Internal battery in Garmin GNC300XL?

BigBadLou

BigBadLou

Final Approach
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Lou
Howdy fellow aviators.
I have a new (to me) GNC300XL from Garmin. And the internal battery (that their marketing so raves about) died, leaving me with no GPS memory after shutdown.
I googled and googled and could not find any useful information as to where the battery might be found in the unit.
I also took the top and bottom covers off (no worries, I am an EE) and found no battery.

Does anybody know where the battery is located in the GNC unit?

Thank you
Lou

P.S.: I have dealt only with Bendix-King HW before where the batteries were always easily accessible. This Garmin unit has me stumped.
 
If you don't get any leads maybe try hitting up the Garmin tech reps at vansairforce.net that hang out there.
 
To be fair, any advertising claims about the internal battery are now about 20 years old, so I'd say they met any reasonable expectation.

I had one of those. Thought it was a pretty good unit. Sorry I can't help you on the battery location.
 
Thanks for the hint, BNT, I'll give them a try.
Russ, I wasn't clear. I understand that the battery won't last forever but I was being snarky about their advertisement of internal battery combined with the near impossibility to service it. :)
Bendix-King did it right, they for example have a tray on the front face of the KNS80 to replace two button batteries and you are back in business in 20 seconds. So I am spoiled by 1980's technology. :D
 
BigBadLou said:
So I am spoiled by 1980's technology. :D
Click to expand...

Actually, you're spoiled by companies who understand customer service and don't design their units such that they require you must send the unit back to them for repair even for the most simple things. A repair that they'll gladly "flat rate". Which was, last time I sent my GNC300XL in, about $800 IIRC.

But you don't have to worry about that because your unit is no longer supported so you can't send it in to them for repair anyway.

Gotta love 'em.

(Sorry Ted!)
 
Thanks a lot, great find! (I didn't search for the 250 because I am new to Garmins and didn't know that they were similar to the 300 models)
Too bad I had already disassembled the unit last night and replaced the battery without this manual. But at least now I have a chance to confirm that I did it right. :)
Not easy to disassemble at all but if you are careful and very patient, it can be done.
 
Glad you had success, sorry I just saw this post or I would have replied sooner.
 
BigBadLou said:
Thanks a lot, great find! (I didn't search for the 250 because I am new to Garmins and didn't know that they were similar to the 300 models)
Too bad I had already disassembled the unit last night and replaced the battery without this manual. But at least now I have a chance to confirm that I did it right. :)
Not easy to disassemble at all but if you are careful and very patient, it can be done.
Click to expand...
Where did you get the new battery? How much did it cost?

Thanks!
 
ytodd said:
Glad you had success, sorry I just saw this post or I would have replied sooner.
Click to expand...
No worries, when I posted here, I did not have very high hopes. Your post was a pleasant surprise, thank you. (and proof that I can't google worth a sheet :) )

DGlaeser said:
Where did you get the new battery? How much did it cost?
Click to expand...
It is not easy to find the 1/2AA battery SE model (with the solder terminals). And the ones you do find are usually either overpriced or about dead. Or sometimes both. Or plain wrong. So be very very careful where you get the battery.
Sorry, I cannot provide any good links but you can search for Lithium CR14250SE. (the 14250 designator indicates that the battery is 14mm wide and 25.0mm long)
Again, be very careful where you get the battery from because most reviews I read were negative with comments that the battery died within a day or week. The second most common complaint was that the battery did not come with the solder tabs.
Why do you ask, do you need one?
 
Bendix/King did it exactly like that for the KLN series, so it's not just Garmin. Everyone converted over to the permanently soldered in batteries when they switched to the long-lived lithium chemistries. Note the pink battery in the upper left on my KLN 94.

kln_board_small.jpg

Also, note the blast-from-the-past 386 processor at the front! 80386EXTC running 33 MHz. Remember when processors were measured in MHz and not GHz? heh
 
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arnoha said:
Bendix/King did it exactly like that for the KLN series, so it's not just Garmin. Everyone converted over to the permanently soldered in batteries when they switched to the long-lived lithium chemistries. Note the pink battery in the upper left on my KLN 94.

View attachment 44884

Also, note the blast-from-the-past 386 processor at the front! 80386EXTC running 33 MHz. Remember when processors were measured in MHz and not GHz? heh
Click to expand...

I remember when they were measured in single digit MHz. I've written code for 8080 and Z-80 (but not 8008 nor 4004). Remember when Ram was typical in k not meg?

John
 
Since the unit is no longer supported, why wouldn't it be possible to replace the battery with more common 3v 850mah lithium battery with removable connector?
 
I have an Apollo/Garmin GX-55 and the battery just popped right out and the new one snapped in. I guess they felt it necessary to solder them in in the latter models.
 
jsstevens said:
I remember when they were measured in single digit MHz. I've written code for 8080 and Z-80 (but not 8008 nor 4004). Remember when Ram was typical in k not meg?

John
Click to expand...

Heh, yeah. The first machine I had serious contact with was on a Z-80. 8" floppies! Didn't really start writing code until the 286 era (had a true blue IBM PC AT). So...yeah, wasn't programming until about a half MB was a typical high-end home machine. I remember spending much time forcing things to fit inside 640KB.

The funny part is that by the time the KLN was released, the 386 was already a generation old. Granted, Intel never released an embedded 486 chip.
 
cgrab said:
I have an Apollo/Garmin GX-55 and the battery just popped right out and the new one snapped in. I guess they felt it necessary to solder them in in the latter models.
Click to expand...
My thinking is that they did it for safety. I can imagine a battery popping out from bad turbulence and then shorting out on the board. Do I want an in-flight electrical fire? Heck ho.

Guys, guys, enough talk of 386, MHz, Z-80 or big floppies. I feel old enough as it is. :D
 
We have a Rolls Royce fan blade bond tester that has internal batteries. It became weak and only held charge long enough for one engine inspection, when normally we could easily accomplish two. The case has a sticker that reads "no user replaceable parts inside." But, we thought "batteries?" Let's take a look. You can only pull the ends off the thing, so we just took one end off. The batteries are RTV'ed to the case, there were 20 AA size in three packs and wiring was soldered to the circuit board, no big deal, but when the boss saw what was required to remove the circuit board he said to pack it up. So we did, and it's at Rolls Royce right now and they want $8000 to replace the batteries.... Damn.
 
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