My latest ideas...

So after traveling to the lakehouse and back with my future father/mother in law + Samantha with her CF-19 I've realized that I need to run power to the trunk of my SRT to power my CF-30. I ended up running on battery both there and back and had the CF-30 plugged in at the lakehouse the whole time.

You may ask "Rob, why would you leave the 30 in the truck on?" Simple: I've got the Sprint card set up as a shared ad-hoc connection so Samantha can connect to it to get on line. So then you ask your self "Why doesn't Samantha just use your CF-30?" simple: her thigh is effed up and the CF-30 weighs to much for her messed up thigh...

So I've devised a plan on running a lind under the carpet, under the seats to the truck, which I would tap into the main power supply up front... This would be great for going on long trips etc... since I don't use my CF-30 while driving of coarse.

I have also decided that Samantha needs a back-lit keyboard for her CF-19 because I drove the whole way with the front right light on in my car so she could see the keyboard. I know that rubber ones exist but cannot find one. I also cannot find emissive ones... do they not exist??!?!?

So, lets re-cap:

1) What do you all think about my idea to run permanent power to the trunk for my CF-30?
2) What's the deal on the CF-19 back-lit keyboard and does anyone have any for sale?

Thanks!

 

JB007Rules,

To your first question,

It should not be a problem I would use a cable that would handle about 30 amp so it can be used for other things as well and run it from the battery and put a relay on it so you could use a switch to switch it off. It would just be like fitting a audio amp but you have switch to control the power to the CF-30.

If you what more info I am willing to help. It mite be an over kill but you could be dam glad that you done the way above.

PS a lot of car and 4x4 have aux power socket in the trunk. It could be hidden and they should be controled ie when you trun the car off it should go off

 

I know for a fact that I do NOT have one in the truck as I drive and SRT which is pretty much a race car... On the plus side the battery is in the truck so I can wire it right to that...

Can I get these relays at the auto store or should I order this relay online?

 

Rob, remember to fuse close to the power source, this is especially critical in vehicles where a small cut can lead to a disaster.

Yes, the auto store should have it and it should be not be much.

No, there is no chiclet/lighted keyboard for the 18/19, only the rubber. How about using a USB LED with the flex arm? It is a lot eaier to find and much cheaper. Plus, you know how it is typing on the rubber.

 

I thought about the USB flexlight... I'll probably go to frys and pick one up for her... She will probably HATE the rubber one...

 

JB007Rules,

The relay you need is one will have about 4 contacts on the bottom.

the contacts that you will be using are 85 and 86 are the coil of the relay which be controled by a switch up front and load you what to swich will connect to contacts 30 and 87.

since you battery is in the back beside your cf-30 you can use some speeker wire to go from the relay to the front as you are only controling the relay.

The relay will be in the back with the battery and cf-30.

connect 85 to ground and connect 86 to the lead going to the switch and put a fuse (in line)(the fuse can be the smallest one you can get ie 2amp) close to the switch (to one contact on it and other to a positave connection up front.

use about 12 - 8 awg wire for the part ( the higher awg the thiner the cable becomes and the lower awg the thicker it becomes.)

Connect 30 to the positave on the battery (also put a fuse in line use about a 15amp)). connect 87 to the laptop (cf-30).

if the relay has 87a you do no connect any thing to this.

I hope you can get the idea in using a relay.

If you need I can draw this up to show how its done

 

I'm pretty good with wiring and electronics so no need to draw a map. I'm going to run to the auto store if I get a chance today to see what I can get.

Thanks

 

I think it is a great idea. As soon as I finally decide what I want... I plan on mounting a good CF-29, 1.6 under a seat or in a trunk in a mount... Then I'll take of a double-DIN 7" touchscreen FM stereo and hook it up as the aux screen.... With the tethering program I have... I can surf 24/7 on 3G while driving down the road! I'd get a small wireless keyboard/mouse combo for use when I am stopped. I'd also either have a huge hard drive in it to store my 17k worth of songs or an external drive attached. Then I could network it to my home and be able to load/swap whatever I wanted!. The cool part would be that if I needed to take the laptop out... I could do that too!

 

You know, we really are a sick group of puppies....and I like that!

 

Why not install a Pure Sine Wave Inverter and be done with it? You can get by with a 150 Watt model for sure. This way you can simply plug in the stock charger, have 110 for misc items if needed. Most of the PSW Inverters have a remote I/O switch that you can run up to the dash area if you want.

Lind makes a charging unit that runs on both DC or 110. It comes ready to hardwire straight to your battery with a fused lead. If it detects 110 then it uses that, then automatically switches to DC when the 110 stops. The charger has all the of the built in power safety features. Here is the link to it. http://www.lindelectronics.com/cgi-...DC1540-961/dbx_gen_detail_Special_DC_Adapters

I use this setup in my wifes Lexus and we love it.

