laptops and inverters

[darb]

Hiyas

So i trundled down to supercheap and bought a DC to AC inverter, 150watt, made by SCA ... plugged it into a direct feed from the batter ... buy can't get this thing to power a laptop

have tried it in two cars, have tried two different laptops (mine and gf's) ... and tried two inverters (went back and got it swapped over as "faulty") ... highly weird.

laptops only pull a max of 90watts ...

any ideas why this scenario may not be working?

Thought might be something funky with the VE, but tried it in my gf's mazda 3 ... to the same result.

[CV8_65]

Firstly, did you check the power consumption of the laptop? I would have thought 150w unit may be too small to power the laptop..Make sure its a pure or true sine wave output unit as well...
Cheers

[darb]

yeah laptop power supply states 90watts

The inverter documentation says "will suit all laptops", and rated to 150watt continuous ... 300watt surge.

Not sure on the sine wave thing ... think ill just get my moola back!

[hRTHSV]

Mate you have to buy a good quality inverter the supercheap ones won't do the job. I speak from experience spend a little extra on a proper inverter 300 watts runs my 19.6V toshiba laptop no probs. The 300 watt supercheap inverter would run a car firdge, tv and video all at once but wouldn't run the laptop.

[darb]

ok plot thickens ... if i plug it into the direct feed socket in my tray (used for fridge and lighting) ... it works no problemo.
if i plug into the accessor in the cabin, or indeed another direct one in my cabin (which i wired up), it does NOT work (beeps and goes into some shut down mode, possibly voltage) ... unless the engine is running , at which time its fine.

Which is all a tad confusing.

[steve_t]

Have you tried a multimeter in the in-cabin accessory socket? I'd be surprised if it read above 12V with the engine off.
I think I got my 300W inverter from Dick Smith for $60 back in the day :goodjob:

[darb]

starting to sound like shitty wiring with too much resistance must be causing voltage drop without the engine running ... as the direct feed wiring i have in the tray has no issue whatsoever (and now that i think about it ... my car fridge used to crack the sh1ts all the time if i ran it off car accessory ... would constantly trip and protect itself ... whereas on the direct feed socket in the tray it never skips a beat...with or without engine running)