12v laptop charger

Sorry for the double post, but this appears a better place to ask:

I have noted the following.

Sony VGP-AC19V23 = 19.5V @ 4.7A (VGN-FZ485U/B New Laptop)
Sony 91-55997 = 19.5V @ 3A (PCG-F680 - Old Laptop)

APC UPA9 (12V in) = 19V @ 3.75A (Used with Old laptop)

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Now, the AD-SDR-120W

(120W Swithcing Model DC/DC Regulated Auto Power Adaptor for Notebook Computer AD-SDR-120W )

Says only 19V @ 3.5 amp in the

Specifications

Input: 12V-16V DC Car Battery Power

7 Output Selections: 15V, 16V, 18V, 19V, 20V DC at 3.5A regulated
22V, 24V DC at 2.9A regulated

Power Wattage: 120 Watt
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This is less than the 3.75A for the UPA9 65 Watt adapter even though it says 120 Watt!

And LESS than the Sony VGP-AC19V23 = 19.5V @ 4.7A Supplied with the(VGN-FZ485U/B New Laptop)

TIA for your help.

Stephen H. Fischer

 

I'm trying to figure out your question!

It is possible that the 120W is the input power rating, to indicate the power it would drain from the car battery. However, if that unit is actually dissipating 40W then it is going to get very hot. Another possibility is that the 120W is a short-term peak loading.

As for running your notebook on 19V, 3.75A, I think there is a very good chance that it would work provided you don't do power-intensive activities such as 3D games. Undervolting the CPU is also recommended since this an take at least 10W off the peak CPU power drain. I'm sitting here using a computer with a T7300 CPU and X3100 graphics and my power meter says it is drawing 24W from the mains socket. Fully loading the CPU increases the power drain to 39W (but the CPU is undervolted). If I were charging the battery then that would add another 20W.

John

 

Did you see the "Clearance Product" on the AD-SDR-120W page?

That and the lower current than my existing UPA9 plus the 120 Watt confusion makes me wonder. Unhappy customers = No sales = Discontinued product?

I guess one question is if I use either my old UPA9 or the AD-SDR-120W will I damage my new laptop?

If the answer is, no damage, then a second question is will I use less of my camping battery with the AD-SDR-120W than my existing UPA9?

I need to keep the draining of the camping battery to a minimum so that my refrigerator can keep my food cold. That is the major use of the camping battery.

The most wasteful would be using a 12V to 120V AC Inverter then the Sony VGP-AC19V23 for 120V AC to 19.5V.

Stephen H. Fischer

 

I would not get that, I would get something which is actually good, and useful.
I recommend getting a power inverter.
That thing does not look like much of a power inverter.
You can purchase a good power inverter for less than $50.
SOmething like this would be perfect. Its lightweight and portable., and its only $20. Vector is a good power inverter manufacturer, and I think all of their products have a 2-3 yr warranty.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_996451_996451

The one review, is not that great, but thats cause the guy had something which consumed more power than the inverter outputs, so obviously it didnt work.

If you undervolt the cpu, you can cut 5-10 watts of power usage from the system, resulting in much longer battery run time

I personally use this power inverter for my laptop:
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200332067_200332067

My laptop does not power on with the 400 watt power inverter, cause my power brick takes 120V at 3.5amps, which is more than a 400watt can do.

A power inverter is exactly what you are looking for.
That little 70 watt one will be more than what you need. It is small and power efficient. Plus a power inverter will only use what you are taking from it, so its a very good solution.

K-TRON

 

I would try using your FZ with the APC UPA9. As I have already commented, the design rating of the FZ's PSU allows for full load + battery charging. You can probably take 10W of the CPU's power consumption by undervolting and if you want to conserve battery power then avoid 3D games that load the GPU.

I have just looked in the UPA9 manual and it includes automatic overload protection.

So if you overload it and it gets too hot then it will just turn off. So try it now using mains power and see if you can get the UPA9 to cut out.

One tip for getting maximum life from your external battery would be to charge the computer and then run the computer on battery so that all the power-saving is automatically enabled. If you run the computer when connected to external power then it will think it is on the mains and won't try to save power.

John

 

Hi,

First to K-TRON:

I have said it twice before, I will say it again as you apparently do not understand how wasteful using a 12v to 120V AC Inverter in Series with the Sony supplied 120V AC to 19.5V adapter is.

I had a 140 Watt Inverter already. When the Van conversion shop owner installed my refrigerator he strongly suggested that I get a new 12V adapter for my Laptop use. With a Ice Chest, the camping battery was very under used. The refrigerator uses a lot of power overnight, I now must conserve as much power as possible for it.

With my old laptop and the UPA9 I monitored the camping battery last year.

On two days I had to disconnect the laptop from the camping battery and use its internal battery. The next day I charged the laptop battery while driving. The camping battery voltage was getting too low in the evening.

A typical camping trip consists of driving slowly very deep in the woods on National Forest Logging roads taking lots of pictures. I have fond that I cannot stop the engine if I want the camping battery charged sufficiently for the evenings laptop use and Refrigerator powering overnight.

