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What kind of AC/DC inverter should I get?

W

WHSLacrossekid

Diamond Member
I'm going to florida in a car soon, and I need to take my laptop. What type/size of AC/DC inverter should I get for my 905US Laptop? Auto Adapters are $120!!!
 
I doubt your laptop consumes more than 60-70 watts (check the power supply and see). Then to account for the inefficiency of the laptop's power supply and to give yourself a little margin, multiply by 2. Or better, see if your power supply lists the input power required then add a little to again give yourself some margin.

The real question is how well your laptop's power supply deals with "dirty" power. Cheap DC->AC inverters tend to output only a rough approximation to a sine wave. Probably fine for a computer since the power supply should have a decent filter.

You're still looking at spending somewhere around $40 or $50. I don't know if I would trust those $20 inverters with anything other than a light bulb or some other pure resistive load.

 
I drive an 18-wheeler these days and have run my laptop off a 300-watt TrippLite for about a year. 40 or 50 bucks at Circuit City. 300 watts is way more than enough. I use mine for mapping and I use a CD-to-cassette adapter to play music off the hard drive.
 
Speaking of AC/DC 😉 and driving, they've got a few great highway cruising tunes. "Fire Your Guns" and "Shot of Love" are two I can think of right now.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread, thank you. 😀
 
Originally posted by: PlasticJesus
I drive an 18-wheeler these days and have run my laptop off a 300-watt TrippLite for about a year. 40 or 50 bucks at Circuit City. 300 watts is way more than enough. I use mine for mapping and I use a CD-to-cassette adapter to play music off the hard drive.
Click to expand...

Do you get a lot of noise from the converter coming across your speakers?
 
i got a 300w statpower from costco for about $30... but i recently saw a link to one at sam's club for less and more power too... lemme try to find it for you

but for a laptop.. you'd only use about 50w of the power..
 
Originally posted by: PlasticJesus
I drive an 18-wheeler these days and have run my laptop off a 300-watt TrippLite for about a year. 40 or 50 bucks at Circuit City. 300 watts is way more than enough. I use mine for mapping and I use a CD-to-cassette adapter to play music off the hard drive.
Click to expand...
I have a TRIPPLITE inverter that is about 20 years old. Still working fine.
TRIPPLITE Products work.

 
Do you get a lot of noise from the converter coming across your speakers?
Click to expand...

No noticeable noise. At the same time, the systems in these big company trucks are nothing spectacular. Usually a Panasonic AM/FM/cassette with who knows what kind of cheap speakers. No noise from the inverter that I can hear.
 
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