Tech

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Bad News About Charging a 17" MacBook Pro Through an Inverter

This morning, I ran my battery bank through the paces to eliminate problems one by one. The problem is either my inverters or my laptop. I can’t imagine having three bad inverters, so the answer must be the laptop.

I’m running off a battery that’s at about 97% right now (12.5V) with a draw of about 0.3 amps, which is the fridge. BTW, I never, ever run my fridge on auto, so it cannot switch over to electric.

If I turn on the big inverter. No problem, I’m now drawing about 1 amp. Turn on the UPS for the office stuff and run the external drives. No problem, I’m below 2 amps. Plug in the laptop and it charges for about five seconds, long enough to tell me I’m drawing about 6 amps, and then the inverter starts shrieking that the voltage is too low.

I pulled the Kill-O-Watt metre into the inverter to see what kind of wattage the charger is drawing right before the inverter cuts out, and it fluctuated between 90 and 120 watts, the lower end of which is comparable to what the battery monitor was telling me.

So I finally did a search on solar powering a MacBook Pro and, surprise, surprise, there is no easy answer… because the MBP requires a higher voltage than that supplied by an RV system. There’s the answer! The MBP is trying to draw something like 16V out of my system, which obviously won’t work!

I found many references to a guy who has successfully hacked a Magsafe MacBook brick to run straight off of 12V power, not through an inverter. It’s pricy, $170, but if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. In the meantime, I need to find a Starbucks. Gaaaaaaah. Apple, why do you do this to me!

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Found an Energy Sucker

I was working at my computer without any incident for several hours since unplugging. The minute I plugged my laptop charger in, my system went hay wire! The solar control monitor reading dropped from 14 volts and change to 11.5 volts and my inverter started shrieking!

This is not good! I really need to get that battery monitor working to figure out what is going on. I also got a Kill-a-Watt metre to figure out what I’m drawing on the 120V side of things.

FYI, the maximum wattage for a 17″ Macbook Pro is 85, with average draw running 35 to 60 watts. On 12V power, that translates to a maximum of 7 to an average of 3 to 5 amps. I really can’t figure out why my system can’t handle, but maybe I’m running more than I thought I was. I’m going to go get some fuses to hopefully get that battery monitor working again.

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Wrong Numbers

This evening, I got a call from the same area code as my cell phone, 701, which is Minot, ND. Experience told me two things. One, it was a wrong number. Two, if I didn’t answer and let the caller know they’d reached the wrong number, the phone would ring a couple more times.

So I answered, “Hello?”
“I want to talk to Jimmy.”
“I’m sorry, but you have the wrong number.”
“I need to talk to Jimmy! What’s Jimmy’s number?!”
“I have no idea. This is a wrong number.”
“Oh, sorry I bothered you.”

After a few similar calls, methinks my number is a digit or two off from that of a favourite Minot pharmaceutical peddler!

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Dealing With Electronic Cables Once and For All

Today’s project came together more easily and wonderfully than I would have thought! I guess I deserve an easy project once in a while. 🙂

Now, I don’t want to get into too much detail about my electronic set up, but the following pictures should give you a general idea of the way I got my electronic cables coraled once and for all!

I started off with another Closetmaid product from Target:

As delivered, the unit was too high for me to comfortably view my monitor. Before I cut it down, I spent some time at Walmart this morning looking for bins that would fill the shelf horizontally and depth-wise, and which would then give me an idea of how much of the legs to cut off. I also cut the second shelf-length-wise to get a front panel for my new shelf.

End result:

The only cables that are now visible are the ones that I absolutely have to plug into my computer.

Behind the front panel are bins that hold my  cables, with one of them being a charging station of sorts:

Now, the only cables running under the desks are the power bar cords.

I felt a little silly today sawing handles off beautiful storage totes then drilling holes in them, but they were the perfect-size containers for my project.

Next step in my office setup is to get an external monitor and then I think my workspace will be as near to perfect as possible!

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Monday Matinee

I decided to take most of today off. Being able to take time off on a weekday is a great perk of self-employment!

First off was a sushi brunch at Toyko Thai in Smithfield. I got the three-roll special with miso soup for $10.50.

yellowtail, spicy tuna, BBQ eel & cucumber

Notice that pale yellow ginger in the lower left hand corner? That’s what pickled ginger is supposed to look like. For some reason, North Americans think good pickled ginger is supposed to be bright pink. Is ginger pink? Nope. Tokyo Thai is the only sushi place I’ve eaten at in my travels that has such good ginger!

After lunch, I meandered my way to the cinema in Chesapeake. I really, really, really wanted to spend another two and a half hours with Abraham Lincoln, but I know I’m going to buy ‘Lincoln’  on DVD, so I decided to see another one on my list that my friend won’t want to see, ‘Flight.’ It was quite a good story about addiction and how it affects daily function. I’m glad that I saw it on the big screen, but it’s not one I’ll want to see again. It was a great choice for a matinee.

When I got home, I discovered this beautiful thing waiting for me:

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

I have wanted an ergonomic keyboard since Microsoft put them out in 1994, but they were incredibly expensive. I was just never sure enough that I would like them to put out the money. I have made do for a very long time with the Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000, a keyboard that has served me well and that keeps dropping in price.

This summer, while at a client, I had a chance to try out the latest incarnation of the ergonomic keyboard, the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, and my interest was renewed. But they were $50 at Staples, still too rich for an experiment when my Comfort Curve model was serving me so well.

I kept the ergonomic keyboard in my Amazon shopping cart for several months, watching the price yoyo up and down a couple of dollars. On Black Friday, I decided to see if it might have gone down enough for me to make the plunge. YES! I got it for $30 with free shipping!

So far, my only quibble with it is that the six/question mark are located for proper touch typing, so on the left side of the keyboard, while I have gotten accustomed to over reaching with my right index finger. So that will take a little getting used to. Otherwise, the layout is like my Comfort Curve, so I know the Windows key is my command key, the alt is the option, and where all my accents are. The ù is just a little less of a reach for my pinky, which is great. And I love how solid the keys feel under my fingers. I’ve only been using it for about a half hour and it’s like I’ve been doing this forever. Those years on the Comfort Curve have prepared me well!

In other news, gas prices in Virginia are INSANE. I filled up my truck at $3.09 a gallon! To put that into a little perspective, I needed 12 gallons of fuel, so my total was $37.20. When I was traveling through the US in June, I paid an average of $3.75 a gallon, so the 12 gallons would have cost me $45 then. And the last time I bought gas for my truck in Quebec, I paid $1.30/litre, so converting gallons to litres, I would have paid $59.15 for that 12 gallons. I am not complaining and it is great that I can drive all over with my truck and not feel a pinch!