Dell laptop battery and general battery confusion

[Wicked_Sludge]

ive never seen a jump box that didnt come with its own charger

12 volt batteries run close to 14 volts when fully charged. going from 10 volts to 14 worries me or else id just use a 12 volt deep cycle.

 

[rboyer]

A car charger as in a laptop car charger. The kind you plug into the cigarette lighter of your car. You could get one for next to nothing on ebay.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

oh, you mean a power inverter

i dont recall ever having seen a laptop power supply that converts 12 volts to the 20 volts this computer needs to run on a/c (admittedly i havnt really looked).

that setup is considerably less efficient than running a battery directly through the laptop (energy has to be converted from 12 volt to 110 volt, then from 110 to 20, then from 20 to 10...not very effecient). not to mention the extra wiring and adaptors required. if the laptop would be happy with 8 volts it would go 8 volts-laptop. nice and clean and efficient.

 

[Bob Ayers]

yep, theres the 65 watt-hour lithium ion upgrade. and HERE (<---click) is the 43 watt-hour Ni-HM battery i have.

strangly, 1.2 volts per cell...not 3.6 like lithium-ion.

sanyo part number corresponding to the part number for the Ni-HM cell on sanyos website.

im REALLY anxious to hear you admit your wrong bob

I was wrong Sludge!! I've never had a problem admitting I was wrong!

A word of advice, stay away from your home built batteries, and buy the incereased capacity Lithion Ion!

 

[Bob Ayers]

oh, you mean a power inverter

i dont recall ever having seen a laptop power supply that converts 12 volts to the 20 volts this computer needs to run on a/c (admittedly i havnt really looked).

that setup is considerably less efficient than running a battery directly through the laptop (energy has to be converted from 12 volt to 110 volt, then from 110 to 20, then from 20 to 10...not very effecient). not to mention the extra wiring and adaptors required. if the laptop would be happy with 8 volts it would go 8 volts-laptop. nice and clean and efficient.

DC to DC converters are used extensively. Here is one I have for my T61,
the DC input can be 10.5V to 18V, the output voltage is 20V:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=ABC53FF217444A0882AF979DB2483CE2

The circuit that is used is called a synchronous buck DC to DC converter, and is very efficient (>95%). This same circuit is used to convert either 5V or 12V to low voltage, high current supplies (like 1V @ 200AMPS) for the newer CMOS chip technologies in production (90nM and 45nM).

 

[rboyer]

Hence my reason for saying "laptop car charger". A power inverter is a totally different ballgame and I don't think I would ever recommend using a power inverter to power up an AC laptop adapter. I have seen some of the cheap square-wave inverters do some funky things to laptops before.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

ive run the laptop off my power inverter before...didnt seem to hurt anything. heck i ran my desktop off of it once too

i think ill stick with my home-built batteries bob. the lithium ion would be nice, but i can build two 43 watt-hour packs for 66% of the cost of the 65 watt-hour lithium pack and i get 32% more capacity...a much better deal in my eyes.

that converter is interesting though...albiet a little spendy. it would be a little more convienient for road trips not to have to lug around all the extra wires and inverter itself.

 

[rboyer]

Here is a decent one with a slightly better cost.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kensington-3319...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

huh....of ALLL the compatable models they list, they dont list the inspiron 1200 im sure i could adapt it though. especially for that price.

 

[rboyer]

Damn I didn't even realize that. It works with my Inspiron 1100 and Latitude C600 but it looks like yours has a different plug.

Here is a link for a new OEM adapter for your laptop:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Auto-Car-Adapte...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

ha, NOW your speaking my language! that would really clean up the wires in the car/truck considerably...and only $22! thanks rboyer.