joewein

If you use a Garmin 500, what is the longest ride you have successfully recorded (km and elapsed time)? What external power sources, if any, did you use?

After having used Strava on my Android for a year, I finally splurged on a Garmin Edge 500 with HR monitor because I wanted to get more data for my training. With the Android I am using an external USB battery that would last 24 hours and more (my longest recording was about 20 hours on a 300 km).

On my last century ride I foolishly plugged a USB cable into the Garmin to top up its battery during my lunch break, which quickly ended the recording. The Garmin Edge 500 always switches into a "storage device peripheral" mode when connected via a regular USB cable, allowing a PC to read or write files on its flash memory, but it can't do anything else then, such as recording while running under external USB power. I restarted the recording and ended up with 2 separate .fit files and no direct way of recombining them. Anyway, in May I'll be doing another 300 km, which will take me longer than the "up to 18 hours" of battery life quote by Garmin.

Meanwhile, I have jerry rigged a $5 solution for my 500, which allows me to run on any external USB power source of my choice while recording rides. It consists of 2 parts:
1) A USB OTG adapter with a USB Mini B (male) plug on one end and a USB A socket (female) on the other ($5 on Amazon)
2) A USB-A (male) plug to USB-A (male) plug cable, made from two recycled USB plugs (one was from a broken USB webcam) joined back to back. Basically any connector that plugs into a PC USB port can be recycled for this. Cut the cable, strip the wire ends and connect black-to-black, red-to-red (white and green aren't needed). Wrap it up with electrical tape and you're done.

These two combined allow me to plug one end into a regular USB A socket (such as a USB battery pack) and the other into the Garmin USB Mini socket. The USB OTG plug on the adapter has the right pin magic to tell the Garmin to run in host mode, not peripheral mode. This means it won't disable its user interface and GPS hardware. It runs the same way as with Garmin's proprietary external battery pack.

Hydrated

Thank you very much for posting this, Joe.

This resolves one of the most prevalent gripes with the Garmin units... the fact that you can't charge and use the unit simultaneously. I never thought to use a USB OTG connector for the Garmin... but your setup allows riders to use any of a zillion USB battery packs on the market right now.

You are da man!!

zzzwillzzz

thanks from me as well! perfect timing as i'm doing a 24 hour, 375km flèche in a couple weeks. this is great since i would like to upload the route for turn notifications.

question, can i plug this in while the garmin is already running?

znomit

Yes, thats what the extra connector does.... but the edge 500 seems to choke on routes much over 100km.
The solution is to split the ride into 100k chunks and change routes on the go.

Its all annoying enough that I got an etrex20.

Chris Pringle

Hmmm... That sux! I just ordered one.

joewein

I just wanted to add that the OTG adapter I bought was from Amazon Japan since I live in Tokyo. I just had a look on Amazon.com (the US site) and only found OTG cables or adapters for the USB Micro form factor, not USB Mini as needed for the Garmin.

However, alternatives are available. As usual, DX.com has just about anything for very low prices, such as this OTG cable and an OTG adapter that looks very similar to mine (the mini plug is a bit shorter, but should be OK). They also offer male-to-male adapters and cables, so you don't need to cannibalize old USB mice or cables to make your own. Their shipping can be a bit slow, but the quality is usually OK and the prices unbeatable.

The Skytex Mini USB OTG adapter cable looks like it should do the same thing as the Adapter, you just need the male-to-male cable to go with it.

These are just some suggestions. I have not tried any of these other products, but basically the principle of combining USB Mini OTG (cable or adapter plug) + USB-A male-to-male should always work.

eja_ bottecchia

I don't understand these posts, I have a Garmin 500. I have used it in long rides of over 100 miles (and rides over 8 hours) and never had a problem running out of juice or otherwise.

joewein

I am not talking about rides of 8 hours or 160 km - these are well within the capacity of the internal battery, as are the shortest of brevets (200 km).

