rossd 16 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 After reading Matts article on the homepage it got me inspired to dig out a discarded old and slow net book computer from the bottom shelf and see what I can learn. I have never had a chart plotter,my sailing experience has been limited to the Gulf and Gt Barrier, mostly singlehanded. I have just used charts and a trampers GPS. The computer is a Asus eee pc 901. windows XP sp3 with a half stuffed battery and stuff all memory. I deleted as much stuff as I could to make some room and OpenCPN downloaded no trouble. Went to LINZ download site but for some reason wouldn't download the chart file so I downloaded to a another computer and transferred a couple of charts over by stick and away they went. I am most impressed that both the software and charts are genuinely free. One of you gurus need to update the open cpn user manual re NZ charts as it says they are only available in gif and tiff?.. One thing about this computer is its 12 volt, so I figure I can make up a cable and plug it straight in? All it will cost is $35.00 for a USB GPS?? Link to post Share on other sites
Battleship 100 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 It may work on 12volt but I imagine errors would creep in pretty quickly, computer systems rely on pretty stable power supplies. Your boat battery would very rarely be on 12volt and when charging could be up as high as 14.9 volts so a proper laptop power adapter would be a lot better. The ggod thing is they would probably be pretty efficient due to the minimall change in voltage. Link to post Share on other sites
tuffyluffy 76 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I bought something similar to this for power on an old laptop on the boat. http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/lapt ... 644254.htm My voltage varies between 11.5 and 14.8 and Ive had no issues, therefore I assume it stabilises the voltage somehow. Plugs into a standard ciggy lighter plug Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I use the eee pc aboard but it has a 12 volt adapter. Used it for years with out any problems except low memory warnings. They start really quickly and use about 1.2 amps. Link to post Share on other sites
rossd 16 Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 Was wondering bbay how much they would use as the 240 v supply puts out 3 amps which I thought was quite a bit. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I'll check those figures for you this afternoon. 3 amps will run a fridge! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Just remembered the eeepc has problems with its keyboard. My enter key is not working which is a nuisance but can use the mouse key instead usually or plug a keyboard in. Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,215 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Guys, remember that the mains supplies are spec'd to the MAX that the device CAN draw - if you populate all the USB devices, CD/DVD (if present), max brightness etc etc. Actual draw can be quite a bit less. My laptop CAN draw 4.3 amps at 12v. But it mostly sits around 2 amps... and its a 15" I3 unit. Pleased to see someone actually reads my stuff!! Rossd, a 12v laptop will get more than 12v to charge it - what does the mains charger say the output voltage is? You can by 12v laptop supplies as mentioned. Be careful though, the cheap ones, when set to 12v, sometimes just pass through whatever is there! Use a good one is the best solution, and safer for the laptop than a direct power connection (although, provided the battery is present, this may work ok) OpenCPN manuals - I'm writing the br24Radar plugin manual now, it's kind of difficult, as all the primary programmers have different ideas about how it should be....consensus is not easy! Link to post Share on other sites
rossd 16 Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 I am quite sure people do read the home page Matt, although never used to as link was set to go straight to the forum, I now generally go via the home page. 240 volt supply is 12 volt. But the battery is 7.4volt. Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,215 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Rossd, ok, in that case you'll definitely need a 12v laptop supply. The boats charging voltage will be way too high! Matt Link to post Share on other sites
Farrari 4 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I run an old Toshiba laptop and like TL I use a good quality DCDC converter. The converter is both efficient and maintains a constant voltage to the laptop as the house battery varies (12.2V 14.. I also remove the battery from the laptop. It is next to useless anyways and I just waste needles power trying to charge a laptop battery that won't hold its charge. Removing the laptop battery dropped my current draw dramatically. I plug in my Garmin handheld to the laptop as the GPS for Opencpn. Link to post Share on other sites
BNG 44 Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Got one of these http://www.laptopbattery.co.nz/products.asp?product_no=19400 Works great and you can buy additional adaptor plug ends to fit other laptops, delivery was overnight like they say. I run Seaclear and/or Opencpn on the bridge via netbook to modem/wifi router plus ipad and Navionics, a Garmin plotter and the boat came with another Feruno plotter. Laptop, ipad and garmin plotters all have battery backups so great if you had power issues. Link to post Share on other sites
rossd 16 Posted April 28, 2014 Author Share Posted April 28, 2014 Gee that's cheap. Unfortunately doesn't go down to 12volt output. Link to post Share on other sites
BNG 44 Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Agree - wasnt that cheap when I purchased 12 months ago! Give them a call, they are really helpful and can probably sort you something similar. You looking for 12V in or 12V out? I run this on a standard 12v system and have had no issues. Link to post Share on other sites
rossd 16 Posted April 28, 2014 Author Share Posted April 28, 2014 12 volt in and regulated 12 volt out. Yeah I will contact them. Link to post Share on other sites
Farrari 4 Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 It looks like option "R" may be close. Give them a call. R: 4.8mm*1.7mm for HP 12V 2.5A, 12V 3.5A and Asus 12V 3A EEE PC Link to post Share on other sites
grant 40 Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Open CPN looks good, thought I would try it on the laptop, 5 minutes later running with the NZ charts and a couple of routes plotted. Next play will be too see if I can shift those routes onto the GPS 72 handheld. Link to post Share on other sites
idlerboat 116 Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 A lot of lap tops (most) run a higher voltage than 12 volts. As much as 18 Volts. Have a look on the underside of the lap top or google. They may still run but will have issues if you start to plug in devices via the usb port that require power. The unit I run is a regulated nominal 12 to 16 volt in to switchable 15v to 24v out. It is rated at around 5 amps out. I run it at 18 volts for my Epcee..baby pooter. Your 240 volt power pack will have the numbers on it as well. The Epcee standard 240volt power pack has an output of 19.5 volts at 2.5 amps. Standard 12 volts to 12 volt dc to dc "conditioners" will often not work. Direct plugging straight from the boats supply is a bad idea. It will cause the demise of the pooters power regulation circuit. It is also not high enough for the battery charging circuit to operate properly. This also applies to televisions. Although they run on 12 volts, they can burn out if presented with the fluctuations that a boats normal voltage goes through. Check the numbers and you will see. (You may need a magnifying glass if you are like me ) ps if running the higher voltage you will find that the battery once charged , the amps draw will drop to just a little above the "no battery". (Some laptops wont run without a battery). If it still does then the battery is probably stuffed. If this is the case the battery will often stay warm. This is a bit hard to decide because the pooters circuits will warm it a little. I prefer to keep the battery side going because it gives a very good power fail backup. Using "switch on use and log, switch off" it could get you quite a few days.... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 The EEE pc's are not all the same. Mine is 12 volt. Link to post Share on other sites
Island Time 1,215 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Here is a video I found today, pretty good cruising vid. Typical cruiser - has opencpn, including screen in cockpit, uses laptop for Pactor for weather as well (could just as easily be a sat ph). What plotter can do that, and email home as well?? Oh yeah - and women on board as well bbay, just for you!! Link to post Share on other sites
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