tomtom hardwire

first off, i would like to apologize for this post because it's most definitely going to be a repost of some sort. i understand that forums are meant to be "SEARCHED!" and as such i should search. the problem is, i really don't know what i'm doing, so i'm not really sure to search for. (in fact, i've searched over at the mazda6club too, but came up with nothing). this is basically my situation. i'm going to be hardwiring my tomtom910 base to my car (2005 Mazda6) but the problem is, they don't make a hardwire kit. now my question is this.... can i take the power cord (for the cigarette lighter), cut the adapter off, and hard wire using the remaining cable (essentially making my own hardwire kit)?? i'm assuming that i'd run the power cable to the fuse box, and take the ground cable just bolt that to the unibody. thanks in advance, xtmesisx

I am not familiar with the Tomtom device, but before you do what you are planning, you need to make sure the input voltage for the Tomtom is 12 volts. It is not uncommon to have a voltage regulator built into the cig lighter adaptor. If you find the unit to have a 5 volt input, you will need to solder wires to the cig lighter adaptor to retain the 5 volt regulation.

alright cool. the website says "The power charger supports the 12-24V of your cigarette lighter" but i'm not really sure what to take from that. i'll go out to my car tomorrow and check it out; see if it says anything on the side of cigarette adapter. thanks for the heads up.

you can buy cigarette lighter sockets that have bare wires on the other end ive seen them at circuit city for like 10 bucks or so.  that way you can just plug your cigarette lighter plug into the socket and wire the socket into the cars wiring,  that way if you ever need your power cord you wont have to buy a new one from tomtom.  The tom tom plug says it supports 12-24 volts wich sounds to me like its input voltage.  you need to know its output voltage because thats what actually goes to the 910.

similar to what mando2155 said. Get a cigarette extension or splitter.Cut the female end(s) off and verify with a DMM (digital multimeter) which is (+) and (-) and then wire this plug into the vehicles cigarette lighter plug or accessory power source. That way you can make sure you keep both the input voltage, and the plug itself..which those can be more than cheap to replace. GL sSrtfm

thanks for the heads up on extension, i'm thinking thats going to be the safest (for tomtom) way to get this done. and if i'm picturing it right, this extension that i'm buying is basically a female cigarette adapter that i'll solder into the wires going to my factory cigarette lighter. and all of this can be hidden underneath the center console (where the OEM cigarette lighter exists). if i'm not seeing this correctly, please feel free to correct me. thanks again guys. ps - i'll be posting pics when it's completed.

actually, do i even have to use the factory cigarette wiring, or can i tap into some other place in the car??? (maybe i'll re-read the posts and see what was said....)

You can tap into any 12 volt source as long as you fuse the wire going to the GPS.Jeff

Velocity Custom Home Theater

Mobile Audio/Video Specialist

Morden, Manitoba CANADA

You can definitely do that. An extra step I would do to keep the adaptor in place is tape the adaptor to the socket. How I like to install so I can minimize hte space eaten up in the dash (some cars are a tight fit sometimes) is to open the adaptor up by removing the retaining ring on the plug and opening the housing. Then solder wires to the terminals/contacts inside it that take in the positive and negative. Then bring the wires out from the now empty hole in the adaptor tip (from where the positive contact, usually a cap, used to be) For times where I am REALLY in a bind for space (some jeeps for example) I completely remove the housing, solder to the contacts and electric tape the whole bundle nice and neatly. It cuts the size down by as much as half or more in some cases.

mando2155 wrote: you can buy cigarette lighter sockets that have bare wires on the other end ive seen them at circuit city for like 10 bucks or so. that way you can just plug your cigarette lighter plug into the socket and wire the socket into the cars wiring, that way if you ever need your power cord you wont have to buy a new one from tomtom. The tom tom plug says it supports 12-24 volts wich sounds to me like its input voltage. you need to know its output voltage because thats what actually goes to the 910.

I wouldn't just use any universal plug for this install. If I remember correctly, the tomtom 900 (not 910) when I hardwired one ran at 5 volts (possibly 8 but I don't think so). I don't think the company would change voltage consumption from the 900-910 but you never know. Ganbatte ne!Never send your ducks to eagle school.

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

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just got a hold of the tomtom cigarette lighter adapter, and this is what the label says: input: 12/24V output: 5V2A i'm assuming that the cigarette lighter in my car is then 12V. and i'm also assuming that theres a transformer of some sort in the tomtom adapter to "downconvert" 12V to 5V (2 amps? is that what 2A stands for?). so i'm assuming now that if i soldered a new cigarette lighter into a 12V line (behind the dash), i could safely plug tomtom in without fear of blowing him up, or otherwise damaging him. sorry if i'm repeating what other people have said (or horrible skewing stated facts), i just don't really understand electrical automotive topics.