About 4 PM I find a wide spot not blocking anything and park for the night. (You can do this in the USFS National Forests.)

One place I have camped: N40° 6.238', W123° 13.006'

I then transfer the pictures to my laptop and plan the next days travel and transfer the route to my GPS. This may go on for up to 10 days.

With my new laptop I think that I will have to use the Laptop's internal battery more and recharge it while driving during the day.

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Now to the real discussion, John Ratsey comments:

I have been using the APC UPA9 with my new laptop (Sony VGN-FZ485U/B) for about four hours so far. (120V AC)

It is getting warmer than the Sony supplied Sony VGP-AC19V23 but not too much warmer. It has not shut down so far under moderate loads. Battery is fully charged.

I was concerned because the Sony VGP-AC19V23 getting warm made me think that it was running near it's 4.7A rating. Perhaps not.

With Sony never saying anywhere what the VGN-FZ485U/B power requirements are, I am just guessing.

Perhaps I will get one of the "Kill-A-Watt" meters and post the results.

I noted on the bottom of the APC UPA9 that it is rated 65 Watts on 120V AC and 75 Watts on 12V DC. That extra 10 Watts will help. For sure it will work with the Laptop off just charging the battery during the day.

So no need to spend any more money I think. I would still would like to learn about a higher power 12V adapter just in case.

As to under volting, I have yet to discover how to get into the BIOS. I would like to as Virtual PC cannot use Hardware Virturtation. The CPU has the support.

Vista allows me to select different power schemes, I will create or modify one for minimum power use when camping.

Thanks for the help, destroying a > $2000 Laptop would not have been fun.

Stephen H. Fischer

 

I'm glad you have had a successful trial of the PSU.

The Kill-A-Watt meter is useful to have around. I have something similar. It tells me that my notebook is currently drawing 25W (including the PSU conversion loss).

There's no need to go near the BIOS to undervolt. Have a read of the undervolting guide. Undervolting will also reduce the CPU heat and fan noise under normal use.

John

 

Thanks for the undervolting guide mention again. I thought that I needed to go into the BIOS to do that. I have not seen the necessary on my Desktop system using an ASUS motherboard to over clock although ASUS provides lots of utilities to do so. And lots of information about the BIOS.

The HWMonitor looks really nice, I will be comparing it to SpeedFan on my desktop system. That system gets too hot with no CPU load due to purchase of a bad Case. Too well insulated to reduce noise.

I will probably be unable to do the under clocking as my time is so over committed, thus I will not be able study and do it. Perhaps in the deep woods when my camping battery is getting used up too much.

The CPU Stress utility may be useful to try and see if the UAP9 will turn off under any high load. That would be useful to know in advance.


If I have problems on my first camping trip I really will have to work on reducing the power usage.

Purchase of the Kill-A-Watt meter really is needed to understand and reduce my laptop's power usage.

Stephen H. Fischer

 

You can get a controller to automatically start and stop the engine to charge the batteries as needed. It might be too wasteful with high gas prices, however. A better solution is to simply add more batteries to the system.

 

I had a hard time finding a place in my Current Van for the ONE Camping battery. I had to put it in the same difficult place as my old van (25 Years OLD when crushed). I actually used the same parts from my old van. That's due to my customization requirements. Another one would be very difficult.

Starting the engine would wake me up for sure. I have a hard time sleepling already as the refrigerator makes too much noise.

I may actually be way too conservative. I have yet to get the voltage on the camping battery down to the point where it would be damaged.

I will be installing some additional wiring to even better monitor the voltage this Summer. I learn more on each trip. Switching from an Ice Chest to a refrigerator is proving to be somewhat problematic.

Getting a new laptop with higher power requirements was necessary to run DeLorme Topo 7 to set up the next days trip for my PN-20 GPS. My old laptop was not running Topo 6 right. Topo 7 would not run at all on it.

Stephen H. Fischer

 

Have you considered adding cold storage in the refrigerator to reduce power requirements? Some ice packs that are frozen when the engine is running can store cold for later use, reducing the requirement for cooling. It should be pretty easy to implement with a second thermostat and a relay that is activated whenever the engine is running.

I suppose you could just just run the engine for a short time before sleeping.

 

I run the refrigerator on high during the day to pre cool it. It does not have the possibility of freezing the ice packs as it is to too small and the ref unit
is also soo small.

If I have problems on my next camping trip, I will run the laptop on its internal power and recharge it during the day. But I may see signs that the alternater charging the camping battery may not charge it up as high during the day with these extra loads.

Running the engine before sleeping is an alternate I have thought about.

See any 120V AC outlets in this picture?

Stephen H. Fischer

 

Since your trying to run a 120W load, in the deep woods it's going to be a problem, but "now" you know that You have a few options, burn gas or buy a solar panel for day time recharging or get a slower, less power hungy laptop. Make a 11.1vdc adapter and run sans battery if ya got the goods.

Honda makes nifty, very quite, gas or propane generator that will charge your batteries and save firing up the V8, not cheap.

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/...EU2000i-Generator--CARBCompliant/skunum=34961