From: "Scott Loveless" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Continuing the "Batteries" thread.........
I'd like to get an inverter for the car to run a AA battery charger,
cell phone charger and the laptop. I can't think of anything else I'd
plug into it at the moment. The laptop's power supply indicates 65W.
My reasoning is that it would cost more to buy the appropriate DC
chargers for this stuff, and the inverter allows some flexibility.
While this is probably simpler than I'm making it out to be, I'm very
green on this subject. Sine, modified-sine, continuous wattage, etc.
It's all very technical and I'm lazy at this stage in my life. From
what I can tell I should be able to go to Target and get a $35
inverter. Since this is almost certainly a modified sine wave
inverter, do you guys think it might cause a problem with the stuff
I'd like to plug into it? Or would I be better off ordering something
a little better?
If it makes any difference, physical size doesn't really matter. I
have lighter sockets in the dash, two in the center console and
another in the cargo area. So I can pretty much put this thing where
I want.
Thanks a bunch!
The cheap one is probably a square wave inverter, which shouldn't bother
your laptop in the least. But, you'd probably be better off getting the
12v DC power cable that goes with your laptop instead of inverting and
re-rectifying the power.
I have an external charger I bought along with an extra battery (NP-400
??) for the BG-2 that goes with the K10D. That charger is AC/DC capable,
and came with a cigarett lighter style plug.
My cell phone came with both AC and DC chargers as well.
Somewhere I have a 12v DC charger for AA NiMH batteries.
It didn't work all that well for what I wanted to use it for, but I
expect that was because I couldn't get a true 12v DC from a HMMWV (24v
system the Army wouldn't let me modify to add a 12v power plug outlet -
they've since developed a kit to do just that.)
So really, everything you've mentioned should already run off of 12v DC,
and you wouldn't need the inverter.
The biggest problem I've had running accessories off the lighter/power
sockets is how the circuit is fused.
If the sockets are individually fused, you should be ok, although it's
probably fused at 5A.
But if they're all on the same circuit, I think you're going to be
blowing a lot of fuses, especially if you try to run them all at the
same time off the inverter, which is going to suck some current for
itself in addition to what it draws to power your accessories.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
