In article ,
Lobster wrote:
I'm thinking of buying an 12V - 240V for the car, to enable me to
charge/run devices such as a laptop / mobile phone(s) / AA batteries for
gameboys & camera etc etc while on the road (one at a time!); they seem
to be as cheap as chips these days and this would enable me to use the
standard mains chargers for all the above devices rather than buying
separate low voltage kit to connect each of them up to the cigar lighter.

Sounds good in theory, but are there any gotchas? Eg, safety? Does it
run a car battery down more to power up a laptop via a 240V inverter
than directly to the cigar lighter? etc etc

I've got a 150W one from www.tlc-direct.co.uk and I've used it for a
few years now. It's got a standard 13A socket on the side of it. It's
supposed to cut-out if the input voltage goes bbelow 10.5V, but I've
never had to test it...

It produces a "modified sine wave" output, which does tend to make some
battery chargers buzz a little and mayby run a little hotter than when
on the mains at home, but otherwise I've not had a problem with it.

I used to use it when out & about to test & install various wireless
networking equipment. Not had much use for it recently though, but
it's handy for charging various batteries which I don't have a separate
adapter for.

Can't help feeling an inverter would be much better if wired or plugged
into the car some other way than via the god-awful universal
cigar-lighter plug...

Very probably - my last car had the socket powered at all times, but my
current car needs the keys in & the ignition on to make it work )-:

Gordon