DT366 - auto car charger

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rc211e
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Location: Australia

Re: DT366 - auto car charger

Post by rc211e »

I purchased a genuine 12v automobile adaptor from Neutron Express for around US$42. Freight was expensive but they shipped to Australia very quickly. Good customer service. They were happy enough to deal with a small international purchase.

Power supply is branded INDA SD150A Specs are - DC input 12-24V 7A DC Output 12V 3A. It's big 4x2.5x1 inches.

Personally I wouldn't use anything but a correct power supply, these units may be rugged on the outside but the charging circuit appears pretty fragile. A friend ran his on an inverter for a couple of hours and the charging circuit blew. I would be very careful using 12v straight from cigarette lighter too, especially while starting and stopping the vehicle.

In the meantime i will see how longer trips go with a dedicated 12v converter
Last edited by rc211e on Sat Jul 24, 2010 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
drc-wartex
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Re: DT366 - auto car charger

Post by drc-wartex »

You CAN rig a straight cable from car cig lighter to a barrel plug BUT I it's very unsafe because when car starts or stops the voltage might spike and damage your webdt. Some old cars supply 14.4 and not 12v. Also most cig lighters come with a 10A or 15A fuse, not 3A, so lots of power available there. A lot of cheap alternators have crappy voltage regulators in them and towards the end of life they become very unstable, that's why the webdt native car charger is a huge brick with a voltage regulator inside (that's why it says 12-24). If you shell out $400 on a bosch alternator, you can wire it in directly.

You can make your own pwer supply or buy one off ebay, don't wire the webdt directly.
cskenney
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Re: DT366 - auto car charger

Post by cskenney »

Battery voltage in a car can easily vary between 8 and 16 volts.  The larger problem is if the battery is disconnected while the car is running or you have a corroded terminal on the battery.  You can get voltage spikes in excess of 50 VDC occuring on your voltage supply lines.

What is the probability of this occurring?  Not sure.  I do know that I work for a company that supplies electronic devices to automotive and heavy duty vehicle manufacturers and we are required to pass tests that include these voltage spikes when we are hooked directly to battery power.

I think I would try and find a vehicle adapter rather than plug directly from the DT to battery power in a vehicle.  The vehicle adapter has hopefully been built with the necessary components to filter out the voltage spikes.
asutherland
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Re: DT366 - auto car charger

Post by asutherland »

Any update? Did you end up blowing it up? ;)
Dave7341
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Re: DT366 - auto car charger

Post by Dave7341 »

If you were to buy an auto power supply from DTR back when these tablets were new, they would have sold you a LIND model XN1235-797.
http://www.lindelectronics.com

These are regulated 12v output power supplies. They are of excellent quality. I have been running one continuous for four years.

The cheap alternative would be a cigar lighter 12v to 120v 400watt adapter sold just about everywhere. Then you use the standard AC power supply.

The LIND is the way to go but they are expensive.

-Dave
BoydBooker
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Re: DT366 - auto car charger

Post by BoydBooker »

here are no switches to change polarity on charger. I will try different laptop charger.
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