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Problem charging Sat Nav


Lucas

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Hi

I have no doubt someone here will be able to help :-D

My cigarette lighter socket in the vans cab will not charge my Snooper S6800 but will charge my mobile phone!!! I have tested the sat nav in my car and it is fine.

Any thoughts?

Do I need to change the cigarette socket or wire an additional 12v socket into the cab?

If a wire a new additional 12v socket in, do you take the wires straight to the starter battery?

My van is an Autotrail Cheyenne 2003 sprinter.

 

Thanks

 

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Robbo - 2018-01-15 5:53 PM

 

Suggest you first check that electrical current is reaching your sat nav. You may have a faulty charger.

 

 

However, from what you have said, it seems the fault is probably your Snooper charger. You say the socket is fine with your 'phone, so the socket works. That the sat nav seems to charge OK in your car is odd but, as Stuart suggests, there may be an intermittent fault on the wiring between plug and sat-nav. Have you tried wiggling the connecting wires to see if you get hit and miss power to the sat-nav?

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It sounds to me as if the 12v plug on the sat nav is not making contact with the terminal inside the socket if it works on one vehicle but not on another.

 

It may or may not solve your problem but my inclination would be to buy or try a plug in double 12v socket and if it works you have an extra 12v power outlet as a bonus and it beats taking things apart or the risk of causing sparks and damage.

 

 

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Tracker - 2018-01-15 7:11 PM

 

It sounds to me as if the 12v plug on the sat nav is not making contact with the terminal inside the socket if it works on one vehicle but not on another.

 

It may or may not solve your problem but my inclination would be to buy or try a plug in double 12v socket and if it works you have an extra 12v power outlet as a bonus and it beats taking things apart or the risk of causing sparks and damage.

 

 

Keithl - 2018-01-15 6:21 PM.

 

Lucas, Your problem is most likely an incompatibility between your Sat Nav plug and the socket in your MH. Try obtaining a cigar socket extension or multi outlet splitter and see if that helps.

 

eg http://www.halfords.com/technology/mobile-phone-accessories/multisockets/halfords-basic-twin-car-multi-socket

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Just to be clear - and you may already know this - but just in case - do NOT be tempted to change the 12v plug for your sat nav as I understand that the original one also has voltage reducing gubbins inside it to get to the 4.5 v or thereabouts used by usb devices and using a straight 12 v plug will like as not destroy the sat nav.
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Lucas,

 

There are actually two sizes of cigarette socket and plug and whilst they are normally interchangeable sometimes they do not mix.

 

From Wiki...

 

"12-volt cigarette lighter receptacle and plug, size A

Receptacle inside diameter: 20.93–21.01 mm (median 20.97 mm)

Plug body diameter: 20.73–20.88 mm (median 20.805 mm)

Most often used in American automobiles

 

12-volt cigarette lighter receptacle and plug, size B

Receptacle inside diameter: 21.41–21.51 mm (median 21.455 mm)

Plug body diameter: 21.13–21.33 mm (median 21.18 mm)

Most often used in European automobiles, and sometimes as a second socket in American automobiles expressly for DC power connections."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_lighter_receptacle

 

Hence my and Trackers suggestion to try another type of socket by using a splitter.

 

Keith.

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While the fault might indeed be incompatibility between 12v socket and satnav power lead plug, I spent ages exploring this possibility before trying a new lead, which solved the problem immediately in my case.

 

Don't be tempted to buy a really cheap replacement lead off EBay; I did that and that one failed too.  Buy a better quality one, maybe even from the satnav company.  The quality of the cable and the connections is important.

 

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Lucas says "I have tested the sat nav in my car and it is fine”.

 

Presumably this means that he has plugged the sat-nav’s charging-lead into his car’s 12V power-socket and found that this causes the sat-nav to charge up. If that assumption is correct, then it’s unlikely that there is anything wrong with the sat-nav’s charging-lead and the problem is probably due to an unhappy marriage between the plug on the Snooper sat-nav’s charging-lead and the motorhome’s cigarette-lighter socket.

