Does tomtom for iphone disable charging?

[rubberpoultry]

My Belkin car charger works great, and really fast when I plug in my iphone, but when I have tomtom running, it doesn't charge the phone. It doesn't use the battery either. It just stay steady at whatever charge is present when I start the app. I drove for an hour today and discovered this.

Is this tomtom's way of getting us to buy the car kit, or is there something weird going on with my equipment?

 

[Pedro2NR]

If your phone is hot, then the iPhone does not charge until it cools down and continues.
Usually with a respring or reboot, this should help.
Other tips are to turn off push notifications/push email.

 

[rubberpoultry]

I don't think the phone is getting hot. It instantly stops charging once I turn on TomTom. The moment I turn the app off, the phone starts charging again.

I suspect the application is somehow preventing it from charging.

 

[Pedro2NR]

I don't recall my phone doing the same thing. I'll reinstall the App and observe it.

 

[gatorguy]

I suspect your iPhone is charging per se, since you mentioned that it's maintaining it's charge while using TT's mobile app. Your problem appears to be that the power draw when using gps services is as much as your power adapter can supply, not enough to actually recharge your phone.

 

[dadbif]

i have just registered a similar problem with both Apple and Tom tom, I bought the new app for my Iphone and used it for the first time yesterday over a distance of about 60km's, it completely flattened the battery on the Iphone, this, I hasten to add, was with a charger connected.
Apple suggest turning off 3G, wifi and dimming the screen as well as reducing the volume. Tom tom just do not believe it is possible to discharge the phone whilst a a charger is connected.

I would be interested in any suggestions, intend trying a run out again later this week and will turn off 3G and wifi as suggested, BTW, I do not use push email either.

I know it is not a good first post, but I have used Tom tom for years on various PDA's with no problems, cannot believe that I am not going to be able to use it on my Iphone.

 

[mikealder]

I know this might seem a stupid question but are you 100% sure the chrager in the car was working throughout the trip? I have run the TT app on the 3G iPhone for 550 miles without an issue with it sat powered in a Brodit active holder. I didn't turn anything off, audio was also playing via Bluetooth to the car system from the iPhone and when I completed the trip the phone was at or close to 100% charge - I would check the ciggy lighter charger plug for a poor connection as they can cause issues from time to time - Mike

 

[tommyd75]

iphone not charging with tomtom app running

I suspect your iPhone is charging per se, since you mentioned that it's maintaining it's charge while using TT's mobile app. Your problem appears to be that the power draw when using gps services is as much as your power adapter can supply, not enough to actually recharge your phone.

I have the same thing happening to me as well, it doesn't seem to charge fast enough to keep up with how quick its draining with tomtom on,
I did verify that it charges with the ac wall adaptor that came with the iphone, I used a 12volt to 110 volt inverter, and it was able to charge the phone an additional 20% as I finished the rest of my 2 hour trip.
So within an hour of using it it dropped down about 15% and i was able to bring it back after plugging it in to the inverter, maybe I need a beefier dc power cord for my car. Right now I'm using the Griffin PowerJolt SE Power adapter from best buy.

Does anyone know one that they can recommend?

 

[dadbif]

Mike, I too thought that was a possibility, today a drove for an hour with it fitted to my other car, lost about 15% of the battery (with wifi and 3G turned off), will check the socket on the Mazda, may be a bit dirty, however, it still does not bode well for a 6 or 8 hour drive....

 

[rubberpoultry]

Maybe this is why they haven't released the car kit yet. Maybe they're figuring it out still.

Sure would be nice to not have to exit the program to charge.

 

[mvl]

Many cigarette lighters these days don't put out enough amps to satisfy power-hungry smartphones.

It could be that your car's cigarette lighter is enough to power a dormant iPhone, but not enough to power an iPhone running the CPU-level needed for all Tomtom's screen redraws.

 

[dadbif]

i agree that some modern cars only supply a low current feed to the cigar lighter socket, however, the vehicle in question is a 1991 Miata....

thanks for the thought tho', I have now reverted to using tomtom 6 on my old MioA701, the whole experience is better, the GPS is stronger and the scrolling is far far smoother, smaller screen, but you can't have everything.

 

[sberube]

I noticed Navigon didn't charge when I was also playing backgruond MP3's. The charge icon was lit up, and I was driving for about 6 hours in when it said 'Battery low' even though the charge light was on. Once I unplugged the charger, I saw it was below 20% battery. When I ran it w/out playing background music. it charged fine. I also rebooted it during that process. If it does detect heat and not charge due to that, that could be why it wasn't charging for me.