How do you charge your TT ?

KOTULCN · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 20, 2006 Posts: 9

I always left my 910 on the desktop cradle charging until I needed it, but with the 920 and its new battery Tomtom says that is bad for battery endurance. How do you guys charge yours? And how long do you leave it on the charger?

HummerUK · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:00 pm Post subject:

I just use my 520 off the car adapter while in the car so the internal battery is hardly ever used/needed.

HummerUK

if1977 · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:28 pm Post subject:

When keeping your battery on charge all the time it does not help your battery life in the long run. This would not matter if you onlly use your TT in the car as it allways gets power but if you want to use it for walks and on your bikeyou will not get a long from your battery.

What i do is once a week i leave my TT on all night with no external power connected to it and in the morning it is completly discharged and when i go out connect it to my car and then re-charge it. Doing this once a week means you are using all the battery cells and will make your battery life last longer.

I would always recommend fully discharging and recharging any kind of battery oonce a week if used every day.
_________________
NEW Tomtom GO 500 (hope it is good)
iphone (running all day, doesn't like it)
XL LIVE IQ Routes (Got stolen and miss it)
GO 510 (in drawer now, time for upgrade)

Oldboy · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:01 pm Post subject:

LesP2008 · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:20 pm Post subject:

Thanks Richard, i found that an interesting read.
Reading his credentials i would hazard a guess and say he knows his stuff.

mikealder · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:29 pm Post subject:

Whilst deep discharging the battery by leaving the device on but not powered will not occur as the device will power down once the cell capacity is nearing empty this is indeed bad practice.
Leaving the device powered in the car all the time it is in use won't noticably harm the cell fitted to the unit as the type of battery employed does not suffer from memory problems that used to happen with NICAD type rechargeable cells. Just leave it powered in the car, this should top it up all the time it is used - Mike

if1977 · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject:

So would you say mike that keeping your battery on charge all the time will not effect the batteries performance if you wish to use it without the dock.
_________________
NEW Tomtom GO 500 (hope it is good)
iphone (running all day, doesn't like it)
XL LIVE IQ Routes (Got stolen and miss it)
GO 510 (in drawer now, time for upgrade)

mikealder · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:49 pm Post subject:

I have no issues with doing this, the cell type fitted accepts a finite number of full recharges lets say 500 charge cycles from empty to full.

If the battery is at 90% when I plug it in each time I can expect 5000 charges before the cell dies, as I am only topping off the cell each time, this "topping off" consumes only 10% of one full charge cycle, so it would take 10 such recharges to count as 1 against the total available from the cell. If you understood military aircraft servicing schedules relating to flying hours and fatigue life consumption you could see a similarity, in addition the calendar back stop would dictate when the cell is past its best and should be replaced, they do degrade with age.

Heat build up will also affect the cell by doing this and in reality the battery will suffer very slightly, with 365 days in a year I do not expect to be using the same sat nav for 5 years let alone 10, realistically the cell will probably die after 2 to 3 years use, by then I will be using something else truth be known.

I do not use the device out of the car very often, the odd demonstration in the pub or at work to show off the camera database and warnings or to explain how to do something to someone, otherwise it is on charge whilst in use - Mike

if1977 · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:30 pm Post subject:

Yea fair enough guys, I thought that the battery had seperate cells in it hence the reason to let the battery run down. To be honest i dont think i will have the same Unit this time next year either. It might be too soon to ask but will their be an upgrade to the 520 in the pipeline next year.
_________________
NEW Tomtom GO 500 (hope it is good)
iphone (running all day, doesn't like it)
XL LIVE IQ Routes (Got stolen and miss it)
GO 510 (in drawer now, time for upgrade)

mikealder · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:37 pm Post subject:

No doubt we will be looking at new maps and another new version of software at some point, whether we see a Navcore version 8 next year who knows - it is bound to happen at some point though - Mike

KOTULCN · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 20, 2006 Posts: 9

my problem is I hate having the car charger draped across the dash and I cant get more then 2 hours of use on a full charge. I plan on hardwiring a power cord soon.

if1977 · Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:12 am Post subject:

In my Astra i managed to put the cord through to centre of the dash at the cirarette lighter and then run it along the bottom of the dash and up the drivers sice door pillar behund the door seal and then plug it in to my TT at the bottom corner of the windscreen. I also hate the cord hanging down the dash.
_________________
NEW Tomtom GO 500 (hope it is good)
iphone (running all day, doesn't like it)
XL LIVE IQ Routes (Got stolen and miss it)
GO 510 (in drawer now, time for upgrade)

Scotty-uk · Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:00 pm Post subject:

I'm also tempted to hardwire my 910 but I'm concerned about the voltages etc. Can I just wire the dock straight in to my 12V car supply?

mikealder · Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:10 pm Post subject:

You cannot run the device straight from a 12V supply, you will burn it out within mili seconds.

What you can do is fit another cigy lighter socket behind the dashboard that is connected to the 12V supply (accross the existing ciggy socket is easiest). Then plug the TomTom charger lead into the socket and hide all the wiring behind the dash, tape up the charger lead and new socket to prevent it from vibrating out. Maplins sell the socket, they cost only a couple of quid see Here

A word of caution, if your vehicle is fitted with airbags please take care when messing around in the are behind the dash, you don't want to set one of them off - Mike

Darren · Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:13 pm Post subject:

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