DeLorme inReach SE announced, ships mid to late April

Incidentally, it seems as though Best Buy was sold out by the time I got there.

I got the same runaround at my local Best Buy, including a claim that the product had been discontinued. Reminded me of the stellar service I experienced at Circuit City.

I used the same solution: I drove home and ordered it through their web site, received it two days later. Still available on bestbuy.com.

However, looks like Energizer truly has dropped the PP-3AAMC, and they don't have a similar product available. Get em while you can. The Best Buy price, even with shipping, is half of other sources I found.

— Rex

"Reminded me of the stellar service I experienced at Circuit City."

When I walked into the Best Buy store, I had a sheet in my hands with the charger information, SKU number, photo, etc. I halted about ten feet inside the doorway and stared up at the huge room, looking for Energizer signs or something.

There was a small cluster of twenty-something employees chit-chatting at a nearby counter. They ignored me. So, I stood there scanning back and forth across the room. Nobody blinked. I took a couple of steps their way and then halted again. Still, they were too busy to help a customer.

I wandered up and down the aisles until I found Engergizer everything else. There were none of these chargers. Oh, well.

Yes, the online ordering works.

I will return to the Best Buy store in two months and see how many of the twenty-somethings are still employed.

–B.G.–

I just ordered a few from Bestbuy.com. Now I'm hoping they'll work! I have a new Delorme SE that i've not yet activated since I'm waiting for the new monthly plan to so some testing. – Bill

Can you send updates to Facebook with the InReach?

Yes, Facebook, Twitter and MapShare.

I wrote:
I'm planning an 8-day trip without resupply, which is a few days longer than the internal battery on an inReach SE will last.

My previous multi-day tests were on a long road trip, where the inReach was in the back of my truck, with most features turned on for maximum battery consumption. I got about 5 days per charge.

Sunday, I ran a different test, trying to extend battery life.

I went through all the settings to maximize battery life, except Tracking:
– Bluetooth: Off
– Message check interval: 20 minutes
– Ring until message is read: Off
– Tracking: 10 minutes (max battery life would be Off or 4 hours)
– Display brightness: 10%
This brightness is unusable in daylight, even in the shade. I turned brightness up and down each time I used it.
– Display timer: 15 seconds
– Sounds – Mute All: On

I sent two Preset messages, and one custom message that took 10 minutes of cursoring/cursing to enter ~90 characters.

After 11.5 hours of use (2.5 hours driving, 9 hours hiking), battery life was at 89%, starting from 100%. The driving and hiking were on roads and trails with pretty good exposure to the sky.

Extrapolating linearly indicates roughly 9 days of battery life.

Most of my days will be shorter than 11.5 hours on my planned 8 day trip, so I should be OK without a charger. I plan to turn off the inReach SE at camp each evening; and turn it back just as I start hiking the next day.

Note that realistic testing is challenging, because you must keep moving to keep the inReach SE awake.

Make sense?

— Rex

All we need now is an easy method to order from Amazon.com using inReach SE.

–B.G.–

I picked up a USB battery charger/power supply recently (the link below was posted by another BPL member in a different thread) and I did a test charge with this unit and my inReach SE. I was able to boost my inReach SE from 12% to 94% with one 18650 Lithium rechargeable battery. Not too bad!

Total weight of the battery and power supply is 2.8 oz, so pretty light for that much power reserve (charger is 1.2 oz and one 18650 is 1.6 oz).

Total cost was $22 but that included two 18650 batteries (and delivery is free). The batteries are top of the line Panasonic cells in a generic wrapper. Somebody on Candle Power Forum ripped them apart and confirmed that they are indeed Panasonic cells and they evaluated them very highly (his evaluation included all sorts of discharge graphs etc).

Upon receiving my charger, I was very pleased to discover that the mini USB on the unit is the same as the mini USB that came with my inReach, so the cable works with the unit.

USB Smart Charger/ Power Supply for 18650 Battery – $6

Panasonic 3400 mAh (3.7 V) – 18650 Batteries – $16 (for 2 batteries)

If you are thinking about buying this unit, it’s important to know that the batteries have to be non-protected cells. The protected version of this battery won’t fit in this charger/power supply. Not really and issue as the unit is protected to prevent over charge and over discharge of the unprotected batteries.

I’ve also test charged my iPhone with this power supply and the charge took my iPhone from 20% to 100% and the 18650 battery still has a fair bit of charge left (after charging my iPhone, I put the battery in my Zebralight headlight and tested the battery… it gave two flashes (out of a possible four flashes for a fully charged battery). I’ll test it tonight to see how much the remaining charge will boost my iPhone.

I just tested the Energizer 3xAA lithium charger that I received from Best Buy. I started at 58% on the Delorme SE and the charger only boosted the Delorme to 63%! I think there voltage may be wrong or something. Using the Zebralight test, all three AA lithium cells show "4 flashes" after the charging of the Delorme (which I left on for 4 hours). Oh well, at least I have three nearly new lithium cells for $10.

Each Energizer lithium AA cell has an open circuit voltage of about 1.7V. So, three in series will get you about 5.1V, and that is also what I measured on mine. The trick with lithium primary cells is that they will maintain that open circuit voltage fairly well until they are almost ready to die. So, you could possibly have three used cells that give you almost 5.1V, but they can't supply quite all of the amperage that you might be demanding with some devices.

–B.G.–

I agree that it's the amperage that's the problem with the AA chargers. The Miller Charger that I linked above (which uses an 18650 lithium rechargeable battery) pushes out 1.2 amps and that's why it can fully charge the inReach.

