An elegant solution is a DC-to-AC inverter. I found a $40 inverter (Wagan Tech) that's compact, quiet, delivers 400 watts (or 150 from a cigarette lighter socket), and includes two AC receptacles that let you to plug-in whatever you want. This kept the laptop running easily, while charging a second small device as needed (Nintendo DS, cell phone, and so forth). I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Fire Up the DC-to-AC Inverter
I recently took a family road trip and wanted a way to let my kids watch movies on DVD in the back seat. An old laptop makes a nice low cost DVD player, but the batteries are only good for a couple hours which doesn't cut it. We've all seen auto power adaptors, but with Apple's changing connectors and the need to plug-in additional devices, these can get expensive and awkward to deal with.
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Thanks for finding this for us! It also appears to have a couple of USB ports on it, presumable for charging iPods and the like without having to plug in an AC adapter. Or you could run any of the various serious or silly USB-powered gizmos from ThinkGeek or elsewhere.
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