Tom Tom Interference noise

[theoldnick]

With a tom tom live mounted on the dash of a fiat ducato (Kontiki) there is constant 'radio interference' type of noise which is so bad we have to switch the tom tom off.

 

We have tried shielding the tom tom with tinfoil type paper but it has had little success.

 

Any ideas or solutions would be most welcome as we set of for the continent this week

[tonyishuk]

Is it the Tomtom (power on its own battery), or the tomtom power supply causing the problem. If the latter, a change or usb charger might do the trick ?

 

Rgds

[hallii]

As "Tonyishuk" intimates, interference often travels via the power supply.

 

Try it on it's own battery and see if that helps.

 

It is very easy for manufacturers to incorporate filtering of the power supply to eliminate this problem, but that costs pennies, so they don't always do a good job.

 

By the way, my TomTom Start 25 has such a low volume that it is unusable in my motorhome, I just thought I would get that in B-)

 

H

[theoldnick]

thanks for the quick response.

 

tried running it on its own battery but the problem still exists

 

tried running it from a different fag lighter socket in the dash

but still the same.

 

Will try again with shielding but with thicker tinfoil

 

thanks

[Keithl]

If you shield your Tom Tom with tin foil then surely it will not be able to pick up the GPS signal and hence won't work! A bit like shooting yourself in the foot!

 

If you turn the sound off on your Tom Tom then does it still make a noise? I actually prefer to use ours on silent and watch for instructions rather than have the repetitive voice nagging at me :D

 

It sounds like you are picking up airborne interference rather than power supply interference so your only other option would be to identify the source, possible alternator, blower fan, wipers, etc...

 

Keith.