rider 1 earpice battery life

usually use my TT1 without the standard earpiece, but now wish to give it a go - any ideas on battery life per charge with average routing usage?

thanks

It's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question. I spoke to Tomtom about this soon after they came out and was told seven hours but I think that is with pretty well constant use. It's a bit like a mobile phone that claims four day battery life - but it drops to an hour if you use it.

I rarely use mine as I prefer my Garmin satnav, partly because it plugs straight into my Autocom so avoids Bluetooth and battery charging completely. When I do use it I try to remember to charge it after a days use but often forget and it is still OK after three or four days.

If you are intending to connect it straight to the Tomtom headset it's a waste of space anyway as the maximum volume is so low that it's pretty useless over about 30mph. I use mine with a home made adapter lead plugged into my Autocom - but still have to remember to charge the damned battery. That boosts the volume to a useable level (Autocom have a ready made adapter lead).

To avoid the charging problems I tried keeping the dongle on the bike with a 12v charger plugged in but the stupid thing turns off as soon as a charger is connected.

Basically it's a crap bit of kit which is probably why Tomtom included a Scala headset in the Mark 2. My wife has one of those and although the battery life is better than the Mark 1 dongle, she still forgets to charge it so it's dead when she wants to use it.

thanks - ive been testing it in the helmet without moving and it is very low volume (i put it down to my hearing loss after riding way to fast for years with no plugs in) - i have tried it with an adaptor to a std headphone jack and then into some micro amplified speakers (all bits i had already) in the clear top bit of my tank bag and that has john cleese booming out! although yet to test at speed - might be the answer as i am not a fan of things stuck/coming out of my helmet

Since you were of a mind to use TT's Bluetooth capability (the way the unit communicates with the headset), then you might look around for an alternative, which overcomes the volume problem mentioned earlier.

I settled on the Jabra BT350S. It has a 3.5 mm connector for your MP3 player, and a 3.5 mm socket for your personal choice of headphones. The gadget itself pairs with the TT via Bluetooth. The TT also pairs with your phone, meaning that any incoming phone calls will show on the TT screen, and will be relayed to your headphones via the Jabra. All this time the music plays through the Jabra. When a call comes in it automatically tones down the music.

Now, answering the calls is a little problematic. The Jabra has an inbuilt microphone, but the trick is to get the Jabra unit to fit unobtrusively inside your helmet, near your mouth. Crack that one and you've got the full works.