HELP: TT Go 910's won't charge

[Hichhiker]

Need help with fixing two 910s that will not charge while in cradle.

I have two 910's with exact same issue - the cradles will not charge the units.

Symptoms:

The green light is on, but unless some wiggling is done, the battery indicator in the route overview does not say "charging" leading the unit to eventually to discharge and die. The charging will often stop even after wiggling was done.

I have cleaned the contacts on both units and all cradles I've tested this with. It does not look like a surface contact damage.

I have replaced batteries on both units, but the issue persists. (pre-battery exchange, one unit was completely drained and would not power on, and the other was getting there)

I have cleaned contacts on all cradles and units -

A few observations:

* The green light on the top of the unit does not seem to indicate charging - but it does seem to say that
* The unit will not turn on if the battery is not charged, and if the charging is not happening, eventually it will shut down due to battery drain

I am wondering if this is a charging circuit issue - maybe the current is sufficient for the green LED but not enough for charging?

Any suggestions would be appreciated as it seems a waste to loose two of these units. for something this silly.

 

[mikealder]

How secure is the power cable that goes in to the Home Dock as these have been known to be poor fitting leading to a loss of charge capability although from your description I would tend to think the fault is down to wear on the multiway connector in the base of the device as the contacts can get bent through use which is very difficult to spot but does lead to a lack of charge - Mike

 

[Hichhiker]

How secure is the power cable that goes in to the Home Dock as these have been known to be poor fitting leading to a loss of charge capability although from your description I would tend to think the fault is down to wear on the multiway connector in the base of the device as the contacts can get bent through use which is very difficult to spot but does lead to a lack of charge - Mike

It looks pretty secure, and I tried both the home dock and the card dock - although so far in all my tests I used the home power adapter. As for multiway connector - it does seem to be the issue. The pins on docs look fine, on one the the 910's the pings look perfect too, but on the other, one of the pins seems to stick out.

Is there a pinout for this connector to see which pins are potentially to blame?

-HH

 

[BIGTUNA]

same issue

I have had my GO910 since it came out, and after many years it stopped working. I had to buy a new one, but I still want this to work as a backup.

I installed a new battery and the unit worked long enough to get me excited and after 10 minutes kept shutting off. New battery is not charging...

Can't wait to find out a fix!

 

[Nuc]

I am experiencing exactly the same symtoms as Hitchhiker with my TT GO910. In addition, I cannot charge the unit while it is switched OFF and standing on the cradle because it will switch itself ON after a few minutes. No matter if it is on the desktop charger or on the car charger. I have also a brand new battery with even higher capacity than the original.

It seems that the problem is Go910 specific. There are no traces of corrosion, detached contacts from the PCB or anything like that. Any pointer to fixing this trouble would be highly appreciated.
-= Nuc =-

 

[Danizzz]

How secure is the power cable that goes in to the Home Dock as these have been known to be poor fitting leading to a loss of charge capability although from your description I would tend to think the fault is down to wear on the multiway connector in the base of the device as the contacts can get bent through use which is very difficult to spot but does lead to a lack of charge - Mike

I think i have the same problem too. When i move the device on the dock it seems to recharge but it's very unstable.

Any suggestion on how to fix the multiway connector?

 

[Andy_P]

Do you also have a Go910 Danizzz?

If you do, IIRC, there is a rubber bung on the bottom of the 910 which helps to seat the device firmly on the charging base. That bung sometimes gets lost,

Having said that, some people reported that removing the bung helped their units to connect!

 

[Danizzz]

I have a go 910
I tried also to replace the battery without luck....the battery won't charge but I have the green light on.
Now I want to try to bypass the battery and use it only with the mount and the electric power on.
Do you know if there's a way? Can I bypass the battery charge and make the electric power turn the device on?

Ty

 

[mikealder]

Whilst its not impossible to do its a lot of work and will require use of a soldering iron.

The car charger and home charger cable both output 5V DC the battery in the TomTom is 3,7V DC.

You need to re-wire the battery connector to an external socket and feed a stabilized 3,7V DC in to this socket - Mike

 

[Danizzz]

Ty mike
I'd like to avoid the external rewire.

If I cut the red and black cable on the internal battery can I get the power on the device without the use of the battery?

