Does anyone have any experience with reliable DC to DC power source for a laptop? We are trying to bypass the laptop's 65W A/C adaptor & associated inverter. Thanks
Bob
S/V Seanorita
Yucatan
Bob
S/V Seanorita
Yucatan
DC to DC power source for laptop?
- Thread starter Bob Pullen HC-33 1981
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Depends on what laptop you have.. they make car adapters that will plug into a 12v cigarette lighter for most, and PWR+ seems have most covered. I have used this one for my Toshiba.. and a friend has one of these that works with his Dell.
Cheers,
Brad
Cheers,
Brad
Amazingly Enough .....................
......................... yes !
I had to install one, five years ago, on a Profile holding tank monitor. They screwed up on the circuit board design and the monitor would always read low when the house voltage dropped below 12.5V.
The solution to the problem was to install a PowerStream DC/DC voltage controller set to 15V DC output. I must admit, the thing is amazing. Bounce the input voltage up and down and the output voltage stays right in spec.
Don't know what inverters you've looked at (for laptops) but we use a simple little 12V DC/110V AC plug in unit rated for 75W and about $15.00 from Canadian Tire (or any big box hardware store). Might be a little simpler and cheaper.
......................... yes !
I had to install one, five years ago, on a Profile holding tank monitor. They screwed up on the circuit board design and the monitor would always read low when the house voltage dropped below 12.5V.
The solution to the problem was to install a PowerStream DC/DC voltage controller set to 15V DC output. I must admit, the thing is amazing. Bounce the input voltage up and down and the output voltage stays right in spec.
Don't know what inverters you've looked at (for laptops) but we use a simple little 12V DC/110V AC plug in unit rated for 75W and about $15.00 from Canadian Tire (or any big box hardware store). Might be a little simpler and cheaper.
Attachments
thanks for the info on dc power supply for laptops
I found a great one on amazon with an LCD screen with a bunch of bells & whistles including output for my tablet, ipod, etc...
http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Ada...2220UWPX1VUDX&qid=1346177280&s=generic&sr=1-2
hope the link works
the product looks awesome
reviews are very strong
Thanks for the replies.
Bob
I found a great one on amazon with an LCD screen with a bunch of bells & whistles including output for my tablet, ipod, etc...
http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Ada...2220UWPX1VUDX&qid=1346177280&s=generic&sr=1-2
hope the link works
the product looks awesome
reviews are very strong
Thanks for the replies.
Bob
Thanks for the tip about the Powerstream DC-DC units. They look like just the ticket for a laptop. I'm a hot-solder guy, and I've been looking into the design of efficient up and down converters, but the Powerstream unit could save me alot of effort.
And ditto on the Can-Tire 75w plug-in inverters. I bought two when they were on sale; one is in the boat (works great for the small stuff), and the other will be reincarnated for high voltage side of a tube radio power supply.
Read the fine print on your AC power transformer. You may find that it outputs X volts DC to the laptop. That will help you find an appropriate power supply.
I have a fairly new 40in LCD Television that has an external "power brick". I wonder if one of the above units would allow me to run it off of DC?
Depending on what you are calling a "laptop"; it may require either 19-vdc or 12-vdc. Netbooks are 12-vdc. I thought that Sumner had built an actual 12-vdc laptop - but not positive on that.
We use a Lind....
http://www.lindelectronics.com/cgi-bin/store/shop.cgi/!ORDERID!/aaa/x/dbx_gen_aaa_mfgs/
...DC to DC converter for Ruth's laptop. They are not cheap, but...
.... very high quality and we are very happy with it.
The ship's computer which we use on the Mac and Endeavour and also use at home, using it for this post, is one I....
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-navigation/Compter-Nav-index.html
....made. Not a laptop, but very small. It runs on less than 10 watts and the 16 inch monitor also uses less than 10 watts. The computer, the monitor and the Bullet Radio and router for long distance WiFi all running at the same time draw less than 3 amps. Quite a bit less than either of our laptops and the computer is a lot more versatile than the laptop with a lot of USB and serial ports besides the 320 gig drive and DVD drive. By using it everywhere now I don't have to transfer files from computer to computer and chance putting old stuff over new stuff.
