Battery life. When I went on line to purchase an extended battery
for my Droid X (around $45 or so) I found a brute force solution. I
bought four regular batteries for under $6 each at Amazon. I was able to
leave BCN on all day whenever I was traveling. Problem solved.
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The external batteries that plug into the mini USB work well, too. I picked up some 2200 AH for $16 each; they have the advantage of allowing "hot swaps" and uninterrupted viewing.
In the Engineering world, brute force is the opposite of elegance. Engineers prefer elegant solutions to problems. For example, an elegant solution to a lost key might be to pick the lock without scratching anything. The brute force way might be to bust down the door. Brute force is just another way of saying to get a bigger hammer, somethings going to give. It's a crude solution that works. Engineers prefer things that work even more than elegant solutions. Like buying a fist full of batteries instead of crafting complicated and clever routines to conserve battery life.
Tom, what is hot swaps?
I have extended battery, but don't I have to turn the power off and swap the battery? It means it'll interrupt the track and viewing, isn't it?
I don't want to stop tracking when I change batteries, could you share how you do that? thx!
"Hot Swap" means I never powered down; by keeping the main battery charged from a secondary battery plugged into the micro-USB slot, I could deplete the secondary batteries and replace them without ever shutting down power or removing the main battery, thus keeping the phone running for many hours or even days if desired...
I see.... Mine is extended battery (the kind I have to click on the phone).
Could you tell me which external battery you like?
I looked around but I couldn't decide.... everybody's review is so different and it's confusing to me.
Thanks!
Just go to eBay and search for USB emergency battery. They simply plug into your phone charging port and provide power and slowly charge your battery until they run down.
Lot of water under the bridge since this "string" started. New technology is out there. I just 'discovered' bluetooth GPS receivers. I bought a Garmin GLO for about $100 on Amazon. It has its own battery and its GPS chipset is much better than that on my phone. I downloaded an android app called Bluetooth GPS Provider (per Nathan's recommendation elsewhere), fired it all up and it works. The result is that my battery isn't being used for GPS, just a little bit to keep bluetooth running . . and . . .my GPS is better than a meter in open ground.
Longer battery time and better accuracy. What's not to like.
I'm trying to do what you did Dave with a Garmin forerunner 230 gps watch as the gps provider. I downloaded the Bluetooth GPS provider app on my samsung galaxy note II phone but it didn't work. Any suggestions? Thanks
Lanbbc: I'm not sure a dedicated GPS watch will act as a remote GPS. That is, it might not "broadcast" its position. If it will then you will have to set up your Note 2 to use mock GPS positions in order for it to use the watch's GPS instead of its internal GPS. While this is not particularly difficult to do, there are a lot of steps. Try googling "android note 2 mock gps". Let me know if you get stuck.
If you just want to prolong your battery life, zerolemon.com sells massive batteries that work with the Note 2. Remove the back of your phone, insert the zero lemon battery pack, and then place their special phone back over it. Run it hard for 2-3 days nonstop and then recharge.
Regards,
Dave
Dave,
I haven't tried what you said above but I did get a watch app called Hike which constantly displays gps coordinates. I manually type them into BCN to find where I'm at. I can go a long time that way without using my phone batteries to power a gps receiver. This has worked really well and will last a full day for me.
My Garmin 230 does have some feature that does broadcast gps coordinates and elevation (LiveTrack) so it might be possible to pair them up that way. It might use a lot of battery from the phone though if I have to leave bluetooth on and it will eat into watch battery more also if it's bluetooth is on.
My watch gps receiver is much better than my phone also (NOTE IV). It pick up a signal very well even with a lot of trees overhead. My phone takes forever to get locked on.
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