Tomtom T3 carkit - fuse rating?

[eillo7]

My Tomtom cradle for Tungsten T3 died today. I opened it up and discovered the 'pigtail' fuse soldered on the PCB has blown.

I have bypassed the fuse for the moment, but this is a bad long term strategy and I need to replace it quickly. Trouble is, I don't know what the rating is (and cannot read the markings).

Does anyone know what the PCB fuse rating is?

[MikeProcter]

I've just opened up my dead T3 cradle & I think that the fuse you mean is F1 on the PCB. It looks like 250V, 3.0A to me! but it is dificult to read, even with a magnifying glass. It shouldn't be too difficult to unsolder this fuse and then you could confirm its rating. It looks as if the fuse is a force fit into a cup at either end. I haven't tried taking it out yet.
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Skoda Columbus and for emergencies: TomTom + iPhone 4 & TomTom car kit

[eillo7]

Hey Mike, that is indeed the beastie!

I thought it said 250V too, which I found rather strange given that it is running in a Car cradle at only 12V. Glad it isn't just me that had trouble reading the thing...

My difficulty now is that I have soldered a wire on the outside (cap to cap, thus bypassing the innards of the fuse) and the soldering has masked the markings. Doh!

So I don't currently have a working fuse in the cradle. I guess the 3.0A is the more important issue than the voltage, so provided I put another 3 amp fuse in there it should do the trick.

Tomtom said (actually quite helpfully as it happens) that it might be either 0.5 or 1.5 depending on which model of cradle I have...but I thought it said 3.0 too.

Thanks for your help, and especially for going to all that effort to have a look for me - you've pretty much backed up what I thought. Much appreciated. :D

[MikeProcter]

No Problem.
This cradle charges my T3 and also charged the BT receiver, but stopped working with my wired receiver, so I bought a new cradle only from Tom Tom, without all the other stuff.

Still not sure what makes them rattle inside though, unless it is the coil.
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Skoda Columbus and for emergencies: TomTom + iPhone 4 & TomTom car kit

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