In another year or so I'll see if I can find something that is faster, but has about the same power demands,
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================[/FONT]
Our Endeavour 37
Our MacGregor 26-S Pages
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Mac-Venture Links
Cheap Adaptor caution
We had been using the $50 adaptors for a few years until the evening that the house bank ran low and her machine shut down. I didn't think much of until we determined a few days later that the laptop would no longer charge it's own battery.
Voltage drop and the attendant heat might be the biggest evil you can subject your micro electronics to. I believe we fried that component.
So cough up for the Lind. It has low voltage protection.
We had been using the $50 adaptors for a few years until the evening that the house bank ran low and her machine shut down. I didn't think much of until we determined a few days later that the laptop would no longer charge it's own battery.
Voltage drop and the attendant heat might be the biggest evil you can subject your micro electronics to. I believe we fried that component.
So cough up for the Lind. It has low voltage protection.
I think it is all too easy for us to keep thinking that we have 12 volt batteries so we have 12 volts. As mentioned by Bob that just isn't the case. If the batteries are low or the engine is starting the voltage can drop into the 11's or lower. If there is a charging source the voltage can go above 13 volts.
The Lind has that covered...
http://www.lindelectronics.com/cgi-bin/store/shop.cgi/!ORDERID!/aaa/x/dbx_gen_aaa_mfgs/
The unregulated converters might work for some time, but if they don't how much is a new laptop going to cost?
The power supply that is in the computer I made....
....also gives the proper 12 and 5 volts output from any voltage between 6 volts and 24 volts.
You can use one of these ...
http://www.mini-box.com/M3-ATX-DC-DC-ATX-Automotive-Computer-car-PC-Power-Supply
....in a number of motherboards that currently have a 110 AC power supply. You just unplug the cable from the 110 power supply and plug the one above into the socket. That is it. So it is an easy way to take a cheap small desktop computer and convert it to 12 volts DC and have a ship's computer. The box can be put down in a location that isn't being used such as under the chart table.
More here...
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-navigation/Comp-ChartPlot-6.html
Sum
Sum
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================[/FONT]
Our Endeavour 37
Our MacGregor 26-S Pages
Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida
Mac-Venture Links
I think what you are looking for a DC to DC step-up charger ... 12vdc input to selectable 12v to 24vdc output. You just have to be careful of and 'match' the power/amps output to the max. amperage input of the device youre charging.
Apple devices such Macintosh's because patent restrictions are a problem when trying charge directly from a 12vdc source.
Here's how its done on Apple Macintosh, etc. products. For non-apple products find a source that can provide a 12vdc to XXXvdc 'step-up' charger (no inverter required). The device steps up the voltage from 12vdc to the selected proper voltage requirement ... and best of all does not require a power hungry 'inverter'. Youll need to match the device output connector to your laptop .... all are ' different ' as most laptop mfgrs uses different connector geometries
example: http://www.mikegyver.com/IdeasnProducts/
Apple devices such Macintosh's because patent restrictions are a problem when trying charge directly from a 12vdc source.
Here's how its done on Apple Macintosh, etc. products. For non-apple products find a source that can provide a 12vdc to XXXvdc 'step-up' charger (no inverter required). The device steps up the voltage from 12vdc to the selected proper voltage requirement ... and best of all does not require a power hungry 'inverter'. Youll need to match the device output connector to your laptop .... all are ' different ' as most laptop mfgrs uses different connector geometries
example: http://www.mikegyver.com/IdeasnProducts/
Here you go, lots to choose from.
http://www.powerstream.com/dcdc.htm
We've been using the car to notebook converter for years. Chuck
http://www.powerstream.com/dcdc.htm
We've been using the car to notebook converter for years. Chuck
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