12volt ext active laptop speakers

[masterofnone]

Hi , I'm looking for the above item, not having much luck. If anyone can help it is appreciated.

 

[DepSol]

damn a set went for a pound at an auction last week was going to bid but wasnt thinking.

Dom

 

[masterofnone]

Thanks for the informative response.rich /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Do they have to be 12v

These creative speakers are 9v DC so a cheap step down adaptor would work really well. See them at Argos

Hope this helps

 

[William_H]

I reckon you will find the 9volt work fine on 12 volt. They are prety cheap to replace if they do smoke themselves but I am confident they won't. Will

 

[William_H]

Just another thought. Make sure the negative of the supply to the speakers is connected or able to be connected to the negative of the ship and earth of the computer and input plug. If not you may need a capacitor 1microfarad 50 volt or more in both earth return and each active of the audio to isolate the computer DC from the active speakers will

 

[Merman]

I have the creative ones and they run off either mains or 4 AAA (Which is how I use them) I get quite a few hours off a set of batteries and if I use rechargables and charge them from my 12 volt charger I have a descent way of listening to music and watching dvd's.

 

[masterofnone]

From one extreme to the other!
Thanks for the reply
Do you think it nes to earth as descibed, if so I might as well fit a car radio with an input( I have cd collection on laptop).
rich

 

[ShipsWoofy]

If it is for playing music, then you might be right in a way.

I have a Goodmans car mp3 / cd player. You can get around 14 albums onto each CD. This means I can have my music collection on board without risking the original CD's and obviously the massive space saving.

For watching films on the laptop I have found the internal speakers are fine for this.

 

[William_H]

Hi masterofnone just to explain. The active speakers probably connect the negative of the battery supply (and we are advocating connecting to the ships - and +) ( this can be checked with a multimeter for continuity)to the ground connection of the audio cable. Now the computer if it is runninmg on ships 12v power may or may not have a connection negative supply line to the ground side of the audio output. If you run the computer on internal batteries no prob.If you run the computer on 250v inverter no probs probably. If you run the active speakers on internal batteries no prob. However if both speakers and computer run off ships 12 volt then they both have to be happy with their negative power supplies connected together as well as the gound connections of the audio plug. This latter can be overcome completely by fitting isolation capacitors in the 3 connections of the audio cable. It would make a messy cable, I would suggest cut 10cms away from one of the plugs and use a little plastic box to take the cables into where the capacitors can be solder connected perhaps on a piece of circuit board.
Actually before you do anything you shoulsd try plain external speakers on the computer without amplifier.Try on headphone output Larger domestic or Hifi speakers tend to be far more efficient (louder for given input) than small speakers or car radio hi power speakers. Presumaably you don't want to entetain the whole marina. good luck will

 

[tritonofnor]

Just a thought...

but I use a set of speakers powered from the usb port, which clip onto the sides of the laptop screen. £14.99 from Maplins if I remember correctly...