Problems Hard-wiring TomTom Bluetooth GPS

hbanzon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 8

The directions for the bluetooth GPS receiver clearly state that when the GPS cradle is hardwired to the vehicle, then the receiver will turn on and off as power is applied. This is not the behaviour I've seen. I hardwired it to the cigar lighter in the rear of the vehicle, but the GPS does not automatically turn on when I turn the key. The two lights on the receiver flash briefly but the unit remains off. I can turn on the receiver manually, and it works fine, but I have the device mounted in the rear of the car (in the "boot" for you Brits) and it is quite inconvenient to trek back there to turn it on. For what it's worth, the car is a 2004 Toyota Sienna. Does this happen to anyone else? Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can try, short of moving it to the front?

Darren · Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:53 pm Post subject:

I have the same receiver hardwired and it turns on/off with the ignition.

You have hard wired the cradle using the alternative square/oblong power socket on the cradle base rather then the round socket which is for the cigar charger lead? And are you certain that the rear accessory socket is ignition controlled?
_________________
Darren Griffin

hbanzon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 8

The cig lighter is definitely ignition controlled. In fact, the LEDs on the receiver flash briefly as I turn the key, but the unit stays off. Yes, I am indeed using the square power connector on the side. I'm going to try using the cigar lighter connector directly into the cradle to see if I get the same behaviour. TomTom tech support gave me this response: "This element of the solution can vary from car to car relative to the uniqueness of vehicles electrical system. Our product managers are looking into this but we have no further information from them to offer at this time."
I think it may be that there is some spiking in the power going to the unit and it's causing it to shut down. I might try putting a capacitor across the leads to see if it stops.

NMatthew · Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2004 2:43 pm Post subject:

hbanzon, did you get your TT cradle sorted? If so, how? I have the same problem, the cradle powers the GPS and turns it off when the ignition is turned off. However, turning the ignition on gets (sometimes) a flash of the lights and then nothing. It turns on OK if you press its button. It seems to me that the switch on the GPS units is "soft" rather than a toggle and the unit does not remember i's supposed to be on. Car is BMW 5-series, Tom Tom "permanent power" cables installed by a professional phone car kit installer to be ignition sensed.

hbanzon · Occasional Visitor Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 8

Unfortunately no, I never got it resolved. Just this past saturday I gave up and moved the receiver to the front of the vehicle. The folks at TomTom were nice enough to send me another hardwire cable, and I tapped it into the power mirror controls in the front of the car. And now it works fine, turned on when the ignition is in the accessory position. I was going to hook up a voltmeter to the connector in the back and see if there was some kind of spiking, or maybe try a capacitor across the leads to soften the power spike. But in the end I just decided it would be more convenient to move it to the front. I guess it's nice to know that other people have the same issue. Hopefully TomTom will recognize it as a problem and issue some kind of fix.

chewie · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 16, 2004 Posts: 1

I too am having the same problems, although I am using the cigarette lighter adpater (not the square one)

When I turn the ignition on, the blue light flashes once, but then nothing and I have to press the button to turn it on

It turns off fine when I turn the ignition off.

I think it only does this when the receiver is fully charged. If the receiver needs charging then it performs as expected (turns on when I turn the ignition on and turns off when I turn the ignition off)

a4ace · Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 6:35 pm Post subject:

Damian · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 29, 2004 Posts: 30

I think that I am having similar problems to the above with my Vauxhall Vectra

I have got the GPS locater cradle on my parcel shelf, and I have the hard wire cable with the little square connector for the cradle wired into the rear cigarette lighter, which I know for a fact is ignition controlled.

When I turned the ignition on for the first time the receiever switched on, however it did not appear to charge (no flashing red light) is this correct ?

When I turned the ignition off the receiver did not turn off I had to turn it off manually.

Now it does not switch on again with the ignition, only manually

If I connect it to a permanent live how long will it take the receiver to drain the car battery

Any advice

Cheers

	PocketGPS
	Web