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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.



My sat nav battery only lasts about half an hour unless plugged into the
fag lighter socket. I was told that the display screen is what consumes
the power.

The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the
end of a pencil for example.

The smart phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) can be used as a sat nav for hours
without appreciably draining the battery and also has a touch screen,
but you have to use a finger or special stylus - the end of a pencil
don't not work.

Can someone explain the differences in technology?

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

On 01/07/2013 21:38, The Medway Handyman wrote:


My sat nav battery only lasts about half an hour unless plugged into the
fag lighter socket. I was told that the display screen is what consumes
the power.

The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the
end of a pencil for example.

The smart phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) can be used as a sat nav for hours
without appreciably draining the battery and also has a touch screen,
but you have to use a finger or special stylus - the end of a pencil
don't not work.

Can someone explain the differences in technology?

Ace - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_sensing

Sat Nav - (probably) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistive_touchscreen

Must admit, I am surprised the Ace lasts that well.

--
Rod
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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

The Medway Handyman wrote

My sat nav battery only lasts about half an
hour unless plugged into the fag lighter socket.


Mine lasts a lot longer than that on a charge.

I was told that the display screen is what consumes the power.


That's only part of it.

The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the
end of a pencil for example.


The smart phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) can be used as a sat nav for hours
without appreciably draining the battery and also has a touch screen,
but you have to use a finger or special stylus - the end of a pencil
don't not work.


Can someone explain the differences in technology?


Phones have gone to a lot of trouble to maximise the time between
charges, because its not feasible to plug them into the fag lighter
socket much of the time. That involves minimising the power use
of everything in the phone and blanking the screen auto too.
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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

On 01/07/2013 21:38, The Medway Handyman wrote:

My sat nav battery only lasts about half an hour unless plugged into the
fag lighter socket. I was told that the display screen is what consumes
the power.


Yup, that's mostly type.

The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the
end of a pencil for example.

The smart phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) can be used as a sat nav for hours
without appreciably draining the battery and also has a touch screen,
but you have to use a finger or special stylus - the end of a pencil
don't not work.


Can someone explain the differences in technology?


The satnav will likely have a resistive touch screen. These have a
slightly soft feel to them and require a small amount of positive
pressure to activate. They are older technology, but quite well suited
to things that you primarily want to prod at on screen buttons.

Modern higher end phones will have capacity touch screen. These just
feel like hard glass, and are far more sensitive - they respond to
sliding touches and "swipes" better and can usually recognise multiple
points of contact simultaneously, allowing recognition of multi finger
gestures.

Makers of smart phones have worked very hard to get longer battery life.
For satnavs its nice, but less essential since they are most often used
where there is power available. Older satnavs were often better due to
being physically larger and allowing for larger batteries. However as
the prices have fallen they have got smaller and cheaper in construction
as well as price. My old tomtom go 700 can still do 4 to 5 hours on
battery, and that has a (small) spinning hard drive in it. My phone
could probably manage similar life - but 5 hours would take a sizeable
chuck of its battery capacity (although its a physically very small
phone and only has a 950mAh battery). The battery monitor on the phone
is quite sophisticated and will tell you which activities are using the
power. The display is the number one user. However enabling GPS uses a
bit. Wifi uses quite a lot, bluetooth a little bit. Cellular data a fair
bit (depending on signal levels).


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/
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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

On Monday, 1 July 2013 21:38:01 UTC+1, The Medway Handyman wrote:
My sat nav battery only lasts about half an hour unless plugged into the

fag lighter socket. I was told that the display screen is what consumes

the power.



The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the

end of a pencil for example.


I'm not sure your SatNav battery problem is the general experience. My 3 yr old Garmin goes about 5 hours on its battery and is useful for walking treks, showing the way to the nearest roads anywhere in Europe. The display is only bright on external power.

rusty


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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:

[Snip]

Makers of smart phones have worked very hard to get longer battery life.
For satnavs its nice, but less essential since they are most often used
where there is power available. Older satnavs were often better due to
being physically larger and allowing for larger batteries. However as
the prices have fallen they have got smaller and cheaper in construction
as well as price. My old tomtom go 700 can still do 4 to 5 hours on
battery, and that has a (small) spinning hard drive in it. My phone
could probably manage similar life - but 5 hours would take a sizeable
chuck of its battery capacity (although its a physically very small
phone and only has a 950mAh battery). The battery monitor on the phone
is quite sophisticated and will tell you which activities are using the
power. The display is the number one user. However enabling GPS uses a
bit. Wifi uses quite a lot, bluetooth a little bit. Cellular data a fair
bit (depending on signal levels).


and being in a steel framed building, where reception is almost impossible,
eats up battery life.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

On 01/07/2013 23:24, therustyone wrote:
On Monday, 1 July 2013 21:38:01 UTC+1, The Medway Handyman wrote:
My sat nav battery only lasts about half an hour unless plugged into the

fag lighter socket. I was told that the display screen is what consumes

the power.



