TomTom One Battery Backup

[wahajuddin]

Hi,


I am using TomTom One portable navigator. I am quite happy with its performance and find it very useful for navigation throughout USA.


I once travelled by driving from California to Chicago, IL and my TomTom One helped me navigate the routes. When i was driving at 60 MPH speed, i noticed that my navigator was getting charged decently through the USB to car charger socket. But i noticed that when i was driving 70 MPH on highway, my navigator was not getting charged as it should. May be all the current generated by my car was going to the engine and not enough power was going to the navigator. I think it is weird.


I was thinking is there any alternative device which can give power to my navigator instead of me using the car charger? May be a device which has AA or AAA batteries which can keep my navigator running when i am driving for long hours? If there is such a device pls let me know it's name and where to buy it... Thanks!

 

[JeepGeek]

I'm not sure any alternative will give you any better results...

There are many devices out there that can power USB devices from batteries. The problem is that a couple of AA batteries don't have all that much power in them. They're meant for low-power devices like ipods, or an emergency charge for a cell phone. It probably wouldn't be very useful to power your TomTom for a long trip. Your cigarette lighter, however, is powered essentially by your car's engine and has a lot more potential to it. But, if your car's electrical system is not up to snuff and you don't mind using a lot of batteries, maybe it would be better

Anyway here is my favorite of such devices, but it's a kit you assemble yourself: http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/index.html

 

[GAW]

It is not your car's power. Even if your alternator is not equal to the load, unless the car dies from a dead battery as you are driving, your car charger will be getting adequate current. A USB device draws a maximum of .5 amp (plus conversion efficiency losses), so your speed had nothing to do with it.

When you say your One was not getting charged - did it die? (ie - would it not come back on after "shutting down")? If it comes back on, what did the battery indicator show?