pigpenracing
En-Route
Like new gps III pilot. These are great gps's with 20 hours of battery life from AA's. Internal memory battery just replaced. Comes with original box, manuals, cradle, computer cable and carry case. $275
Garmin GPS III pilot
- Thread starter pigpenracing
- Start date
pigpenracing
En-Route
I changed it. It is simple on the newer units. Battery is just soldered to 2 wires. The first units that came out the battery was soldered to the circuit board. This is the newer style.
pigpenracing
En-Route
People used to pay Garmin $250 for a 5 minute job and a $3.00 battery.
This is an old post but I still have my GPS III, so if anyone is still monitoring this subject I should like to know if the device with its new battery was still working several months after replacement?
This is what happened with mine: I took it to the local automobile parts shop and they said it was the same battery as for a car kep fob ie. electronic door opening. They opened the device, removed the old battery and put one of these batteries in. No soldering. It worked fine - for about 2 months, then again the internal memory failed. They apologised and replaced the battery. 2 months later it failed again.
Any ideas? wrong battery? wrong fitting tecnique? other?
pigpenracing
En-Route
They put in a regular battery. The memory battery must be rechargeable.
This looks very promising. Just a few more questions (sorry) based on info I have found elesewhere:
- A product support FAQ from Garmin states: "If you own an 8-channel GPS receiver unit, a marine GPS unit or chartplotter, or an aviation handheld, your unit has a non-rechargeable memory battery. "
- A comment on another forum states that GPS III has a rechargeable and GPS III+ a non-rechargeable - or vice versa, he can't remember which!
- If the rechargeable is not (or no longer) charged it will not be charged effectively in the unit.
- The battery required is a VR1220 but Lir1220 is also OK. I can't find a source of VR1220 so is Lir1220 (eg from Powersteam in Utah) really OK? The re may be a problem shipping lithium products by air (to UK) so choice may be further limited.
I don't want this to go wrong again so I am double-checking!
- A product support FAQ from Garmin states: "If you own an 8-channel GPS receiver unit, a marine GPS unit or chartplotter, or an aviation handheld, your unit has a non-rechargeable memory battery. "
- A comment on another forum states that GPS III has a rechargeable and GPS III+ a non-rechargeable - or vice versa, he can't remember which!
- If the rechargeable is not (or no longer) charged it will not be charged effectively in the unit.
- The battery required is a VR1220 but Lir1220 is also OK. I can't find a source of VR1220 so is Lir1220 (eg from Powersteam in Utah) really OK? The re may be a problem shipping lithium products by air (to UK) so choice may be further limited.
I don't want this to go wrong again so I am double-checking!
pigpenracing
En-Route
Check ebay... They have everything
Everything at a price. All the Lir1220 seem to come from China. Mostly sold in large quantities, delivery dates a month away (if ever?) and classed as hazardous goods so $100 for carriage. And no sure way if charging them if (after a month in transit) they are not charged. I'm not winning here...
pigpenracing
En-Route
Use it with a bad internal battery... They still work fine.
The memory battery charges off the 4 AA's or the power cord when the gps is being used.
The memory battery charges off the 4 AA's or the power cord when the gps is being used.
That's what I have been doing, but it didn't charge the internal battery any more. So problem is also it needs to auto-locate on start-up every time, which takes ages. THEN since my home airfield is not in its database (farmstrip) I have to press "mark" before I go to be able to create an waypoint there to come back to. Of course if I land away and turn it off the waypoint is lost.
What I can do then is auto locate again, create another waypoint, Set OBS and Hold, and track home on an outbound radial from my land-away location.
In fact if I'm not there for long I can just leave it on and track back on my original waypoint - the batteries last for ages.
What a great piece of kit, no wonder I want to keep it. Anyway I have found a Chinese site which not only has a 5 star rating for reliablility but which doesn't want to charge me £100 for shipping hazardous goods. Have ordered an Lir1220, which apparently is an acceptable replacement for the VR1220. Wait and see. If that fails I have lost only £4!
What I can do then is auto locate again, create another waypoint, Set OBS and Hold, and track home on an outbound radial from my land-away location.
In fact if I'm not there for long I can just leave it on and track back on my original waypoint - the batteries last for ages.
What a great piece of kit, no wonder I want to keep it. Anyway I have found a Chinese site which not only has a 5 star rating for reliablility but which doesn't want to charge me £100 for shipping hazardous goods. Have ordered an Lir1220, which apparently is an acceptable replacement for the VR1220. Wait and see. If that fails I have lost only £4!