I need a new power inverter. Any suggestions?

[deevergote]

I'm looking to get a new power inverter for my car. Any suggestions?
I've gone through a number of them in the past, both cheap and expensive, and they never seem to last a year.
Not looking to spend a fortune, but I want it to last. I need at least two outlets.

It will be powering a laptop. The laptop will have at least one external monitor attached (Mimi USB touch screen), possibly two (I have another Mimo non-touch screen), as well as 4 small USB cameras (I'm sure no real power draw there.) The cameras will be plugged into a powered USB hub (hence the need for a second outlet on the inverter.)
The power adapter for the laptop shows an AC input of 100-240v. I'm assuming that means I'll need an inverter that can supply at least 240v from a single socket, correct?

I'm not great with this stuff... probably why my previous inverters self-destructed!

[sonikaccord]

A laptop power supply brick takes house AC and turns it into DC. It can be used in houses with 100v-240v which pretty much means it's a universal world supply and can be used in any country.

For your situation, you want a DC-DC converter. If you bought an inverter you'd be adding an extra step. DC-AC-DC. That is inefficient honestly. So your best bet, would be to find an off the shelf automotive dc-dc converter for laptops and then a 12v to 5v USB adpater that can supply a couple of amps.

I'll look for suggested items when I get off work. Also, do you still have the inverters?

[deevergote]

I might have the last one... though I may have thrown it out the last time I cleaned the car.

Electrical stuff is a major weak point of mine, so I'm fairly lost by how you explained things... but I like the idea of simplifying things!

Ideally, I want power flowing to the laptop when the car is on, and have it cut off (and not be a power drain) when the car is off. If I can keep from having a bulky power inverter floating around my cabin, that would be awesome!

I'll take a look around for a DC-DC converter and see if I can understand what you're saying a bit better.

I'm glad I was lazy and watched another episode of Castle before running out to WalMart to buy a $50 inverter that seems good enough!

[sonikaccord]

Here is what it looks like:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PWR-CAR-CHAR...item33791fe329

I have one that was on a medical cart that does the same thing...takes 12v and steps it up to 19v for your laptop. I'm sure it's a hell of a lot more reliable than most of the ones on eBay and its about the size of 2 decks of cards. I don;t remember the name brand, I'll look it up when I get home.

I'm going to try to explain this as simply as I can.
Electricity in your car is direct current (DC), which means that it flows one way.
Electricity in your house is alternating current (AC), which means it flows forward and backwards. You can think of it like putting batteries in a remote correctly and then flipping them around so that they are in the wrong way at about 60 times per second. Very roughly speaking of course.

When you use an inverter in your car, you have to take that electricity that flows one way (DC), force it to flow both ways (AC), and then force it to flow one way again for the laptop (DC).

A DC-DC converter takes your 12vdc from the battery and steps it up to 19vdc. It doesn't have to change direction because your laptop natively uses DC. If you look on the power brick that plugs into your wall oulet, you should see "Output: 19.x V 4.xx A " or something like that. That's all it wants to see, it doesn't care if it happens through AC-DC, DC-DC, or cosmic wind.

[deevergote]

Ah, ok. I got it. I found a compatible thing for $8 shipped, from about 2 hours away from me Not great stuff, I'm sure... but it might do the trick.

I'm still stuck powering my USB hub, though. That just comes with a regular plug. It was cheap eBay junk, so I don't know the requirements of it.

[cp[mike]]

all USB runs on 5volts, so basically any 12volt cig lighter -> 5volt barrel jack would work fine, assuming it puts out enough juice to handle what you are running on it. This would also be a generic DC-DC converter, similar to the one posted above, but it steps down to 5v instead of up to 12v. They sell them as "universal" where it comes with a variety of connectors on the end, I'm sure you could find one that fits your hub (or cut and splice the one it came with).

An inverter is still nice to have on hand for plugging anything random in, but for a more permanent installation with many hours of usage, I agree this setup would be more efficient and should last longer.

[deevergote]

Would something like that serve to power a 7 port powered hub?

[illinois_erik]

Would something like that serve to power a 7 port powered hub?

at max supply of 500mA per port. thats 3.5 amps. depends on what devices are plugged in and what they need. unless your hub is not bound by any classification. for example I believe the ipad's usb dongle supplys 1500mA most phone's are 500mA, max computer usb ports are 500mA some are only 350mA



heres what happens with like cheap unregulated stuff that is bound to no certifications

http://gizmodo.com/e-cigarette-plugg...ont-1560840122


to K.I.S.S harbor freight has some decent inverters coupled with a cheap warranty you should do well.

[sonikaccord]

That looks like a bad design. The battery management system should have prevented that from happening...guess it didn't though.

My DC-DC is a Lind Electronics Automobile Adapter #HP1963-2336. It's actually for use with the HP DC7800 computer, but it works with laptops too! It puts out 19V at a whopping 6.3 A. That's almost 120W of laptop power, more than most house bricks. All metal chassis/heatsink. It doesn't feel cheap at all. I can't find the model I have on eBay, but I can see if any more are available from my source.

For 5v power, you could do the cigarette charger thing, but I would recommend running multiple of them as I would not hook up more than one device per charger as they are current limited. If you can find a hub that takes 12v, you could hard wire it in to the car as it should have built in regulation to step it down to 5v. I just searched "12v usb hub" and got some nice hits.