Garmin Quatix

[rhinorhino]

And the panel thinks?

 

[lustyd]

I have a polar RC3 GPS watch for running and can honestly say its a brilliant idea putting GPS in a watch. Downloading GPX files when you get home and looking at the track is probably the most useful feature for me but on a boat the various other stuff would probably be more useful than you think.

 

[roblpm]

And the panel thinks?

I have a garmin forerunner 110 running watch.

Excellent functionality, even though it is the bottom of the range.

However 2 things wrong with it and i would be wary of with this expensive device, battery life is poor, fine for a run if charged up but if i use it for an all day thing like a bike ride it sometimes runs out of charge before the emd of the day. Secondly my first one conked out due to condensation getting in to it, they sent me another one for a reduced price as it was out of guarantee and it suffers from the same problem! Then again you would hope that a marine one would be properly waterproofed.

So i would wonder what you are going to do if you want this for cruising as you are going to have to take it off for charging at least overnight so if you do an overnight passage it isnt going to be any good.

 

[lustyd]

I have a garmin forerunner 110 running watch.

Excellent functionality, even though it is the bottom of the range.

However 2 things wrong with it and i would be wary of with this expensive device, battery life is poor, fine for a run if charged up but if i use it for an all day thing like a bike ride it sometimes runs out of charge before the emd of the day. Secondly my first one conked out due to condensation getting in to it, they sent me another one for a reduced price as it was out of guarantee and it suffers from the same problem! Then again you would hope that a marine one would be properly waterproofed.

So i would wonder what you are going to do if you want this for cruising as you are going to have to take it off for charging at least overnight so if you do an overnight passage it isnt going to be any good.

I was thinking about this too, but I expect they can extend the battery life by reducing the sample rate. Most of the battery power is in processing and writing to memory so a reduction in sample rate should give very good results. While running, we expect to see an instant pace figure as well as distance and heart rate etc. all of which need a refresh once a second or so. While sailing, a one second refresh is pointless, and 10 or even 20 seconds could be used which should give at least a few days of usage if not more. Given that it's not worn during exercise weight and size a less of an issue too so the battery may be larger.

 

[Nuck]

I was thinking about this too, but I expect they can extend the battery life by reducing the sample rate. Most of the battery power is in processing and writing to memory so a reduction in sample rate should give very good results. While running, we expect to see an instant pace figure as well as distance and heart rate etc. all of which need a refresh once a second or so. While sailing, a one second refresh is pointless, and 10 or even 20 seconds could be used which should give at least a few days of usage if not more. Given that it's not worn during exercise weight and size a less of an issue too so the battery may be larger.

I got my watch yesterday. I downloaded the Garmin Bluechart software for my iPad as directed on the Garmin site. What did I find? It never worked.

I contacted Garmin support to find that this does not work and may! be in a future release of Bluechart.

In addition to this the temperature was reading 5 deg high.

Here is the advice from Garmin "You need to buy a chart plotter and an external temp sensor". After all its a watch.

Can't wait to test it on the water!

 

[nimbusgb]

16 whole hours on a charge, wow!

If nothing else it means that every watch you have to take it off and charge it up.

Gimmicky!