In Car 12 Volt Inverter

[ThaiLife]

Ive been looking for some time now for an in car charger to fit my ASUS N10J netbook , and the only thing I can find

are cheap units from China on Ebay . Ive rang ASUS Thailand and they can't help. The ASUS N10J needs a charge voltage

of 19 Volts DC . So I was wondering If I could use an inverter plugged into my vehicles cigarette lighter socket .

The mains charging adaptor the came with the ASUS N10J has this specification written on it ..

Input = 100 - 240 Volts AC 1.5 Amps

Output = 19 Volts DC 3.42 Amps

Just wondering if this travel inverter would be ok...?

Not too sure what the USB DC is about ..?

Thanks

[harrry]

Belekin make a combined 240v 12 v power supply for laptops with varying outputs. I just bought one duty free from australia at $130 australian which was probably a bit much but it serves a couple of needs.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatSectionView...Section_Id=2033

[ThaiLife]

Thanks for the Link, its the 19 Volts DC that seem's to be the problem

TL

[TheVinylMan]

Your laptop has a transformer that converts the power......remember your normally pluging in to 220/240v ac and its transforming it to 19v dc....... I would ideally just get at least a 500w invertor........ and then plug the laptop in as you would normally no problem........ back in the uk I had a show car and in the boot had a small fridge working of a 1200w invertor no problems hth

[harrry]

Thanks for the Link, its the 19 Volts DC that seem's to be the problem

TL

http://www.belkin.com/wizard/(S(so4dzl45td...ip/Default.aspx

It works with the number 5 tip. It is the same as mine.

The advantage is you only have to take one power supply for both purposes. A bit expensive maybe.

[ThaiLife]

Thanks for the replys, The Belkin web site prices do look a bit high, as I am not going to be using the netbook in my vechicle too often, but it would be nice to be able to charge it if needed, I was hoping the one I showed ( but only 200 Watts ) would have been ok , and its not too expensive , but as TheVinylMan suggests a 200 Watt model may not be powerful enough for my netbook

Thanks

TL

[garyh]

A 100 watt inverter will do the job, you can even get ones the size of a coke can so it will sit in your drink holder. They don't cost much either.

[joncl]

For what is worth this is not the right way to go about as your power supply is a switched mode supply and will not work with dc->ac->dc so a simple 12v DC adaptor will work. Well that is the case for me with my vehicles inverter and my Asus notebooks.

[verydumbubba]

Is 19VDC open voltage? Count the cells in the battery.

+6 hours should be plenty, maybe buy a spare battery rather.

It is only the very large Sony 17/18' NB that require +12VDC - again count the cells in the battery pack.

Dont surf & drive.

Bubba

[ThaiLife]

I had a funny feeling this was not going to be an easy task

This is the only ASUS N10J in car charger I could find on the internet from China ..

now I am even more confused ...

TL

[NanLaew]

The Belkin inverter you pictured in your OP is sufficent for your needs. Plus it looks like it has a spare USB port which can be used for peripherals power or charging via USB driven chargers?

I would not but anything over the internet direct from China unless you want something that doubles as a toaster!

[ThaiLife]

Hi, Yes ive got burnt in the past with some thing from ebay and China , I was a bit concerned by joncl's comment ...

For what is worth this is not the right way to go about as your power supply is a switched mode supply and will not work with dc->ac->dc so a simple 12v DC adaptor will work. Well that is the case for me with my vehicles inverter and my Asus notebooks.

and the .... will not work with dc->ac->dc

my plan was to plug the Belkin inverter into my vehicle's cigarette lighter socket , then plug in my current ASUS mains voltage charger into the Belkin inverter .

So is the inverter a good way to charge my netbook's battery , still not too sure it its the right way to do it ..?

Thanks

[NanLaew]

^ Well if you can make sense of joncl's post... it makes no sense to me. Not sure what "will not work with dc->ac->dc so a simple 12v DC adaptor will work." really means since the inverter is making DC into AC and it's the power supply/charger that's doing the AC back to DC bit. Maybe joncl can revert with a comma or a full stop somewhere?

I reckon anything that can convert 12V DC to 19V DC is NOT a "simple" adapter!

Anyway, doing the P=I x E calculation, the 200W Belkin will do the trick. It's AC volts that comes out of it and the Asus power supply/charger needs AC volts in and the fact that it is a switched-mode device should not matter.

Edited July 26, 2009 by NanLaew

[ThaiLife]

Hi , Thanks for your thoughts , now I understand a bit better and will go with the Belkin Inverter, I was also wondering how the advertised ASUS in car adapter could in fact convert the 12 volts DC to 19 Volts DC ...?

Thanks

TL

[Tywais]

I was also wondering how the advertised ASUS in car adapter could in fact convert the 12 volts DC to 19 Volts DC ...?

It's called a DC-DC converter and the underlying technology is SMPS (switch mode power supply). In this case where the voltage out is higher then the voltage in it is called a boost converter. I've designed a few myself for fuel cell projects where I needed a higher regulated voltage then the FC puts out.

[ThaiLife]

Thanks for the info very interesting , would you know if these DC-DC converters are on sale here in Thailand ..?

Thanks

TL