GPS permenantly plugged into car cig lighter

[ChrisJones]

Hi all. I am 1 week into owning an HP Ipaq 2210, Haicom 303-MMF / TomTom 2 combination. I spotted the elusive 12 satellite fix today on my way out of Portsmouth on the M275 so I guess the combination must be performing pretty well!!

I have two questions.

Firstly, when installed in my own car, I use the Haicom in mouse mode. Is it OK to keep the GPS in the car through the winter? Will the hot and cold temperatures that can be reached in the car damage the gps?

Secondly, to avoid the need to obtain a fix each morning before setting off, is it ok to keep permanently connected to the car cigarette lighter? Will this damage either my GPS or adversley drain my car battery?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Regards, Chris.

[Dave]

Keeping it in-car shouldn't be too much of a problem, they are built to withstand very cold and hot temperatures. The only thing some people have seen with Haicom Mouse is that sometimes the screws are too tight and the plastic cracks around them. That's not the case for the 303MMF, but something to be warey about. You can keep it permanently wired to the car battery, it won't do any damage per se, the only thing you have to be careful of is power spikes. Providing you have the fuses in place, you shouldn't have a problem. The GPS drains very little current compared to what the battery can output, so you won't find a flat battery after a week just because you have added a GPS.

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!