Powering your laptop in the field from 12v

[kirkster501]

Anyone recommend what device they use to power up their laptop please? ....From the 12v cigar lighter? I want to power a DELL 630 and am struggling to find suggestions. Found this but not sure, not many reviews of it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Laptop-Charger-Adapter-Latitude-E4310/dp/B002HG4A56/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1347130062&sr=8-3

Laptop battery goes after 2 hours which is not long after alignment etc and is causing me to stop early for the night.

Thanks, Steve

[Breakintheclouds]

I got a device from, I think, Maplin. It takes a 12V cigar lighter input and can provide various output voltages. It came with a range of tips to fit different computers and works just fine.

[kirkster501]

Hi, thanks - never thought of Maplins.........! Does it power AND charge at the same time though?

Steve

[nightfisher]

what about getting a second battery, and doing a shut down swap, would that cause problems with alignmment

[kirkster501]

Marlins one says dell not supported! Doh.....

[knobby]

Maplins also sell 12 to 240v invertors might run the original power supply for your laptop ?

[Peter_A]

I take the battery out of my laptop so that the juice from my two 12v 37Ah batteries is not wasted charging up the laptop battery. I bought a 12v to 19v adaptor. Someone else I know uses an inverter as suggested above.

Pete.

[kirkster501]

Hi all. I have gone with teh one from Amazon - I will report back how it works. As you say Peter_A, takign the battery out is an option although shoudl nto be necessary IF battery is charged before the session sicen teh Power adaptor shoudl power the laptop and not the batery. Havign the battery in is ncie in case PSU cable pulled out and then have to realign !

[kirkster501]

Maplins also sell 12 to 240v invertors might run the original power supply for your laptop ?

Hi knobby. yes thats a possibility. It highly inefficeit though. YOur essentially usign the inverter to go from 12v to 240v - to power a laptop PSU that takes it back down to 12v again ! Very inefficeint.

A solltion nonetheless.

[starnut]

I bought a 12v to 19v adaptor

Me too

[dafman]

This is what I use From Maplins a 12V 120W car power supply L40BB

[tea drinker]

http://www.freshbattery.com/-strse-359/Dell-Latitude-D630,-D620/Detail.bok

I'd prefer another laptop battery, preferably a higher capacity one. Some of those can be pretty huge. I'd always be a bit nervous to run down the battery in the car.... how well is your car battery working? Might seem fine when car takes just one turn to go, if it's down a bit and takes two turns you don't want to find there's no juice left after that.

BTW I'm not recommending that link, it's just the first i googled

[kirkster501]

The Charger I linked to above works perfectly on the Dell 630 - powers the laptop and charges the Battery at the same time. Super. I have two x 17A Maplin Jump starters so have plenty of juice to see me for a few hours now out in the field.

[Jessun]

I use the maplin one as well. Very efficient. Sony and Asus though but isn't that just a matter of tip? I tried the 12-220-19 route but it just creates heat and problems.

[Auntystatic]

I use a number of these for my laptops one of them is a dell http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Uniross-Laptop-In-Car-Charger-Adaptor-Up-To-6000-Ma-/330783240228?pt=UK_Computing_LaptopAccessories_PowerSupplies&hash=item4d0437b024

[Simms]

OK, heres a couple of solutions...

I use a Dell D600 and I have a number of the normal batteries for running it, but the problem I had was that when one battery became discharged the swap over screwed up my guiding/EQ mod etc - even putting it temporarily into sleep mode caused issues. So my first idea was to buy a small power inverter from Maplins that allowed me to run the laptop using the normal mains cable off my powetank for a few mins whilst I swapped batteries over, thus allowing me to keep power to the computer - however I found the inverter was a massive powerdrain and then I would be stuck with a flat powertank.

I have since found out (and purchased) that the D6xx range of laptops from Dell can actually use another battery in what would normally be the DVD/CD/Floppy bay - you just pull out the accessory and pop the new battery in there - this allows me to run off the normal batteries most of the night and when a change of battery is required, just slot in the other one, allowing me to change the main battery and continue as normal - I generally tend to keep the extra battery disconnected as it seems to drain the power from that one first. I now have around 5 main batteries and 1 add-on battery and this give me around 25 continuous use (running Cartes du Ciel, EQMod and PHD guiding).

However, another thing to bear in mind is that laptops can be configured to use as little power as possible extending your battery life. I do this a number of ways, in fact I think it would benefit from a post in itself!!