On a recent trip to Florida I decided to leave the Garmin Nuvi at home and use my Droid for navigation. All in all I was quite pleased. However, I wanted to share one issue I had. Although the outside temperature was in the low 60's it was bright and sunny. About 25 minutes into a trip to Naples, I noticed the phone stopped charging even though the battery was at 70%.
After ensuring the car charger connections were tight, I pulled the phone from the windshield mount. It was extremely hot from sitting in the direct sunlight. Plugged the charger back in but it still would not charge. I turned on the AC and held the phone in front of a vent for a few minutes. Plugged the charger back in and voila, the phone started charging. Only thing I can figure is that a protection mechanism kicked in and shut down charging because the battery got too hot.
It should be pretty easy to fashion a shade out of cardboard. By cutting a slot in the shade for the arm of the windshield mount it should stay in place and hopefully shade the phone enough to prevent overheating.
BTW, Google Maps Navigation on the Moto Droid made Wired Mag's Editor's Pick in a comparison with TomTom for iPhone and the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition.
