If all else fails, check your electrics

[Flibb]

Right where to start, a list of equipment might help I supose.

Landrover Defender 110 CSW
Toshiba E350 PDA
Haicom 203E wired mouse
TomTom2

Halfords 4 way cig socket extender (silver has low power warning)
Cheap phone hands free unit (clip on microphone type)

I got the above equipment together a few months back to allow my dad to have sat-nav in his landrover. He has this strange hate of motorways and prefers to use A-B roads, mother then gets yelled at as she tries to navigate using maps, they tend to get lost a lot and take absolutely ages to get anywhere.

After installing the software all seemed fine and dandy so off they set on holiday (camping in the New FOrest), TT is trying to send them M25 but they decide to go some other way and then the sat nav starts losing connection, this carries on through out the holiday. Apparently coming home was worse when the satnav failed on a roundabout ooopss.


I then get handed the unit back and attempt to fix it, re-install software, tried it in my car seems fine, back in the landrover its arsed again. By this time I wasn’t sure if it was the PDA, sat receiver, software or what. But I did suspect that the electrice could be playing a part. Most of the male 12v plugs seem to be very cheap, and the one on the silver halfords 4 way extension was very very cheap. Anyway we decided to hardwire 4 way adapter in and add a switch. Did that and then noticed that when the amplified speaker was plugged in power fluctuated, bingo.
Switched some wiring around and did the first test at the weekend, longish journey and all seems dandy.

So if you are having problems where a GPS and PDA stop talking, or you keep losing connection, it could be worth checking that the feeds to your equipment are stable. For some reason if the PDA loses connection due to a fall in power it wouldn’t reconnect, but if the power is turned off completely then on again it resets. Odd but it seems sorted now. I also switch off the power when starting the engine as this really seems to cheese the system off.

Anyway hope this helps somebody else.

Jon

[nej]

That's Land-Rover electrics for you!

[Dave]

Too true... About a year ago I had constant problems where I was continually wiring in GPS Receivers for test and review into my 4-way adapters. Every now and again I wouldn't get a fix, and most of the time it involved losing signal partway on my journey.

Stopping the car, looking like a robber by scrabbling under the drivers seat, unplugging and re-plugging my Cig plugs would cure the problem. For some reason now and again one or two would work their way lose a little.

I don't get that problem now and have 3 in-car to make sure I don't lose all my sat receivers at once, but it's usually the simplest of things that can cause problems like cabling.

[Flibb]

Oi dont diss the landrover electrics. Anyway it isnt quiet standard, has 2 large gell batterys, split charger, winch and a 1000W invertor. All let down by the £9.99 cig lighter socket, ho hmm.

[nej]

[Flibb]

Ahh its the V8 mate, 300 tdi mutcho better in the wet. Havee seen some quiet funny ways of waterproofing electrics, goes to show a rubber glove has many uses ;)

[nej]

Agree with you there. In Malaysia though, diesel engines are taxed at a ridiculous rate (and a V8 is much more fun )

[Flibb]

The wiring did burst in to flames behind the "dash" of my old series 2A, then again somebody had repaired it with a bit of old iron flex. Reminds me must fit electrical cutout at some point

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