Possible way to double inverter capacity?

[Diantane]

Bought a 300 watt Power Drive inverter for my high end gaming laptop. It will bog down the inverter on the better RPGs. When this happens the screen dims; really effecting gameplay.

Read that when any inverter is plugged into a cigarette lighter outlet that you only get about 150 watts at most due to the smaller wire bringing power to the inverter. That the only way to get the full rating is to hook directly to the battery (which is not possible in my case).

I think I have figured out another way to increase the output wattage (although I have not tried this yet - need the other hookup). My truck has several 12 volt outlets; all with separate circuits and fuses (2015 Freightliner Cascadia Evolution).

My idea is to use two separate circuits; plugging in two cords and running both to one inverter. Polarities would be the same and this would essentially be parallel circuits. Do you think this would double my capacity?

I
UPDATE: Found the extra hookup I needed. Hooked up both cords to inverter, but only plugged in one for the test. Ran Witcher 3 which massively bogged down the inverter. Would only occasionally light up one indicator of the 4 light wattage meter. Plugged in the other cord and.....IT WORKS!!! Witcher 3 runs flawlessly. Now there are two lights lit up on the built in watt meter.

2nd Update: Tried a static test. Let the battery drain down and then tried playing Witcher again. The inverter bogs down again when it has to charge the battery. Three cords should solve this, but if the battery is fully charged at the start and power is connected to the computer, then this would never be an issue.

 

[Ferrum Master]

LoL, are coming from a forest.

Don't do that. You will fry the SMPS circuit, they are not designed to run in paralel, each milivolt diference will burn inside of a end cascade and thus showdown in feedback loop will start causing fireworks.

Just don't buy those china crap things, they even barely power up a light bulb at unstable frequency, and adds dangerous electric noise usualy. Two coords to.one smps won't do a thing, either way if the current would be not enough, the fuse would be blown, if not, the current is enough.

 

[Caring1]

Why not rig up a heavier gauge wire from the fuse box to cigarette lighter, then a heavy single wire to the inverter.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Why not rig up a heavier gauge wire from the fuse box to cigarette lighter, then a heavy single wire to the inverter.

Nah... The outlet will turn into coil... And that is not the cause of the problem, as if you have problems on 5 meters with 3KW vacuum cleaner lol.

The only thing actually he could do is actually driving the SMPS from 24V, it will raise the efficeny a lot, albeit if it is a cheap crap Inverter, i would not recommend it.

 

[Diantane]

All I did would be the same as running two positive and two negative wires from the battery to the inverter. Adding more wire won't fry anything.

When I was 14 (about a hundred years ago), I found a light socket with a plunger at the end. It was to be used as a light when you opened up the closet door before walk-in closets with light switches became popular. I mounted this device to my bedroom door. Then I screwed in a converter (light socket threads on one end and a two prong receptacle on the other. Then plugged in an extension cord and ran that to a radio and lamp on a table by the door. So when I opened the door the lamp and radio would come on.

But then my dad yelled up to me to either turn off the radio or close the door. If I closed the door the radio would turn off anyway. So I came up with a new design on paper (drew out the entire schematic to my idea).

A two pole double throw switch is designed to either turn on one device or another. My idea was two run an AC source into each end and the load in the middle (just the opposite of the switch's design). One AC source would come from the door switch and the other from the wall receptacle.

Before I tried it I showed my dad the schematic (didn't want to burn down the house). He said that it wouldn't work (course he didn't know anything about electricity and just said that to be a big shot). I went back upstairs and read over the schematic over and over. Finally decided that it would be worth the chance of being permanently grounded to hook this up (lol).

Crafted a small wooden box in my dad's workshop and used a set of wood stamps to hammer in letters. One direction for the switch said "AUTO" and the other side said "ON". Drilled a hole in the center and mounted my switch. Went back to my room and hooked everything up. When I tried it, it.... WORKED!!

