning bolt symbol on top of the battery state symbol, indicating that an external power source is being used. When I disconnect it, I get a screen saying that the external power source has been disconnected. None of this affects the operation of the Edge 800.
Yes, you are right, plugging the device into a computer is not usually a problem. However, I find using the microSD card for map and data storage to be a tremendous convenience. I can swap multi-gig maps by swapping cards. I also don't need a computer to charge my Edge. I just plug it and the charger into the wall, 110, 220, whatever.
The 800-810 map capability is very nice should something go wrong with the route, finding the road closed for example. One can use the map to find a way back to the route one is following, pick a slightly different route, etc.