tomtom go500 help

[harv777]

Just bought a second hand tomtom go 500. Trying to charge it off the pc usb lead but the light doesn`t come on on the front of the unit. bought it with the intended use on my motorbike so haven`t tested it with the car charger lead (dont have a car) Does this mean the unit is useless? Also I tried to pair it up with a bluetooth earpiece and cant seem to get it to go. As the unit doesn`t have a headphone socket looks like it was a waste of money unless i try and modify it with a socket soldered up to the internal speaker. positive comments welcome thanks

[Andy_P]

The Go500 is pretty old now I hope you didn't pay too much for it.
Older models like the 500 don't charge via the USB connector (it wasn't standard practice in those days!).

The car charger has a small "DC" power plug on it which normally plugs into the socket on the back of the docking shoe/windscreen mount, and power then gets to the Go through the multipin socket.

There is also a 5 Volt DC power socket on the Go itself for when you use the AC Mains home charger.

If you are making your own powering arrangement you MUST only use a 5 Volt supply, anything higher (such as raw 12 Volts from a car battery will instantly fry the unit.

Sounds like you've not seen the manuals.... You can download the quickstart guide here and the full reference guide here.

As for the Bluetooth headset... that's a no-go. The Blue tooth protocol for mobile phones is completely different from the Bluetooth for earpieces to hear the Go's audio output. The Go500 only had BT for mobile phone pairing.

A lot changed between the Go x00 models and the Go x10 range that came next (they did have a headphone out socket and also Bluetooth Audio).
_________________
"Settling in nicely" ;-)

[harv777]

Thanks for the info Andy, I`ve ordered a wall charger from ebay so i`ll try that to charge it. I paid £25 for it so no great loss if it doesn`t work

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!