 

[Andy_P]

No.

....and did you check the rubber bung I suggested.

 

[Danizzz]

Ty Andy

I have the rubber bung on. I tried to remove it but still the same problem: green light on and the battery won't charge!

 

[TomTom Troubles]

I know you have made a lot of suggestion, which are quite good, but I'm still having the same issues that have been described above. I have the green light, have changed the battery, car and home docking stations won't charge the battery enough for it to operate ten minutes. Any other suggestions?

 

[Andy_P]

Hang on... is it the same issue?

The OP wasn't getting the charging indicator on screen unless he wiggled the connection to the cradle.

Is that what you're getting, or does it LOOK like it should be charging but the battery simply isn't getting or holding the charge?

 

[go930user]

Hi all,

My old 910 is now being used by my son, but I remember that the docking station that was supplied for use with a computer would not charge the device unless the supplied mains charger was plugged in to the side of the dock.

Now it may seem a silly question to ask TT Troubles, but you are using a mains charger plugged into the power socket on the dock as well as the usb cable to the computer?

If I remember correctly the USB cable +5V supply wire to the dock ended on an open circuit pad on the internal circuit card. This meant that you could not charge the device from the computer USB port. I think TT took this track because, normally, a USB port only has a current capability of up to 0.5 amps, and such a current would take about 7-8 hours to charge a Go910 battery, if the device was switched on the drain current exceeded this. Means that the 910 would eventually run out of power if relying on a normal USB port as a supply source. Nasty if it took several hours to download a map - and it often did on an ASDL1 link - dial up was awaste of time.

Also, what kind of car charger is TTT using? if it is one of those after market USB things that you can plug a suitable cable into, that might be current limited as well.

Cheers

Go930user

 

[Pater]

My old 910 is now being used by my son, but I remember that the docking station that was supplied for use with a computer would not charge the device unless the supplied mains charger was plugged in to the side of the dock.

Now it may seem a silly question to ask TT Troubles, but you are using a mains charger plugged into the power socket on the dock as well as the usb cable to the computer?

I still use my 910. Unless the mains charger is 'live' and plugged into the dock, the 910 does not charge.

 

[go930user]

Hi Pater,

Nice to know that my aging memory is still working - sometimes:roll:!

It happens that my desk PC is equipped with "charging" USB ports which allow up to 1 Amp of current to flow, and so to avoid the business of loading up a mains charger close to the PC I modded an after market dock so that it would charge the 910 from the computer, with enough current capability to both run the device, if you were doing software upgrades, and provide some battery charge too.

I took a photograph of the mod, that I will try to find and upload it for anyone who is interested.

I'll repeat this warning if I find the pic and get it uploaded - DO NOT run both the mains charger and connect to the PC via the USB port if you do the mod. You are likely to burn out the USB port chip - and it will only work if you have high current capacity USB ports.

Cheers

Go930user

 

[canderson]

Another thing I've seen done more than once is to run parallel USB ports for power. Nothing more than a simple Y adapter that sources two ports out to one device. I have a small external read/write DVD that accompanies a netbook that uses this method.

 

[go930user]

Hi again,

Yes, I've seen those things too, but haven't had cause to use one for quite a while now. (It allowed me to use an external FDD on an old laptop).

But it won't solve the problem of charging a 910 from a USB port because of the open circuit somewhere between the 910 and the power source at the computer end of the USB cable (usually in the 910 dock). You need to connect the +ve connection on the charging socket in the dock to the "blind" pad that the +5Volt lead in the USB cable is attached to. I'm still looking for the photo.

And another caution, this about Y cables. They are fine if the two USB plugs are attached to two USB outlets sourced from the same USB chip because, from memory, a single USB controller chip handles both power and signal to a pair of USB ports. If you are paralleling the power sources together, you need them to be matched so they do not "fight" one another, but share the load equally between them.

Cheers

Go930user

 

[canderson]

Darned near wrote about just that issue... but since a person would either be running off a pair or front or rear ports on a desktop, or a side/side pair on a notebook or netbook, they'd be off the same USB host chip, and either identical traces or front panel wiring, and hence with impedance between so nearly identical that there would be no voltage difference worthy of mention.