TomTom Rider (original version)

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NightShine

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I bought the TomTom Rider back when it was first released for North America :yahoo:

IMG_2618.jpg


and, as an early adopter, paid twice the price they're going for now. :glare: But to date, I've been pretty pleased with the unit's performance.

The Problem

The unit is hardwired to the bike's 12v power from an ignition-switched circuit, which powers the unit and also recharges its onboard battery (good for 5 hours off the bike). But on the way home from WFO, the TomTom started resetting and rebooting and acting generally squirrelly toward the end of the first day of riding. Its battery was depleted and it was failing to get power from the bike! I could get the unit to work only by holding my hand against the unit, pressing it harder into its mounting cradle. Very annoying, but it got me to that night's hotel.

After a bit of investigation and a few chats with TomTom support, it's apparent that the design of the product's mounting cradle isn't really adequate for the rigors of vibration it can face in life on a motorcycle. (TomTom addresses this issue and others in the recently revised edition of the Rider, btw). The problem occurs where the electrical contact pads at the back of the Rider mate with the contact pins of the cradle. Over time vibration can cause the pins to abrade little pits into the contact pads. When the pits grow deep enough, the pins can no longer make good electrical contact and so power is lost.

The photo below shows the pitting after about 20K miles of riding. While all pads show wear marks, the two outer pads have pits that have worn to failure.

IMG_2621.jpg


These are the mating pins on the mounting cradle.

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This is a silver epoxy adhesive that comes in a 14 gram, 2 part system. It's chiefly used in the electronics industry in cases where hot soldering is impractical. I mixed up a 1:1 ratio of the stuff and used a toothpick to dab the adhesive into the pits and smooth it around the pads that were worn.

IMG_2628.jpg


The TomTom Rider now properly charges in its cradle. What remains to be seen is the actual longevity of this fix. But I suspect that, being an polymer, the epoxy will have some elasticity that the original copper material lacked. In a vibration environment, this may make for a more resilient connection. I'll update this post over time as I see how the material holds up.

Alternatives

The adhesive I used was from M.E. Taylor Engineering. It is an epoxy that cures at room temperatures, but at $38 for 14 grams, shipped, is a bit on the pricey side. Especially when you only need a fraction of a gram!

Another possibility, instead of epoxy, might be to use the electrically conductive adhesive you find at the local auto\

parts store to repair rear window defogger grids.

There are also copper, aluminum or carbon adhesive tapes that might be suitable for this application, but I haven't sourced or priced these.

 
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I found the ultimate fix to all of the charging problems I had with the TomTom Rider: Garmin Zumo 550

After returning the thing twice I finally demanded a store credit and bought the Zumo. Have you contacted TomTom about the problem? It's a known problem with those units so maybe they would make it right for you?

JW

 
After returning the thing twice I finally demanded a store credit and bought the Zumo. Have you contacted TomTom about the problem? It's a known problem with those units so maybe they would make it right for you?
I contacted TomTom support a number of times. I'm not terribly impressed with them. Contacted them about this the day after I noticed this, on July 30th. Was told they'd send out a replacement mounting cradle and if I still had problems they would RMA the unit. Okay.

A month later, still nothing received from them. They'd messed up the order and the part hadn't been sent. Sorry. We'll get the part sent right out to you. Two weeks later still nothing. Talked to their 2nd tier support folks who said that sending the replacement cradle would likely not help the problem and that RMAing the unit would only be a temporary fix (as in it would wear out again in a couple of years anyway). I guess they weren't about to correct the problem by sending me the newly revised TomTom Rider! Got the cradle in the mail a week or so later.

As far as "store credit", it really was not an option. I originally bought the unit through our own 04FJR4ME and his store Auto Nav 2000. And while his pricing was okay for the time, it was strictly a "buy sight unseen" sort of deal. I was disappointed that he would not even entertain my request to drive down to his shop and see the unit first. His pre-sales support was really non-existent, so you can imagine my take on any post-sales support! :rolleyes:

Anyway, I like my TomTom Rider, and have no qualms about applying a little DIY improvement to the thing. So I'll just see how this TomTom farkle goes!

 
I liked the functionality of the Rider and the menu's, just the quaility of the mounting and charging problems that I had issues with. Looking at the Rider 2 that just came out it looks like they have fixed the weaknesses of the original.

Your experience with their support was about the same as mine. :angry:

JW

 
I'm going to have to try your epoxy fix. My Rider failed in a imilar way, but slighly different. The pins on my mount contacted the pads very near the bottom edge. I attempted to resolve this by "lowering" the Rider in the cradle.

I shaved down the rubber at the bottom that locates the unit in the cradle, and also filed away at the body itself, as I saw contact marks where the upper portion of the body begins to curve forward (as mounted). These worked well enough to get me home, where I ordered another cradle.

The contact points with the replacement cradle were much more centralized, but the whole thing has since failed again.

I also got mine on a special kind of deal, so can't justifiably return it or ask for assistance in resolving this, so the conductive epoxy is a great solution. I like the Rider's function, now I just need to keep it alive.

Willy, I've had a little history with Garmin, so try not to buy their products, but that Zumo looks very cool. Have you had any problems whether mechanical or functional with the use of it? I'd like to hear your thoughts. I'll look and see if there's already a thread on the topic, but thought I'd ask here, too.

 
TomTom's attitude is strange indeed. They admit that the unit was badly designed and say thatit will fail again.

My view would be to have them replace whatever needs replacing - and then do it again when it next fails. After all, this is not an issue related to abuse, but rather a deficiency on their part that they know about.

Did I not also hear that the bracket itself can let go under certain 'not atypical for Motorcycle' circumstances?

As it happens I am a TomTom shareholder, but I own and prefer Garmin navigators. Time will tell what will end up happening with the Navteq/TeleAtlas corporate relations issues going on now.

 
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