I tried to run my old Toshiba on a 175 watt power inverter and it has just enough power to boot up and start to datalog then it shuts off.
Works fine when pluged in to home ac outlet, but my extension cord isn't
quite long enough to drive around town.
Thanks!

 

I'm surprised that's not enough. I have used both a 160 watt and a 200 watt inverter with my IBM Thinkpad P2-366.

 

Wow, for an old laptop thats quite a huge power demand.

If you look at the power brick for the laptop and read the label on the bottom or the back of it it should say
"AC Input 120v _._A" v= volts and A = amps. so just take volts and multiply it by amps. So if it was 2.0 amps (highly unlikely its that much.)

it would be 120x2=240watts.

However since its booting up, i would check your connections, perhaps you have a loose connection.

 

Thanks guys! I was surprised also. I may have to run a dedicated circuit from the battery to the cig lighter. Amp draw too much for the cheap after market cig lighter outlet? This truck didn't come with a cig lighter, so I spliced in a unit I found at the local auto parts store and it had small guage wire I recall.

 

OK , I ran a 10ga wire directly to the bat+ and the cig lighter outlet and the laptop still turns off when powered by the 175 watt power inverter. Is the problem the power inverter or the laptop battery, or what else have I missed? How can I test the inverter? To reiterate the laptop works fine when plugged in to home outlet. Thanks again,
I really don't want to look for a 100mile long extension cord so I can continue to datalog!

 

175 watts on your inverter may the surge rating, not the continuos rating.
i use a 500 watt inverter i got from sams club, it was around $30.00.

 

The package stated that it was designed for a laptop, but It couldn't hurt to up grade to a 500 watt model....cheaper than a 100mile long extension cord!
Interesting note the ac power adapter is rated at Input:100v-240-~ 0.75A~.35A
Output: 15v--4A

 

You should only require a 75 watt inverter then. I think its possible that your inverter could be faulty.

 

If your using a laptop, why can't you just run it off it's own battery?

 

I don't want to be in the middle of a long datalog and have the thing die.
This old laptop battery doesn't last as long as the new ones.

 

I can understand that. I bought a new laptop just to data log and tune with. I would trust my old one either.

Phil