Of course, this is a higher priced way of doing it. But once you have 110 in your vehicle you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

If you chose to go your route, look for a switched or unswitched power lead that is already there from factory. If you need one I can send you a full wiring schematic on your vehicle.

 

Toyo, for sure I have 110 in my car! You think I wouldn't have that?!?!?!? LOL, anyways... I guess I could just link up a 12V outlet to an inverter and use the power switch on it to turn it off

 

Dewed...

You guys are talking COMPLETE OVERKILL for this project. JB's original concept of using a Lind (or other car adapter) is by FAR the simplest, and as it's most efficient, it is more likely to NOT run the car battery DEAD if you leave it on 24/7.

I used to leave my L400 plugged in in the glovebox constantly; with the hibernate timer set to 30 min, it NEVER drained the battery, even over the weekend.

In your case, you could set it up so that no matter WHERE you go, you'd have your very own personal HotSpot... a little WPA encryption and MAC filtering, and you wouldn't have to worry about the leeches.

If you're really using it a lot, THEN you can always upgrade your system with a GelCel and the relay you guys are talking about set up to isolate the GelCel from the main battery when the car isn't running/charging.

This is a system I've been considering for my own use for some time... trying to minimize my internet costs by having ONE connection for home AND mobile. I used to do the same thing on a larger scale with my motorhome; in that case, it was 4 golf-cart batteries and a 2200 watt inverter. For weekends away from power, I could charge that bank up in 6 hours generator time using a big wheeled car battery charger I had built into the battery bay.

mnem<~~~ Getting CONNECTED! ~~~<<<

 

Even better, the Lind adapters shut themselves off automatically when the battery voltage drops below a certain level to avoid draining the battery. I'm with Mnem, keep it simple.
CAP

 

I think I'll use a lind then... I got a spare one I don't use much anyways

 

Perhaps, But somehow I think my kitted Aprilia Futura RST 1000 would still be faster...

*Azrial... - returning a stream back onto Rob's foot ...*

 

Use caution...I have used several power inverters in my vehicles all of which say they switch off when voltage drops and they do but at that point there is usually not enough cranking amps left in the battery to start the car, event though you may still have 12 volts.

 

Lind is not the kind of company to make unfounded claims. They pretty much avoid contact with the consumer, and their original pricing keeps the riff-raff out. I've got a Lind Cf-28 adapter around that has a NASA tag on it stating "certified for flight". I'd trust Lind to have their unit shut off when it should.
CAP

 

I run a Belkin AC Anywhere DC to AC power inverter and have flattened my battery a few times... having to flag down helpful drivers to get me going again. Frustratingly this often happens in the winter, maybe when the cells in the battery car are colder and less efficient (this is purely speculative... I'm not an electrician).

I only ever use the inverter when I'm in the car as my 12v sockets need the ignition on to work, so for me, having the ignition on may cause extra drain as well.

Other than that it this has worked reliably for the past couple of years. Although, I did have one before that blew up due to overheating, so it's probably best (if you're going to mount one) to keep the vent holes out of the way of stuff (coats and bags) in the trunk. I've never tried a higher end inverter.

 

I use a old APC UPS as a inverter and it works well. On the one I do us it has aswitch to turn off the beeper thats in it and it cuts out when the battery is low and I can still start my car.

I have once run the battery down that much I could not start the car. This happened on the way home from doing sound some were. we pulled in for some thing to eat in the car. with the radio on and the wiper going, I was also charging my laptop and my friends one as the same time.

I went to take off but the car would not start. I had no jump leads, but we were near some shops and we had some power cables and extion lead. I ran in a shop and asked could I use their power to charge my car battery and my friend said you dont have the battery charger with you. I said I am going to try and use the UPS to charge the battery and it worked and it worked well.

All I had to do was plug in the ups to mains power and wait about 15 min and then unplug it from the main and start the car.

 

As Cap states, Lind doesn't make inferior products or claims. If you had a inverter running with a Lind charger running it would take close to a week before you would have battery issues. The idle power draw of a quality inverter is almost nill. Also, remember I stated to use a Pure Sine not a Modified Sine Wave inverter. The output power is most of the time cleaner than your home's power.

He asked for suggestions, I gave him some simple/cheap & more expensive options.

 

I don't understand how you interface to the car battery to charge it.........

 

Rob,


The UPS has a build in battery charger and it connected to the battery which would normal be SLA but mine is connected to my car battery.


So if I Plug in the mains lead (from the house 110v or 230v) of the UPS it charges the battery and I can leave the battery Connected to the car will not putout anymore than 13.8v

When there is no mains (from the house 110v or 230v) on it. it becomes a inverter as it takes the power from the battery

 

I see... Any modern day APC UPS wouldn't do that thought.... You must have a VERY VERY old one...

 

Rob,

It about 4 years old.

All the new ones run a time bass not on voltage ie

New ones
if the ups will run for 20 min on a 1% load and if you had a 15% load on it would only run for 5 min.

the older ones
if the battery goes down to 10.8v or 11.3v it will cut out.