gpatmac

iTrader: (3)

Why does mine shut off all of the time? I'm only running a laptop?

I have no idea what the ratings for it are (volts, amps, watts, ohms....)

I had two until today; I just bought another one that is 75 watts. Previously, I tried to buy higher wattage but today I got the bright idea that maybe my lighter wasn't sending enough power. On the back of some of the packages I was reading today said that they had a 'shut-off' built in if power got below 11.5 watts, so I looked for one with the lowest shut-off. This one is 10 watts.

I am clueless when it comes to electricity.

bpang1

iTrader: (25)

Doesn't it say on the packaging what kind of things each inverter can power?

I swear the ones I saw at Sears did.

Get an Optima Yellow Top to go along with your inverter.

gpatmac

iTrader: (3)

Inverter $12, yellow $109. No thanks.

Well, I used the low wattage one tonight. No issues. However, I think that the laptop battery was pretty well charged up, so that more than likely had something to do with it.

4080wrx

iTrader: (38)

so it still shuts off with the one with the 10 watt rating??

gpatmac

iTrader: (3)

No, tonight I used it for about 15min and it was gtg, however my laptop battery was fully charged. I'm thinking that maybe when I've had the problem before, a low laptop battery may have been the issue.

oldmansan

iTrader: (4)

had any issues with mine, but I don't use it a lot. I've never adjusted my map and use the laptop for monitoring. Despite what the UTEC manual says, the front O2 sensor reads fairly accurate (compared to my wideband O2). I have a Belkin with 140 watts constant output, 250 watts peak. You can equate watts to hp, a unit to measure work.

San

esx344dreams04

iTrader: (7)

when i had one in my car for my PS2, i had to use a 300 watt one from k-mart because the smaller ones werent putting out enough power, but that was my incident.

sub-sonic

iTrader: (2)

Guys,
try running it staight to the batt. make the wire as short as possible and use a bigger gage wires, and never share it with anything else. running a hi-power drawing components on your car's wiring may cause probs- it may even deprive other components in the system of critical power that they need.

later gang!
ED

gpatmac

iTrader: (3)

Thanks ED! I'm going to cut off the lighter plug and rewire it. Should I put a fuse along the wire or change out anything inside of the inverter?

sub-sonic

iTrader: (2)

yes sir! fuse is a good investment here is the formula Pw/Vcc= I t(i.e. -250/12.5 =20A. install a 20A fuse thats if the inverter has no external user fuse). You can even plug in a small UPS in beetwen the laptop and the inverter just
in case- but then thats too much--

ok Pat good luck