GPS setup for night navigation

[tanadog]

Hi

I have an etrex 30 that I run on batteries (no dynamo). I want to find a good way to navigate at night. Currently I ride with a light on my bars, and a torch on my helmet that is usually off. I've been running with the backlight set to 15 s which is fine, but at night it's a black screen and I need to hit the toggle to get it to light up.

The thing is worried about missing a turn as I can't see the track without constantly hitting the toggle. Should I run a bit of constant backlight at night so I can see the screen? Set the track up as a route so I get notification when I'm off route???

Any help would be great.

[bakerjw]

Obviously running the screen will eat up the batteries much faster. How about one of those USB charger packs that use batteries to charge cell phones, etc... You could likely power the GPS with that much longer than you could with the regular pair of AA batteries inside of it.
Or get a dynamo hub.

[RonK]

Are you aware that there is a night time colour scheme which reverses the image - perhaps this may help?

[bmike-vt]

maybe a red clip on LED?

http://princetontec.com/mpls

[tanadog]

Yes I have a power bank and I have run it in "night mode" (which I find worse). Obviously I want to reserve battery life. I've read on a gps forum running the backlight at the lowest setting doesn't use much battery life, but I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this.

Also, I have read that loading a route with waypoints means the unit will come to life as I approach a waypoint. But it seems routes are limited to 250 waypoints, much too short for a TD like ride.

[bmike-vt]

You can combine routes and tracks. There is a limit on routes, but you can (and probably should) break a route like the TD into smaller segments.

The main issue I've had with routes is when combining on and off road segments. Test it out to find out what works for you.

[gregclimbs]

sigma used to make a handlebar mounted light for computers that ran off coin cells. you might be able to locate one or make your own:

http://www.bikewagon.com/sigma-light-nitelite-for-computer

g