TomTom Wired Vs Bluetooth (How many power cables?)

Hello everybody,

This is my first post here. I'm thinking of getting a tomtom 2 system very soon.

I'd like to go for the bluetooth one but i see that the tomtom bluetooth gps reciever seems to have it's own power cable, whereas the wired (non-bluetooth) one seems to just take power from the same cable that connects it to the pda.

Firstly, is this assumption correct? Or have i got it wrong?

Secondly, does this mean i'd potentially have two separate cables to plug into my cigarette lighter socket in the car? If so, i'm gonna have problems running tham both at the same time, aren't i?

Jamey

Hi,

I have a Tom Tom car kit which contains a cradle, cigarette lighter power cable and a RJ cable.


The cigarette lighter cable connects directly to the cradle, which will power your PDA. From the cradle there is a female socket ( RJ ) similar to a BT telephone socket. You would run the supplied RJ cable from here to your GPS receiver. Thereby,the car cigarette lighter power source would supply power to both the PDA and GPS simultaneously. The RJ cable is about 3 feet in length so should be long enough to stretch from the cradle to say the front dashboard , where you would presumably locate the receiver. With a full charge the receiver will function for about 6 hours or more, so you may find that you will not need to use the RJ cable if you're travelling for less than this time.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Abrar

Originally Posted by Jamey

Hello everybody,

This is my first post here. I'm thinking of getting a tomtom 2 system very soon.

I'd like to go for the bluetooth one but i see that the tomtom bluetooth gps reciever seems to have it's own power cable, whereas the wired (non-bluetooth) one seems to just take power from the same cable that connects it to the pda.

Firstly, is this assumption correct? Or have i got it wrong?

Secondly, does this mean i'd potentially have two separate cables to plug into my cigarette lighter socket in the car? If so, i'm gonna have problems running tham both at the same time, aren't i?

Jamey

Thank you.

You didn't say whether you have a bluetooth gps reciever or a 'normal' wired one.

Hi Jamey.

Welcome to the Total PDA forums.

I am a self employed courier and use Tom Tom 2 (bluetooth) with an Ipaq 1940. I have a power lead for the cigarette lighter (that came in the box) which has two wires coming out of it. One for the GPS reciever and one for the Ipaq so I can keep both charged up while on the move.

As a courier you can guess I use it alot and also find myself switching vehicles frequently. This is no problem as the kit I have is totally portable and can have it set up in another vehicle in minutes. I've had no big problems with hardware or software, some minor technical hitches but nothing that any user forum cant sort out.

If you choose Tom Tom 2 you may need some extra storage for maps etc.

Hope this helps you out some.

Good luck.

Steve.

Hi Jamey

I had exactly the same question which a fair bit of research sorted out. As you've seen from people already there are a couple of options but here's my opinion...

I went for the cradle+wired GPS for my Ipaq 2210 because I liked the fact that I could permanently wire everything in. The Tom Tom kit came with:

Cradle (specific to the 2210) - which is great quality.

All sorts of mounting hardware - sucker and gooseneck for window (plus a sticker plate for it in case you want to use the sucker on a different surface), a plate you can stick and/or screw somewhere, and a air-vent mount.

A curly cigar lighter power lead AND a plain lead to bare ends which you could wire in permanently.

GPS receiver on a lead - which plugs straight into the cradle with an RJ11 connector.

With all this you can do a temporary install to try things out then do it more permanently if you like it.

What's more the cradle slides on and off the mounting hardware - so you could have the permanent bracket in your car, and use the sucker or air-vent mount in someone elses.

I like the ability to jump in the car, stick the 2210 in the cradle and drive off. No adjusting the holder, fiddling around with a lead, or anything. No rattles, no iffy connections, no leads to plug in the bottom of the pda.

The instructions say that you can get an extension for the RJ11 cable so that you could mount the receiver on the rear parcel shelf - as long as it can see the sky. I've asked www.totalpda.co.uk if they can supply me one as that's what I want to do.

Retrospectively, as my Golf has a cigar socket in the boot I might have gone for the bluetooth version if I'd have thought of it. That way I could have a semi-permanent install that I don't have to think about - but can still take the kit elsewhere.

Sorry to harp on but I was really impressed with the kit - these days you can get a lot of junk for your cash but personally I thought the gear was great. Furthermore I tried www.totalpda.co.uk after another supplier let me down and they were extremely helpful.

Good luck.


Cymon

Remember the tomtom bluetooth cradle can be hard wired to the vehicles power supply with the cables that are included in the pack.

http://www.totalpda.co.uk/product4459_302.aspx

[quote=Kenneth]Remember the tomtom bluetooth cradle can be hard wired to the vehicles power supply with the cables that are included in the pack.

http://www.totalpda.co.uk/product4459_302.aspx[/QUOTE]



Hello Kenneth - that would indeed be the case if the cradle was in the box. Apparently TomTom have stopped including them - their website still lists them, but their customer support says they left them out because people got confused with too many bits and pieces - pretty lame, huh?.

Kenneth Ross, Prestwick

Yes, tomtom have admitted this was a mistake. If you did not receive a cradle you should be able to contact your account manager and ask for one to be sent to you.

Sounds to me like Abrar is describing the exact same system as I have, which is the bluetooth version, and it works perfectly for me (apart from the occasional requirement to do a soft reset if the bluetooth connection fails to be established).

I rarely need to connect the GPS reciever to the charger, and only plug it in when the red (low battery) indicator comes on. then i often leave it plugged in to the cigarette lighter socket (which again i rarely actually plug in, as I charge my T3 via my PC's USB port with an excellent connector from www.boxwave.com)) and slip the GPS receiver (still attached via the RJ cable) under my seat to let it charge to full capacity...

HTH,
John