TT 720 Battery Life

[WafuDude]

I have noticed that the battery on my 720 is only lasting for about 40 minutes with normal use. No bluetooth or FM transmissions, no audio streaming, no traffic updates selected etc. This is obviously not right so I will be looking to return it for a replacement. Has anyone had an official reply from TomTom about this issue?

[mikealder]

I thought over four hours was the norm with these devices, certainly 40 minutes is wrong - make sure the battery is fully charged, leave it connected to the PC with the TomTom switched off (PC needs to be powered up though) overnight then see how long it lasts in the morning, if its no better take it back and get another one - Mike

[Gmonkey]

Fully charged and it lasted for only 40 minutes? Weird - my device has lasted many hours without a charge. If you call customer support, let us know what they say - it should be lasting for much longer than that!

[retrospek]

I have the same problem. My TomTom 720 was fully charged on Friday. I drove from Bristol up the M4 and by the time I had reached Swindon (30-40 minutes later) the unit switched off because the battery had died.

This is now my second unit... Something is really not right with these units.

[WafuDude]

I've followed your advice and charged it up overnight. I noticed while it was charging that the battery shows full after only about 20 minutes of charging. It stops indicating that it is charging and when unplugged it still indicates "full". I then switched the TT on and ran an AtoB route in demo mode and surprise surprise the TT died on me after about 35 minutes. So, after putting it back on charge for the whole of last night I have had it running for over an hour this morning and the battery indicator is showing only about a quater empty... as it should be.

The problem is obviously that the battery indicator shows "full" incorrectly when charging. Is this a software issue that could be resolved by future upgrades or is mine the only one with this problem?

[mikealder]

The charge indicator is as much use as a chocolate fire guard, if you must use the 720 without the charger cable make sure you charge it for at least 5 hours prior to use - or leave it over night, once fully charged this way you should get 4 hours plus from it - Mike

[cejsmith]

I've been using the 720 for a couple of weeks in france and have normaly had it connected to the power but on our way home yesterday the girls wanted to use the lighter socket for there DVD. So i thought no problem and ran the unit on it's own power ( expecting to get 4 plus hours) but after under a hour it just died.

Not very good, I assume the unit will charge from the lighter socket and if so it had many hours to get fully charged. IS there a problem with the batteries??????

[DennisN]

"Funny" battery charge indication is not exclusive to TT GO720.

My Nokia mobile phone will show Full Charge if I unplug it after half an hour charging (from flat) off the ciggy lighter. It isn't long before it's dead again - just have to remember this feature and leave it on charge until it actually beeps and says "Battery Full". That might have been nice on the GO720. But it's no problem to me - I have it on the mount in my vehicle anyway - never run it on battery.

Edited to add -I have a multi ciggy plug hole fitted on my dashboard to take up to 4 things at once. Just over a week ago I had GO700, GO710, GO720 and my phone all plugged in at once! With them all on windscreen suckers I confess I did look a bit kinky cabley!
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[thomagd]

I find that putting the brightness down to 20-30% makes a huge difference to the battery life and doesn't make any difference unless in bright sun.
_________________
Gareth

[tedkay]

[DennisN]

I thought these Li-Polymer batteries (and Li-Ion) had done away with the trickle charge problems of NiCads and you could recharge anywhere in the charge cycle and not get that charge memory thing?
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[tedkay]

[mikealder]

I would fully agree with what DennisN has said, your ''Technician'' might know how to change a battery but it sounds like he knows very little about charging a battery.

NiCad = Memory syndrome which is not good
LiPo = No Memory syndrom which is very good.

Other factors such as the wrong charger and excessive heat can shorten the life of any type of battery, LiPo cells can even catch fire if wrongly handled so never use an incorrect charger or this will lead to problems - Mike

[DennisN]

Steady on Mike! Agreeing with me makes me out to be brighter than I am. To me, batteries are magic things - you put them into things and they light up or play stuff. All it was, was many years ago when I got my first laptop, I was told never to recharge the NiCad battery until it ran down completely (with idiot's explanation of the memory syndrome). Then somebody said the new Lithium Ion ones didn't have that problem.

But to be honest, for me it's really all down to whether you use the right wand and either "Abracadabra", "HocusPocus" or "IzzyWhizzy". I'm still struggling to understand how you put a sunflower seed into muck and water and it grows into that 10 foot tall beauty.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

[Oldboy]

Try this for a bit of light reading.

http://spicygadget.com/2006/12/24/guide-getting-the-most-out-of-your-lithium-battery/
_________________
Richard

TT 910 V7.903: Europe Map v1045
TT Via 135 App 12.075: Europe Map v1120

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