Can Garmin Edge 500/510 and 800/810 be charged while riding?

Garmin Edge 800, 810 and 1000 can be charged when exercise is active.

You can use for example power bank or usb dynamo charger (ie. Busch&Muller E-werk, Luxos U light or Supernova The Plug).

It is not recommended to charge anything with usb when it is raining.

Also note that Garmin 1000's plug is in the bottom so cable might not fit when device is mounted on handlebar.

I can confirm that the garmin 910XT watch is also able to be recharged while recording an activity, the display changes to charging & its % so no information, the Garmin 500 cant be recharge as it will reset any activity unless there is a setting that I haven't seen.

I just completed a 300K brevet last weekend and my Garmin 500 ran out of juice about 2 miles from the end of the 190 miles. 18 hours. I just tried to plug it into an external battery that will charge phones and the Garmin 500, but the Garmin will not operate while plugged in and charging. Note this is the Garmin 500, not the 510.

A friend used an 810 on the ride charging through an external battery on the same ride.

I use the Garmin 800 and an external battery with USB output.

The Garmin will keep running for days like that, with no backlight BUT the data recording cannot cope with a 24 hour bike ride.

On my last two 24 hour cycle events, the Garmin corrupted the activity file at around 23 hours which was somewhat 'annoying'.

I have tested it on distance, with car journeys, and it can cope with 650km in 12 hours.

But cycling 560km in 24 hours is not feasible, it seems. Probably too many data points.

You should stop the timing at 12 hours, reset, and start a new 12 hour session.

Yes you can charge the Edge 500 whilst riding at the same time, and record your ride as well.

http://www.joewein.net/blog/2013/03/04/garmin-edge-usb-power-hack/

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Summary: an OTG adapter cable will charge the Garmin 500 using the rear port and allow it to keep recording. The Garmin tests one of the pins to see if it should go into PC Storage device mode, which ends the ride. The OTG adapter grounds the pin under test, and the garmin just gets power.

A generic USB cable will have the Edge switch to storage mode but I've found the Garmin cables allow charging whilst using. I have an external battery pack which I used on day-long back-country rides in the alps and could plug it in whilst on a chairlift or at a bar without interrupting the tracking. Arguably I didn't need to but it does mean that when I get a USB dynamo hub I have the cable ready to go.

I charge mine when on very long bike rides - but when the external power source also dies the Garmin automatically powers down unless you tap the X on the screen.

Really wish that Garmin would use bigger batteries!!!

Yes, it can.

I just did 200 mile ride and my Garmin Edge 800 charged fine when I plugged in my power brick after about 9 hours while riding.

Charged it right up and I lost no data.

as far as i understand it all garmins will charge off any cable/charger combination except for the Edge 500... basically the cable needs to have pins 4 and 5 grounded to earth not just pin 4, so a normal sync cable will not work you need a special charge cable, not content with paying the £12 for a usb cable for this particular use, i made my own by cutting the head off a normal lead and attaching a new head on it readily available off ebay for a few £. obviously this requires very good soldering skills to achieve the other option is link pins 4 and 5 together on the back of the garmin with a small bit of cable, i found a small length of the copper wire from an ethernet cable worked best, but is a pain to get in and out and you have ot take it out to sync with computer or it just doesnt recognise the computer.