topic Re: Battery Tips... in GO 800 / 1000 / 2000 / Via / Start 20 and 60 Series (MyTomTom)

Battery Tips...

regor — Fri, 27 May 2011 04:41:17 GMT

Since TomTom documentation doesn't provide much info on what to do to extend / restore battery life / capacity, I did some research. TomTom devices (at least the 2505) uses a Lithium-Polymer (LiPoly) battery. Such batteries should not be left sitting at full capacity for extended period of time, it will reduce its life. Also, one should fully charge - discharge - recharge the battery one a month. In between, ensure the battery gets a chance to discharge to about 40% capacity regularly. i.e. always plugging your GPS and never depleating the battery is not good for the battery life. Doing the charge-discharge full cycle monthly can do wonders in restoring lost capacity.

Just thought I'd share the info since some have reported short battery life.

Re: Battery Tips...

Ovalball — Fri, 27 May 2011 07:45:25 GMT

Thank you for your info.As you say Tom Tom says very little in the documentation.

Re: Battery Tips...

klondyke — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:11:15 GMT

Where can one get a replacement battery for a Tom Tom 530GO as my Go will only work for2 mins without being plugged in to the car charger. I take on board your comments about battery life and will follow your advice in future if I am able to fix the problem of a dead battery. Look forward to your reply, Regards Mike

Re: Battery Tips...

allanwilson — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:03:34 GMT

try ebay.

Re: Battery Tips...

allanwilson — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:05:06 GMT

http://electronics.shop.ebay.co.uk/Batteries-Battery-Chargers-/48446/i.html?_nkw=Tom+Tom+530GO&_catref=1&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282

Re: Battery Tips...

klondyke — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:42:08 GMT

Many Thanks, I have just ordered one. Regards Mike

Re: Battery Tips...

big — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:16:38 GMT

regor wrote:
Since TomTom documentation doesn't provide much info on what to do to extend / restore battery life / capacity, I did some research. TomTom devices (at least the 2505) uses a Lithium-Polymer (LiPoly) battery. Such batteries should not be left sitting at full capacity for extended period of time, it will reduce its life. Also, one should fully charge - discharge - recharge the battery one a month. In between, ensure the battery gets a chance to discharge to about 40% capacity regularly. i.e. always plugging your GPS and never depleating the battery is not good for the battery life. Doing the charge-discharge full cycle monthly can do wonders in restoring lost capacity.

Just thought I'd share the info since some have reported short battery life.

Some older battery types, such as the nickel-based batteries, could benefit from a full discharge. But everything I read about the LiPoly batteries strongly warn against a full discharge. A true full discharge will destroy the battery. That said, most devices are designed to prevent a true full discharge and will cut themselves off before damage is done to the battery. I assume, perhaps foolishly, TomTom follows that standard practice.

Anyhow, if the device prevents a true deep discharge, then using your battery until the device turns off will just use the limited number of charge cycles needlessly and actually shorten the life slightly in the long run. I find no authoritative reference that says otherwise. The only exception is that some devices, like laptop computers, sometimes suggest running the battery down about every 6 months so it can be recalibrated. In other words, the health of the battery can be estimated when the computer knows how long it takes for a fully charged battery to fall below the usable voltage threshold and the computer then can give a better estimate of run-time that way.

I DO find a lot of information corroborating the advice to store the batteries at about a 60% charge state if they are going to be unused for some time.

Re: Battery Tips...

Stefan — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:25:21 GMT

I have the device for about 13 months and it can charge up to 95% of its capacity power:

Believe that i've read that a battery looses approximately about 6% if its capacity each year.

Always drive without the power cable connected, untill the battery icon displays a red colour;
Connect the car charger when the battery is low and let it recharge;
When the battery isn't fully recharged, I recharge it further untill full charged at home or when being on vacation (in the hotel with the home recharger);
Store the device in a dry place at room temperature regardless how much capacity is left (100% when fully charged), or the percentage which is left when the battery isn't nearly empty yet (between 15 - 99%); Have read that for customers that its more important to store the device in a dry place at room temperature regardless how much capacity is left. Normally its advised when its being stored for a longer period of time to store it with a a capacity of 40 - 60%;

Re: Battery Tips...

MXHowes — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:26:47 GMT

Let me try and understand what you are saying ....... When you 'drive around' do you have the charger connected to the device but not plugged into the 12V socket? I could live with plugging & unplugging the charger to the car, but unplugging the charger cable from the device is kind of a pain with the 1435 .... something you don't want to do while driving.

Re: Battery Tips...

Stefan — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:12:30 GMT

Depends on the length of the journey.

Example

When the journey takes about a half hour and the battery is 50% (about a hour), then I don't connect the charger yet.

When the journey takes about 45 minutes and the battery is 50% (about a hour), then I connect the charger to the device but not yet to the socket. (Take the cigarette charger out the socket before departing).

Have noticed that the battery status icon changes to a red colour and makes a 'battery low' sound when the battery is about 15% of its capacity or 18 minutes left before its empty. After getting the notification sound, and when having to stop before a red light, there's still time to insert the other end of the car charger to the socket.

