TT One: dead battery after addition of accessory plug?

[ADK46R]

I've had my TomTom One for about a year or so. I wanted to use the unit with my BMW motorcycle. The bike has an accessory plug but it isn't the standard size. I spliced into the power cord of the TT One, adding a 2-prong plud so as to be able to use either the standard power plug or the BMW-sized plug. When I plugged into the bike, the unit fired up normally, allowed me to set a destination, voice was operable, and all seemed to work normally. I turned the gps off and later in the day went to use the gps on the bike. But the gps would not turn on - nothing at all. I switched plugs to the stanard type and tried it in the car. Still nothing, tho in both the bike and car tries, the tiny green "power" light was lit, so I knew I was getting power. I tried hooking it up w/ the usb cord to my computer but still nothing.

Checked at Radio Shack - wher I bought the gps - and they thought the battery was shot. Said only TomTom could replace the battery!

So,did my splicing in a different plug burn out the innards? Is it just that the battery is dead? How can I get a battery replaced? Any ideas?

 

[canderson]

Oh my. I do hope I'm misunderstanding something here.

Your TomTom came with a cig plug to USB mini-B connection for vehicle power, correct? And you cut into the cable and added a connector so you could swap between two different cig plugs?

Um... how many wires did you find in the cable?

I'm sure someone who knows all of the old "One" models will pipe up if I'm wrong, but it sounds for all the world as if you just shot 12V into a TomTom that expects the cig plug to down-regulate the voltage to 5V. Not good.

 

[ADK46R]

There were 2 wires in the original, red and black. I connected them the same way. The gps worked at first but after @ 10 minutes, nothing.

 

[mikealder]

A TomTom One battery is easy to swap out just remove the torx head screws from the rear of the case to expose the battery. Sadly if you have connected the device directly to the bikes 12V supply then it will be far more than the battery thats damaged, once the smoke escapes from the unit they are beyond repair - Mike

 

[canderson]

There were 2 wires in the original, red and black. I connected them the same way. The gps worked at first but after @ 10 minutes, nothing.

Every TomTom I've ever seen (including many of the various ONE models) has a 12V to 5V regulator internal to the cig adapter/charger. I'm afraid you've toasted your TomTom by hitting it with 12V when it expected 5. The TomTom's internal regulator did what it could for as long as it could - but was being badly overstressed - and poof.

All of these devices operate on smoke - it's a key ingredient for modern day electronics. If you do something that lets the smoke out, they quit working

Edit: Incredible -- Mike types faster, and we say nearly the same thing! You got there first! That's what I get for grabbing another cup of coffee in mid-post.

 

[ADK46R]

Bummer. I guess that's it then. Bye Bye Tom Tom

 

[ADK46R]

One more thing. If I had spliced in a regular "cigarette" lighter sized female plug to my BMW plug, and then plugged in the normal TomTom male plug into that would I have been ok? It seems that the 12v to 5v reducer would still be in-line, so would that have worked? I don't want to fry the replacement untit that I plan to get!

 

[canderson]

One more thing. If I had spliced in a regular "cigarette" lighter sized female plug to my BMW plug, and then plugged in the normal TomTom male plug into that would I have been ok? It seems that the 12v to 5v reducer would still be in-line, so would that have worked?

Yes, you can terminate your odd sized BMW male + cable with a regular size inline female cig plug, then plug your TomTom's adapter into that. The thing to remember is that the only thing that should be connected to your TomTom is the adapter that came with it.