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Garmin that lights up at night?

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Garmin that lights up at night?

Old 09-15-21, 10:57 PM
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Yumadons
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Garmin that lights up at night?

I want to replace my dying Garmin Edge 500 with one that I can see routes on at night. A friend had one with red arrows that lit up in the dark but I can't find it googling. I can only find mention of backlighting for night visibility. I'd prefer a Garmin just because I already have their mounts on all my bikes. But if Garmin doesn't light up and another brand does, I would buy it. I'm not much interested in a zillion features, I don't use them. I just want one I can see (I like the big screen on Garmin's 1030 Plus) and that lasts long enough for Double Centuries. Don't care how much it costs. TIA for your input.

Suzanne
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Old 09-16-21, 07:06 AM
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rm -rf
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My 1030 backlight works great. At sunset, it switches to a dark background with white letters to preserve night vision. The backlight is on all day, to help see it with my dark sunglasses. I think it lasts at least 12-16 hours, but I've never tracked the total time between recharges. (The smaller 830 has similar features, but the battery life is much less, more suited for 8 hour or less rides.)

For loaded courses:
I often keep the Elevation screen on the display, showing the next few mile's elevation as a graph. Very helpful for pacing.

On any screen display, as I approach a turn, it chirps, and the zoomed in turn map pops up, with a 30 second time countdown and a distance to turn countdown, and a white arrow pointing through the turn and the map showing. Nice! On the main navigation map screen, it shows the distance and road name of the next turn, even miles away.

1030 Plus
I see that the 1030 Plus replaces my 1030. DC Rainmaker review. He says 24 hours in "high navigation mode", 48 hours in a basic mode (likely with screen timeouts)

For even longer events:
There's a screen timeout option, and it turns back on when a turn is coming up (or when the screen is tapped?) I never use this, I check data screen or map quite often, and want to just glance down as needed. The timeout should extend the battery life quite a bit, I think.
It's possible to power the 1030 from a USB battery plugged in, but that would be annoying to cable up, and not waterproof.

The included out front mount has a pass through for a companion battery that mounts on the bottom side and connects to contacts on the Garmin. An extra 24 hours! Garmin Charge Power Pack. pricey.

Last edited by rm -rf; 09-16-21 at 07:29 AM.
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Old 09-16-21, 08:50 AM
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Don't they all? Even your edge 500 did. My edge 500 did. Of course not for maps. But you briefly press the power button and the backlight comes on. If you want it to stay on, you go into setting and tell it to stay on.

However backlighting is one of the biggest consumer of your battery power.
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Old 09-16-21, 04:39 PM
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On the 800/1030 there was a setting to turn backlight off after a set time (15-30 seconds), but turn it back on when you tapped the screen. Pretty useful IME. I'd expect that survived to the 830 and 1030+ available today.
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Old 09-16-21, 05:56 PM
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Greetings randonneur from Yellowstone, then AL!! My overachiever (Paris-Brest-Paris) friend said those red arrows are on his 830 (not Plus). Hopefully 830 Plus has them and if I can fit a 1030 Plus amongst all the other crap on my handlebars, getting it just for the bigger screen.
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Old 09-16-21, 06:40 PM
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Thank you rm-rf, this is so useful. I will MAKE room for that 1030 Plus amongst the aerobars, lights, bell, etc.
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Old 09-16-21, 07:27 PM
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Here's an example of the elevation chart.
My local hills are 100-400 feet high, a mile long or so.
So this scale works great. Each horizontal tickmark line is 0.5 miles, each vertical tickmark line is 350 feet. (You can tap the corner scale numbers and zoom them in or out, too. I normally have it at 200 feet, to see the grades better.)

Following a route, my current position stays at the bottom left tickmark crossing, at the blue flag. The chart scrolls to the left as I ride. So I see the previous 0.5 miles and the next 1.5 miles. Not on a route? it only displays the last 2 miles that I've ridden, not very useful. Elevation data is embedded in the course, not the Garmin maps.

Here, it was a very slight downhill, and the next hill starts in 0.5 miles. From the slope, I see it's around 2% to 4%, with a short, steeper bump toward the top of the displayed hill.




Here, I'm just over that bump. I see the grade is quite easy, then gets steeper toward the end, but that steeper section isn't very tall. After the crest, it's quite easy riding.
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Old 09-17-21, 01:30 AM
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Originally Posted by rm -rf
It's possible to power the 1030 from a USB battery plugged in, but that would be annoying to cable up, and not waterproof.
My 1030's backlight stays on while plugged in, so part of my charging strategy during long events is to let it run on battery during the day and charge at night. I use a 10,000mAh power bank that's stored in the top tube bag. But yes, not waterproof, so it's something I have to keep in mind (and adjust the plan accordingly) if it rains.
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Old 09-17-21, 02:18 PM
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I have the 1030 Plus, and the battery life is amazing. DC Rainmaker's review was spot on in my experience.
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