Laptop charger

[Andy M]

Has anyone run a laptop charger on a Wee or Glee?

The theoretical calculations suggest a 4A 75W charger accidentally left plugged in all day with both headlights on (ie forgot to hit that switch too) would start to put a dent in the battery charge but not enough to fail to start next day.  I'd like to think I'll remember to hit the power saver switch, unplug the charger when the laptop has had it's fill and that the charger will take a lower draw when only heating the pannier, but it would be nice to hear if anyone's really tried it.

The reason BTW is that netbooks are now cheap enough and functional enough to be worth carrying IMHO. Get my photos and videos off the cameras each night, be able to do a bit of editing, surf the net easier than on a phone, use TYRE and the the other maps etc. The batteries of course are only going to be up to a few days use and I don't stay in hotels that often.

Spare netbook batteries look to be a laugh to get hold of, I think hotels/trains/cars all meet everyones charging needs so no need anymore for spares.

Cheers

Andy

[mjc506]

You should be safe leaving the laptop plugged in, but the headlights will kill a battery fairly quickly!

If you're looking to 'foolproof' it, you could have a 'semi-permanent-hot' circuit fed through a low voltage cutout?

[jimbo8098]

Perhaps you would be better isolating the charging and using a solar powered trickle instead?

It really depends on the input needed to charge the battery. You can't just plug in a laptop using the 230V plug , it would need to be a modified charger to run using the 12V or the bike and kill any noise produced. Generally laptop chargers are designed for 230V AC unless they are car lighter chargers. A tablet would perhaps be a better choice since most can be charged from a simple USB charger. So can most mobiles. A laptop is pushing it unless it runs 12V , even then I wouldn't leave it charging overnight in the bike.

It isn't just the charging issue in cases like that , what if someone sees you putting the charger on outside and nicks your bike?

[jimbo8098]

Back when I used my old RM tablet at school , I had 2 high capacity batteries and they lasted me the whole 8 hours of use just fine , with another half a battery of use left and no charging required. That was on a circa 2003 tablet with a LOT of mileage on (it was an ex-primary school tablet so it had be used a LOT by children below 11).

Now that was back then and batteries have come a long way since so I don't doubt that a netbook of similar high quality will get a lot of usage. That tablet even had a Wacom screen which is well known as using a LOT of power. It would also be BOILING on the back during the day and would make condensation marks on cold days . It also used an old era processor which had horrible efficiency. Nowadays processors use much less charge.

This was it here:



RM do offer the Slate nowadays but it is generally only to school contracts but they do offer to private individuals too. If you can get a hold of a Slate with high capacity batteries you are done here really. My school network administrator also handled their contract with RM and he attended the expos they held to show off their new stuff and he said the Slate was fantastic. I do not doubt their new offerings either , for the price , they are top quality machines , built for frequent use. The batteries , even the high capacity ones , were small for their useage (mine was about the size of a spine on an A4 binder in height and about 10cm or so wide so long and fairly thin.

You could have a few of those high cap batteries with the off device charger (which you could get for £10 with my tablet) , and you could charge all the batteries from one mains supply in about 2 hours so you could get weeks of use from a 2 hour charge if you had a few of them since I doubt you use the laptop at all times.

[Oop North John]

I think I'd look to charging the laptop whilst on the move, with maybe a voltmeter to give signs that the laptop is dragging the battery down.

You can get plugs that sense the batteries voltage level and switch off the load so that you can hopefully start the engine, can't find one at the moment but will have a dig around.

[Fatbelly]

Netbook's battery life varies hugely, so choose wisely. Some will go for 10 hours. The little one I use only runs for 2 hours but I've never needed any more than that.

I have considered buying a spare battery because they are pretty cheap, but I have never needed one.

[frez]

I'm guessing something like this would do the trick, you could wire it in permanently, just a case of finding one for your brand of laptop.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Laptop-Charger- ... 1372166407

[Andy M]

Thanks Gents,

I have a tablet, bought with the intention of use while out and about, but the screen is too useless in daylight to replace the GPS and the Android system just doesn't seem ready yet for things like editing video or putting waypoints in. I think these will replace netbooks but not while they still think you should buy a GPS, a phone, a desktop and goodness knows what else. Until then I want a windows based system.

The chargers are pretty universal which from our point of view seems to be part of the issue. The Laptop batteries charge at anything from 9V to 18V depending on the model. I don't know about the one I've bought yet. This I think will explain the life variation, but also worries me with charging from a the bike. The chargers aren't going to be that clever as they are cheap, so some of shunt type circuit. The step up probably explains why they are so inefficient. Maybe with a 9v netbook the problem goes away. I think they'll draw the full 75W regardless, not an issue with one headlight off but close if you forget and run all day.

A standard solar trickle charger is 1.5W and roll out larger panels are really expensive, so not really an option I'm looking at.

I'll let you know once I've got all the bits and had a play with the meter.

Cheers

Andy

[mjc506]

If you're not convinced with a 'proper' charger, remember that all the laptop will want to see is the correct voltage with enough current to charge (ie, the more current, the faster it'll charge, up to a point) You can get very clever power supplies that plug straight into the bike (I imagine there'll be ones with low volt cut-off) and put out any voltage you want.

[TravellingStrom]

Don't do it while the bike is stationary as it could turn out to be very expensive

I ran a 600w inverter on my old 2006 wee to specifically charge a few things on my trip around Oz. I also used the laptop during the evening via the inverter when normal camp ground power was unavailable

But, due to the shunt style R/R used on the wee( not sure of glee), a lot of heat is generated and with no airflow and no fan working the R/R burnt out

That cost me three days booze food and accommodation costs plus the $300 for a new R/R. I did the work myself at a local Suzuki shop car park otherwise it would have been much more

I do believe there are aftermarket R/R out there that have bigger heat sinks but even so, I would stay away from this type of exercise

[TravellingStrom]

Ps. Don't forget EVERY bit of power flows through the R/R regardless if it is going into the battery or out of it

[mjc506]

ooh, I forgot about the RR! Get hold of a mosfet replacement (they turn themselves off before they overheat, as well as being more efficient at part load)