The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the

end of a pencil for example.


I'm not sure your SatNav battery problem is the general experience. My 3 yr old Garmin goes about 5 hours on its battery and is useful for walking treks, showing the way to the nearest roads anywhere in Europe. The display is only bright on external power.

rusty

The display on my TomTom does not change brightness depending on whether
on battery or not. I haven't noticed an option, but could have missed it.

On reduced brightness, I am afraid it is difficult to read on bright
days. Have just tried that for a while to see if it was usable. Answer
is that it is not, for me.

So it ends up with somewhere around two hours or so of usable life with
screen on.

--
Rod
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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
...


My sat nav battery only lasts about half an hour unless plugged into the
fag lighter socket. I was told that the display screen is what consumes
the power.

The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the
end of a pencil for example.

The smart phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) can be used as a sat nav for hours
without appreciably draining the battery and also has a touch screen, but
you have to use a finger or special stylus - the end of a pencil don't not
work.

Can someone explain the differences in technology?


In fairness, if you keep the smartphone screen on with real-time mapping and
GPS running constantly (as a dedicated satnav would) then your battery will
start draining fairly quickly.

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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

On Mon, 01 Jul 2013 21:38:01 +0100, The Medway Handyman wrote:

My sat nav battery only lasts about half an hour unless plugged into the
fag lighter socket. I was told that the display screen is what consumes
the power.

The sat nav has a touch screen, but you can touch it with anything - the
end of a pencil for example.

The smart phone (Samsung Galaxy Ace) can be used as a sat nav for hours
without appreciably draining the battery and also has a touch screen,
but you have to use a finger or special stylus - the end of a pencil
don't not work.

Can someone explain the differences in technology?


First question is which SatNav you have.

I have a TomTom (special deal for older stock) and the battery is hosed.

Already changed it once under warranty (just got another by return - they
didn't fix the battery).

I can buy a new 3rd party battery of t'Internet and there are instructions
for fitting it but it does involve some fairly scary levering off of glued
down bits to get the old out and the new in.

So I've never got to the point where the benefit of a new battery
outweighs the risk of screwing it up.

So the answer you didn't ask for may be to replace the battery to get more
life out of your current SatNav.

Cheers

Dave R

P.S. portable USB power pack might help mobile use as well.
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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

therustyone posted
I'm not sure your SatNav battery problem is the general experience. My
3 yr old Garmin goes about 5 hours on its battery


Mine used to too, until it was left stuck to the windscreen for several
hours on a hot day. After that the battery only holds about half an
hour's worth of charge at most.

--
Les


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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

On 02/07/2013 12:55 David.WE.Roberts wrote:

I can buy a new 3rd party battery of t'Internet and there are instructions
for fitting it but it does involve some fairly scary levering off of glued
down bits to get the old out and the new in.

So I've never got to the point where the benefit of a new battery
outweighs the risk of screwing it up.

So the answer you didn't ask for may be to replace the battery to get more
life out of your current SatNav.


I did this recently with my TomTom and, while the instructions sound
fairly scary, it's not too difficult as long as you take your time and
are reasonably careful.

--
F



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Default Sat Nav V Smart phone.

On Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:17:44 +0100, F wrote:

On 02/07/2013 12:55 David.WE.Roberts wrote:

I can buy a new 3rd party battery of t'Internet and there are
instructions for fitting it but it does involve some fairly scary
levering off of glued down bits to get the old out and the new in.

So I've never got to the point where the benefit of a new battery
outweighs the risk of screwing it up.

So the answer you didn't ask for may be to replace the battery to get
more life out of your current SatNav.


I did this recently with my TomTom and, while the instructions sound
fairly scary, it's not too difficult as long as you take your time and
are reasonably careful.


Thanks - I keep meaning to do it towards the end of my year of map updates
so there is only the base cost at risk.
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