My concern was about a 20 hours ride and longer events, which I want to record as a single file. According to Garmin, the battery lasts "up to 18 hours", so a solution was needed. Also, age will gradually reduce this number for any given battery.

petrolhead

Bi, I bought one of these for my garmin 500 when I did a 400 mile endurance ride. It worked great. It charges and powers the unit, doesn't cause the garmin to power off, and you don't lose the ride data or split it into separate rides. I got 200 miles out of the internal battery, plugged in the charger and left it plugged in for the next 100 miles, then went back to the now charged internal battery for the last 100. Also, you can purchase a software programme that lets you edit garmin fit files - including two rides into one, so if it does end a ride, you can start a new ride and merge the two later. Haven't got the link on hand, if it's of interest I can find it for you.

eja_ bottecchia

Got it...thanks.

Chris_W

I use The Plug II from Supernova, which converts power from a dynamo hub into USB power. The Garmin 800 can be charged by this and run at the same time, but I've noticed that the Garmin 500 can't charge and run.

I had this setup on the tandem on a recent tour, the 800 is normally on the captain's bars and the 500 on the stoker's bars. If we hadn't been able to recharge the GPS's with a regular outlet the previous evening, then they often both needed a bit of recharging during the next day to keep them working until the next campground. We then had the 800 plugged in during flattish sections, and unplugged it during climbs because we sometimes weren't riding fast enough to give sufficient power anyway. For the 500, we waited for a decent-length downhill and plugged it in to get a brief blast of juice as fast as possible so it could then be used again by the stoker with as little interruption as possible.

cccorlew

This may be just what I'm looking for. I've used a Minty boost for my Garmin 305 Edge on double centuries, but now I have a 500. I was not happy to learn it didn't work with the Minty Boost. This cable may allow me to carry on with my cheapo booster kit! Thanks.

https://ccorlew.blogspot.com/2008/05/...armin-305.html
blog post from 08 on teh kit.

zzzwillzzz

joewein, maybe you can help, i've made the cable by cutting the wires and have the external battery pack, don't have the otg adapter yet. without the adapter i can charge my usb light and when i plug the garmin in with it it does not go into peripheral mode but it does not charge, will the adapter fix that?

joewein

zzzwillzz, exactly what cable do you use right now? What connectors do you have on the two ends of the cable and what wires did you connect?

If you made a male-to-male cable (USB-A plug on both ends) like I did, you won't be able to connect that to the Garmin without some other kind of adapter, because the Garmin has a USB Mini socket, not regular full size USB. The OTG adapter that I use does two things: 1) it ties two of the pins together (X and 4, or 4 and 5, depending on numbering) which allows the Garmin 500 to run in host mode, not peripheral mode and 2) it converts from USB mini to (regular full size) USB-A.

If what you have is a cable with a USB-A plug at one end and a USB mini plug (non-OTG) on the other end, it should charge the Garmin but only in peripheral mode (no GPS use at the same time). That would be just like the standard Garmin cable.

I have one spare OTG adapter, if you're desperate I could mail it to you.

joewein

BTW, I used the Garmin on a 200 km brevet last weekend and it went as low as 21% on the battery state.

I completed the brevet in 13 hours, so if the charge figure is accurate the battery would have lasted a total of 13 / 0.79 = 16.5 hours, a bit less than Garmin's quoted "up to 18 hours". I fully charged it the day before and only started recording when I lined up for the start. I also used an ANT+ HR belt and navigated from a TCX turn-by-turn course file, maybe that's why the battery life was about 10% less than expected. I was quite happy with the way turn-by-turn navigation worked with the 500 so I will definitely use the Garmin for both logging and recording on my 300 km brevet, now that I can charge and run it at the same time.

zzzwillzzz

thanks, i tried making a cable by just cutting the green and white wires and leaving the red and black and using the same USB mini end socket, it would not put into peripheral mode but would not charge either.

the issue for me is time, i need to find the adapter locally since the ride is this weekend. being in los angeles it should be here somewhere... i'm checking all the local electronics places. thanks for the offer.

joewein

If you can't locate an OTG Plug for USB Mini, maybe you can get a brand new Mini USB plug as an electronics component (not as a part of a converter plug or cable), so you can wire the contacts yourself? It is very small though, so soldering it isn't easy. That's why I did the surgery at the cable instead.

