Off grid charging of macbook pro?

[Madmountainman]

Anyone here know the best way to keep a macbook charged whilst off grid? Apple used to do an airplane charger, which didn't charge your mac, but just gave it power so you didn't drain your battery. That's since been discontinued and it looks like a plug in inverter may do the job instead.
Does anyone know if an inverter will provide sufficient juice to charge a mac, without draining the leisure battery, and if so, what power inverter should I be looking at?

[zildjian]

Mine doesn't invert from LB in fact its buzzer tells me its a bad idea in no uncertain terms, so If you find an alternative I'd be interested.
I do have a 12V supply which works but its plug needs to be completely undisturbed plugged into Campers outlet or it will pop itself out and MUST be plug its magsafe lead into mac>then plug into cigarette lighter

[zildjian]

You might like to install this handy freeware
to monitor progress



http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

[Toshbins]

http://www.coywood.co.uk/apple-macbook- ... 4837-p.asp

[zildjian]

That looks very much like mine actually, i've owned it for a year or so, used it a half dozen times either charge on the road or in camper
Solar>LB>(this)>Mac
And doesn't seem to have caused an issue yet, as I say just hook it up first before plugging into lighter socket

[Gary W]

Anyone here know the best way to keep a macbook charged whilst off grid? Apple used to do an airplane charger, which didn't charge your mac, but just gave it power so you didn't drain your battery. That's since been discontinued and it looks like a plug in inverter may do the job instead.
Does anyone know if an inverter will provide sufficient juice to charge a mac, without draining the leisure battery, and if so, what power inverter should I be looking at?

I have many years of experience working with a Macbook Pros off-grid for weeks on end. For me the best solution by far has proven to be the factory charger with a decent pure sine wave inverter. I've tried a couple of 12volt adapters, both got scarily hot (and that heat isn't free!) and one even melted the plug. Those things seem to run at max power all the time and dump the surplus as heat whereas a decent inverter only takes what power it needs. A decent inverter is expensive but you get what you pay for.

Best wishes

Gary

[Alexd]

I agree a proper invertor would probably be best solution,
Not sure the 12V options as not used one long term, I was told however to expect the charging too takle longer and to speed up the time and limit use of these
Charge laptop with lid closed and use unplugged after charging.
You'll likely see its not an 'approved' device if cursor movement is sporadic and not as smooth as on 'genuine' charging device

Or at least that's been my experience

[sabconsulting]

I should have showed you my little box of electricity at Branscombe

Well, not so little - spare Optima car battery, spare charger, 300w modified sine wave inverter (£30 for a decent one). Runs laptops and other things with switch mode power supplies fine. Being modified sine wave you cannot run inductive loads (electric motors, etc.), but modern switch mode PSU battery chargers are happy with that.

Chris Hodgson has a similar inverter he runs off the truck when driving for charging camera batteries. Obviously care needs to be taken to not run something that draws too many watts if running from the car accessory socket or you will probably blow a fuse in the truck.

Steve.

[zildjian]

This is charging off domestic power right now and 12.8W could you install something on you Laptop and monitor what your's draws next time
We'd be interested to see what happens

[Madmountainman]

Looks like a Pure Sine Wave Inverter is the best way to go. I've got a 13" Macbook Pro, so it's a 60w Magsafe. Will a 300w Inverter be ok with that, or do I require something with a bit more power?