Battery drain - Karoo 2
Answered
Am I the only one who is experiencing extensive and irregular battery drainage on the Karoo 2, or at least according to the battery indicator. Today I rode for approximately 3½ hour where I started at about 81% and ended at 27%. Indicating a battery life between 6 and 7 hours, which is a long way from what is promised. Especially since brightness was set to 16%, I only had one ANT sensor and DI2 connected and wasn't using it for navigation.
Best regards Anders
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Do you use a 4G sim? What I've read about battery drain with the K2 seems to be related to the mobile data usage.
I don't use a 4G sim. For me the battery usage is consistent between 8-10%, depending on the screen brightness. 2 ANT+ sensors and using it for navigation with the occasional rerouting.
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I do not have a SIM card installed or anything "unusual" (perhaps except DI2) and that it was is bothering me. I simply cannot find any logical reason. Besides the drain-rate varies a lot, from about 8% per hour to the above mentioned 15,4% per hour. I am wondering if it has something to do with the Karoo being bad at measuring the battery voltage.
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Seems like something is off. My K2 also used to be a little „erratic” and not consistent. But after ~ 3-4 charges it seems to have settled. Today I did a longer ride - 6.5h, brightness ~25-30%, 2 ANT+ sensors (hr and power/cadence) plus active navigation from start to finish + BT connection with a phone all the time. SIM inserted but inactive (airplane mode). Screen turned on all the time. Started with 100% and finished with 53% - not too bad imho. And it stays pretty consistent
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One more experiment. For today's ride I have reduced the screen brightness further (around 15% or so). I think it's actually too much of a reduction, the description of fields is pretty much impossible to read in daylight while riding
At 11:44am I had 100% battery reading
After ride finished at 4:31pm, the reading was 34%
I used navigation and location sharing. 3 sensors connected (Di2, Power and HR over ANT+). That gives around 66% over 287 minutes or almost 8h of operation for a fully charged battery. Ambient temperature was 10-15 deg C. The screen was hard to read with this brightness levelWhat's strange though, is that after capturing the battery levels and uploading ride I turned off the device ("Karoo Off"). After I turned it on at 7:20pm the same day, the battery reading was 11%...
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It is indeed a strange observation that the charge percentage dropped that significantly after so many hours of inactivity. However it is not suprising that the "recorded" battery life (66% over 287 minutes) was in the lower end of what is claimed considering the sensors, navigation and live tracking. I guess that the observation you made Maciolek is something that supports the hypothesis that part of the issue is incorrect voltage readings of the Karoo 2's battery.
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The latest update did not help one bit. Started at 72 or 73% after one hour I was down at 54% meaning expected battery life in the first hour about 5½ hour. It did get better towards the end of the ride which ended at 25% after an elapsed time of 3 h and 35 min (Expected battery life ~7½ hour), however it is still very far from what is presented in the data sheet.
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I’m new to Hammerhead after being a Garmin abs Wahoo user. I’ve read the comments and have to agree; 3 rides the battery life is a worry. Riding at 35% brightness, live tracking, ant+ and phone connection turned off....I would say 7hrs best....way short of advertised. It needs addressing as otherwise my 45day trial could be a return. Shame as I really like the rest of it!!!
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The battery needs a few charges to settle down.
What also helps to perform a battery calibration.
On average, mine consumes 7-8%.
Yesterday absolute record 6.2% on average with TBT navigation at 15% display brightness.
I use powermeter, Varia radar, speed sensor and Di2 no phone connection.
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I don't think sensor choice has any influence on battery life (other than an absolutely negligible one). It's not as if the Karoo is transmitting anything back.
My new one has drained 5% in the last 20 minutes while doing nothing more exciting than sitting on the table next to me in airplane mode, 200 miles from the nearest sensor.
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@David Horn, funny you should mention that because I made a similar "experiment" yesterday with the same type of result. Based on that the most power consuming thing with the Karoo 2 is the Karoo 2 itself...
Battery issues or at least miscalibration of batteries are nothing new to Hammerhead. I think most people hoped that it had been resolved with the Karoo 2, but it seems be worse than on the Karoo 1, at least in my experience. I think it is time for Hammerhead to step up and start investigating the battery issues. Either Hammerhead is using batteries of a very poor quality/quality control or there is something in the software that is wrong.
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I have 8% usage per hour with following connections, route navigation with map screen on, 15% of time rerouting during ride, 13 degrees Celsius outside temperature:
35% brightness of screen
ANT+ sensors:
Wahoo HR, Speed and Cadence, Powerpod, Varia RTL515, Di2.
