murcury2
join:2002-01-02
Amherst, MA
| battery powered computer...
Has anyone built a battery powered computer? Not a laptop...but a full sized regular desktop powered by a battery? The batter would be charged by a solar panel. I want to build this as a project for my car. me and the other person that will be working on this found 6V solar panels for $16. How would i get this to work...if at all possible. |
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SKYHN
Lu.. Lu.. Lulululu
Premium
join:2001-09-16
99999
3 edits | You would need a power inverter. Depending on how many watts the PC will draw, probably a 600watt inverter would be best, maybe higher. You need one that does continuous though. A lot of times their advertised like 700watts, but they only do 500 continuous(it can do 700, but only for a few mins).
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Im Rick James... |
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murcury2
join:2002-01-02
Amherst, MA
| reply to murcury2
so...say i got one that can do 600 continuous...what else would i need? How many volts of power would i have to supply it with? Could i have a solar panel connected to the battery connected to the inverter? With some type of bus that would allow it to run off the panel during the day and when the panel stopps supplying power (night) it would run off the battery...or just use the panel to charge the battery and let the battery run the setup through the inverter. |
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wallyghs
Who Needs Sanity?
join:2001-09-13
Fairborn, OH | reply to murcury2
You would have to run the inverter through the battery with a constant trickle charge from the panels unless you get enough solar panels to run the inverter.
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Do you worry me? I do. |
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BIGMIKE
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Westminster, CA | battery powered desktop, you no haw much my desktop use in power, it take a nucelear power plant jost to boot it up |
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Outsourced
Premium
join:2002-03-17
Holly Springs, NC
| reply to murcury2
It doesn't seem very sensible to take 12v DC and convert it to 120v AC with an inverter, then feed it to your computers PSU which is going to convert it back to 12v DC.
I would think that you could tear the PSU apart and feed it 12v DC directly by tapping into the circuit board where the 120v AC to 12v DC power inverter is connected, thereby eliminating the need for converting from 12vDC to 120AC back to 12v DC again.
I would then run a dual battery setup in my car with a Deep cycle battery for powering the computer (like they use in RV's and boats). You can get an automatic switch from an RV dealer that will let you drain one battery and always have a fully charged battery for starting the car. The car's alternator will keep both batteries charged when you drive it.
Then if you still feel the need to use solar power to charge the battery (like if you plan on running the computer all day without starting the car to charge the battery, you can wire the Solar panels into the battery with no problem since solar powered car battery chargers are commercially available already.
»www.thermomax.com/pv_charger.htm
»www.autobarn.net/batsavplus.html
»www.baproducts.com/sm831.htm
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The U.S. Department of Education reports that 49% of the U.S. Adult population is "functionally illiterate" or lacks the skills needed to function effectively in society. |
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jun412
join:2003-04-06
Stevenson Ranch, CA | Re: battery powered computer...
Check this out....
»www.cnet.com/4520-7378_1-5072863···=profile
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Doh!~ |
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Exit
Premium,ExMod 2002
join:2001-04-10
Canada
 ·TekSavvy Cable
| reply to BIGMIKE
said by BIGMIKE  :
battery powered desktop, you no haw much my desktop use in power, it take a nucelear power plant jost to boot it up
?????????????????
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Dont laugh - »www.hot.ee/irw/ |
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ARIA
Linux
Premium
join:2002-04-15
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:  
| well you have to um, look at the law of voltage vs wattage.
2 parrelel 6v solar panels i beleive when combined join in wattage not in voltage... well there are ways to make the voltage increase.
basically through connecting a bunch of solar pannels in series and in parrelel you can achive what you want i mean voltage and wattage of equal or greater value of the 110 volts here.
i mean there would be a lot of solar panels needed for it.
like 110 / 6 = 19 panels. thats alot of panels.
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the artist which was last known as ShavedBeaver |
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Dodge
Premium
join:2002-11-27
clubs:
| reply to murcury2
You are going about the whole thing all wrong. You don't power the computer off the solar panels. You power your computer off the car's battery (you can install a separate one if you want) and you charge the battery with solar panels (if thats what you want).
To power a computer off a battery you would need a DC-to-DC power supply designed for cars (yes they sell those google for it), some of them are ATX form factor so they will fit in nicely in any PC case.
Also if you want to get into car computers look at the following:
»www.staf.org.uk/car-puter/
»home.broadpark.no/~ebolsen/carputer.html
And if you starting from scratch you may want to check out VIA Epia platform, one of its targeted uses is car computers.
»www.via.com.tw/en/VInternet/projects.jsp
this also has many links to car computer projects, most of them are based on EPIA but you can adapt the designs to fit your hardware.
Good luck. |
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Andrew J
Premium
join:2001-11-09
Lancaster, PA
clubs:
·Comcast
| reply to murcury2
I'm doing that with a PPC on a cigarette lighter jack. Plus it gets unlimited data at 144Kbps. 
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likwidkool
Premium
join:2002-05-05
Jersey City, NJ
| reply to Exit
said by Exit :
said by BIGMIKE :
battery powered desktop, you no haw much my desktop use in power, it take a nucelear power plant jost to boot it up
?????????????????
you know bigmike there is a spell check option!;)
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"If the thunder don't getcha, than the lightnin' will..." |
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Exit
Premium,ExMod 2002
join:2001-04-10
Canada
·TekSavvy Cable
| said by likwidkool :
said by Exit :
said by BIGMIKE :
battery powered desktop, you no haw much my desktop use in power, it take a nucelear power plant jost to boot it up
?????????????????
you know bigmike there is a spell check option!;)
Shhh we can't mention it in public Use PM's 
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Dont laugh - »www.hot.ee/irw/ |
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