TomTom Rider hopeless charger fix! For £1.15

Okay so for anyone out there who has a TomTom Rider 1, you will all know the issues with the bike mounted charger pins going out of line and not charging within a matter of months after purchase.
The only help TomTom give is to buy the new version, something which many of us simply cannot afford to keep doing.

Seeing as the TomTom charges at 5 Volts DC, and the the bike obviously outputs 12vdc, a simple circuit must be hidden inside mount already to convert this voltage difference. Something such as a L7805 linear regulator could be used for this. I looked into designing a simple circuit, but thought again when it looked like it was going to cost around £10, sod that.

After a bit of thought and research I came up with a very cheap and simple solution. That being, the car charger must contain the exact circuit I'm looking for, and that kind of thing can usually be bought for peanuts on eBay...

£1.15 and a week later and this was sitting at my desk


The handy thing about this adapter, is that whereas the original TomTom adapter is sealed, this one simply screws together, making it perfect for tampering with!

So here are the steps:

1) AFTER CHECKING TO MAKE SURE IT WORKS FIRST!!! Set to taking the new adapter apart to check out whats inside, and where to connect your positive and negative wires to.

2) Unsolder or otherwise carefully remove the prongs that normally make contact with the cigarette lighter socket. Sorry I don't have a photo for this.

3) As I already had the TomTom hard wire sitting there, I simply cut the existing connector off, and soldered these onto the wires that were removed from the prongs in step two. Red on Red, Black on Black obviously.

The bits you solder are hidden by tape in my photo's.




4) Carefully put the adapter back together and the TomTom wire should run nicely out of the front of the adapter, where the socket pin used to be.



5) It's up to you but i choose to seal with a hot melt glue gun.



6) Now hide this all under your tank and bring the new charging cable within reach of TomTom mount. And check that it charges! Pics to follow

7) Next snap the charger socket and memory card door off the bottom of the TomTom, a bit of brute force does the trick. It won't sit in the mount if the door is still on.

8 ) Final step is to crack open a beer and run to show mum/girlfriend/boyfriend/wife, in that order, what you done. As I'm sure they've all been dying to see...


I'll add a few more pictures shortly and probably shorten/make this easier to understand if people get stuck. But in the mean time, any questions just post below or PM me, always happy to help.

Thanks for sharing, don't have one but love too see peoples solutions to finance driven fixes.

[Fallout]

I've just bought the urban rider Europe. Should arrive in the next few days. I haven't bothered with the overpriced charging mount (which doesn't come with the new models these days!), so I might give something like this a go.

Good thinking. But an even easier way is to snap the door off the bottom as you suggest and just plug the car charging unit into a 12v acc socket on the bike.

Was that snap the cover off or just wait till it falls apart.

I get what you mean Teejay I have a 12v socket as well. The issue is mounting the socket far enough forwards on the bike to work. A 12v socket also costs twice as much as the adapter in my mod. And requires just as much if not more fiddling for those who already have the hardwire installed.
Souldude, which ever happens first I suppose, oh TomTom, how you became so famous god only knows...

Can I ask why this has been moved to idle banter?
Because I'm not sure it is :-/

Originally Posted by Souldude

Was that snap the cover off or just wait till it falls apart.

I feel your pain. Luckily they fixed mine out of warranty.