Anyone ever seen a BATTERY-powered cooling pad?

I originally posted this in the "Cooling Pad" sticky thread, but it went over a week without a reply, so hopefully someone can help me out in this post.

For a couple years now, I've been on my own little "epic quest" to find a laptop cooling pad that's battery-powered, rather than USB or AC-powered. I know it seems a little odd; but I use my cooling pads all the time with my laptop, and I'm tired of the USB connections wearing out and breaking/loosening (by bumping either connector end, straining them, etc..). Plus they eat up battery power when you're unplugged, and depending on the model, the cord can be obtrusive when moving the laptop around or re-situating it.

I've checked countless brick-and-mortar stores over the last couple years, and just recently started checking Amazon and running Google searches for a battery-powered cooling pad (as you can imagine, the search terms are too broad for Google, considering the endless sea of online retailers selling cooling fans with the tagline "battery"-saving or whatever).

Has anyone ever even seen a battery-powered laptop cooling pad? I'm so sick of USB-powered ones I'd gladly pay the extra money to replace batteries every week, or use rechargeables. Any help would really be appreciated. I only come to you guys when I've exhausted every other resource!

Thanks,

Josh

 

Since you want a cooling pad with batteries i assume you have to few usb ports? The cryo lx cooling pad has 4 extra usb ports so people like you don't have to search for things that don't exist Although I must say that the power supply on those 4 usb ports isn't sufficient when the fans are on their maximum speed.
I hope this was of any use to you, in case you don't find a battery powered cooler.

 

Thanks for the heads-up, but yeah; lack of USB ports isn't my problem.

Call me crazy, but I just hate having a cord connected between my laptop and cooling pad. Plus, there's the other things I mentioned, like the fact that the USB-powered ones draw current from your laptop's battery, the cord connection points wear out and loosen, and a few other quirks I just don't like.

I really can't believe not one manufacturer sells a battery-powered cooling pad. Might have to end up making my own, or trying to convert one.

 

Why don't you just take a few serial connected AA batteries to power a cooling pad?

 

use something like this with some velcro?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15048

 

Yeah I've thought about rigging something up like that; I might have to if a battery-powered cooling pad really doesn't exist.

Thanks for the link; I never noticed that particular product on DX before.

 

they sell about 20 different ones actually.

 

I was going to suggest making a solution yourself, but shadowarachh's suggestion is easier and probably just as good.

 

Actually, I just found something that might even work better; it would probably be more discrete and practical:

http://milo.com/enclosed-2-aa-battery-holder

What do you think?

 

your selected battery holder uses 2 AA batteries without any switching circuit, so it outputs 2x1.2V = 1.8V..2.4V

A USB port outputs 5V, and so does a USB powered cooler also need 5V.

The product shadowarachh posted uses 4 batteries but again is not regulated, so it outputs 4x1.2V = 3.6V..4.8V.

Much better than your product, still suboptimal, because it's not regulated. So the fan will spin slower than usual or stop working while the batteries are maybe only half empty. Also it's possible that if you use rechargeable batteries that you discharge them below 0.9V per cell, resulting in damaging them.


So if you don't need anything special then use shadowarachh's solution.
You can also build such a thing yourself: http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-4-x-AA-USB-Altoids-Battery/
And first try how good your cooler works with 4 AA batteries and also how long it runs and if it doesn't stop before the batteries are really empty already before you buy such a thing

Else search for a voltage regulated battery to USB converter. Then it outputs regulated 5V, even when the batteries are almost empty. So the fan will spin much much longer on the same constant speed.

 

I think that 2 AA's won't put out enough voltage for the fans probably.
USB = 5V
AA = 1.5V (x2, assuming that thing puts them in series = 3V)

You'll go through batteries pretty quickly like that too. I personally would want to get a rechargeable battery pack for like an RC car and mod the cooling pad to draw from that. Then you can recharge your cooling pad and laptop at the same time.

 

I'm not able to search ATM, but I think there are some USB rechargeable packs that use a nimh or li-poly pack instead of conventional batteries so there should be a 5v output. just find the largest maH you can or I'd imagine it would have to be recharged ay too often.

maybe mod a female USB socket into the underside of your laptop and a corresponding male in the cooler so that it just plugs into the underside?