TomTom Bluetooth reciever

Jllo · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 11, 2004 Posts: 1

Quick query - can you run the "official" TomTom reciever directly off the car power supply?

The review on this site & also others I've read only seem to refer to it being rechargable, which is not really what I want. I want to leave it permanently mounted in the car, connected to the lighter socket [by a well hidden wire] so that the only thing I have to add / remove is the PDA.

Is this possible? If so, does the reciever shut itself down automatically once the ignition has been off for x minutes? If it does not do this, I am assuming that the current drain on the reciever is so low that it will not have any effect on the car battery overnight / over a weekend.

Any info / help appreciated.

thax1 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 05, 2003 Posts: 28

Usually your Cigarette lighter will be ignition-switched these days.

The GPS will only get power when the key is in the ignition. The GPS will not turn off when the ignition is off, but will run on its internal battery.

If the ignition is off for greater than 5-6 hours your battery will flatten, and it will switch off. It will then take a long time to gather satellite info again. Other problems may be manifested in flattening the battery, like the backup battery discharging.

The above is contrary to what happens if you wire in via the cradle. Then the unit powers off when the supply stops. It does NOT switch to battery. It powers on again when the supply is live. Removing and replacing the GPS from the cradle has the same effect.

Note that the GPS cradle is no longer included in the box (I'm told).

A better solution is to hardwire the GPS to an always-live circuit. Note that the cigarette lighter adaptor that can charge the GPS device directly also converts the voltage. You cannot just snip the plug and wire to 12volts. The GPS only wants 5volts.

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