Car charger stuff up GPS not charging

[craya]

Hello Folks,
I made a daft move today. The end of my cigarette lighter charger broke and as I couldn't find another end to screw in I got a new plug and wired it up to the genuine cable. Whilst the tom tom cable had a 'red and black' the aftermarket male socket just had two blacks. I took a punt and just chanced it. Well I got it wrong and when I put my gps in the charger smoke quickly formed! The GPS seemed fine except that it doesn't charge on my usb cable or from my rectified car charger. Have I simply melted a wire in the unit, or does the unit have a fuse that will blow that will not allow me to charge? I know I made a crappy call but just wondering if anyone can help me.
Cheers.
From the idiot

 

[dhn]

Smoke is often an indication the unit has been fried.

 

[craya]

Even if the unit still operates (ie navigates and so on?)

 

[dhn]

Well, if so.....

You seem to have gotten lucky. This time, I'd go for a legitimate car charger. I don't know what the situation is in Oz but, in North America, big boz electronics stores carry generic chargers that work and are a few dollars cheaper than those available on the TT web site.

 

[Andy_P]

It's sounds likely that you have fried a component early on in the CHARGING circuitry (often its a diode), so the device still works, but you might either have no way to charge the battery or to power the Go externally.

That's obviously not good news, if you can't do either of them!

 

[canderson]

Guess it depends upon which end was smoking. I'm hoping, for the OP's sake, that it was down by the charger!

 

[Andy_P]

Hmmm... I know I'm a bit od a pessimist, but when has it ever been the cheaper bit that fails!

 

[canderson]

Almost never, and we know that these devices actually depend upon smoke to operate correctly. Let the smoke out and see what happens...

 

[- et -]

Almost never, and we know that these devices actually depend upon smoke to operate correctly. Let the smoke out and see what happens...

That joke is even older than I am - which means that it is OLD!

- Tom -