I purchased this laptop exclusively for use with Amateur Radio, in particular, for tracking Amateur Satellites in conjunction with an EL AZ rotor used to  point the antenna at the satellite as it moves across the sky.

It is a portable station so I will be setting up in the field without external power.  The rotor and radio will be powered by a 12 volt lithium iron phosphate battery.

The problem is that I am coming to the unfortunate understanding that Dell in its inimitable lack of wisdom, chose to use some odd ball voltage for its laptops.  I also read something about an ID chip in the charger!  Are they kidding!?  Is this true?

In any case, I had oped to be able to run my laptop off the same 12 volt battery and now I am feeling foolish that I did not research this further prior to purchasing the laptop.

I need to be able to use external battery power and find the same barrel connector......i would like to know if this is possible.

Thanks