Battery Powered Laptop Workstation

[keeptahoewhite]

This may be more CC than "Electrical & Wiring" but here it goes.


Without using a Generator, and no car to power an Inverter, how would you set up a workstation so that someone can use their laptop for 8-10 hours?

My thoughts are that something like this would already be on the market but I have apparently not looked hard enough.


Deep cycle battery
+
Pure Sine Inverter
=
10 hours of laptop use?


Any Ideas, or links, or criticism are mucho apreciated.

Will be back... Eventually...


Edit: $$ is a factor, I am looking to do this for close to $1K

[keeptahoewhite]

well, here is one idea: $$$

http://www.danryderfielddrills.com/green_power_cart.htm

[keeptahoewhite]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-1500W-PO...ht_2548wt_1056

Warmer...

[hustler905]

A MacBook with a SSD could run 8 hrs. I'm sure other laptops could do the same if set up correctly.

[keeptahoewhite]

Originally Posted by hustler905

A MacBook with a SSD could run 8 hrs.

I am hoping to spend less than that... and be able to plug in any laptop. But that does sound legit.

edit: It may end up powering an all-in-one computer as well.

[keeptahoewhite]

http://www.amazon.com/Duracell-DPP-6...b_auto_title_3

Closer....

[DRM]

The same laptop every time, or different ones?

It just seems silly to start 12v, convert to 110, just so you can bring it back down to somewhere around 12v

[keeptahoewhite]

Originally Posted by DRM

The same laptop every time, or different ones?

It just seems silly to start 12v, convert to 110, just so you can bring it back down to somewhere around 12v

In the immediate future, I have a laptop on hand However, longer term, I am envisioning this powering either a SFF pc+Monitor or All-in-one touch PC.

I agree as far as the power conversion goes.


AAnd, if this had better reviews I think I would have already bought it.

http://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-802-15...pd_sbs_auto_12


I think I need to make one now... Just what I did not need to have added to my plate right now.

[keeptahoewhite]

ADD lead me to start looking @ solar and then this....





http://www.mobilemag.com/2011/06/22/...e-usa-in-july/

[Soundguy]

Why not just pick up 3 or 4 extended batteries for the laptop and charge them ahead of time, swap them on as needed. I've got one extended battery on my HP Elitebook 6930p and I get at least 6 solid hours of use from a full charge. I can hot swap another one on because it pulls power from the external batter first and leaves the onboard battery alone.

[cgwfab]

like this....


http://www.ecogeekliving.com/powergo...p-charger.html

[DRM]

Originally Posted by Soundguy

Why not just pick up 3 or 4 extended batteries for the laptop and charge them ahead of time, swap them on as needed. I've got one extended battery on my HP Elitebook 6930p and I get at least 6 solid hours of use from a full charge. I can hot swap another one on because it pulls power from the external batter first and leaves the onboard battery alone.

I was thinking the same thing - extra charged batteries, and/or a universal external battery pack.

[slngblde]

My current netbook runs about 9 hours on a charge, my old asus ul series could run about the same if left in battery saving mode. It was quite fast, wish i still had it... but it got damaged heavily in a wreck and i made the insurance co pay for it. 2 batteries for either would probably last me a full weekend these days.

[uglyscout]

Keep everything DC - no inverters ever just wasting power.

I have the 12v to 18v converter dealio for my laptop and it will run A LONG time before I notice any dent in my car or truck battery. I could imagine a real deep cycle battery lasting days. Add in a small solar panel if you have room/are stationary/etc and you 'might' be able to last for ever!

Even if you build somekind of hybrid computer in the end they all run on DC.

[keeptahoewhite]

Originally Posted by uglyscout

Keep everything DC - no inverters ever just wasting power.

I have the 12v to 18v converter dealio for my laptop and it will run A LONG time before I notice any dent in my car or truck battery. I could imagine a real deep cycle battery lasting days. Add in a small solar panel if you have room/are stationary/etc and you 'might' be able to last for ever!

Even if you build somekind of hybrid computer in the end they all run on DC.

... Off to look for a converter for my laptop.

I have this charging and will know how it does over the weekend:

http://www.xantrex.com/power-product...ack-600hd.aspx

Not ideal, but I was curious how it would work. I don't think I could purchase a quality charge controller for that....

[87manche]

this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MINI-ITX-Car...4599%26ps%3D54

plus a 12V car headrest monitor and a SFF ITX board will run a long time from a 12V battery. Hell, the new Cedar trail Atom boards draw about 15W total under max load, you can power that all day long with a solar panel, and still run it all night from the car battery.
Use a flash drive or SSD to run the OS depending on what you need and I bet you could keep the whole thing under 50W.

The monitor will be the biggest power drain.

[Mutt]

Intended workstation use?? Same computer each time or setup for anyone to use??

[TorqueRanger]

How about just buying a bigger battery for your laptop and carrying a couple of them ???

[87manche]

Originally Posted by TorqueRanger

How about just buying a bigger battery for your laptop and carrying a couple of them ???

yeah, but then you have to shut it down to swap batteries, and charging multiple laptop batteries is a PITA because you have to swap them to charge them.

If you're doing data logging or something like that turning it off might not be a possibility.

[4x4prepper]

Buy an old school APC Smart UPS V/S 1000 and set it up by the serial port so it does not shut down until battery power is exhausted or you can use the serial port to wake it up on demand.

[TehCheapshot]

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows....jsp?locale=en

I realize thats Canadian but I'm sure there is something similar to that in the American Market.

I realize its been mentioned already, but I ran my Dad's laptop off it for 4 or 5 hours yesterday and it hardly touched the battery.

Not to mention the boost box is super slick, has great power, built in lights and compressor etc, and if you wait and catch it on sale its like $100

[offroad_joe]

http://www.ecogeekliving.com/solargo...p-charger.html

[Mikes79bronco]

Originally Posted by offroad_joe

http://www.ecogeekliving.com/solargo...p-charger.html

That thing is going to be slow as shit at charging...and doubt it will keep up with any computer that's running.

Deep cycle and buy a car charger for your laptop, It doesn't make sense to convert it to AC so that your AC can be converted back to DC. Put the battery on a maintainer every night.

[fart_plume]

Get a cigarette lighter adapter to plug straight into the laptop to run it off the vehicle battery, no inverter needed.

http://www.laptoppartsnow.com/power-...FUu4tgode2KOWQ

[ISDTBower]

A Cigar lighter plug charger cord for my lenovo/IBM S10 laptop is $8.

Google your laptop and add "car charger" to see what you get.

I just did that for a real old IBM thinkpad and there were several higher wattage cords.....Cool.