Power inverter??

Hi There,

There are quite a lot of inverters on the market now. I would strongly recommend you buy a "pure sine wave" inverter. These recreate the true sine wave that we have in our 240V AC power points. Most inverters (especially the "bargain" cheap ones) will only be a "modified sine wave" inverter. The modified sine wave doesn't really produce a sine wave at all, more of a boxed AC current.

You could get away using a modified sine wave if you really need to save money, but I would recommend the pure sine wave. Modified sine wave inverters cause fluro's to flicker, heaters to buzz, tv's can flicker, etc. Pure sine wave will look exactly as it does in a power point. So be very very wary of modified sine wave. Your pure sine wave will produce, cleaner, crisper, more stable and noise free power.

You'll also want to look at the capacity of the inverter. They range from 50W up and past 2000W. My XPS M1530 laptop has a 90W power adapter with it. So basically a 300W would be plenty for me. I wouldn't choose the 150W just in case of extra demands on power... you just never know. its better to have that extra safety margin. Plus you'll be able to do additional things such as charge digicam batteries or what have you. So just have a look at the power rating of your AC adapter and choose something greater than it. Just remember too, a 90W adapter is not 100% efficient. So even though you might have a supply capacity of 90W, it could be consuming 110W when the laptop is running maxed out. The energy is lost to heat, etc.

In terms of brands there are many. Go and speak to people at somewhere like Jaycar, or Dick Smith electronics and see what they have. I know that Coleman, Jaycar, Selectronic, AIMS all make good inverters.

Also, I might suggest that you look into a DC-DC converter. With an DC-AC inverter, you'll be converting from 12V DC to 240V AC, and then back to 18V DC (or whatever your laptop runs on). With a DC-DC converter, you'll be wasting less energy in conversion, and it might even cost a bit less. Basically it will just boost your 12V to the 18V or whatever is necessary for the laptop. Kensignton even make an AC/DC - DC inverter, which gives you the choice of plugging into AC or DC power to power the laptop. It replaces the power supply your laptop came with. Make sure you buy a decent brand like Kensington or Targus. Again I would recommend going to Tandy, Dicksmith etc. and having a look what they've got down there.

Hope this helps you!

Jono

What ever you decide, make sure it's supplying 19.5 V DC @ 11.8 A (~230 W) to the M1730.