12-240v Invertor help required please?

[HC]

G'day

I have a 12-240v 150w Tricky Dicky brand new invertor and wanting to run
a laptop while away from 240v but have been reading in a caravan forum
this will damage the laptop.....can anyone give me an idea why? or what
other steps I can take? I do realise a proprietary 12v charger can be
bought but as I have the invertor to use with other low wattage
appliances thought I could use this for the laptop too? Many thanks
for all your help!

 

[Mike Harding]

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 15:51:50 +1000, HC
<happycamper_auSICKOFSPAM@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

I have a 12-240v 150w Tricky Dicky brand new invertor and wanting to run
a laptop while away from 240v but have been reading in a caravan forum
this will damage the laptop.....can anyone give me an idea why? or what
other steps I can take? I do realise a proprietary 12v charger can be
bought but as I have the invertor to use with other low wattage
appliances thought I could use this for the laptop too? Many thanks
for all your help!

Excellent inverters - I have the 300W unit.

I assume your laptop has the usual switch mode PSU,
which almost everything does these days, in which case
it should be fine running from an inverter. I use mine to
charge a digital camera, fluorescent lighting and just
about anywhere else I need 240V.

Problems can occur with some loads because some
very cheap, inverters produces a square wave rather
than a sine wave and certain inductive loads can get
a bit upset about this - although I think your notebook
computer would still be quite happy with it. The DSE
units (I think?) produce a triangle waveform which most
loads are quite happy with.

Tell the caravan people we'll do a deal with 'em: we
won't answer questions on caravans if they don't answer
questions on electronics

Mike Harding

PS. Keep in mind that 150W (although you'll probably
only run about 50W?) is about 13 amps at 12V, your
car battery will not support that discharge rate for more
than about 2 hours and still, reliably, start your car.

 

[Mainlander]

In article <3F1CD0F6.FB67C6FB@yahoo.com.au>,
happycamper_auSICKOFSPAM@yahoo.com.au says...

G'day

I have a 12-240v 150w Tricky Dicky brand new invertor and wanting to run
a laptop while away from 240v but have been reading in a caravan forum
this will damage the laptop.....can anyone give me an idea why? or what
other steps I can take? I do realise a proprietary 12v charger can be
bought but as I have the invertor to use with other low wattage
appliances thought I could use this for the laptop too? Many thanks
for all your help!

You need to be careful with inverters that put out square wave outputs. I
think it's because there is a significant amount of DC in the output,
that it causes trouble with some types of device, for example
transformers will not pass DC so the ability of a device using a
transformer to get its full power up to the output of the inverter is
going to be compromises I think...suspect there are also going to be
problems with RMS and peak voltage values etc etc.

 

[HC]

G'day Mike

Thanks heaps for your reply.....sets my mind at ease now. What is PSU?
Sorry just escapes me at the moment....sleep deprived!

Bought my inverter for digital camera batteries too, as well as mobile
phone (when camped), rechargeable torch and various other small
appliances. Just about to fit a Solar Panel to the camper trailer so
that will make life much easier. If buying now, would probably get the
300w unit too, but as the other one has only been used twice it will be
OK.

Thanks for the reminder about discharge rate.....had thought about that
and always carry a portable Jump Starter battery pack as well. Keep the
main car battery for starting as car is auto, but then jump starting
with a trailer behind could make life 'very' interesting to say the
least, and not recommended. The portable is 'spare' power. Just about
to fit a Solar Panel to the camper trailer to keep a 105 Amp Hr Deep
Cycle Battery charged.

Thanks again for your help .... HC ;-)

Mike Harding wrote:

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 15:51:50 +1000, HC
happycamper_auSICKOFSPAM@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

I have a 12-240v 150w Tricky Dicky brand new invertor and wanting to run
a laptop while away from 240v but have been reading in a caravan forum
this will damage the laptop.....can anyone give me an idea why? or what
other steps I can take? I do realise a proprietary 12v charger can be
bought but as I have the invertor to use with other low wattage
appliances thought I could use this for the laptop too? Many thanks
for all your help!

Excellent inverters - I have the 300W unit.

I assume your laptop has the usual switch mode PSU,
which almost everything does these days, in which case
it should be fine running from an inverter. I use mine to
charge a digital camera, fluorescent lighting and just
about anywhere else I need 240V.

Problems can occur with some loads because some
very cheap, inverters produces a square wave rather
than a sine wave and certain inductive loads can get
a bit upset about this - although I think your notebook
computer would still be quite happy with it. The DSE
units (I think?) produce a triangle waveform which most
loads are quite happy with.

Tell the caravan people we'll do a deal with 'em: we
won't answer questions on caravans if they don't answer
questions on electronics

Mike Harding

PS. Keep in mind that 150W (although you'll probably
only run about 50W?) is about 13 amps at 12V, your
car battery will not support that discharge rate for more
than about 2 hours and still, reliably, start your car.

 

[amstereo-matt2]

Power Supply Unit

--
i 1197am the new sound of Brisbane
(a proud listener)
"HC" <happycamper_auSICKOFSPAM@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:3F1D1350.5B1116E2@yahoo.com.au...

G'day Mike

Thanks heaps for your reply.....sets my mind at ease now. What is PSU?
Sorry just escapes me at the moment....sleep deprived!

Bought my inverter for digital camera batteries too, as well as mobile
phone (when camped), rechargeable torch and various other small
appliances. Just about to fit a Solar Panel to the camper trailer so
that will make life much easier. If buying now, would probably get the
300w unit too, but as the other one has only been used twice it will be
OK.

Thanks for the reminder about discharge rate.....had thought about that
and always carry a portable Jump Starter battery pack as well. Keep the
main car battery for starting as car is auto, but then jump starting
with a trailer behind could make life 'very' interesting to say the
least, and not recommended. The portable is 'spare' power. Just about
to fit a Solar Panel to the camper trailer to keep a 105 Amp Hr Deep
Cycle Battery charged.

Thanks again for your help .... HC ;-)

Mike Harding wrote:

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 15:51:50 +1000, HC
happycamper_auSICKOFSPAM@yahoo.com.au> wrote:

I have a 12-240v 150w Tricky Dicky brand new invertor and wanting to
run
a laptop while away from 240v but have been reading in a caravan forum
this will damage the laptop.....can anyone give me an idea why? or
what
other steps I can take? I do realise a proprietary 12v charger can be
bought but as I have the invertor to use with other low wattage
appliances thought I could use this for the laptop too? Many thanks
for all your help!

Excellent inverters - I have the 300W unit.

I assume your laptop has the usual switch mode PSU,
which almost everything does these days, in which case
it should be fine running from an inverter. I use mine to
charge a digital camera, fluorescent lighting and just
about anywhere else I need 240V.

Problems can occur with some loads because some
very cheap, inverters produces a square wave rather
than a sine wave and certain inductive loads can get
a bit upset about this - although I think your notebook
computer would still be quite happy with it. The DSE
units (I think?) produce a triangle waveform which most
loads are quite happy with.

Tell the caravan people we'll do a deal with 'em: we
won't answer questions on caravans if they don't answer
questions on electronics

Mike Harding

PS. Keep in mind that 150W (although you'll probably
only run about 50W?) is about 13 amps at 12V, your
car battery will not support that discharge rate for more
than about 2 hours and still, reliably, start your car.