Electrical Power for Laptops

I just revived an old non-working laptop that we were given. What options
are available to get some added work hours out of it when away from the
house?

We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the laptop?

Thanks.

Clear skies, Alan

We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the laptop?



HI Alan:

If your laptop can use 12 volt DC input power, that's a fine solution.
Unfortunately, most of them use some other voltage. What most people do is run
them off inverters. You might want to head down to Radio Shack and get one of
their modern inverters which are actually quite good. They also have some
adapters that will allow you to plug your laptop directly into a battery, and
you might want to check to see if one of these might work for you.


Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the laptop?



HI Alan:

If your laptop can use 12 volt DC input power, that's a fine solution.
Unfortunately, most of them use some other voltage. What most people do is run
them off inverters. You might want to head down to Radio Shack and get one of
their modern inverters which are actually quite good. They also have some
adapters that will allow you to plug your laptop directly into a battery, and
you might want to check to see if one of these might work for you.


Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Rod Mollise wrote:


We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the laptop?



HI Alan:

If your laptop can use 12 volt DC input power, that's a fine solution.
Unfortunately, most of them use some other voltage. What most people do is run
them off inverters. You might want to head down to Radio Shack and get one of
their modern inverters which are actually quite good. They also have some
adapters that will allow you to plug your laptop directly into a battery, and
you might want to check to see if one of these might work for you.

I'll just add that Costco, Sam's, and other such places have good deals
on inverters.

There are direct 12 volt adapters available for some laptops through the
Internet. Try Googling for the brand and model of the laptop you own.

--
Pat O'Connell
[note munged EMail address]
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...

Rod Mollise wrote:


We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the laptop?



HI Alan:

If your laptop can use 12 volt DC input power, that's a fine solution.
Unfortunately, most of them use some other voltage. What most people do is run
them off inverters. You might want to head down to Radio Shack and get one of
their modern inverters which are actually quite good. They also have some
adapters that will allow you to plug your laptop directly into a battery, and
you might want to check to see if one of these might work for you.

I'll just add that Costco, Sam's, and other such places have good deals
on inverters.

There are direct 12 volt adapters available for some laptops through the
Internet. Try Googling for the brand and model of the laptop you own.

--
Pat O'Connell
[note munged EMail address]
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...

On 2004-04-11, Alan French wrote:

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the laptop?

IBM has a car adapter for ThinkPads. There may be one for your machine.
The laptop AC adapter might be intolerant of the output from your
inverter. The laptop also might run down your 17 amp-hour battery
pretty quickly. The instructions for my IBM car adapter said you wanted
to avoid leaving it plugged in while the car was parked.

On 2004-04-11, Alan French wrote:

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the laptop?

IBM has a car adapter for ThinkPads. There may be one for your machine.
The laptop AC adapter might be intolerant of the output from your
inverter. The laptop also might run down your 17 amp-hour battery
pretty quickly. The instructions for my IBM car adapter said you wanted
to avoid leaving it plugged in while the car was parked.

"Alan French" wrote in message
...
I just revived an old non-working laptop that we were given. What options
are available to get some added work hours out of it when away from the
house?

We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the
laptop?

Rod, Pat, and William,

Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it.

For some reason I had assumed that laptops used 12v, but I see that the one
here uses 15v.

Clear skies, Alan

"Alan French" wrote in message
...
I just revived an old non-working laptop that we were given. What options
are available to get some added work hours out of it when away from the
house?

We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the
laptop?

Rod, Pat, and William,

Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it.

For some reason I had assumed that laptops used 12v, but I see that the one
here uses 15v.

Clear skies, Alan

Alan French wrote:
"Alan French" wrote in message
...
I just revived an old non-working laptop that we were given. What options
are available to get some added work hours out of it when away from the
house?

We have an inverter/drive corrector, and could plug that into one of our
17AH 12volt batteries, and then plug the laptop's AC adapter into the
inverter. That seems inefficient, and maybe there is a good reason not to
power the laptop this way.

Would it be reasonable to make an adapter to plug the laptop directly into
the 17AH battery, or is there some reason this would be bad for the
laptop?

Rod, Pat, and William,

Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it.

For some reason I had assumed that laptops used 12v, but I see that the one
here uses 15v.

That's like mine--gotta find an inverter, of enough capacity to power
you laptop (check the current rating of the laptop's transformer).

--
Pat O'Connell
[note munged EMail address]
Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints,
Kill nothing but vandals...