Noob upgrades a Garmin GPS battery.

[rebelrider.mike]

Hi folks,
I'm a noob here, and a noob to electronics. I though I'd share a very simple upgrade I did for my Garmin.
So back in 2009 I bought my first GPS, a Garmin Nuvi 255. I immediately discovered that I love having a GPS! In 2013 though, it up and died. I tried a new battery, but the unit was just dead. So I replaced it with a Nuvi 40.

Well, the Nuvi 40 had some nice advancements. General performance was improved, except for battery life. The 255 would last around 4 hours on a single charge, but the 40 only lasts about half that. To make matters worse, a few months ago, the battery started losing half its charge just by sitting off for a few days. So I decided to compare the batteries of the old and new units before I sprang for a replacement. Here is what I found:



Voltage and plug are exactly the same, but the new model takes a smaller battery with fewer mAh. Shame on you Garmin! Of course I want the larger battery in the in the Nuvi 40, but the cavity in the plastic housing was made for the smaller battery.



Only took a few minutes with a razor knife to make the cavity just a little larger.



Passed the "smoke test"!



Not only did it work, but that 8 year old battery, after sitting on a shelf for 4 years, still had 3/4 charge! I don't know if it was even fully charged when it was removed. I've let the GPS run for two or three hours to let the battery run down, and have started charging it. Hard to tell when the battery is full. The Nuvi doesn't give a charging indicator, nor does it tell you when its charged. It only indicates that its on external power. So I'll let it be on external for a while and then see how long it will go for until it has to shut itself off. So far though, it seems to be taking a charge fine, and looks like I will have a 4 hour GPS again!