Bluetooth:
Android phone
Device is new, so not many hours used yet.
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Another example from Saturday. I fully charged the device 2 days earlier. I checked it in the morning and IIRC it was showing 98%.
When the ride started, the device was showing ~80% battery available though. When the ride ended, it was showing around 40%. When I plugged it for charging on the next day it was ~20%.No routing, brightness set to ~40%. Power meter and HRM ANT+ sensors connected. LTE network on with tracking. 3h 8min elapsed time, not ideal conditions (rain and 5 deg. C).
So ~12%/h if the immediate reading is concerned and ~25%/h if the extended state is considered. I was using my Karoo 2 for ~60h total since I got it and I am not sure if the battery will ever calibrate itself? -
I've had intermittent battery issues with my K2 as well. Yesterday started a ride at 78%. After 4 hours including putting it into the power save mode at 20% my K2 died. So unbelievably frustrating to pay so much for a device and have such scattered performance. I don't understand how one day I can burn 10% an hour and another day burn 20% with less sensors connected + warmer conditions.
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I also don't understand. I desperately want to love the Karoo 2 (in the 45 day trial at the moment) but the unpredictable battery life is doing my head in.
I've had 20% per hour and 8% per hour with exactly the same sensors. One thing I do intend to try is the phone Bluetooth connection as the best battery life was achieved with it off but not sure if related.
Wahoo have offered me a 40% discount on the Roam which is also tempting me away. But then I go for a ride and end up undecided again.
It's literally been unpacked, repackaged, unpacked, repackaged, unpacked, repackaged...
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One more example from today. For 70% of ride I kept single screen - 9 fields (text only). Power and HR ANT+ sensors connected as well as live tracking over LTE. Brightness at ~70% (it was still pretty hard to read labels in bright sun). Around 3500s mark I switched the screen few times, kept map for several minutes and then got back to that 9-fields screen. I moved the brightness slider all the way down and finished the ride some 15 minutes later. Please find attached a chart extracted from the FIT file battery readings
Observations:
- screen brighness doesn't seem to impact battery usage reading (though I might not have enough data points)
- average usage: 16%/hour, or 6h max in such setup
- again, after starting Karoo couple hours later, the battery shows much lower reading: 56%
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I have the same problems with the battery, unstable consumption, with the same device configuration and the same sensors connected, sometimes it drains more battery and others less.
I've been writing emails for a while and I can't find a solution, I've done a thousand battery calibrations and hard reset and it's still the same.My case is curious like yours @Przemek Maciolek, when turning off the screen (with the device on) and turning it on again, it has suddenly dropped 20% of the battery without using any of it, only on the table in front of me and from hammerhead they do not provide a solution no explanation whatsoever.
Very disappointed because it is also not the only problem I have.
Best regards -
Something seems to be a little off judging by your comments. Maybe some units have a faulty battery. Mine, on the contrary, seems to be using less and less battery with every ride (go figure). For example my ride yesterday:
1. Screen on all the time (25% brightness)
2. Some on-the-go routing (about 1/3 of the time)
3. Sensors over ANT+: heart rate and power/cadence from pedals
4. Phone connected over BT
5. Airplane mode, no live tracking, no BT audio etc.
6. Ride time 4.5 hrsBattery drain over the whole ride was 28% so only around 6% per hour
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@Ivo Smolis around end of January Hammerhead published a page with battery life expectations. I consider live tracking crucial (for safety reasons) and low brightness levels just make things hard to read (I wish Hammerhead would have black text over white background rather than the other way around). In either case "up to 7h" life seems like anticipated in my case. The sudden drop after finishing the ride is not, though.
Every now and then I do 5h+ rides and taking a power bank just because Karoo 2 battery is unreliable doesn't seem like a fair option to me. Also, the sudden battery level drops are worrisome and bring the risk that the device will shutdown after just 3h of operation. I wish I could keep my Karoo 2 but decided to return it. Wish Hammerhead best of luck in figuring the battery issues out. -
Indeed, the sudden drop in the battery after finishing the trip makes the device unreliable.
If it's like @Ivo Smolis says and it may be a bad battery in some devices ... why doesn't hammerhead send a replacement one? I have written many emails to hammerhead on the subject and his answers are always the same, hard reset, battery calibration, check configurations ... but never the faulty device option.
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The sudden drop of battery % also doesn’t occur in my unit. For example if I finish a ride with 55% and turn off the device next time I turn it on (for example - the following day) it turns on with same 55%. I think that unfortunately something is wrong with your units/batteries... which sucks and I think you should be eligible for a replacement
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