I just bought a $40 inverter that is rated at 175W nominal and 350W peak power. I know this is plenty of power for a laptop, but I have been reading some threads about power being "dirty". My cig lighter is wired directly to the battery, so I shouldn't lose power to the laptop if/when the engine stalls. I was just wondering if the power from the inverter will be okay for data logging or should I splurge for the new laptop battery at about $100 a whack for a 15-year-old Toshiba laptop. Will the inverter give good power stability? What happens if the inverter fuse pops when I am running the engine off the laptop and AutoPROM in emulation? Am I pretty much hosed and I will have a dead Jeep with no chip and no way to start it without a new fuse for the inverter?
Thanks again!!!
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JeepGuy553

 

I have an old laptop with a dead battery - never had any issues using my inverter - can't answer the autoprom question...

 

You always always carry a spare Prom.

The problem will be during crank, unless the inverter will work down to 10v or so you'll crash what your doing.

For years all I ever used were laptops with dead batteries.

 

When my inverter was new 6 mo ago it worked fine. after a few trips "off road" with the jarring around, it now will recharge the laptop but if I turn it on while logging I go from green 20 to red 2-4.

I don't think it liked the CO mountains or the TX clay!!!

 

I have an inverter wired into my car. No problems at all. To answer your AutoProm question, if you lose power (in any sense of the term), the Jeep will continue to run off of the non-volitile emulation RAM and shouldn't skip a beat. Your laptop, however, is nothing but volitile.

 

The only time you have to worry about the car's "dirty" power is if you're trying to eliminate a PC's power supply and put 5 volts directly to the mobo from the car's charging system..

Cheers,