Hey guys... I have a TomTom Go 700. It is powered by the dash power outlet while in my vehicle.

Like a lot of the adapters, it has a little green light that comes on when it is plugged into the power outlet to indicate that the adapter is receiving power. This light comes on even if the TomTom isn't connected to the adapter.

However, when the TomTom is connected, it uses that power and even when off, it will recharge the TomTom battery off of it.

My question is this... is there a way to configure my vehicle so that the power outlet in the dash only provides power when the ignition is on and not 24x7?

 

I don't think so. You really shouldn't worry about it draining your battery. As long as the TomTom is off or in suspend mode it shouldn't be drawing much juice. Unless you leave your car for long periods you'll be fine. My Dell Axim PDA kinda "suspends" due to the flash memory and can last like 2 weeks off one small battery.

 

Sure, you can change it out to be powered with the ignition. You just have to get the wiring diagram from Helminc.com, trace the wiring and change out the wires so that the power wire will now be switched with the ignition. Not extremely difficult but some wiring is involved. I would guess those wires would go and come from the internal fuse panel on the driver's side. I have the wiring manual and may be able to look it up for you. Let me know and I'll look into it if you need me too.

I agree though, that TomTom isn't going to drain your battery. My police department powers full laptop-type computers in our cruisers and those have been left on (screens and all) for 8+ hours with the car off and they still start right up with no hesitation.

-Cheers

 

stop being lazy and hook it up to your fuse box instead of your dash

 

Not lazy.. just don't know a thing about how to do that.