Love Google map navigation but...

[Jack Daniels]

so i used it today for the first time and it worked awesomely but holy hell it was like i cut my batteries jugular lol time to buy a car charger. I got an hour and a half of run time before my phone gave up on me it was more than enough to get me there and back but if i plan on extended use going to have to have more power.

anyone else get sucked dry that fast by the gps antenna?

 

[geomens]

so i used it today for the first time and it worked awesomely but holy hell it was like i cut my batteries jugular lol time to buy a car charger. I got an hour and a half of run time before my phone gave up on me it was more than enough to get me there and back but if i plan on extended use going to have to have more power.

anyone else get sucked dry that fast by the gps antenna?

Yep, GPS really sucks battery big time, at least on my phone. I always buy a car charger for my phone and luckily my Palm Pre charger works great with my Evo or at least I have not seen any downside to it. I will say, if you really want to use the Navigator, invest in a car charger.

 

[CriticalCritic]

GPS nav uses the gps radio, as well as data, screen, speakers, and it runs them all nonstop. It is inherently the biggest battery hog you can use. So yeah, if you're going to use it get a car charger

 

[pwnst*r]

...holy hell it was like i cut my batteries jugular lol

I laffed ^_^

 

[stevenw00]

I took an hour and a half motorcycle ride on Friday and used GPS and Pandora the entire time. My battery was gone afterwards, but it sure was nice to be able to listen to Pandora on the bike and have Navigation chime in w/ the directions when needed. Didn't even have to take the phone out of my pocket.

Does anyone know how to make Navigation repeat a direction though? I missed what it said one time and had to stop, take the phone out of my pocket, and look at where it wanted me to turn.

 

[uniquenameEVO]

Does anyone know how to make Navigation repeat a direction though? I missed what it said one time and had to stop, take the phone out of my pocket, and look at where it wanted me to turn.

Miss the turn, it will reroute

 

[kencrudup]

So yeah, if you're going to use [GPS Navigation] get a car charger

... and make sure you get one that's rated > 500 mA (they do exist, and done via an extension to the USB spec where both USB data lines are tied to each other so the the charging circuit on the device knows it can pull more than the USB 1/2 Amp default).

I was in the Seattle Metro area a couple of weeks back navigating from SEA and in a 4G market; my car charger couldn't keep up with the power required to run 4G/Nav/always-on backlight/and the CPU needs and I still managed to lose a couple of percentage points.

 

[archercc]

Ive never had trouble with it keeping up using the cars built in USB port or a rocketfish car to usb adapter. But, yes, it will kill your battery pretty quickly. Not like I cant make it across Atlanta but you arent going on an inter-city drive and having much battery for phone calls.

That is why they need to make a nice, slim, suction cup holder with a power dock type cradle that you can plug into (or better yet get a disconnect so you can pre-wire). I travel constantly for work and live by my phones GPS (far superior than the rental units).

 

[Drew5150]

Just some tips on google nav: if you live or are navigating in a metro area you can turn gps satelites off and just navigate off of 3g data network. Also if you do not need to see the map you can hit the top button to turn off the screen, your evo will still give you audible directions

Bad thing I found out yesterday if you do not have a data connection you can not load up directions. bummer

 

[pwnst*r]

J
Bad thing I found out yesterday if you do not have a data connection you can not load up directions. bummer

? How else would it work?

 

[Drew5150]

? How else would it work?

off the gps sensor... I know I wasn't expecting it to load, but really those out of metro areas are really the only place you NEED it to load, unless your on a vacation to another city I guess. would be sweet if you could load maps to your sd card. I was just saying. this is probably a bigger deal on the west coast where mountains are everywhere and reception is not.


this is why I just said bummer and didn't make a thread about the obvious.

 

[muncher]

if you don't have a car charger and need to convserve battery, just turn the screen off and use the voice nav. cna get at least 6-7 hours this way