One XL Battery Issue

[Cougar]

I have a One XL (may be a "S") that has a bad battery and I can't seem to find a replacement. The original battery part number is F74402304 with a 1350 mAh capacity (3.7V). The problem is I can't find this part number anywhere. The cells are Maxell ICP803443. The replacements that say they work in my unit seem to only have a 3 wire connector instead of the 5 wire connector mine requires. My battery has 2 red wires, 1 yellow wire and 2 black wires. Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a fix or a battery that will work?

 

[dhn]

You may want to check here:
Battery Replacement, iPod battery, iPAQ battery, Clie battery, Palm battery, Axim battery

 

[Cougar]

Checked there but all the replacements only have a 3 wire connector. Are you aware of any other TomTom's that use a 5 wire connector that I might use as well?

 

[dhn]

I am not but supermod canderson might. He wrote an excellent primer here on replacing the batteries in x20 and x30 models. As well, fellow supermod Mikealder tends to take everything apart as soon as it is out of the box so he may have come across the battery type you are seeking.

Look for either of them--or both--or others to respond to this thread over the next day .............

 

[Cougar]

I'll be looking forward to their responses. I am at a loss as to what to do at this point. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[canderson]

Wish I could help, but this is the first time I've run across that P/N anywhere. Further, all of the One XL units I've seen had 1200mAh packs.

FWIW, I suspect that the two red and two black are in parallel to support additional current vs. the original wire gauge. Certainly doesn't help the OP since he still has the 3/5 pin connector issue to deal with.

 

[Cougar]

It could be since the five wires on the original battery are thinner than the the wires on the 3 wire. I have been tempted to just solder the 5 wire connector to the new battery hooking the two thin red wires to the one thicker red wire on the new battery. Ditto with the black one. Looking for someone who knows to say this is the way to go.

 

[mikealder]

Never seen a 5 wire battery pack in a One XL, I have just checked the two I have in front of me and they are both three pin with three wires, I would get a three wire battery and solder the 5 way plug to it joining both red wires together and both black wires together - Mike

 

[Cougar]

This unit was given to me by my daughter who bought it used from Ebay. I searched the internet and it would seem like the battery I have (F74402304)doesn't exist. The battery seems to use a Maxell ICP803443 cell and claims to be a 1350mAh battery. In case this help, the sticker on the battery says;

Type: K1 Battery
Cell: Maxell ICP803443
Capacity: 1350mAh
Made in China
F74402304

I started to disect the battery and found out the battery terminals go to a circuit board and all five wires come from the circuit board. Strange that no one has ever seen another 5 wire Tomtom battery. I wonder where this unit originated from? A prototype of some sort? Truly a mystery which I hope someone here can help me solve. If not, I will be forced to do the soldering trick and hope I don't smoke my unit.

 

[daveyjane]

Maybe yours is not original, but modified by someone. you could go back to as original as possible if that is the case. Ie. different battery number than you have, but the right battery for the unit. And then the wire numbers and thickness issue might be cleared up as well. RESTORE it to ORiginal. if you can.

 

[Cougar]

Problem there is that the connector on the circuit board is for a five pin and not a three pin. I doubt if someone changed the circuit board connector. TomTom tech support told me that the battery was non-replaceable and the whole unit needs to be replaced. I don't think so. . .

 

[canderson]

Given that you can get the standard replacement (which will physically fit), I vote for snipping the 5 wires from the 5 pin, leaving enough left on the connector to solder to the 3 wires on the new battery. There's nothing unique about your TT such that it will require more current than the replacement battery that was suggested will supply, so the wires on the replacement battery should be fine.

 

[eugeo]

Did you fix this?

I have just removed my dead battery from my Tomtom one XL HD Traffic to find i also have 5 wires... just wanna make sure i am ordering the right thing before i get a 3 pin batter and have to start soldering..

here is the old battery:

 

[Cougar]

That's exactly what mine looks like and I never found a replacement for it. Tomtom claims it is not replaceable. I suspect they changed from the 5 wire to a 3 wire as a running change and the 5 wire batteries are no longer available. I'd be glad to be proven wrong though should you be able to find a 5 wire replacement.

 

[canderson]

That's exactly what mine looks like and I never found a replacement for it. Tomtom claims it is not replaceable.

FWIW, that's their official (erroneous and self-serving) company line on the entire lineup of TomTom units.. nothing special about this one.

 

[mikealder]

XL IQ and XL IQ Live both use the five pin battery, I wrote a guide on swapping out the battery a while ago see Here where you can clearly see the five pin plug in the later pictures, the battery suppliers need to get their act in order to supply the correct part - Mike

 

[canderson]

That said, is anyone really concerned about the extra 50mA capacity creating a need to add the parallel wires? Granted, the correct pin count on the connector is something the manufacturers of the replacement units should be addressing - but in the interim, don't you think bridging a black to black/black and red to red/red is a viable solution for those that can manage it?

Are you aware of whether the 5-wire version was abandoned in favor of the 3-wire, or the other way around?

 

[Cougar]

That's an interesting question but since I bought mine used I have no idea when it was manufactured to know how old it actually is. Is there some code somewhere which would tell me?

 

[mikealder]

My XL IQ Live is one of the very first units but I haven't seen inside a newer one as yet but this is the only device from TomTom that I have seen use a five wire connection.

Like Canderson says the additional capacity of the battery won't make any difference to a three wire bridged to five wire using the old plug soldered to a new batterys three wires - Mike

 

[Cougar]

Well, today I took the plunge and soldered the five pin connector to the 3 wire battery connecting the two red wires on the connector to the single red battery wire. Then I did the same thing to the black wires (2 black connector wires to single black battery). Last wire soldered was yellow connector wire to yellow battery wire.
It seems to work as I charged the battery and it now is powering the unit. The worst part of the change was stripping those extremely thin wires and then soldering them. What a pain, but it works!