Garmin 405 Battery Discharge (Read 4582 times)

I figured something out about my Garmin 405 and thought I'd give it its own post in case anyone else has this issue. In various forums, people talk about the Garmin 405 not going into sleep mode and draining the battery down to zilch in a day and a half (rather than a week or more, like it's supposed to). I've had the 405 for about three months and never had this issue until one time last week after giving it to the wife to use on a run. I noticed, though, that she did something I never do: she didn't reset the Garmin after completing the workout. When I did this, the Garmin went into sleep mode like it's supposed to. I'm not sure if this is a "glitch" or just the way it's designed, but if you have this problem, you might want to try resetting the Garmin after your workout, rather than just turning the GPS off.

Check the Garmin site for a firmware update. They supposedly fixed the battery drain issue. My 405 shows Software version 2.20 and GPS: 2.10.

Using a Polar RS200 with a footpod that shows a more accurate pace in the woods than the Garmin Forerunners I'm a bit reluctant to switching to a GPS monitor. Can you tell me if Garmin has improved the GPS device in the 405? In case you can't compare - is the pace measurement accurate, also in the woods? I'm aware that the distance measurement is ok...

The pace readout on the 405 is notoriously inaccurate. They did a software update that made it better but from what I've read it's still off, and reads slower than true pace. Most people seem to set it to auto lap and use the lap pace readout, which is pretty accurate but obviously won't give you an instantaneous readout. I'm not quite sure why this is, the unit is incredibly precise in position. It's accurate within 2-3 feet, based on the maps that I've downloaded to mapping software. I have also used the Polar RS800 shoepod and it's pretty accurate for pace, so long as it's calibrated for the pace that you're running. If you are running faster or slower than when you calibrated the shoepod, or if you have different shoes, or are running a lot of hills like trailrunning, then the shoepod will lose accuracy. One more thing--the instantaneous pace readout while you are running is not great with the Garmin but at the end of the workout it is very accurate.

I read that the 405 can use a footpod also. It will fill out the blanks when the GPS can't get a signal. But why use a GPS then? My footpod is just as accurate as the Forerunners. Guess I don't need the 405 after all then. Think I'll go for a RS800 instead. Cheaper too