charging laptop batteries
Submitted: Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 12:05
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Member - questoz
Hi,
We'd like to make use of the Hema maps we have downloaded to our laptop whilst travelling and hope somebody with personal experience could let us know the best way to keep the laptop battery charged.
Are there any cigarette lighter adaptors that will do the job without affecting or harming the computer - such as fluctuations in the power whilst driving? Or would the power from solar panels do the job - a lesser options as they are used mainly for keeping the car batteries charged for other uses.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Reply By: Geoff in SA - Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 12:24
Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 12:24
Hi Questoz
the can convertors will do the job quite
well.
But this will depend on the laptop size as some of the power supplies do draw the rated capacity of the cans.
There is another option available that is a specific laptop charger designed to operate from a ciggy socket. It is able to be set up with the specific charging voltage and has the different plugs to fit each laptop.
Available for Jaycar if I recall.
I have a smaller EE Book laptop I use and it has a very small charging requirement
So I use the can Inverter.
Regards
Geoff
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Ross M - Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 15:34
Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 15:34
Any cheap can inverter is only a modified square wave and many laptops DO NOT start up from this non sine wave, although some do.
If it doesn't it will most likely burn out the laptop power supply as it will be in a state of full on switching one way and can't detect the opposite sine signal to begin running.
Found this on my Toshiba, no go on modified square wave and runs perfectly on full sine wave.
Best/economical use of your 12vdc supply is to use a 12vdc to 19v, or whatever voltage it needs, from jaycar as already mentioned. Small, efficient, once only, power stepup to required voltage dc.
If getting solar:
The power from solar panels would still have to be regulated at the correct Laptop voltage. Better to use some solar to supply a regulated voltage charge to the car batteries.
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