DC Power invertor

[chadwicktr]

I was just curious if anybody here uses a power inverter with their notebook? I am making a long trip in the car and figured I'd get one before I leave but have no idea what brands are good and what brands to avoid. Does prolonged use while driving "hurt/damage/stress" any of the electrical components?

What are some things to look for in a power inverter?

This thread states that 150watt would be more than enough:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... r+inverter

/chad

[jdhurst]

I use a Port power inverter and never had a lick of difficulty. On a long trip, I will plug in my T41, fire it up, plug in the Sony card and set up for email. I cannot use it while driving (obviously) and do not. But either if some else is driving, or if I need to, pull off at some convenient place, then I can deal with whatever. ... JDH

[kulivontot]

I tried that one road trip to miami, and we blew a fuse in the car (Toyota Avalon). Make sure both the fuses in your car are rated to handle the power used by your computer, and make sure that your inverter can handle the load as well.

[qviri]

It's worth noting that using an inverter changes your DC battery power into AC, and the power adapter of the laptop will convert it back into DC. This is pretty inefficient and technically speaking using a car power adapter for a Thinkpad would be better.

Which option is better in practice depends on the price of inverters vs car adapters, of course.

[jdhurst]

It's worth noting that using an inverter changes your DC battery power into AC, and the power adapter of the laptop will convert it back into DC. This is pretty inefficient and technically speaking using a car power adapter for a Thinkpad would be better. <snip>

True. However the inverter gives me the option to run other things at the same time (charge phone, charge iPAQ, etc.). That is the prime reason I went for the inverter rather than a single use adapter. ... JDH

[chadwicktr]

I ended up stopping at a Flying J truck stop and buying a 325watt Sima. They person there said they had a lot of returns on the 150watt, so I went a little bigger. It has a 35amp fuse and another fuse in the cig. adapter.

I also have a Avalon and I'm making a 20 hour trek right now, so we will see how it goes. I love media max w/ AT&T. I tether my laptop with motorola phone tools via bluetooth... all for 19.99 a month

Thanks for the help

[Rick the Green]

I have been on a trip using an old Cobra 140 watt inverter for my T-23.

The laptop was on for close to 10 hours (500 miles trip) with Ms Street & trips GPS.

No Problem at all, no overheating, no blown fuse.

Rick

[joester]

I obviously went overkill on my last trip, but all went well.

1200 miles with a 1500W inverter running the laptop for about 18 hours straight. The kids watched all 6 Star Wars movies and played games. I had installed a desktop 3 speaker system in the rear with the laptop, and had the bass speaker in the center on the floor.

After the third movie started, I made the kids wear the headphones.

Going deaf from interstellar warfare I was.

The kids loved it.

Joe