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Dumb question...do they have car adaptors for laptops?
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Re: Adapter
You da bestest... [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70459-hugs.gif[/img] Thank you.
Now why dem suh expensive and what would be my reason for expensing it? [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70402-thinking.gif[/img]Comment
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Re: Adapter
If yuh was not doing most ah di driving yuhself, den yuh coukd sey yuh needed it to complete work while driving on the road (with your co-worker as chauffeur).
Mi would ha jus put it dung an as emergency laptop a/c charger. Because original was left at home during trip, and you need to re-charge (or have use of) laptop for important meeting/work.
My recommendation is to get a small inverter, which is much cheaper (approx $35), gives the same functionality and then some, since it is not component specific.Comment
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Re: Adapter
I use an inverter. 400watt. Works fine. One of the older laptops used to overload it when I had it on and charging the battery at the same time, so I had to make sure the laptop was charged up or allowed the battery to charge up a bit first before using the laptop. Some cars that I've used the inverter in, blew the lighter fuse almost immediately when I turned on the laptop. I carry spare fuses if I'm going into a rental car. Some tricks are removing the battery to reduce the power consumption and operate directly off the ac. After loosing your data (open document) a few times, you'll also learn to shutdown the pc *before* turning off the car, battery or not. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/img] Main reason I got the inverter was because I use the laptop with a gps for frequent road trips. I like the little gps units, but the map detail in the laptop is much better and I can use the moving map to deviate from the route without the stupid thing telling me repeatedly for 10 minutes to "Make legal u-turn. Ding!"
The inverter also works great for powering the cell phone charger and for the longer trips, an alarm clock that has a much louder buzzer than my watch. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif[/img]Comment
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Re: Adapter
Not sure what brand inverter you are using or how you have it plugged in (fuse rating of car socket for example), but I have been using inverters for years and never had that problem. I have 2 store bought ones (400W, and 140W) that I plug into my power-point socket (NOT my cigarette lighter) and have run computer with DVD, iPod, and two 7w reading lights all simultaneously (from the 400W) while traveling with my kids, without any blown car fuse. I regularly run/charge my laptops, PDA, or MP3 players from the 140W.
Can you post the brand and model inverter you are using, and tell me how you have it hooked up in the car?
By the way, depending on what brand GPS unit you have there is a detour function that will allow you to detour from as little as one mile, maybe up to 10 if i remember around traffic jams without it keep telling you to u-turn. It also depends on the settings you use (freeways, shortest time, shortest distance, etc). If you have it set to freeways and get off, it will always try to get you back to the freeway. You can just re-set the preference to stop that.Comment
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Re: Adapter
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: J kid</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Can you post the brand and model inverter you are using, and tell me how you have it hooked up in the car?
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I don't remember the brand, but it's one of the common ones that are offered in the stores. It's plugged into the lighter socket. I also have the battery clamps that I use if I need more power. The fuses for the lighter socket range from 10amps to 15 amps. It was usually the 10a fuses that blew and it was only when charging and power was being supplied. (laptop on) Basically it was pulling more power than could be supplied and that was usually when the laptop battery was almost dead. (The charging circuit supplies more power at first and tapers off when the battery reaches full.) The other laptops I used didn't have the problem. The work around was to pull the pc battery or let it charge up a bit first while off and I wouldn't have any problem after that. I've had the inverter almost 8 years now and I know it was being overloaded.
So far, the best 'little' GPS I've used is the Garmin, although you pay a premium for them. They are more intuitive to use than the Magellan. One of the issues I have with the gps' is that even with the reroute function, sometimes it didn't give me the freedom to reroute around traffic or to do what I want even after setting the routing options. It was easier to just have a moving map on the laptop. Wait until it tell you to turn right when there is no exit! It want you to drop 30ft off the bridge you on, to get to the next road! The exit was five miles up the road [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img] Next issue...when I'm going to be on the highway for hours, I don't need to be zoomed in at .5 mile. If I zoom out to 20 or 50 miles, there isn't as much detail as I get with the laptop. Another thing was getting the address typed in. I type faster on the laptop in comparison to the time it takes to touch screen a 'new' address in the gps. Saved addresses are fairly quick on both, but usually I don't need the GPS for places that I frequent. I haven't found a small GPS that does everything the laptop does yet, but they are definately getting better. (and faster)
Streets and trips is what I use on the laptop. I started out with Version 2001 and currently running 2006. The gps connected to it is an etrex ($79 on sale) and the cable I made up using a 'pfranc' connector and an old serial mouse cable (free) Power for the gps is an adapter also plugged into the cigarette lighter socket. I'll probably upgrade in a few months to street and trips 2009 version when it is released in late fall and change over at the same time to a usb gps.Comment
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Re: Adapter
Man your GPS unit is a trip, (No pun intended)! [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img]
I use to use, "Street Atlas USA by DeLorme" years ago on my laptop but found the laptop too bulky in the front of the car to store safely.
How do you type on the laptop while driving? Do you have your laptop mounted on a fixture in the car? Is it to the front, or to the side of you while driving?
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You don't want to use the cigarett lighter socket to plug in the laptop/inverter, because there usually are other car features/components designed in on that circuit, that is also pulling current from that fuse. That is why you are overloading and blowing the fuse. You want to use a dedicated power-point socket in the vehicle.Comment
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Re: Adapter
Yeah, I know about the socket being overloaded, the vehicles were usually economy class rentals, so guess what? I really didn't care about the fuse. [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img] Usually in those, the laptop on the passenger seat. I pull the seat foward as far as it will go. Depending on the car, sometimes I have it resting on one leg and the center console, with the screen slightly behind the steering wheel. I've learned most of the Alt keys to do most functions and can do them with one hand. I was going to try a hotkey utility made by the admin over at gpspassion.com forum, but never got around to it since for most things I can use the alt key combination. I figured out how to disable the screen saver security on the work laptop because that would lock the pc when the screen saver kicked in. (Dem lock me out of the screen saver and registry.) Some of the laptops, I could do cntrl-alt-delete with one hand and the others I couldn't, due to the keyboard design.
In my truck where I use the laptop the most, I used an old keyboard tray that fit perfectly between the seats and fits into a slot already in the dash. The laptop sits on top of that on an old towel, so it stays put. I've been planning on getting a ram mount for use in the car but at 200+ it hasn't been a priority. I was looking at another ram mount for another application and if I get that mount, I might get the base for it to use in the car/truck. Ebay also has several styles of mounts, but I haven't found one that I really like yet.Comment
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Re: Adapter
Couldn't you custom make, or get a platforn made out of wood, then sand and polyurethane it? Even glue together one made out of plexiglass. Would be less cost.Comment
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Sure I could, the problem is the positioning and making it easy to move about. The laptop will always be blocking something you want to get at behind it. Another cheap way instead of messing with the polyurethane and wood is to use the plastic cutting boards for meat. I've used one or two for various projects over the years, but that can't work for any laptop mounts that doesn't have the problem above.Comment
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