I need some help with my Navman F20

clearlymessed · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 23, 2008 Posts: 6

I have a problem with my Navman F20. The place where I plug the unit into my 12volt charger has broken. Now I know that there are only 2 wires in the charger, 1 red & 1 black. Is there a way I can wire it directly to my F20? I believe the 90 degree angle on the charging cord stressed the little plug inside the unit untill it eventually broke completely off of the cirquit board. But I thought since there's only the 2 wires coming from the charging cord that I could hook them up directly. I'm assuming the red wire is the 12volt feed & the black wire is the ground. If there is any way someone could help me with my problem it would be greatly appreciated. I really love the system, and miss it greatly. Since I travel alot with my work, I would love to get this unit working properly again. Thank you in advance for any suggestions or advice you may have on my problem.

CaptainDrift · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 16, 2006 Posts: 248

Call Navman and get it repaired under Warranty
call then on 0844 800 0912 they now offer 24 hour support

clearlymessed · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 23, 2008 Posts: 6

What if I was foolish enough to listen to my dad when he said "ah I(meaning we) can fix it", and opened it up? So i'm sure the warranty will be voided, matter of fact i'm almost positive it is. Is there anything I could do on my own to fix it? I am somewhat knowledgable when it comes to this kind of stuff. If that makes any sense. Thank you for any possible input into my problem.

robertn · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 564

Depends how good you are with a soldering iron, and how much you like your Navman. For an experienced electronics tech, it's an easy replacement job, if they can get the parts. If they cannot get the parts, it's still easy to hard wire the lead onto the board.

I wouldn't got though Navman if it's out of warrenty - go to your local TV /Radio/ gadget repairer.

clearlymessed · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 23, 2008 Posts: 6

Well I install remote car starters & stuff like that, so I use a soldering iron dayly. I actually opened up the 12volt charger to find a red & a black wire. Then when I went into my navman, I saw a red, black & a blue wire I believe it was coming off the battery to plug into the board. I tapped the red to the red & the black to the black but that didnt do anything. The third wire coming off the battery kind of has me puzzled. But if you can tell me where to tap into the board with the 2 wires from the charger that would be wonderful. Thank you for anything that may help.

mikealder · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:28 pm Post subject:

One easy fix might be to purchase the T1 RDS-TMC shoe accessory for the device, if you use one of these the power goes into the shoe and is fed to the device via the contact strip on the base negating the need for the power socket.
Although the connector that is broken on your device is also for data connection to the PC so it will have more than two wires. Being surface mount I would only attept to solder the connector with a very fine tipped iron designed for working with such small components.
The third wire from the battery is probably from the built in temperature sensor, most batteries of the type fitted have a heat sensor to turn off the charger cicuit if the cells get too hot. - Mike

Gee-Pee · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 5:08 pm Post subject:

mikealder · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject:

Gee-Pee · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject:

clearlymessed · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 23, 2008 Posts: 6

So I would be able to charge the battery on the Navman through the traffic pack? Mike, you said thats also the data plug as well, so I wont be able to get map updates for my Navman w/o that plug? I do appreciate the offer Gee-Pee & will seriously consider it as soon as I fully understand my options for getting this thing working again. Thank you to both of you for your time responding me, it is much appreciated.

mikealder · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:45 am Post subject:

Gee-Pee · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:24 am Post subject:

clearlymessed · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 23, 2008 Posts: 6

So is there anyone that would know exactly where on the cirquit board I would solder the 3 car chargers wires to? A picture or drawing even would help me. Any input is appreciated. Thanks

clearlymessed · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 23, 2008 Posts: 6

I recently found out that the far left prong and the far right prong on the piece that broke off the circuit board are the ones used for che charging aspect of the plug, but I am not 100% on this information. Is it possible to do any damage to the unit if I were to solder the red & black wires from the 12volt charger directly to those two spots on the board? Once again, any helpfull input is greatly appreciated.

M8TJT · Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:40 am Post subject:

You NEED to be absolutely certain of which is pos and which is neg (red and black respectively). You also need to be absolutely certain that you are connecting 5v to it NOT 12v or there is an almost 100% certain likelyhood of frying the device. Sad

I expect that MikeAlder will be along in a bit and offer you a more consice answer. Very Happy

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