Technical advice for tight ars*

I have a little notebook computer with a 6 or 7 inch screen. At home I simply plug it into a big monitor and away we go. I want to set up a remote office on my boat and would like to use 15 inch flatsceen monitor permanently mpounted on board. Does anyone know if I pull the back off a monitor if I will be able to hardwire a 12VDc input and run one of these from the boat batteries.
I presently run the laptop using an inverter to convert back to 240VAc then back to 15VDc or so for the computer batteries. Seems mighty inefficient to me and is a huge power drain.

Hey Frant -
The main problem you will have is that generally there are a few different power supply rails in the monitors. The lower voltages wouldnt be a problem but often a higher voltage is used to supply the lcd backlight inverter circuitry (this can vary between models but is usually around 24v).
Try looking for a monitor that uses a 12v power pack. There are some around because we have fixed them at work.
Another option would be to get a smaller cheap lcd tv (that has a vga input) that uses a 12v power pack.

Pat

From memory most switch mode inverters and power supplies run at around 90% efficiency -- so inverting and then converting it back isn't all that bad.

ymmv though

Yeah, I agree. The switchmode in the monitor is not going to care much about the type of inverter so you can use a cheap one. Using the closest wattage to the monitors requirements are going to make it the most efficient. It also makes it easier to change to a new/old LCD when the first one cops out eventually.

For the laptop itself, there are a few converters that go from a nominal 12v to whatever the laptop needs.

To answer your question on whether you can connect to 12v internally in a monitor, it is unlikely that they use a 12v rail and then regulate that to other voltages. They would just go from "220v" to whatever different power rails are needed, and there will be at least a few. Probably a 12v, 5v, and a 3.3v, plus whatever the backlight uses.

The cost of a cheap inverter is going to be cheaper/easier than your time to understand what is needed, if it is even possible.

The few monitors I have seen with external plugpacks go to something like 18v. Don't ask me why, but it might be one of the main supply rails needed.

dont pull the back off!
what i did was simply match the power from batteries (12 volt) to the output from the 240 volt adapter on the tv, also 12 volt. went to dick smith and and matched the tv connector, wired to the + and - cable, direct to its own fuse on the circuit board. worked perfectly for years and still is for the new owner. Was a Sony 15 inch i think.
was very easy.

what about one of these?

www.kogan.com/au/shop/televisions/led-tv/