Laptops and 12V inverters
Submitted: Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 15:23
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Vince Scollen
Tandy have a 150watt inverter for $49. can I run my lap top from this in the car? The unit puts out a modified Sine Wave.
I have Oziexplorer on the laptop and this is connected to my E-treck, but the laptop runs out of power after about 2 hours.
Any suggestions would be great
Thanks
Vince
Reply By: Willem - Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 15:49
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 15:49
I was advised by consensus in this
forum that a Pure Sine Wave inverter was the way to go, So I bought a 150 watt one from Jaycar for $285 and it works
well.....but maybe your $49 one will work just as
well. Normally when things are that cheap then that is just what you are getting.........
Cheers,
Willem
Always going somewhere
AnswerID:
43121
Follow Up By: Member -Bob & Lex (Sydney) - Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 18:09
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 18:09
Is that a Self Portrait Willem?Regards Bob
Where to next
FollowupID:
305451
Follow Up By: Willem - Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 21:56
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 21:56
Caricature done by Cartoonist Mick Joffe of
Sydney as part of a collection called(with tongue firmly in cheek)...Endangered Territorians....1997Willem
Always going somewhere
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Follow Up By: Janset - Saturday, Jan 17, 2004 at 22:18
Saturday, Jan 17, 2004 at 22:18
Hi all.
A friend of
mine runs his laptop off a 150 watt inverter from Dick Smiths. I tried
mine on his inverter and it worked O.K.
Later I saw one going on special from Tandy's for $49 so I got that instead and all is
well.
I was worried a bit about the sine wave thing also, but as it was pointed out to me, the 240 output may be a modified sine wave, but that power still has to go back through the laptop transformer where it is converted to the prescribed DC voltage and that is not a sensitive component/instrument so no problems should result. So far all is still
well, and it is cheap!.
As for the 240 volts in the vehicle, (I promise not to stick a piece of wire in the plug to see if is alive :-)...... Common sense should prevail, don't leave the inverter at floor level where it may get flooded, mount it high and out of the way.
Regards
FollowupID:
305674
Reply By: Member - Nigel (QLD) - Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 18:57
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 18:57
The $49 unit will be a modified square wave (why would you modify a sine wave - doesn't make sense).
My advise is the cheap
inverters will work, but shouldn't be used long term as your powerpack for the laptop will have to work harder to get less power, and therefore take longer to charge the laptop battery, and increase the risk of problems.
If you will use it infrequently then it's hard to justify the cost of the sine wave inverter,. but for regular use then the sine wave type are worth the extra (and are more versatile).
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Jack - Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 19:49
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 19:49
This is interesting!!
Can anybody point me to a site that explains how to repack batteries.
A quick search by Google just came up with those that do it, without revealing any of the "secrets".
Thanks in advance.
JackNo trees were harmed in the making or sending of this message.
However a great number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
AnswerID:
43160
Reply By: Cumbo - Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 19:56
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 19:56
Vince
I bought a pure sine wave inverter 300 watt from Bisbane just before christmas.
I dropped out of ebay bidding for it at $215-00 and emailed the seller and asked if he could sell me one prior to departure on holidays.
Reply was that he would sell one for $175-00 plus $20-00 postage to
Sydney.
Completed the deal and it arrived the next day.
Just got back from holidays and it performed impecably, charging laptop, dig camera phone and other equipment.
Company was unitec. Dual points on the inverter and I mounted it on the cargo barrier.
Not much more dollars and I think a better product for your equipment
CumboTD42
EFS
TX4400
Safari
Snorkel
Rola Racks
Milford Barrier
Engel 39l
AnswerID:
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Reply By: John - Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 23:19
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004 at 23:19
Hi Willem
My Dell Inspiron 8200 has a 15 inch screen and a Pentium 4 chip,
These newer generation higher performance lap tops do require more power than the older ones.
My 150 watt inverter does run my computer but it does get very hot after a couple of hours. running to long at max power draw.
This is exacebated by high ambient temperatures, hence the inverter shut down due to temp.
The bigger the inverter the less hard it has to work, thats the theory anyway.
But for $49 dollars if It does not work for Vince then it has not cost him a lot.
No harm done.
By the way Willem where do you live, what town ?.
Regards
John
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Timothy - Friday, Jan 16, 2004 at 10:07
Friday, Jan 16, 2004 at 10:07
Only one point to add, but I have read that modified sine wave
inverters
are very hard on laptop batterys.
I've used one on two big trips, and the battery was essentially stuffed
( approx 30 % capacity) after the first trip.
Perhaps a coincidence. ??
It's not been a problem for me , as I seldom need true portability,
but if it's true, then you need to balance the possible price of replacing laptop battery with price of more expensive, pure sine wave inverter.
We travelled 8,000 ks using just a 150 watt
for phone, camera , laptop with no problems.
It didn't seem to effect the capacity of phone or camera battery
so may be wrong.
timothyDefender Extreme
AnswerID:
43212
Follow Up By: Member - Rohan K - Friday, Jan 30, 2004 at 09:56
Friday, Jan 30, 2004 at 09:56
Tim, I use a 150 watt modified Sine wave inverter (Jaycar). I have used the setup on 5 or 6 trips over the past year, often for 6 or 8 hours at a time. My battery is still in tip top shape and charges to full capacity and still gives me the full 6 1/2 hours if I need to run it from the battery.
I think maybe your battery was on its way out anyway.
Mind you, if I were to choose again, I'd go for a 300 watt inverter. The little 150 watt does get a bit hot at times.Smile, you're on ExplorOz
Rohan (
Sydney - on the QLD side of the Harbour Bridge)
FollowupID:
306981
Reply By: paulp - Wednesday, Jan 28, 2004 at 21:49
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2004 at 21:49
Most computer UPS produce square wave simulated sine for power so don't worry at all about that cheap inverter. Don't forget your laptop converts the AC to DC anyway - it will smooth it out enough.
I have run my Compaq from a 300W inverter for a whole month at a time and have had no troubles providing I do not plug the unit in with a flat laptop battery. Charge the battery at
home first and use the inverter to power the laptop rather than charge its battery. When running normally with the hard disk spinning and screen my laptop draws about 180 watts, but when it charges the battery from flat it uses nearly 500 watts which is wayyyy to much for your average inverter.
If you get a bigger inverter than 300 watts throw away its cigarette plug and connect it direct to the car battery with some decent high current wire as it will draw too much from a lighter and (best case) blow your fuse.
Paul
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