car adapter - power vs charging

I happen to notice this the other day on either our Garmin Nuvi 260 or the
255
When connected to the car adapter, it will of course power the GPS just
fine.
I was surprised that it did not also "charge" the battery at the same time.
Had low battery warning - plugged in cable - drove all day....
Later unplugged and battery was still low.... but charges full just fine.

So, unlike our laptop when connected to AC,
it appears to me
that the car adapter will power the GPS while on,
or charge it when turned off..... dim screen mode.
but not both....
Unless... plugging in while turned on
is different than plugging in before turning on.

--
----------------------------------
"If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something." - Steven Wright

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:27:54 -0500, "ps56k"


That's not the case with my Nuvi 760. Using it in the car, regardless
of turn-on sequence or on-off status, always charges the battery.

weird - just tried some tests in the Jeep with the Nuvi 255 - and all is
ok -
after plugging in, using various combos - touched the screen
where the battery icon should be located in battery mode,
to get into the diag screen... (hold for 8 secs)
yup - diag screen shows "charging"

will have to try again with the Nuvi 260 -
but since no diag screen, so it will be real world

        Different model of Garmin GPS may work a little different an other, but
they all should be charging. Example

NUVI 680 requires a special design USB (with some PIN shorted or remove
whatever) for it to work as regular GPS, else it will work as a computer
device. Nuvi 680 has both regular connector and USB

NUVI 1490T with regular USB cable will start as computer device, then
auto-switch to GPS mode after 20-30 seconds.

        And both GPSes will be charging in either mode.

On Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:12:53 -0500, Joel wrote:


My 1490T doesn't do that. With a standard USB cable, it starts in device
mode and remains there.

There is another 1490T in this household that also remains in device mode
with a standard USB cable.

To verify this, I plugged mine in a few minutes ago. It is still in device
mode over 6 minutes after it entered device mode. (I've been typing
slowly!)



--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)