Easiest Place To Wire In Gps Receiver

[Xenonman]

Where is the easiest place to wire in a Bluetooth GPS receiver?

 

I have a permanent power cable supplied with the kit with a fuse built in but I'm getting a new vehicle in September, so I need a semi permanent solution that I can remove when I sell the motor.

 

It is currently powered by the cigarrette lighter socket but this looks messy.

 

If there was a way to keep the receiver in the dashboard storage cabinets whilst having it wired in, this would be helpful as it works really well in them, as well as being out of sight from prying eyes.

 

Thanks

 

Ian

[Guest nimrod]

Could you not mount it up above the rear veiw mirror and take an ignition switched feed off the interior lights? any extra cable you have could be tucked down in the void where the digital clock is mounted on the MK1's

[_dg]

I not sure that an adequate live is available at the light point.

 

Best way I have found is to buy one of those accessory socket adaptors that give you 2/3/4 extra accessory sockets and wire this to the back of the accessory socket.

 

This then gives you the facility to plug in a number of permanent t cables for your pocket pc, gps, moblie charger etc. You then just route and hide the cables as necessary.

 

Alternatively, you can find a suitable live down by the fuse panel, or in the centre console.

 

The gps antenna needs a clear view of the sky, so I don't think you can keep it in a covered storage box best place for it is near a window.

Mine is fixed by magnet to the back of the rear view mirror, and you don't notice it from the outside.

[Guest nimrod]

What's the required amperage for a gps receiver?

[Xenonman]

The Tomtom GPS receiver which I have requires 2A, I would like to keep it in the storage cabinets because as I said in my previous post, it works very well hidden in there, I have a lock on at least 7 satellites if not more.

 

The Tomtom GPS receiver is pretty much state of the art IMO, it even works in the house, closeish to a window and I have had it working in the glovebox too.

 

I have a 100m Class 3 bluetooth dongle on the front USB port on my pc, I can connect to the GPS in the car 20m away outside and get a fix on Autoroute 2004 as well.

[MrT]

Some points on the TomTom2 in the car.

 

Whilst its fuse is 2A, is does not draw anything like that.

 

GPS receivers can only see within line of sight so if your GPS receiver is on/in the dash you have a large area of sky shielded by your roof. I have also found that the GPS signal is affected by the heated front screen. I have installed an external re-radiating attenna which has given a much better signal on my TomTom BT receiver. With a re-radiating antenna you can put the unit anywhere you like and get a good GPS signal.

 

I took my power supply from the wiring to the cigarette lighter and used a scotchloc connector to join the wires on. You can get easy access to the cables buy sliding the radio out.

 

Make sure that you use the cable with the square connector to the cradle when hard wiring in to 12V. The TomTom cigarette plug has a 12-5V to regulator built in so that it provides 5V to the TomTom unit, if you cut this adapter cable and hard wire it, you will put 12V into the 5V TomTom.

 

Another minor point to note is that when you remove the TomTom unit from the hard wired cradle, it always powers off.

 

I have also heard that the TomTom BT unit can fail if overcharged, (www.pocketgps.co.uk) but I have never experienced this.