Comment on Thinkpad for the win

Psythik@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• Akasazh@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Ask me how I know.

  Ok. How?

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  • Psythik@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Because I killed a PSU by plugging my PC into a gas generator once

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    • faythofdragons@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      To be fair, laptops have those bricks on the cord that help protect it from power oddities.

      And that one weird slimline computer I had once that didn’t have a traditional PSU and had a laptop charging cord, lmao.

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    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Always use a UPS when you connect a PC to a generator. The UPS will protect it against surges and also smooth out the power

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    • Akasazh@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Thnx!

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  • person1@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    <airplane>By typing the question in the comment box, but that’s not important right now</ariplane>

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• Copythis@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I ran a full sized office photo copier off a generator once, it ran fine, but you could really hear the engine chugging when the fuser started to heat up.

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• null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I’m trying to figure this out at the moment.

  What is the best way to power a laptop in an off-grid setup? Mine will be primarily solar + AGM battery.

  I think the simplest “just works” set up is to get a “pure sine” inverter and go:

  solar > battery > inverter > power supp > laptop

  The thing is, if I understand correctly you have a big inefficient inverter to AC only to transform back to DC, with the only benefit being that the plug fits in the socket.

  I’m curious to know how a generator ruins a power supply? Is it something to do with the arcane sine wave magic from the inverter?

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  • Mcdolan@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    The “best” would be some kind of DC to DC converter, but I’m not sure there’s anything plug and play atm because there’s a wide range of specs laptops want. If your laptop happens to change with USB c PD or whatever the spec is that’d be the most efficient that I’m aware of. No sense in going dc->ac->dc if it can be helped.

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    • renzev@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      The “best” would be some kind of DC to DC converter

      No sense in going dc->ac->dc if it can be helped.

      Modern laptop chargers can actually run on DC current, and with as little as 48 volts. Here is a german guy demonstrating it. So if your battery bank runs on 48 volts, I think you might be able to just connect it directly to the input of a laptop charger and it will work.

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  • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    There should be options avoiding AC depending on your scenario. Most laptops charge off of DC.

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• owl@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  But why would it? Is the output not voltage controlled?

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  • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I’m guessing the cheaper ones don’t have sine-wave inverters (they use a dressed up square wave which can be produced by purely digital electronics) so quality of the output waveform is bad. The power supply of the laptop (or PC) ends up having to work harder to cut out the extraneous bits of the waveform (that is it’s job) but all that extra crap is just turned into heat. Laptop PSUs are small , so have less heat dissipation and likely aren’t built for this.

    If it’s a sine-wave inverters and the generator is working properly then idk why it would matter.

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    • owl@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      That sounds like a really good explanation, thank you

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  • varyingExpertise@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Use an inverter-controlled one and you’ll be fine. Our emergency communications shelter runs off one of those just fine, with a cheap offline UPS in there.

    Yes, those that control frequency using the engine rpm aren’t that great for most switching power supplies.

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  • Case@lemmynsfw.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Oh shit, you just made me realize when I get my first pay check I should really invest in a decent UPS. I had to sell my old one before moving state lines to condense space.

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• letsgo@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Best power yours off solar then, cos everything else is generators.

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• Float@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Yea man, you need an inverter generator for that. Thankfully small inverter generators are very affordable these days.

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