Tip: Let your passenger do this, when not driving alone.:smileywink:

Re: Battery Tips...

Sionyn — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:35:14 GMT

I use a device (Start 20) with the separate RDS-TMC for traffic.

I had assumed that this gets its power from the cigarette lighter since it is an in-line contraption built in to the charging cable, and that it is therefore necessary to keep the charger fully connected in order to use it.

I'm not in the car at the moment, obviously :smileywink: but I'll check it tomorrow.

Re: Battery Tips...

rcassano — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:58:21 GMT

I agree with your suggestion for "manually" controlling the charge of this very delicate battery technology, however, what does one do if you have the traffic receiver (Go 2505TM) which is built into the power plug. Disconnecting the power to control charge also disconnects the traffic service. The correct solution to this engineering issue is for TomTom to have designed in a battery regulator that controls the charge and prevents total discharge of the battery. Regulation has to keep the battery within the parameters of good health. This is easy to do and is part of every battery run device on the market. TomTom engineers need to take a look at this well proven basic circuitry and incorporate it into their products. Regulating the battery is not asking for a lot - it's a basic feature omitted on these devices.

Re: Battery Tips...

dhn — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:59:47 GMT

I disagree with Stephan. All units SHOULD be used with the charger connected at all times, in my opinion. That's why every unit has one provided in the box.

Re: Battery Tips...

baldmagicguy — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:00:40 GMT

dhn wrote:
I disagree with Stephan. All units SHOULD be used with the charger connected at all times, in my opinion. That's why every unit has one provided in the box.

Wow! Me thinks you are opening a can of worms with your opinion. :smileyhappy:

Don't get me wrong.... I respect your opinion.

Using the logic in your post, there SHOULD be no reason to have a battery at all. Yet there IS a battery and that battery needs a bit of care in order to maximize its life. Stefan is more correct than you may think.

For the highly technical explanation of the care of a Li-Ion battery:

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

A friendlier explanation:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/helpdesk/the-care-and-feeding-of-li-ion-batteries/124

Cheers,

Marty

Re: Battery Tips...

dhn — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:00:33 GMT

Don't get me wrong. I know that TT units can and do work on battery only but TomTom itself says the units shouldn't be run on battery power. I also know that units with LIVE functionality drain the battery at an alarming rate and it would be a challenge to go very long on just a battery.....

Just my opinion.

Re: Battery Tips...

baldmagicguy — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:11:14 GMT

dhn wrote:
Don't get me wrong. I know that TT units can and do work on battery only but TomTom itself says the units shouldn't be run on battery power. I also know that units with LIVE functionality drain the battery at an alarming rate and it would be a challenge to go very long on just a battery.....

Just my opinion.

I would agree that running the TT on battery ONLY would be silly. Still.... there is a pedestrian mode to these things, and while it may not be used much (if ever) a battery is required.

I think the point trying to be made is keeping the battery healthy. An occasional 50% drain is all that is required.

Re: Battery Tips...

rcassano — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:44:35 GMT

My interest in having the battery is to keep the unit functioning while I shut off the engine and get fuel. Without it I have to do a complete restart.

Re: Battery Tips...

Stefan — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:53:09 GMT

Before the GO Live 1000, I had a TomTom One and a Go 730T navigation device. On those devices the battery quickly drained to zero when being fully charged after a few years of usage. I always had the car charger plugged in when navigating with those devices, since then i'm using the 'Battery health care plan' to verify what the best method is to preserve the battery life.

Untill now it works well. Since i've read that at normal usage a battery should loose about 6% of its capacity after a year time, then the battery would hold 70% of its capacity after 5 years instead of not holding any charge after 2 - 3 years of usage.

Think about a cellphone: it can last for up to 14 days in standby. The cellphone isn't always connected to a power source, and is only being charged when the battery is low: at 10 - 15%. Never had to replace a battery from a cellphone when using it for about 7 years.

Don't know what the best method is to preserve the battery life, only share my experiences from using devices which are using a battery and based from the information i've read about batteries.:smileywink:

Perhaps a 'How to keep your battery' healthy article should be usefull on the TomTom knowledge base?:smileyhappy:

Re: Battery Tips...

baldmagicguy — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:07:22 GMT

Stefan wrote:
Never had to replace a battery from a cellphone when using it for about 7 years.

You got 7 YEARS out of a cell phone???????

You da man!!! :smileyvery-happy:

Re: Battery Tips...

Stefan — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 19:51:38 GMT

New important battery tips found:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Cell-Phone-Battery-Last-Longer

Do not recharge the battery while its hot in the car, first let the interior cool off;
Completely discharging the battery is bad for the battery, its better to recharge the battery when the battery status is low: status icon displays a red colour and has about 15% battery left;

So this means no monthly discharges anymore because this damages the battery more.:smileysurprised:

Make sure the airco is turned on, on hot summer days so the interior is cooled when having to recharge the battery in the car. (This also applies when recharging other devices in the car).