laptop use on board

[catalac08]

I normally use a cheap 'n chearful Garmin 12 GPS for navigation but I also have a laptop with Tikki Navigator linked to AIS, which I use for fog, shipping etc (wonderful to be aware of large nasties before they come over the horizon-up to 9 miles with basic NASA AIS/stern rail mounted aerial). I am advised that if I take out the laptop battery then the power consumption will be reduced from something like 60 watts down to perhaps 30 watts, as much of the power usage is charging the battery, which is more sustainable in my situation (outboard main engine, no real charging at cruising speed, but 2 wind generators). If I run the laptop directly from 12v via a step up unit to 19v without its batteries am I losing some of the voltage stabalization provided by the battery and risk overloading the laptop. Perhaps some sort of voltage stabalizer is the answer-perhaps i should be using a voltage stability/protection unit anyway, or does the step up unit have its own voltage regulation. Any advice on this situation and suitable gadgets?

 

[nimbusgb]

The internal voltage regulation is very tight so no problem there. You are of course susceptible to glitches in then power supply however. You may get brownouts or short cuts in the supply that will reset the laptop.

 

[arawa]

I have been doing exactly what you are thinking of for 2 seasons now without any problems.

I have an old GPS connected to a laptop (battery removed) running the Admiralty Leisure Electronic Chart Plotter software. The laptop is powered by a cheap (£35ish) Maplin universal laptop power supply plugged into a 12v socket. My boat battery (70ah) is charged via a 36w solar panel and my Tohatsu 6hp outboard. I have used the laptop with and without the outboard running. Touch wood, I have never had the laptop crash.

I cannot remember the exact figures but using my BM-1 battery monitor I checked the boat battery drain powering the laptop via an 150w inverter and its 240v supply, and via the Maplin adapter both with the laptop battery in and removed. Using the adapter with the laptop battery removed consumed the least power by a fair margin.

 

[qetoo]

I had an external 12-v adapter for my Hewlett-Packard laptop. However, it would not run off of the adapter with the battery removed. However, I had another laptop that did run off of the 12-v adapter with the battery removed. So, some will and some won't.