laptop power from battery

hoodlum · 01-07-2007, 01:38 AM

i have a sony vaio, and i got a cheap car adaptor from ebay exactly for my model, i want to add a use and wire directly to car battery, and remove the battery from my laptop not to kill it. Wouldthis work? any suggestions or comments?

2k1Toaster · 01-07-2007, 02:04 AM

I am guessing that this adaptor pluggs into the jack in your laptop where the regular AC brick would go correct? If so, then it would work just like if you were to remove your battery and plug into the wall. It will work just fine and perfectly normal. However, once the power goes out, the laptop will abruptly shut off if it is still runnning. So the battery might be good to leave in there to give it that time to gracefully shut down. Then you can even leave your computer in standby so the laptop battery is continuously drained and then recharged when the car is on, so no detremental effects to the battery and "instant-on" for music and such.

As for the hardwiring in, I suggest wiring it directly to the battery, but off of a relay tripped by an ignition wire. So the wire is only on while the car is on, and other times it is running solely off the laptop. This should negate the need for a tank circuit because the usual wall power feed to the laptop will be gone simulating unplugging it. So it will keep going until it shuts off.

You can set XP up so that when on battery power, go to standby after 5 minutes of non-use or something. Seems like a great solution.

hoodlum · 01-07-2007, 02:07 AM

but that would kill the battery.... after 6 months this batter will last 2 min. and which still gives me a power off solution, but i need power on

2k1Toaster · 01-07-2007, 02:14 AM

No I mean keep it in standby or have it stay on until battery reaches 10% then hibernate or something like that. Constant draining and recharge is good for batteries. If you have a battery and never let it discharge, then it will be crap with 2 minutes life. I don't know what the problem would be if you had the computer stay on for an hour after the car was off to let the battery drain down enough. The amp would be only on when the car is on, so there would be no sound, and no drain on your car battery. Just a forced drain on your laptop.