Cycling UK Forum

Bazza55 wrote:I bought a Velocharger at the 2017 York Rally. I couldn't get it to work at first but after fiddling with the connecting wires and reconnecting, it works fine. Bought it to charge my Garmin whilst cycling, only problem is that when the bike drops below 10 mph, the Garmin asks me if I want to switch off. This is a fault with the Garmin rather than the Velocharger. I simply connect the velocharger when riding on flat terrain which ensures a speed above 10 mph, the rate that it charges is quite good. Ideal for audax's or long day tours.

For the garmin to switch off at 10mph, indicates to me that you are not getting the back-up of a cache battery and this is what I find. My part solution is to add an in-line switch to stop power from the dynamo (this causes the gps to go off and on continuously - not good for it) and on the garmin, accept 'keep power on'. I continue with this until speed increases again. It's a faff!

To add a phone to this arrangement or charge AA batteries, effectively increases the speed at which you can get enough power.

The best Garmin to avoid this problem is to revert to an Etrex Vista model (obsolete but available) as it includes an option for the GPS to continue, using the AA batteries, until power is back up gain.

I've contacted garmin several times asking them to reinstate this feature but not got it back yet.