Holiday plans?

Morgans wrote:
That is rather large, huh? Plus 150 watt inverter isn't much inverter. I have
found that it takes at least 400 watts to run a laptop, if it is running very
much processor load.

A 150 watt inverter should be larger enough for a laptop... There is
usually a higher initial rating for initial startup surges -- not that
there should be much of that with a laptop...

But at 60 bucks, for that large of a gel cell battery, and the other stuff?
What a deal!

Not really though once you consider the average lifespan of batteries
and trying to find a possible oddball size battery to fit back in
there... With the homemade solution, you just use standard size
components that will be easy to replace...

Dan Luke wrote:
Beautiful weather in Houston--sunshine and 70s.

At Xmas I'll use Hobby, though. That Hwy 6 traffic is worse than ever.

Oh well... You can't say that I didn't warn you... Hell, I've seen
parking lots move faster than TX-6 at US-90 lately...

"Grumman-581" wrote

A 150 watt inverter should be larger enough for a laptop...

My son's Sony Vio imust be a big power hog. 400 watt inverter will not keep up,
if it is running anything demanding.

Not really though once you consider the average lifespan of batteries
and trying to find a possible oddball size battery to fit back in
there... With the homemade solution, you just use standard size
components that will be easy to replace...

I usually get at least 5 or 6 years out of a gel cell battery.

One thing I have read, is do not charge them with the car's charging system.
The voltage is too high. With the car turned off, it is not as bad, if that is
all you have available.

Also, don't let them sit around dead and don't drain them down too far. They
hate that.

I do agree that the homemade version is more convenient. I was commenting that
the amp hours for the buck, and the added items make it a good bargain.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
My son's Sony Vio imust be a big power hog. 400
watt inverter will not keep up, if it is running anything
demanding.

Look on the Sony power supply that is on the cord and see what it is
rated for... Mine looks to have a maximum rating of 1.3A at 110VAC...
It probably doesn't need that much unless I had the two PCMCIA slots
filled with two power hungry cards in addition to using a couple of
power hungry USB powered devices...

I usually get at least 5 or 6 years out of a gel cell battery.

I always figure 2 years for a lead acid battery... If I get more, I
feel that I'm lucky...

I do agree that the homemade version is more convenient.
I was commenting that the amp hours for the buck, and
the added items make it a good bargain.

Don't get two impressed with the air compressor though... Probably good
enough for airing up the small tires that most of us have on our
aircraft, but not so good for car tires... They usually just don't have
the cu-ft per minute to make them useful... There's a similar unit that
I've seen that uses a boat deep cycle battery in a large plastic
enclosure with wheels and a handle like you might see on rolling
luggage... As you can probably guess, it's a bit heavy to be picking up
and putting over the seats into the rear foot area of the cockpit...