How to charge a laptop in a Fleet

la_morris

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Austin, Texas
I feel pretty sure that the answer to my question has already been posted somewhere, but I'm asking for your forbearance and help in finding it. My understanding of electricity is so minimal that I'm not sure what to search for. I have a new Fleet shell with two deep cycle batteries. I think the only things that I need electricity for are the two fans, the led lights, charging my phone and charging my laptop. Can I charge my MacBook Air off the batteries? If so, how? I have a car charger for my phone to use in the 12 volt outlet. Is there something similar that I can get for charging my laptap? How do I figure out how much of a draw on the batteries the phone and laptop will be?

Leslie
 
That's what I use for my MacBook Pro... works great ...be sure it does the model you have.
 
I also use a cig lighter (DC) power cord made specifically for my laptop. Found it on Ebay. My normal practice is to charge the laptop during the day while driving. You should have no problem with power consumption from your batteries in typical overnight charging. If you're in one spot for days without solar or running truck that's different.

.
 
I have worked for an Apple reseller/authorized service center for the past 5 1/2 years.
I would advise against the product that was mentioned above.

Buckland, a 13" MacBook Pro requires 60 watts and 15"models require 85 watt adapters. MacBook Airs are indeed 45 watts, but the newer models would require a Magsafe to Magsafe 2 adapter as mentioned in the Amazon ad. $10.

That being said I would still be hesitant charging a $1000 notebook with a the product above. Companies that use the magsafe connector on these chargers get sued by Apple all the time as they are not allowed to make them. They certainly don't get the ends from Apple, because Apple would not sell it to them. I've seen the electronics inside many non Apple products that are manufactured to work with Apple products that are very unsafe. I would never use them.


This is what Apple has on their site.
Kensington is a reputable company.
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/TW696LL/A?fnode=8f0b1560ed28bd42395c63cf7dbb6a55769c7c29591a600094088cdd3b351c6bbf0ed109e25e232599f01d4e91c23e1d846608ebf0f3a2f28a692c04ddcb253a25802b2ca2b66f1203a9b2713a9074573807766478554fb8a0105be1fada60db

Simply plug it into a 12V outlet and then plug your existing 45W Apple power cable into it.

Sorry guys, I'd like to agree with you and our opinions are obviously different, but I've seen a lot of damage in our service center.
 
I'll have to check our third-party brand. We have used a 12v laptop charger with mag connector for our 15" MBP 2009 / 13" MB air / 13" MBP 2014 laptops for the last four years or so. No problems so far.
 
This is from Wikipedia





Third-party products[SIZE=small][edit][/SIZE]
Although Apple does not license the MagSafe connector for use in third-party products, manufacturers have devised a workaround: their MagSafe items use the actual connector from Apple's AC adapter, grafted onto their own product. Since this uses an actual Apple product, purchased legally, manufacturers believe that no licensing agreements are needed (a principle referred to as first sale doctrine) and the patents are not violated.[13] However, in 2010 Apple still sued one such manufacturer, Sanho Corporation for selling its very popular HyperMac battery extension products which Apple claimed violated their patents.[14] Sanho has since ceased to sell their connector cable for the HyperMac series of external batteries
 
Just a note. The charger I use for my MBP is not the one shown (Air) ... but has the appropriate Wattage. I have used it for 4 1/2 years w/o any problem. (so far). I worked as an Apple IT at a school, trained at an Apple Server training center. Yes there are disclaimers from Apple about charging speeds.... certain plugs do either work or don't (some of the generic Lightning plugs have been known to actually mess up the socket and leave one w/o no way to charge at all)
But I would say that if you already have this charger and it has worked so far.... it probably will be fine.
 
I use a 3rd party 12v charger on my 15" MBP and also did on my older 17" MBP. Not sure what brand but it has worked well, probably not the one I listed either - I was just demonstrating using google and didn't really look at the specs.


Charlie

Sent from my iPad using Wander The West
 
While I am always for saving money I do go through the penny wise pound foolish filter. The Kensington is $20 more and gives you 2 usb ports you can charge other things through. No brainer in my view :)
Happy New Year!
 
Okay, I need to expand my answer as I just noticed that the Kensington adapter is really an inverter you plug your Mac ac adaptor into. I am having trouble finding out if that is a pure wave or modified wave inverter.
I would try to find a pure wave inverter for my expensive laptop. As Apple pushes this product I am thinking it may be pure wave but the price is very low for a pure wave. If you get a 150w-300w pure wave inverter you can run anything withing the wattage level without issue:) I am not finding a dc charger from Mac.
 
I would be very careful using a third party DC charging device especially on the new Apple Macs with with the terraced cell lithium batteries!

I have a 2011 Mac Book Pro (pre-dates Apple's 2012 patent for terraced cell batteries) and I can use just about any type of third party charging device without negative consequences.

My wife as an early 2016 Mac Air; the first and only time we put that on a third party charger in the camper, the battery got VERY HOT in a matter of minutes. It was so warm I was concerned if we left there much longer, it would become a fire hazard due to an exploding battery...which newer Apple batteries have been known to do with third party chargers.

Apple terraced cell batteries manufactured the last 3 years or are proprietary batteries and only Apple authorized chargers are warranted or authorized for use. There is firmware embedded in Apple batteries in order to maintain charging cycle count and other information. I suspect the firmware tracks if an unauthorized charger is connected which will then allow Apple to invalidate your warranty (if still under warranty).

It wouldn't surprise me at all, given Apple's propensity for protecting intellectual property, that a "handshake code" exists between Apple's new batteries and authorized charging devices. You will be able to charge your battery with an unauthorized charger, but I wouldn't be surprised if code in the battery's firmware would indicate such has been connected.

Out of warranty, newer Mac...who cares! But, I don't think I would ever leave my new Mac on a third party charger in my camper unattended. And, I would charge the Mac on a small, inverted metal cookie sheet in case the battery goes into a melt down (my normal technique). It would be a huge bummer if one's Apple Mac exploded while charging catching your camper and truck on fire waaay out in the boonies!

My new truck has an inverter and 2x 110V AC outlets in the cab. We now only charge our Macs rolling down the highway with the truck's electrical system.
 
I use a 12 volt:120 volt inverter to charge my 11" laptop and my camera battery. The inverter has a standard 120 volt outlet to plug the oem chargers into. I use a 12 volt charger for my cell phone (no inverter). There are many sizes and brands for inverters but size the inverter watt capacity to be larger than the computer charger watt rating. Two camper batteries in good condition without a 12 volt refrig is large enough for typical 10-15" laptops. Also, we can plug our inverter into the truck accessory 12 volt port and charge our laptop while driving.
 
My laptop runs on 18volts so going directly off the camper doesn't work. I did get a small pure sine wave inverter for charging as I've heard especially small chargers don't like square waves but, I've plugged everything into the big inverter (lazy or forgetful or both?) and haven't had any issues so far.
 
We charge our iphones, macs and ipad from the truck inverter while driving. No problems so far. We also have 12v outlets hooked to the camper battery with plug-in chargers in the camper.
 
We made a special effort to get as many DC powered things as possible, so we wouldn't have to go through the extra inefficient step of using an inverter.

We have 12v cig-plug chargers for my Dell Inspiron and for my wife's older MacBook and they work like a charm.

We try and charge the computers while driving, or during full sun on the solar.
 

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