The dreaded Memory Battery Low error in your old Garmin GPS 48 doesn’t mean the unit is doomed . .
I was rummaging around the dead letter office at Practical Sailor and came across this bit of advice tucked away in our old Mailport files. Knowing that many Practical Sailor readers, like me, are quite content with a set of charts and a basic GPS showing position, course and speed data, I thought it would be a good idea to resurrect this handy tip. Hopefully, it reaches you before that ye ol Garmin gets chucked out during some overzealous spring cleaning.
Introduced more than 10 years ago, the GPS 48 was one of Garmins best selling handheld GPS units. I like to think of it as the first nail hammered into mighty Magellans coffin.
Sadly, the unit wasnt meant to last forever. Or, should I say, Garmin did not intend to support it forever? Doesnt matter. Sooner or later, the lithium battery required by the internal memory peters out, leaving all but the most industrious owners with a worthless piece of plastic and a bad taste in their mouth.
Fortunately, Practical Sailor readers are the industrious type, and they also have no qualms about sharing their wisdom.
A few summers back, reader Rick McLaren, owner of the 1970 S&S Swan 37, Dulcinea, pointed out that you can replace the GPS 48s internal battery with a your basic CR 2032 lithium battery.
If you want to go really high tech you can order a battery holder to avoid soldering directly to the lithium cell, and also to facilitate future replacement.
The parts required for the battery holder are available from Digikey, so is the battery. Last time I checked, the battery holder was less than a buck.
BS-3-ND Battery Holder-68
Step 1: Crack open the GPS casing around the perimeter of the GPS.
Battery in Garmin 48 GPS
Step 2: Unplug the wiring to make it more accessible.
Step 3: Remove the existing soldered-in dead battery. Both wires should be green, note which one is on the top, that should be the negative conductor – at least it was in McLarens GPS.
Step 4: Solder your new battery holder in place, making sure to connect the negative to negative and positive to positive (see Step 3 for correct identification of wires).
Step 5: Install the new CR 2032 battery. (You may still get the memory battery to low warning.)
Step 6: Install new AA batteries. (The warning should disappear.)
Step 6: Check for proper operation.
Step 7: Reassemble parts and seal with silicone.
Nope, you don’t get 3D contours of the bottom. Nor does the GPS 48 tell you where the nearest Dominos Pizza is. But if you have a chart, it will tell you where you are, and if you know where you are going it will tell you when youll probably get there. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
For our report on the newer Garmin Colorado and Oregon GPS, see this GPS test article.
A little more detail on “cracking the case open” would be extremely helpfull.
Thanks
My garmin 48 looks to have a battery in the white half of the casing. Just under the antenna outlet. It has a red and black wires. There is a penny sized disk in the black half that has 2 green wires to it but doesn’t look like the battery? Thoughts?
I have been on the water for over 55 years and I have a Garmin 48 and loved it. However, the screen does not light up any more though you can see the image if the sun hits it just the right way. It’s a waste of time talking to Garmin Canada about the issue so my question is, does anyone here know anything about fixing this issue? Regardless of the condition of this unit, I will never get rid of it as it has literally saved my life and brought me back to shore safely during a zero visibility storm. Those who have been caught in a storm know what I am talking about. Any assistance with this issue will be greatly appreciated! Feel free to email me at [email protected]
Thanks for taking the time to read this.