im wanting to use my laptop as a graphic equaliser for my stereo and also run mp3's off it, would it be possible too use the 12v amp power supply or would i need a power invertor

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Gaz, firstly, what is your laptop voltage rating? (check your PSU) It's usually above 12v, generally they are 15v +
YOu will need to use a step up transformer to convert the 12v up to Xv where X is your laptop voltage. You can buy such a unit fairly costily from somewhere like maplin/ebay; you just need to make sure it is:

Capable of doing your voltage
Able to provide enough power, i.e. if your laptop PSU is 15 v 4 amps, that means 60 watts (power = current x voltage).

An inverter is fastly coming the cheaper option, a 300watt invertor is little more than £30 and you just plug your laptop PSU into as normal; downside is lower efficiency I believe which means if you're not running the engine, your batter won't like it much



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Uno 1.0ie Start. Standard.

cheers

thats why i would like to try and run it through the amp cause i have one with a built in power cap so it would draw the charge from that when the engine is not running, i would imagine cause i am still split on how a power cap actually works

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A power cap would drive your laptop for about 1 second. (Unless of course it was as big as your boot)

Think of a turbo and the turbo lag you get when you suddenly ask for more power. The same thing happens in an electrical circuit when you ask for more power, e.g., a big bass note. A power cap is a small reservoir of power that can help out when extra power is required, but it is not a battery and cannot hold much power. It is used for short bursts of power.

I have looked at 240v invertors and step up transformers to power my laptop. It works out at about £80 each for a decent one that won't overheat if you use it for long periods of time. They are surprisingly power hungry little beasts.

ummm, maybe leave my lap top in the house then[V]

i just thought it would be funky, i could mix my own tunes...mobile dj anyone

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one of the guys i dj with has his decks set up in the back of a white van... it is awesome, pull into a field or warehouse or sumthin, plug them into a generator and bang u can dj out of a white van!

cool, ive tried that in my sei when i first had it, i managed to squeeze 2 15" cabs, a bass bin and a 2 deck cd mixer, it was made until i realsied i couldnt fit in the car with it all in

edit - the battery went dead within 5 mins aswell

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you can hook a laptop to a car power supply if you go to pc world you can find latop chargers the work off the ciggi lighter a little bit of snipping and soldering and che ching you got you a power supply

Check out

www.amperor.co.uk/index.asp

Ive tried loadsa things to run my laptop in my car as i use it at work everyday, i ended up spending £50- on a good BELKIN 12v-240v transformer box (pc world/currys), now i can run anything in my car thats mains powered - if you buy one make sure you get one that supports HIGH amp's, the cheaper oned you see on the net are not man enough to support them for any length of time the have cut offs and keep resetting.