Garmin Forerunner 305 Review (part 2) - Charging the unit
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The first part of this Garmin Forerunner 305 review looked at my reasons for buying the Garmin as well as what came in the box. In this part of the review we’ll look at how the unit is charged up to use.
So, how does the Garmin Forerunner 305 get its power?
Now, I have to admit, this wasn’t something I looked in to that much before I bought my Garmin, but I have to admit I’m very happy.
The biggest difference between the Garmin and my old Polar is that you can turn the Garmin on and off. This makes it much more of a unit for training, whereas the Polar is designed to be an all round watch… and therefore is always on.
The Polar has a normal watch battery in the unit, whereas the Garmin is charged from either a standard power supply, or (and here are the bells and whistles!)…. your PC’s/Mac’s USB port!!!
Charging the Garmin Forerunner 305
As with all electronic kit, when it arrives it’s not charged. How annoying is this??? When you get a new gadget you just want to play! Why can’t they arrive fully charged??? I guess it’s down to some health and safety regulation!?
Anyway, this is where I started to get confused. I expected one cable that simply plugs into the wrist unit. Instead you have to start by slotting the wrist unit into it’s cradle. Slotting is probably the wrong word. The unit just kind of goes in to the cradle. It’s hard to describe - but it just ‘goes in’!
The back of the Garmin Forerunner 305 wrist unit and it’s docking cradle
The Garmin Forerunner 305 in its docking cradle
The next bit was really confusing, and wasn’t explained in the manual too well at all. The manual says:
‘Plug the small end of the AC adapter int the mini-USB port on the cradle. Plug the other end into a standard wall socket’.
This makes it sound like there’s one lead that’s needed. This isn’t the case.
Instead, there’s a single cable that plugs into the unit which then needs to plug into a socket on the plug - that then goes in to the wall socket…
Once this arrangement is worked out and the unit is plugged in to the wall the display tells you that the unit is charging. When fully charged this is also displayed on the unit…
And that’s about it. Fully charging the unit took about an hour out of the box. Since then I’ve kept the unit plugged in to my USB port whenever I’ve downloaded some data - so the plug unit is now back in the box. The main problem is remembering to turn the unit off after a training run.
Charging by a USB port is exactly the same as above - apart from the cable plugs in to the USB port rather than a standard plug…
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(This entry was posted on February 20th, 2008.)
Posted by: llewdis
on February 28th, 2008 at 6:06 am
Are you going to cover your impressions of using this device with the mac? I just purchased one of these, and am wondering how well it will work, or if I am going to have to use it in my parallels virtual machine….
Posted by: mart
on February 28th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Hi,
First of all, thanks for your comment.
As I said in my reviews so far, one of the main reasons I moved to the Garmin from my old Polar was Polar’s lack of Mac support.
So far I’ve been very impressed with how the Garmin fits with my Mac.
Motionbased.com now supports the Mac to some degree, and I’ve also been using Ascent - which is a dedicated Mac GPS analysis package.
I’ll hopefully be posting articles and comparisons on both of these options in the near future.
Regards,
Mart
Posted by: Dewi
on June 2nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I am thinking of buying a Garmin Forerunner 305. I thought your comments were very helpful. Thanks.
Posted by: emily
on June 23rd, 2009 at 5:21 am
thx so much. this made so much more sense than the booklet.
Posted by: Anibal
on June 28th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I’ve been using my Garmin Forerunner 305 for almost a year now and have noticed that if the Garmin is attached to my MacBook via the USB port, I turn the Garmin off after downloading my data, leave the MacBook on, and later shut down the MacBook, the Garmin turns itself back on. Since the computer is off, the Garmin is not being charged. I’ve discovered on more than one occasion that the following morning, I go to start my run and the Garmin is almost completely discharged. The good news is that a 1/2 hr charge from this state gives you at least 45 minutes of power.
Posted by: mindy
on September 12th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I just received the forerunner 305 as a gift and was having so much trouble in figuring out how to connect the adapter to the docking station. You were a lifesaver. Thanks
Posted by: Diego
on October 27th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Great info on the garmin, i was hesitant to buy it given some of the drawbacks i´ve read about, but your´s so far is been the most helful and encouranging. Garmin should thank you
From Buenos Aires, thanks a ton.
Posted by: Garmin Forerunner GPS
on December 26th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Nice instructions, thank you.
First of all, I like the design of Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver that is less bulky than its predecessors. It is so small that it can be easily mistaken for a watch. The GPS functions are wonderful and I found the gadget locking on quickly to the satellites and start indicating my position almost instantaneously at the push of a button. Of course, it does not have maps and visuals, but one cannot expect so much from such a small device.
Posted by: Josh
on February 23rd, 2010 at 9:13 am
hi…
is there any choice to charge or not charge the device while it connects to the computer via USB? i mean..if the battery is still good but i need to transfer the data from the device to PC, i don’t want to charge it again when i connect it to PC.
is there the choice, or everytime it connects to the computer it will automatically charge? (regardless of the battery condition)
thanks..