laptops

[Danthegorrila]

Hi
Anyone know where I can get a 12 VOLT laptop?
I have a small transformer but it uses about 4-5 amps, so I want a PV laptop that can go straight off the boat supply.

To link up with the SSB I want to have serial ports rather than USB, although 1 USB would be good, to run be able to Windows 98 (not ME or XP) and have loads of hard drive space and a reasonable speed.

I have a machine that meets all of these except for the 12 volts can they be doctored?



PB

 

[davel]

There's lots and lots of stuff on powering PC's from 12volts on the forum - try a search if interested.

Seems to boil down to 3 choices:
1. power your 15v laptop directly from your 12 volt battery - many say this works OK
2. Buy a DC to AC invertor, lots available at low price and has the advantage that you can power other (low power) AC appliances from it if you want to - disadvantage is that it takes more power from you battery than option 3
3. buy or build a DC to DC convertor, uses less power but is more expensive to buy (but cheap to build) see <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.targus.co.uk/product_details.asp?sku=PA360E> Targus</A> for a typical unit

Dave L.

 

[colinroybarrett]

Can be done direct from the battery, if:-

Dan,

I don’t know what you have that needs 4-5 amps?

I assume you mean an ‘inverter’ from 12vDC-to-240 voltsAC. Look at Maplin's, www.maplin.co.uk - They were selling off a small 150-watt unit v.cheap recently. My testing of this has proved it uses only about 400ma off-load, with a pretty linear rise in current (dependant on load) above that. This will give you all the power needed to run/recharge the Lap-Top OK.

The Toshiba Satellite range have a mains to 15v DC supply - This is probably not ‘kosher’ but you can power them direct from a fully charged, or charging 12-volt battery, we have done this without any issues on our previous boat. In this case; with a discharged Lap-Top battery, you will see initial charging currents of up to 5 amps at 12volt. The Lap-Top itself has all the intelligent charging control built in, so this drops in steps to a low-level pulse/trickle charge when the Lap-Top is eventually full.


Cheers,
Colin & Urszula Barrett
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.kahawi.co.uk>http://www.kahawi.co.uk</A>

 

[MedMan]

I agree with the three options, but would add the following observations based on 7 years of using a variety of laptops at sea, most of them from the days when I still worked for a living:

I strongly advocate buying a good quality inverter as opposed to a cheap and chearful job designed to the minimum specification possible. I have a Mastervolt 400 watt inverter that gives a near sine-wave output. It is 95% efficient or better so there is little or no difference in power consumption between running my laptop with its usual 'brick' plugged into the inverter and using a 12v to 18v DCC converter. Furthermore, once bought, you can use the same system for successive generations of laptops or, indeed, for any other laptop brought on board by a friend or colleague. If I had thought this through seven years ago I would't now have a bag full of discarded DCC converters, non of which suit my current machine!

 

[colin_jones]

Also have a look at Waeco, who now do a very sensibly priced, portable,full sine wave inverter in a number of wattage ratings. These units are superbly engineered and can either clip straight onto the battery, or will plug into a 12v cigar lighter style socket.

The inverter is a much more straightforward solution tah playing about with 12v computers. It might be an expensive (in electrical terms) way of getting 230v from 12v, but if you have adequate batteries and good charging, you will not notice this

 

[hylas]

yes you really need to have good batteries and good charging..
My HP Pavilion lap top works on 18 volts and when the hard disk is working, the consumption is about 7 to 8 amps.. If you ad the loss of energie due to the inverter... you don't have to spend too much time daily on your computer...

 

[ccscott49]

I have a car power supply for my laptop, came with the laptop, I¡m sure they are available for most laptops.

 

[hylas]

Run a Lap top from your Ship\'s 12 volts Battery.

Since one year now, I've been sucessfully powering my 18 volts laptop with an all purpose voltage booster designed by a radio ham: Sam ULBING.

You will find all info on the following web page: http://n4uautoo.home.sprynet.com

 

[Danthegorrila]

Re: Can be done direct from the battery, if:-

Its a Toshiba Satalitte that I have I will trty agin to get the bit you suggest.

Thanks for your help

PB