iPaq 3870 stops charging after starting Tomtom

kempsmj · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 30, 2006 Posts: 1

Hi,

Everytime when I'm using TomTom5, my iPaq 3870 stops charging after a few minutes.
I'm using a bluetooth gps, and this is happening with the car charger, but also at home on the power adapter.
It seems to me that TomTom Navigator 5 has a bug which prevent the iPaq from charging. Has anyone seen this before or have any clue how to solv this?

peterc10 · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:31 pm Post subject:

Don't have the problem with TT5 and my Ipaq 6340. Charges fine.
_________________
Peter
HTC Sensation
Sygic GPS for Europe (No more TT "support"!)
Copilot for USA
Bury CC9060 bluetooth car kit & Brodit mount

mikealder · Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:24 pm Post subject:

Are you sure its not charging or just not lighting the LED ? check the battery capacity in % then run it for 30mins and re-check it, if its not gone down its just the LED, my 4700 does this at times - don't know why, but its just the LED not illuminating as mine still charges - Mike

MGTF · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 14, 2005 Posts: 27

Hi

i had the same problem start TT5 Charge LED went out exit TT5 LED came back on again this was with a 3870. Upgraded to a IPAQ 5500 and has no issues.

I think it may be down to TT5 working the processor 100% which resulted in the baery being trickle charged. As I sometimes drive 2 hours or so to go on a Hike i lost confidence that the Unit would be fully charged so upgraded.

drrbr1 · Lifetime Member Joined: May 13, 2004 Posts: 23

No such similar problem with iPAQ 3970 also using BT. Charges as normal in Brodit active mount.
Longest journey some 7 hours and battery fully charged at the end.

fatone · Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 9:22 am Post subject:

I have the exact same problem and the battery is not charging when the TTN is running. Also using version 5
_________________
IPAQ 3870 running Windows Media 2003, Pocket CoPilot 4, using the CoPilot GPS Jacket model D15A8

mikealder · Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:10 pm Post subject:

Do you have an option to enable Use USB Charging, then select Fast charge, I get at this option from the Start/ Settings/ system tab then hit the power icon - Mike

spicer02 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 11, 2006 Posts: 3

This is just to confirm that people are not going mad and that these problems DO occur with the ipaq 3870 and TomTomNav5. I have 2 x 3870's and after these symptoms were evident on the first, I requested TomTom to activate my software on the other, thinking that maybe the hardware was at fault. The problem was still there. While TomTom is running, the LED is the only way to know that the battery is being charged. This is important as overtime the ipaq connectors get a bit fussy and just being connected does not guarantee a charge.

I discussed this with TomTom support and their first idea was to send me a complimentary TomTom-badged charging cable. I humoured them, knowing that this was not going to fix the problem, and indeed it made no difference. When I informed TomTom support of this, the technician went off to speak to his manager, came back on the phone and informed me that this was a known problem that would not be fixed!! That was it. Old device = no more fixes.

Considering I have purchased every version of TomToms Navigator software and have the licences to prove it, I was annoyed as I am a loyal long-term customer and they have clearly introduced a bug into TomTomNav5. I will accept the fact that the 3870 is now relatively old hardware, and if they stated that it was incompatible or that there is a known bug, I wouldnt mind. But they state that it IS compatible and do NOT advertise this as a known bug.

Anyway, TomTom may or may not fix this, either as a patch to v5 or in a future version. In the meantime, I have done some investigation into how and when the symtoms occur and will post my findings here shortly.

lbendlin · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 5:02 pm Post subject:

Don't waste your time. As MGTF said, this is due to TTN5 hogging 100% of the processor time. The charging circuit doesn't get a chance to toggle the LED on and off, but it still charges (as you can see when going to Start ... Settings ... Power

TomTom will not fix that in the upcoming v6 version.
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

spicer02 · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 11, 2006 Posts: 3

[Thanks lbendlin. I had already drafted this by the time you replied so have posted it for completeness. It may help some people to at least live with the problem ;-) ]

OK. So this is what I do to consistently reproduce the problem on my ipaq 3870. I am guessing this will work on a 3850 as well:
- soft reset your ipaq
- connect to external power (docking station, car charging cable, etc)
- Start ... Settings ... System ... Power
- Confirm that the battery is charging, both visually with the battery app and also with the LED
- DO NOT CLOSE THIS SCREEN (ie do not select ok in top right hand corner)
- Press the hard 'iTask' button (ie right-most button on front of ipaq)
- Select Today
- Start TomTom
- Wait for the LED to stop flashing or go out completely
- DO NOT CLOSE THIS SCREEN (ie leave TomTom running)
- Press the hard 'iTask' button again
- Select 'Power' from the list
- Watch the battery information suddenly appear at exactly the same time as the LED starts working again !!!
- Press the hard 'iTask' button again
- Select 'TomTom Navigator' from the list
- Wait for the LED to dissapear

This technique not only demonstrates the problem but can also help to periodically check the battery state easily whilst TomTom is running.

It should be noted that TomTom have built in some battery interrogation to thier GUI, but this has proved just as unreliable and ineffective as the current LED issue. For those interested, to access the battery info from TomTom Navigator 5:
- In Navigator view, touch the Satellite strength bars in the bottom right hand corner of the screen
- the battery strength is shown above the number of satellites at the top on the right hand side

	PocketGPS
	Web