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crazyguamboy's avatar
crazyguamboy
Explorer
Oct 05, 2016

Charging laptop from 12-volt battery

Does anyone have any inexpensive, uncomplicated ideas on how I could charge my MacBook Pro using a 12-volt, deep cycle battery on my travel trailer? Inverter? 12-volt power adapter? I could google it, but hoping to find folks here who've been there and done that. Thank you in advance.

25 Replies

  • I agree. Just pick up a decent inverter and it will work. I have one that I keep in the truck so my son can use and charge his laptop when we are traveling.
  • Put a volt meter on your ac charger and see what the output voltage is. You can buy a 12v BOOST converter from the e bay or amazon that converts 12v input to higher output.

    Tricky thing is, I think the Apple uses a weird end on their chargers? Where do you find a weird end like that?

    It would be super easy for a Dell or HP.

    Edit: Just FYI. Mostly all laptop charger I've worked with put out 18-19 VDC. The exact output voltage isn't super important, there's chips inside the laptop that convert it to the proper voltage for A) recharging the battery and B) running the laptop

    Anything 16-20 VDC is the range to try. Start low and work up, or use a volt meter to get it right without the guess work.
  • Look at laptops input power. Likely 12 volts. If so, cut an old power cord add a cigarette adapter and plug in
  • inverter. Doesn't need to be a pure sine wave inverter, a cheap modified sine wave inverter will do fine, as long as it has the wattage to do the job. Your MacBook Pro uses a switched power supply, not a transformer power supply, and if you look on it, assuming the sticker is still there, it says 110-240 volt, 50-60 Hz.

    I paid $40 for a 400 watt MSW inverter a few years ago, and it works just fine charging my early 2008 MacBook Pro.