lyjet

I bought a civic sedan(2007) from last year. Now I want to use my laptop in the car and am planning to order a power inverter. The power consumption of my laptop is about 90watts. The car manual indicate that the power socket only can supply power for the accessories that are rated 120watts or less. The only suitable inverter I can find is 150watts. I am not sure whether it is harmful to my car if I use 150watts inverter or other bigger one such as 300watts. Could anybody give some suggestions. Thanks.

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

go on amazon... and search for it. they have alot of em.

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

oh, and a 150w is about the biggest wattage u can use with the stock power socket...

once you go higher, ur going to have to somehow hook it stright to ur batter or use a lower guage wire to pwoer it.

TRIZ

iTrader: (14)

You def dont wanna fry your wiring harness. Run some 6 gauge wire from your battery to the inverter, you will be able to run up to 800 watts on that wire, anything else would be over kill.

2k1_Toaster

Sounds like a CarPC.

go to http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/ for a lot of suggestions and great installs to check out along with some ideas.

I can tell you now that an inverter is not a good way to power your laptop in the car. Those cheap units put out a square wave which is damaging to electronics. That and it will most usually introduce noise into your audio. The better modified quare wave ones are better but not good. If you must use an inverter use a true sine wave inverter. That will actually simulate what is coming out of the wall. The problem is they are expensive. And it is a waste for a computer.

Computers run on DC voltage, not AC voltage. So by getting an inverter you are going DC-AC-DC for no reason. They make DC-DC powersupplies specifically for car use. They also include SDC (Shut down controllers) so that when you turn your car on, the car comes on. When you turn the car off, it waits a programmable amount of time, then shuts itself off. No need to push the button.

Also wiring through the cig lighter for a laptop is a bad idea. even 10awg wire is good enough and is easy to run through the firewall to the battery.

I suggest the Carnetix P1900 for you because it plugs into where the laptop's AC adapter goes and the other end takes unregulated car voltage and an ignition wire like an amp would.

I am a heavy poster on that site and would be glad to offer any assitance regarding adding a CarPC to your ride. I have had a CarPC for now over a year and a half, and I love it. I would never go back to a regular HU anyday. 300Gb of music and videos, along with GPS, SNES/NES/N64 emulation, burn DVD's while driving, voice control, weather updates, full internet access, and much more. And all for under $800. No HU can do that.

I hope I see you on the other forum sometime.

2k1_Toaster

Actually this one just got bumped to the top on the other forum where I actually have explained the same thing to someone. I reccommend this to get you started because it is essentially the exact same question:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/powe...ml#post1068276