Computer power on the road

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Saw this today:

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2003_...3_03/pr0501.htm

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I bought a lap-top several months ago thinking it might also be taken in the Scamp when we go. However the power requirement is 18 vdc. I checked back where I bought it thinking that if another brand would use 12 vdc I would consider making an exchange. But all of the several brands there used the higher voltage.

I notice this fuel cell puts out a nominal 11 vdc. So it would also require a dc to dc inverter. These are somewhat expensive, add connection complication, waste a considerable amount of power, don't have good waveform output, etc., so I was wondering:

Does anyone know of a laptop that directly uses 12 volt power?

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Hi
Just buy a 300 watt inverter,and run 110v.The PC does have 110v?
Should work.:wave

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Orginally posted by Loren G. Hedahl
Does anyone know of a laptop that directly uses 12 volt power?

I use a Macintosh iBook with a Lind 12v power adaptor.
Both available at the on-line Apple Store http://store.apple.com/
:thumb

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My primary uses for a PC are email and word processing. When traveling, the Alphasmart meets my needs. It is basically a portable keyboard with a word processing view screen. It syncs with your printer or PC via USB port. It runs 700 hours on 3 AA alkaline batteries. It weighs about 2 pounds and has the ability to hold 100 plus pages of data which can be created in or separated into distinct data files. If the trip is really long or I have an awful lot of data to input, I guess carrying a laptop to upload to would be my next step. That way I could be away for months and still not run down my PC battery while working routine tasks. The product is about the size of legal pad portfolio and was designed to be loaned to school children. It is virtually indestructible. The Alphasmart costs about $200.

The same company has another similarly sized and priced, Palm compatible product called a Dana that does everthing a Palm does. The Dana's screen and keyboard are of course bigger than a Palm. They are marketing it as a laptop alternative. The Dana integrates with Microsft Word and Excel and boasts 10,000 plus software applications. The Dana also is an ebook reader and has an email feature that uses Eudora. Since I'm not a Palm user and I've never seen a Dana and don't know anything about its applications I'll give you the company URL.

http://www.alphasmart.com

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...on the road involve both words & pictures. I use Word, Photoshop 7, PageMaker, Adobe Acrobat, and several other apps including some for image capture and manipulation, both still and video. Thus, a faily high-powered laptop is required. I use a Mac TiBook G4 and it does everything I require of a portable unit. (That's where that Honda Eu2000i really comes into its own!)

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A year and a half ago, we bought my parents a MailStation. It hooks up to a 800 number through Earthlink; this number can be dialed from any location in the US. It's just an email program. It cannot access websites and it cannot send or receive attachments. But it works really well for my parents especially since they are technologically impared. ;) There is one button to send and one button to write an email and one button to read the email.

The price is right, also. These units can be purchased for under $50 and I've even seen them with a $50 rebate so the machine ends up being FREE! Earthlink costs $10 a month for service if one pays for a year at a time. There are no connection fees and no time limits.

The unit is very small and durable also.
Nancy

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There are several members of this group using various configurations for digital imaging, mapping, internet email etc.
Hopefully they will add their comments Pete and Lyndon for example.

I use a Dell Lattitude XPi - 166+ running Win 98SE and a Canon BJ-10SX. Two batteries for the laptop give me about 4hrs of use (2 hrs ea) and one battery for the printer (good for 40-50 sheets of paper). A 400 watt inverter make more sense for me as a 12vdc converter is $60 and only runs the laptop (each laptop usually has a propriatory plug as well as using various volatge inputs) I use Delorme Map-N-Go for mapping, An Olympus C-2000Z digital camera. and a SSTV program for amateur radio. Just use my dial up service for email once a week or any computer that has internet capability for a web based email like Yahoo ( wb0abm@yahoo.com) and surfing (mostly the local library when on the road).

This link has accesories for laptops including car adapters http://www.priorityelectronics.com/

;)

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Invest your money in an inverter to power any or all your 120VAC appliances rather than investing in DC appliances or DC adapters for AC appliances. The only place a DC appliance makes much sense is a color tv (and that can be overcome by direct connection of inverter to battery if you don't want to upgrade the 12VDC wiring to support the tv startup).

I almost bought a DC adapter for my first laptop; I am now on my third laptop and the adapter would have been long gone and quite useless... Actually, the same goes for backup batteries (in fact, my first laptop had NO battery with it and I ran it strictly off the inverter).

BTW, the 11 VDC fuel cell could power a small, efficient inverter for a while (I think the standard inverters shut down at 10 or 10.5VDC); we aren't there yet but sure seem to be getting close!

Pete and Rats