Then I went to my dad and told him everything I did. Then asked him to come see my invention. I opened the door to activate the lamp and radio. Then I flipped the switch to "ON" and then closed the door. Everything was still on. He really liked the switch box I crafted and was very excited to see this project. Then he called to my mom and said,"Come in here. I want to show you what our son did".

A few years later I joined the U.S. Navy and became an electrician. Also took a four year course in electronics. To date I have invented over 300 products and services.

Used to be an industrial engineer solving engineering problems that no one else could figure out. Lost my business during the last recession and now drive a tractor trailer.

 

[Diantane]

The only thing actually he could do is actually driving the SMPS from 24V, it will raise the efficeny a lot, albeit if it is a cheap crap Inverter, i would not recommend it.[/QUOTE]

I didn't hook up two cords in series. Both red wires are on the positive terminal and both blacks on the negative. It's just a parallel connection. This doubles the electrons that can pass to the inverter.

The amount of power that got eaten up went from 75 to 150.

Note: Both test above were done with the engine off. So the voltage was at 12, not 14.

 

[Ferrum Master]

U.S. Navy and became an electrician. Also took a four year course in electronics.

All due respect, but military electronics are something made to be so robust and simple that it needs no skilled maintainer at all

There are may things you have to consider driving such dynamic load as laptop. And you understand that those ain't the wires actually... I hope you know the rule that you never ever must leave anything connected to the 12V power line when powering up the engine, as spikes occurs from the generator and burns up everything in the line, protection zeners and fuses burn down in instant.

Well I bet you have access to variable bench supplies... and you can test the performance of your supply using them. That may give all the answers you need.

I didn't hook up two cords in series. Both red wires are on the positive terminal and both blacks on the negative. It's just a parallel connection. This doubles the electrons that can pass to the inverter.

US trucks ain't using 24V ie two accumulator blocks... ?

 

[Diantane]

All due respect, but military electronics are something made to be so robust and simple that it needs no skilled maintainer at all

There are may things you have to consider driving such dynamic load as laptop. And you understand that those ain't the wires actually... I hope you know the rule that you never ever must leave anything connected to the 12V power line when powering up the engine, as spikes occurs from the generator and burns up everything in the line, protection zeners and fuses burn down in instant.

Well I bet you have access to variable bench supplies... and you can test the performance of your supply using them. That may give all the answers you need.



All that I could get from one 12 volt outlet was 70 watts. Two gave me a solid 150. You really don't need a spike protector when using an inverter. This device has one built it. Two coils - one larger (more copper windings) than the other produces the voltage upgrade. The air gap between the two is the natural spark arrestor.

 

[Steevo]

All due respect, but military electronics are something made to be so robust and simple that it needs no skilled maintainer at all

There are may things you have to consider driving such dynamic load as laptop. And you understand that those ain't the wires actually... I hope you know the rule that you never ever must leave anything connected to the 12V power line when powering up the engine, as spikes occurs from the generator and burns up everything in the line, protection zeners and fuses burn down in instant.

Well I bet you have access to variable bench supplies... and you can test the performance of your supply using them. That may give all the answers you need.



US trucks ain't using 24V ie two accumulator blocks... ?

Most US automotive stuff uses 12V batteries, and the Ag and industrial side use double wired systems for starting and running, 24V starting and engine electronics and 12V cab and accessories.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I get the feeling you'd just overload your current inverter and risk destroying anything plugged into it. It's like trying to put a race cam and piston in a car that's not designed to handle the extra horsepower and compression.

I think you need to get realistic and just get a more robust inverter and stop tinkering. All the talk up about your training is pretty much negated by the fact that here your asking help on a gaming forum in spite of it.

This is like the guys that want to buy a $2000 desktop gaming rig, but insist on using a cheap PSU. You can get a fairly good 500w (continuous) inverter for under $50. Did they teach you any common sense to go along with that electronics training?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Energizer-EN500-12-Volt-500-Watt-Power-Inverter/27435081

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...02KtraRKu0vGarsIHyZ4HhoCsGrw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ATXERNO/?tag=tec06d-20

^These are sold even by sites that specialize in power inverters.