powering a laptop with a UPS?

[Mike Darrett]

Hi guys,

Just bought a (very) old refurbished laptop, 133 mhz, and of course
the battery is dead. (I knew this before buying of course, I but know
I
also plan to use it say at the kitchen table, when studying or doing
taxes for instance.) I thought of about 3 different options for
portable power (I had envisioned bringing the laptop to the bookstore
occasionally, or maybe while going fishing)

1. The laptop needs 18V, at 2A. I was envisioning 15 1.2V NiMH
1800mAh batteries tied in series, but this could get really expensive,
at circa $10/4pack of NiMH AA's. Ditto for C batteries; would last
longer, though.

2. Getting a deep-cycle 12VDC lead-acid battery, charge this at home,
connect say a 100 W inverter (or whatever is the smallest available)
to it, and plug in the laptop's power supply into the inverter.

3. Just buy a small UPS (uninterruptible power supply), charge it at
home, and bring the UPS and laptop with me (to the bookstore, on a
boat, etc.)


I'm leaning towards (3). Any suggestions? Anyone done this before?
Anyone recommend a good, small, lightweight UPS for powering a laptop?

Thanks!

Mike Darrett

 

[Arthur Jernberg]

Only if the mobile location does nt object to the noise produced by the five
minuite of use you will get from the ups. They are designed to allow a
controlled shutdown for a system during a power failure, not as a portable
power supply. You would be wiser to invest in a good battery and the proper
charger.