Here is a link to page with the pinouts.

I tried opening one USB Mini connector in order to short the two pins as needed for USB OTG, but the wires behind the plug were cast inside an unpenetrable black plastic mass, probably for water-proofing it, maybe also for mechanical reasons. That's why I opted for buying an off-the-shelf adapter instead.

Socket with pins: 1 2 3 x 4 (left to right, BUT NO WARRANTY):



Plug with pins: 4 x 3 2 1 (left to right, BUT NO WARRANTY):



4 and X needed to be connected to get USB OTG / host mode. 1 is +5V, 4 is GND, 2 and 3 are data which should be left disconnected for host mode charging.

zzzwillzzz

thanks

Chris516

Please forgive me. How would you charge, and use, a bike computer, at the same time?

Chris516

As in 160mi.? I have my Garmin, on miles, not kilometers.

joewein

Chris516, 100 km is only 62 miles, not 160.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, my Garmin Edge 500 worked fine on a 200 km brevet last weekend, doing both 13 hours of logging and turn-by-turn instructions from a TCX file which I had created in RideWithGPS.

znomit, can you give some examples of rides that you were doing during which your Garmin crashed (distance, elapsed time, type of navigation file if any)? Because if it was true, the power fix would not really make it usable on very long rides.

A friend of mine has a Garmin 800, which uses totally different firmware from the 500 and which can be simultaneously charged and used. According to him it chokes on very long rides (400 km?). I hadn't heard that about the 500 though.

cccorlew

I have a Garmin 305. It seems to run about 8 hours. Using a minty boost (google it) battery pack with too-expensive lithium batteries I can get to to run 19 hours, which i how long it took me to ride the Devil Mountain Double.

I plugged it in after about 6 hours of riding. It recharged my 305 and then kept it running the rest of the ride as well. I finished with a fully charged unit.

That's the why and how.

The 500 requires some trickeration to pull of the same stunt.

zzzwillzzz

justed borrowed a friend's gomadic, it works to charge and record at the same time on the 500
www.gomadic.com/garmin-edge-500-lithium-portable-battery-charger.html

Hydrated

You would plug it in and keep riding.

This would assume that you have a power source with you on the bike... either a battery pack or dynamo hub/converter combo.

The problem (as described in this thread) is that the Garmin Edge 500 goes into peripheral mode when you plug a USB cable in... and it will not keep logging your ride while charging.

This fixes that by keeping the unit in host mode.

znomit

I've only lost three or four rides over three years, generally when the buttons are pressed too quickly.
For navigation files I was unable to download a route created from scratch (bikeroute toaster etc) longer than about 120km, there is discussion about this on the garmin forum, but found I could download longer rides from garminconnect OK...

I was in Perth a while back so searched for rides on garminconnect. Downloaded to the unit ok. The edge crashed repeatedly during the ride, usually when changing screens, requiring the unit to be turned off and on. Also stops recording whenever it thinks you are off course (annoyingly often).
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/133603604


Heres a ride I did where I used my own navigation. I created the route in bikeroutetoaster but it wouldn't upload to the garmin, had to split it into three routes.
You can see at 14hrs its probably marginal for battery life. Not sure if I recharged along the way or not.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/109644336

Heres a 430km ride, no navigation. Generally after 10-12 hrs I'm ready for a bit of a sit down so I recharge when resting using the gomadic charger with the proper connector. Charges around 1% per minute so 10 minutes should give you 90 minutes riding... so you want to get it charging immediately every time you stop. Works but its another thing to fuss about. The plug on my Gomadic doesn't securely fit into the 500 so will bounce around when riding. I've seen others with secure connectors so you could chuck it in your handlebar bag.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/151364436

Heres a 500k, before I had the gomadic, again no navigation. I was using either a simple 5V 4AA USB box at the car or the wall charger in my hotel room. It created a new activity which every recharge so I stitched them together afterwards into a single file.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/105845469


So year, the 500 does work on longer rides, just not particularly well.