Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests computer power supply question

i read in a fairly recent issue of pcworld about an ac power adapter for notebooks that could also be used to plug into the power point in a car but i cannot remember what company made it or even the model. i thought one of you might know which one i am refering to.

Inverter?

it mainly has to do with what kind of notebook you have. You could get a small (300 watt) power invertor that plugs in the ciggarette lighter and plug the notebook in with the regular household plug

I dunno about AC, but there's quite a few DC-DC converters that plug into a car/aircraft and your laptop...

You basically have 2 options:

You can get an inverter which is the cheaper of the two. You don't need one anywhere near 300W though as someone mentioned. Your laptop should use more than 90W or so. With this setup, you are basically doing an extra conversion though.

Your second option is to just buy a new ac adapter that plugs right into the cigarette lighter. This is the more expensive way to go, but it is a lot "cleaner."

300 watt was just a suggestion, you can get one for 20 bucks at walmart. 90w would be plenty though

Google to the rescue...

--JamesT

chemguru, that is kinda what i had in mind but the one i am thinking of, or possibly just imagining i saw, also would plug into a regular ac outlet at home. that way i have just one adapter instead of two.

Perhaps you don't QUITE understand what the power needs are for a laptop...

Typically, you plug your laptop into a brick and plug the brick into the wall. ( AC-> brick (AC-DC converter) -> laptop @ ~15-17vDC )

Your car/airplane socket supplies 12vDC, thus you need a different brick: 12vDC (lighter socket) -> brick (DC-DC) -> laptop @ ~15-17vDC.

Now, you could PROBABLY get away with running your laptop on 12vDC as the extra 3-5v are for the charging circuit, but I wouldn't try it.

So, you'll need two rigs for the road if you plan on plugging in on a plane/car. If'n you don't wanna buy/carry two power rigs, perhaps you should look into buying and extra battery.

--JamesT

Radioshack sells I-Go, and is probably the one you read about. They will work at home, car, or those odd airplane plugs... It comes all in one unit, you pick the plug that you need.