Car charger question?

[JohnSul]

I have a ONE XL (no SD card, NA maps built in). I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago and had problems with the XL. I charged the battery via computer prior to my trip. During the week, I used the XL every day and always plugged into the cig plug. I'm certain I had a good connection.

A couple of times during the vacation, the XL would get stuck writing a new route. The progress bar would get stuck at some percentage, the unit would lock up, and eventually reboot itself. Did this several times in a row.

On the last day, I could not Navigate To the airport. Just kept locking up and rebooting itself. I called tomtom help and they had me reset it. Seems like its working, but I don't use the unit too much around home.

One thing they told me though was that the battery was probably drained. When I told her I always plugged into the cig adapter, she said that this does not charge the unit, only "maintains" it. The .pdf help file calls it a car charger, but support says it doesn't charge. They told me the only way to charge it is via USB on my PC. Has anyone else heard this or experienced similar reboots?

If so, any solutions would be helpful.

First post, great site, thanks.

 

[Rick F.]

<snip> When I told her I always plugged into the cig adapter, she said that this does not charge the unit, only "maintains" it. The .pdf help file calls it a car charger, but support says it doesn't charge. They told me the only way to charge it is via USB on my PC. Has anyone else heard this or experienced similar reboots?

If so, any solutions would be helpful.

First post, great site, thanks.

What!? That's got to be wrong. I'm sure the cig adapter charges the TT battery. Makes no sense the other way. I think I read somewhere that the 'car charger' actually charges better than the USB connection to the PC (not sure on that). If the green LED is on, then my understanding is that the battery is charging.

 

[danzeb]

I had the exact same problem in Florida with my TT One Le.
I removed the SD card I was using but the problem continued.
I reset the TT but the problem continued.
I deleted the itinerary I had set up and the problem stopped.
I guessed it was a corrupt itinerary file but I can't verify that.

That was several weeks ago and I have not had the problem since.

 

[Birdman]

I've seen this issue reported before and the solution was running TomTom's ClearFlash utility and performing the Pin reset (which you've already don):
>>> Clear Flash Utility <<<

 

[JohnSul]

What!? That's got to be wrong. I'm sure the cig adapter charges the TT battery. Makes no sense the other way. I think I read somewhere that the 'car charger' actually charges better than the USB connection to the PC (not sure on that). If the green LED is on, then my understanding is that the battery is charging.

I agree it sure seemed wrong to me. But I repeated it back to the lady 3 times and she kept saying the same thing.

 

[flyer1024]

well, she doesn't know what she's talking about. I put mine in the car this afternoon in a discharged state, plugged it into the adaptor and completed a two hour drive. It was charged when I took it out of the vehicle.

When operating in a less than charged state, the word "charging" will show up on your battery display. It disappears then the unit is fully charged.

 

[Pedro2NR]

It is recommended to use the USB or a wall charger to charge the unit and not the car charger.
It is also recommended to charge the unit once a week.

 

[Stan]

Can't charge a bat from
dc only from AC

 

[flyer1024]

Can't charge a bat from
dc only from AC

actually you can. I fly electric powered model aircraft and we charge our flight batteries repeatedly all day from the 12 volt batteries in our vehicles.

we even have chargers that boost the 12 volts to a higher level so we can charge say a 20 or 30 volt flight battery from the 12 volt car battery. very common technology.

the only thing we have to be careful about is dropping the vehicle battery down too low, and it takes a lot of flying to do that.

 

[Smokiewolf]

It is recommended to use the USB or a wall charger to charge the unit and not the car charger.
It is also recommended to charge the unit once a week.

Does anyone know why this is?

 

[SShadow]

The voltage/current provided by a vehicle can change widely depending on what the current status of the car is. It's not a consistant voltage as what you get from the house/usb connection.
I tried to find some specific information, but Google is failing me (or I'm failing Google by not framing the search correctly...)

 

[Smokiewolf]

The voltage/current provided by a vehicle can change widely depending on what the current status of the car is. It's not a consistant voltage as what you get from the house/usb connection.
I tried to find some specific information, but Google is failing me (or I'm failing Google by not framing the search correctly...)

Thanks buddy!

 

[flyer1024]

That's true Wil, but I'm not sure I'd put any more faith in accurate current from those home chargers we're paying 5.88 or so for....

I charge both at home and in the vehicle and see no difference really.

 

[ldivinag]

What!? That's got to be wrong. I'm sure the cig adapter charges the TT battery. Makes no sense the other way. I think I read somewhere that the 'car charger' actually charges better than the USB connection to the PC (not sure on that). If the green LED is on, then my understanding is that the battery is charging.

USB specs says power from it maxes out at 5 volts.

car normal voltage is around 12 volts.

so why is there an issue?

 

[Rick F.]

USB specs says power from it maxes out at 5 volts.

car normal voltage is around 12 volts.

so why is there an issue?

All 12 volts is not going to the TT unit. There's some circuitry (at least a clamping diode) to set the voltage to the correct amount... something around 5v.

 

[Smokiewolf]

All 12 volts is not going to the TT unit. There's some circuitry (at least a clamping diode) to set the voltage to the correct amount... something around 5v.

So then why is it recommended not to charge the unit with the car charger?

 

[PiratePast40]

I didn't see anything in the manual that recommended one method over the other. My experience has been that charging via the USB cable doesn't work vwery well. In fact, with the unit left on overnight and plugged into the computer, the battery is almost dead. That tells me that the USB can barely run the TomTom let alone charge the battery. I don't know much about charging circuits but the 500 ma from USB doesn't seem like much when you compare it to the 20 amps available from a typical car charger.

I just looked at the AC adapter I've ocasionally used and it says that the output is only 550 ma! That's odd because it does a great job of charging. Well heck, just blew away my own theory of why the USB doesn't charge the unit

 

[Smokiewolf]

I didn't see anything in the manual that recommended one method over the other. My experience has been that charging via the USB cable doesn't work vwery well. In fact, with the unit left on overnight and plugged into the computer, the battery is almost dead. That tells me that the USB can barely run the TomTom let alone charge the battery. I don't know much about charging circuits but the 500 ma from USB doesn't seem like much when you compare it to the 20 amps available from a typical car charger.

I just looked at the AC adapter I've ocasionally used and it says that the output is only 550 ma! That's odd because it does a great job of charging. Well heck, just blew away my own theory of why the USB doesn't charge the unit

SShadow said he found that info on Google(#11)

Also, make sure that it's a USB port directly on the computer, not a port on a keyboard, or monitor.

 

[SShadow]

Because the jumps/dips in amperage could damage the charger, I would assume... But I've been using mine in my truck, even when cranking, and have had no issues. *shrug* It's probably just their due diligence... Just like the No Cellphones signs in hospitals. There's been no issues with cellphones and hospital equipment (so I have read) since the old 3watt bag phones. It's there "Just in case".

 

[flyer1024]

So then why is it recommended not to charge the unit with the car charger?

I don't see that on anything I've read. When I bought mine last fall, I just plugged it in and took off on a two week trip. It never saw anything but the car charger.

I only recently bought one for the house as a convenience.

I don't even think twice about using the car charger. I have a lot of experience with charging batteries from a 12 volt vehicle source, packs with far higher capacity than that piddling little thing in the tomtom.

trust me, the car charger is fine.