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Is the Garmin Forerunner 305 Discontinued? (Read 856 times)

Teresadfp


One day at a time

    Most of the time, my 305 locks onto satellites pretty quickly.  Maybe once a month, I'll have a problem with it.  I try to remember to turn it on a few minutes before I'm going to start running.

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    rectumdamnnearkilledem

      Hmmm...I frequently have to restart mine several times, as it times-out.

      Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

      remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

           ~ Sarah Kay

      Teresadfp


      One day at a time

        Really? Wow, that's never happened with mine.

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        rectumdamnnearkilledem

          It's gotten to where I give it about 3 minutes to find satellites when I'm standing outside on a clear day, then I just restart it.

          Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

          remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

               ~ Sarah Kay


          Best Present Ever

            Here's something I have been wondering: is everyone with a 205/305 finding that their unit really struggles to find satellites much of the time?  On the days when mine locks onto satellites fast I am always surprised.  I suspect that maybe I got a bad unit, since my first 305 didn't have issues like this (that unit was trouble-free until it literally started to fall apart at the seams).  My Edge 500 for my bike is insanely fast at picking up satellites.  Faster than my original FR 305 ever was, even.

             

            If mine isn't fully charged, I have trouble.  I always leave it on the charger between runs, and then I rarely have trouble.  But even an hour's run means difficulty locking on a signal if I don't charge it overnight.  

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            rectumdamnnearkilledem

              If mine isn't fully charged, I have trouble.  I always leave it on the charger between runs, and then I rarely have trouble.  But even an hour's run means difficulty locking on a signal if I don't charge it overnight.  

               

              Mine lives on the charger.  If it's not on my wrist it's on the charger.

               

              I also notice that my current 305 has a ton more issues uploading to RA.  Either RA doesn't recognize it or it errors.  Frequently once it does upload it craps my browser out and I have to force-quit.  I suspect it's just a bad unit.  Maybe next Spring I'll consider replacing it, once it's closer to 2.

              Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to

              remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.    

                   ~ Sarah Kay

              kcam


                My 205 locks very quickly most of the time.  I find that more often than not it's worse on sunny, clear days than cloudy days.  Sometimes the 'locking' bar will go all the way to the right (signifying that it's ALMOST locked) and just sit there.  When it does that for more than about 10 seconds I turn it off and then on again and it will always lock immediately.

                 

                I also have the browser issue but only on my home computer running XP.  The upload process will frequently give me an RA-generated error message but the browser always is locked up in that situation.  I have to kill the browser from task manager and then the next time it usually works, but not always).  I've tried Firefox and Chrome and IE and they all do it.  At work, using Win7 and Chrome or FF (never tried IE) it has never locked the browser or returned the RA error.  Weird stuff we put up with.

                  I have found that if you set the 305 on the ground/car hood/table it would pick up the satellites pretty quickly. It was when I left if on my wrist and stood still or moved, it seemed to take a few minutes to find the satellite.

                   

                  In Dec 2010 Walmart.com had the 305's for $89, I bought one for a friend, one for my wife and still have one as a back up.

                   

                  Compared to the newer models, the 305 is a workhorse.

                    I recently went back to my 305 because my 405 (I think it was a 405) crapped out on me after a little less than two years.  I like my 305 'cause it stays charged for up to 10 hours.  The 405 only held a charge for 5 hours.  Not helpful when you're out running trails for 5+ hours.  Mine recently had some kind of attack (it lost its charge after only about 3 hours), so I was thinking of looking for a backup.  I'm not gonna pay top dollar for one, though.

                     

                    ZZ - Sometimes I have a hard time getting satellite with  mine, as well, and have to turn it off and restart it, but it doesn't happen very often.  The only down side to my 305 is that it easily looses the satellite in the trees.  The 405 tracked the satellite much better.

                    Leslie
                    Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain
                    -------------

                    Trail Runner Nation

                    Sally McCrae-Choose Strong

                    Bare Performance

                     

                    RunAsics


                    The Limping Jogger

                      A few months ago I picked up refurb'ed 205 for ~$125, on Amazon, after the strap then side buttons fell off my 4 yr old 205.   New 205s and especially 305s seemed to be significantly more $$ than when I last looked , which was~12 months ago.   So far so good.

                       

                       

                      I have found that if you set the 305 on the ground/car hood/table it would pick up the satellites pretty quickly. It was when I left if on my wrist and stood still or moved, it seemed to take a few minutes to find the satellite.

                       

                      This saves a boat load of time if you travels to a far off land.  At home, I typically turn my 205 on, put the unit just outside the back door and it's good to go once I've gotten my shoes on.  In a pinch, on the window sill works most of the time.

                       

                      Also, somehow, at the start of a race, I always end up next to a bozo with a 405 holding up an arm, to get a satellite lock, 10secs before the gun.

                       

                      I found that the Garmin browser plug-in is very temperamental.   More so now than I recall in the past.   Anyway, what I found to be very reliable is exporting workouts from Garmin training center on my PC then importing to RA.  The whole process is actually faster than a direct upload from the Garmin to RA.   GTC automatically opens and grabs the workouts as soon as the 205 is in the cradle.  Super simple.

                      "Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."

                      xor


                        Yeah.  And that takes a long time.

                         

                        Shoot, these guys were still looking for a signal AFTER the race.

                         

                         

                        kcam


                          Just an FYI - the 310XT (which I have no experience with) just dropped to $259.01 at Amazon.   Seems like that's by far the lowest I've seen it.

                            Yeah.  And that takes a long time.

                             

                            Shoot, these guys were still looking for a signal AFTER the race.

                             

                             

                            Now that IS funny!  Bravo! Big grin

                            Live the Adventure. Enjoy the Journey. Be Kind. Have Faith!

                              Just bought the 310xt on heartratemonitorsusa.com for $198!

                               

                              Came across it ten minutes ago and had to buy it at that price. It is $209 on the site (some sale I guess) and if you use the code "VALUEDCUSTOMER" you get an extra 5% off. 

                              Running my way to being a little less fat.

                              kcam


                                Just bought the 310xt on heartratemonitorsusa.com for $198!

                                 

                                Came across it ten minutes ago and had to buy it at that price. It is $209 on the site (some sale I guess) and if you use the code "VALUEDCUSTOMER" you get an extra 5% off. 

                                 

                                Nice!  I guess Garmin must be blowing them out.  What's the consensus on the 310xt?  I use to hear stories of triathletes losing them on the swim due to band design issues (that would suck to have your $300+ watch sitting on the bottom of the lake).  VALUEDCUSTOMER!  Too funny.  I always used Valued Customer as my name when registering software that I had bought - don't do much of that anymore.

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