Charging TOMTOM GO?

buckman · Regular Visitor Joined: Sep 09, 2004 Posts: 73

I have been only charging the GO from the house from the mains AC.

Does anyone know how long the GO lasts just on its battery for a full charge? Mine seems to flash the battery indicator after a while, but once using it (to almost go across the country) this flashed for ages, and after panicking that it would die, it lasted the whole journey easily!!

So i was wondering:

1 - How long does it last in the car, just running off battery in a single use.?

2 - Ive heard that the Car adaptor has damaged a few units? is this still safe to charge in the car whilst driving?

3 - How long are you supposed to charge the unit for? Is it until the Green charge light goes off, on the front of the GO? as mine is permanently on when i charge (even overnight)

4 - Does charging the unit EVERYTIME after you have used it wear down the internal battery? as i know these can be costly to replace... basically how long and how many charges can the TomTom take in its lifetime?

Thanks Smile

sgould · Frequent Visitor Joined: Oct 05, 2004 Posts: 1320

I get about 5 hours use from a full charge. I hardly ever need to use the car lead.

The rumour is that the faulty car charger lead was the early one marked 12 volt. Later ones were 12/24volt. This may just be a rumour. There don't seem to be many reports about burnt out units now.

Don't know the rest Rolling Eyes

but I think it was only NiCad batteries that had the charging memory prolem and TTG uses Lithium(?) Nickel(?)

Lotus_Esprit_Turbo · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 11:57 pm Post subject:

I have a further question,

When the (welded in there) battery dies on some distant day,
Does the car power lead run the device regardless of the battery condition or does it need even a partly servicable battery to work?

Am assuming the lead IS a power lead too and the battery life while handy will not affect the unit's usefulness when it starts to fade (as it will).
One day.

Eldar · Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:55 pm Post subject:

TTG uses a Li-Ion battery, using external power should prolong the battery life, and there is no need to wait untill the battery is fully discharge to charge it.

There is no indication that the battery has been fully charged if the unit is switched off (the green LED will stay on as long as external power is connected), otherwise the battery status can be seen on the "status summary" screen of a TTG. A unit can work on external power only even without a battery. Over the years you will see that your TTG lasts less on a full charge, but it is unlikely that the battery will fail completely in the first five years.

Contrary to popular belief the battery is not soldered in the unit and can easily be changed, although it does require some specialist knowledge. The battery itlself is a very common and therefore cheap type and should it fail in a few years time, a replacement would be easy to find.

gingernut777 · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:16 am Post subject:

Eldar · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:53 am Post subject:

I bet you 20 quid that the battery is not soldered on a standard unit and there is a 3-way connector on the processor board for the battery. Do you accept the bet?

Oldboy · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 4:15 pm Post subject:

Leaving aside the question of how the battery is connected, a Lithium-Ion's battery life is often quoted as a number of charging recycling times.

If the power lead is used always and the battery kept fully charged, it's lifetime is greatly extended. Figures are not usually given for this sort of usage.

Frazzle · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 05, 2004 Posts: 66

I have a lot of contact with Lithium Ion cells in my day job.

The TTG's lithium Ion battery is not an "odd ball" type like those found in Digital cameras and is avaialble from supplieres such as "Eurobatteries" for aroung £10. Any competent electronics engineer can fit it. I X-Rayed my TTG and measured the cells dimensions. They are pretty standard for it's capacity. I hate bespoke cells that can't be sourced from 3rd party suppliers so this came as a pleasant discovery.

The Lithium Ion cell has wires soldered to it and these terminate in a small molex type connector. These leads will have to be transferred to the new cell. Soldering is required.

I have yet to find a cell ready fitted with the required lead and connector but would be interested if anyone knows different.

The life of the cell should be pretty good even when cycled. I have had several notebook PC's that use Lithium Ion technology and have yet to have a battery failure. The iPOD had some very bad publicity over short cell life but I understand it was a cell quality issue and not typical of Lithium Ion cells in general.

As a word of warning, the Lithium Ion cell chemistry is designed to be used and a lack of use DOES cause capacity issues. This is not like NiCd cells memory effect and responds well to a few simple charge, discharge cycles. Maximum capacity occurs after approx 5 charge/discharge cycles.

Oh and don't mess with Lithium Ion cells unless you know what you are doing..... The reason they are not commonly available via places like Maplin is that they require careful charge/discharge management. Failure to observe the charge/discharge recommendations will likely result in an small explosion !

IMHO stop worrying about the Lithium Ion cell and enjoy using your TTG in which ever way best suits your application. By the time your cell starts to show it's age you will probably be ready to move onto the next generation TTG anyway.

gingernut777 · Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 6:37 am Post subject:

Oldboy · Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 8:31 am Post subject:

Frazzle wrote:

Eldar · Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:45 am Post subject:

gingernut777 · Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 11:24 am Post subject:

Eldar · Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 1:14 pm Post subject:

Frazzle · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 05, 2004 Posts: 66

Hi Eldar,

Thank you for your web link... very interesting.

You are right of course... you can buy a Lithium Ion battery with the wires and molex connector fitted.

Note however ... the web site states that you cannot buy the Varta cells "off the shelf" or through normal distributors. They state that they are made to order.

What this really means is that they will solder the wires to a standard Lithium Ion cell and save you the trouble of doing so. I am not sure if they will produce "one offs" or indeed sell direct to the public. If they will not then you are no further forward with this problem.

They correctly warn about using correct charging circuits. Many Lithium Ion suppliers will not supply to the public for fear of accidents due to explosion of the cell.

For interest Euro Batteries will supply the cell to the public but you have to solder the original connecting wires to the new cell as I have already stated.

Eldar · Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 1:12 am Post subject:

Frazzle, you are quite right about the availability of this battery, but there are quite a few components in many electronic devices which are not available in retail. The fact remains that the battery is a component of TTG and does not require soldering to install. I'm not even sure that there is any connection between the major parts of TTG which needs soldering. I'm sure TT will make spares (such as LCD, GPS receiver, processor board, etc) available to repair shops. And these days you can find almost anything on the Net. Any luck with this RF connector, BTW :-)?

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