I did some final testing on my iPhone with the same charger and I can get two full charges out of one 18650 battery. It actually charges the iPhone very quickly.

Mike, I guess you know that one single AA lithium battery can deliver 3 amps continuously in short circuit, so three in series can deliver a lot at nearly 5V. Of course there could be some limitations in the small wires and connectors.

We need to do a test of the Delorme input current demand when charging.

–B.G.–

@Bob

The problem is exactly what you allude to… the raw battery spec isn't what you get from these power supplies.

It's obviously dialed back for whatever reason. The Lithium 18650 batteries that I use have a very high potential output but the power supply that they are used in lists the output at only 1.2 amps.

I believe the spec on the 3AA Energizer charger lists an output of only .5 amp. That's too low for the inReach. Delorme recommends the Goal Zero power supply for charging the inReach and that unit puts out 5V and up to 1 amp, so I'd assume that the Goal Zero spec is what you should be looking for in an alternate charger (and the 18650 charger I have is pretty close and a lot cheaper/lighter than the Goal Zero (79 grams vs 181 grams)).

Mike, I already have a Goal Zero Nomad-7 panel, with or without the Guide 10 battery pack. Getting all of the cables right is another trick. I consider a USB cable to be for data transfer more than for power transfer.

–B.G.–

Mike, Do you have an idea of how long the 18650 rechargeables hold their charge? I am hiking the JMT and would be mailing a charged 18650 to a resupply location where it would be sitting for about 4 weeks or so. I assume that if properly packaged, the cell would not significantly discharge during that time. I ordered the FastTech charger, but the panasonic 3400mAh cells are now sold out. I bought some 3100mAh cells instead and will test them with the Delorme.

Thanks for the information!

-Bill.

Typical lithium rechargeable batteries are supposed to have a self-discharge rate of less than 1% per day. A good one that is fairly new will be less than that. An old one that is getting funky might be 3-5% per day.

–B.G.–

>> Mike, Do you have an idea of how long the 18650 rechargeables hold their charge? <<

I’ve never really measured the rate of discharge but I just tested a battery (new-ish 18650) with my zebralight and did the flash test and got 4 flashes. The battery was charged about three weeks ago. I also tested the voltage and it’s the same as my freshly charged batteries.

This Candle Power Forum link provides lots of opinions on the subject. Bottom line seems to be that after 4 weeks in normal temperatures, the power drain will be negligible.

I was curious if inReach users on this site worry about their web map security on the Delorme site.

Knowing that by default, your personal web map url ends with you name, I typed in a bunch of BPL'er's names at the end of the mapshare url and was surprised to get so many successful hits. Most are password protected but some aren't!

Pretty obvious by my account name on this site that I don't like my full name to be exposed and I dislike sites (like BPL and inReach's mapshare) that default to your full name.

If you are wondering how to change your mapshare URL, it's an option under the "Social" tab on your inReach web page. I like the fact that they let you name the end piece of your mapshare url. You can set a password under "options" on the same tab.

May not be a concern to some but I don't want the world to know where I live or when I am out of town (judging by the way points and tracks, it's obvious that many people play with their inReach at home).

Last year on the JMT we had 10 days from MTR to Whitney – meaning no recharge. I set the device to tracking every 4 hours, sent two presets every day (starting hiking…stopping for the night), then had several longer exchanges towards the end to coordinate my ride from whitney portal.

I had bluetooth off, locked the screen all day, hiked for probably 11-13 hrs/day, kept the screen brightness at 10% (but had to up it when I sent those messages I had to actually type out)…

It lasted all the way to Whitney Portal with about 20% left. So that was 10 days with those settings. I was soooo careful about it because I knew I would need to contact my uncle about picking us up.

Here's the scoop:

https://support.delorme.com/kb/articles/44-inreach-se-firmware-update-release-notes

Now, when powering on, the screen is locked, thereby making a faux SOS much less likely. Also, in settings you can choose Screen Lock, so that when activating the display you have to unlock the screen. Probably a good practice. It's two more button pushes, but the chance of doing anything accidentally is just about eliminated. Clumsiness and ignorance remain problems.

The Data Use page is much improved, giving the specifics of your actual data plan and its monthly renewal date. What is more, it resets the data use counters on each renewal date automatically, so you know how many of your allotments you've used in the current billing cycle.

Jim, the support Release Notes refer to Firmware 2.5.

If you use the Sync function to grab the new version, it loads in as ver. 1.2.1.8770 and no explanation of the numbers. But, it seems to be useful.

–B.G.–

Bob, the version I got was 2.5.17898.

Just checked the manufacturer's spec for the Energizer PP-3AAMC, and it shows 5V and 1A, which should be enough to charge the SE.

My recharge tests were not very demanding because I'm lazy and a cheapskate. Instead of using expensive Li AA cells I used rechargeable NiMH cells. Instead of trying to recharge a depleted SE, I recharged one after a mere day's use, which left it at about 94%. Actually, I did this several times. The result was simple success. In short order, less than an hour, as I recall, the SE was charged back up to 100%.

However, reading here of the rechargeable Li-ion cells and charger from FastTech, I ordered the kit right away. Looks to be lighter and higher capacity.

We'll see!

Reminder: DeLorme inReach SE firmware updates will reset some of your settings. Check after update.

In my case, Time Zone reset to Eastern, Bluetooth reset to On, Display Timer reset to 30 seconds, Mute All reset to Off.

Screen Lock and improved Data Use page look like good improvements.

— Rex

None of my settings were changed.

–B.G.–