 

Plugging in the sat-nav’s charging-lead back and forth between the car and motorhome should prove whether the charging-lead is OK. If the sat-nav always receives charge when the lead is plugged into the car’s socket, but never receives charge when plugged into the motorhome’s socket, it’s almost certainly a motorhome-socket/sat-nav-lead-plug relationship problem.

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With mine - a Garmin, there is a little blue LED on the plug which lights when charging, I have found that the connection isn't great, sometimes I need to unplug it and re-plug it, or turn it around a bit, - not sure why, using the standard lead as supplied, and standard van socket as delivered.

 

Gave myself a fright when suddenly the Sat Nav came up "charge urgently" or similar when I thought it was.

 

Other 12v appliances eg phone chargers simply plug straight in, - no problem, so there is something with either the sat nav plug or socket, haven't really investigated, life is too short.

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I have an Aguri Sat Nav, on a trip to Scotland last year, it suddenly died on me, I discovered it had stopped charging from tbe cig. lighter socket in tbe cab. I was able to charge if from my inverter using the mains cable for the rest of the trip.

When I returned home, I contacted Aguri who sent me a replacement cable and it has been fine since, clearly a faulty cable and I would echo advice already given-try a new charging lead.

Hope you resolve the problem.

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Derek Uzzell - 2018-01-16 11:38 AM......................Plugging in the sat-nav’s charging-lead back and forth between the car and motorhome should prove whether the charging-lead is OK. If the sat-nav always receives charge when the lead is plugged into the car’s socket, but never receives charge when plugged into the motorhome’s socket, it’s almost certainly a motorhome-socket/sat-nav-lead-plug relationship problem.

But, the odd thing is that Lucas also said that his 'phone charges in the motorhome socket, although the sat-nav doesn't. This seems to point to the sat-nav charger plug (if not the lead) as the culprit. So perhaps he should compare the 'phone plug with the sat-nav plug, to see if he can spot any tell-tale differences?

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Afternoon all.

 

Thank you all for the responses and suggestions.

 

The sat nav lead is fine and works in my car and others, so I know the lead itself is ok.

If I use my phone and additional usb adaptor my phone charges in the van.

This leads me to believe that the sat nav plug is not compatible with the van socket or there is not enough power to charge the sat nav.

As suggested I have tried rotating the sat nav plug in the van socket with no luck.

I will no buy a double socket extension to plug the sat nav in and see if that works.

I will report back with :-D

 

Thanks again

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If you have a usb lead for the sat nav to computer connection and a cigar lighter usb adapter for phone charging try that combination as long as it can supply enough current for the sat nav?

A 12v usb plug converter is more compact than a 12v adapter and should look neater?

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lennyhb - 2018-01-17 6:05 PM

 

You don't say what the base vehicle is.

 

Lucas - 2017-11-19 10:50 AM

Hi

 

I have a Autotrail 2003 cheyenne, Mercedes 2.8 cdi.

 

I also have a Merc but I have added a 3 way bank of sockets wired so they are only live with the engine running and consequently I do not use the Std fit Merc socket so can't really offer any other advice than that given.

 

Try the splitter cable and let us know how you get on.

 

Keith.

 

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Keithl - 2018-01-17 6:18 PM

 

lennyhb - 2018-01-17 6:05 PM

 

You don't say what the base vehicle is.

 

Lucas - 2017-11-19 10:50 AM

Hi

 

I have a Autotrail 2003 cheyenne, Mercedes 2.8 cdi.

 

I also have a Merc but I have added a 3 way bank of sockets wired so they are only live with the engine running and consequently I do not use the Std fit Merc socket so can't really offer any other advice than that given.

 

Try the splitter cable and let us know how you get on.

 

Keith.

I need to go to Specsavers missed the bit about the Merc. :D

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