Hi

I appreciate that Joachim Gjølberg post out the article about bring electronic gadget on the road, http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tri...nics/index.php

But i still cant get how to have a 230v outlet housing instead of 12v cigerette outlet. This is due to all my electronic gadgets are dealing with 3pin plug 230v (as I use at home, location Singapore). I do not intend to change all the charging plug to cigerette plu as this will add problem tring search for the cigerette connector, and may need another set of charger when i stop over such as at motel which sure not using the cigerette plug outlet

Kindly provide me how to convert the 12v to 230v output. And as i know that housing power supply is AC while our bike battery is DC. So how to make DC12v become AC230V 3 pin outlet i really no idea.

And, as we add on some (or many) electronic gadgets on the bike (or along the journey), will the battery cant cope with the demanded power? As the bike running, the alternator keep charging the battery, will it become 'unlimited' power? I point out this because my bike's voltmeter show increase from 12.5v (at idle speed) to 14v (when riding). How to explain it?

I wish my bike may have self-sufficient power supply along the road as i can foreseen that part of the place may not have electric supply or not compatible with my ones. Thus this modification is important to ensure safe and enjoyable journey?

hi ahkeong_m,
go to a dealer of motorhomes or caravans, or a good electrical dealer perhaps, and look at a thing called an INVERTER. these convert 12v to 240v and you can even get ones with USB sockets (search for E:can inverters, they are quite small and neat).
the problem is the more Watts you need the more expensive they get, 150W is about 25GBP, 2000W 8A is 250GBP. they also get bigger and heavier as you go up the ratings.

and will your bike electrics manage to power something like this, or will it fry something?

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dave

As Dave says, and inverter will convert 12 volts DC to 230/240 volt AC, but a motorcycle battery has a small capacity and will not run a high power 240 volt item for long.
The inverter uses power just to do the conversion, some small inverters even have a cooling fan built in - which uses power, there is the extra weight to carry, and even with your bike running to recharge the battery as you used it, I would not think it very practical.

ahkeong_m
Most of the gadgets you're likely to take with you, run on low voltage. Most come with a converter/inverter to put in a 230/110 wall-socket and power the gadget with 6/9/12volts or whatever is required. Using a inverter (as suggested) is rather pointless and consumes quite a lot of power which will only be turned into heat and will drain your battery quickly (especialy a motorcycle battery) when your engine is not running.

There a few options to solve this:
a. only buy gadgets which comes with their own cig-lighter cable (standard or as an extra option).
b. buy a AA or AAA battery-charger with a cig-lighter cable and only use gadgets with those kindoff rechargable batteries (take some extra batteries and only charge them when your engine is running).
c. buy a "multi-cig-lighter-powerinverter-thingy" which can take input from 6-32v and has an scaleable output (1-24v) and comes with different connectors. But be aware with this thing not to burnout your gadgets, and double check the polarity of the connectors and plugs (different gadgets uses the same plugs but with different voltage and/or reverse polarity! ).

When you're planning to take a laptop take extra care and buy a dedicated laptop-cig-lighter converter.

And d. offcourse, don't bring any gadgets! why taking loads of stuff you probaply will never use while on the road? (you can allways power them when you are in a more practicle place, like a hotelroom)


good luck

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bart & sophie

Thanks to all above suggestion

Regarding the battery power, wish can get more info from you all as well.

If the battery is 12v 8.5amp, thus is the total max power supplied is only 12 x 8.5 = 102w?

If does so, our total electric consumption at one time should not/could not over the max limit? if intend to power up the battery, can we just add paralle anothe 12v battery to it and double up the total power while remain the 12v?

For cig-lighter plug wise, i not really understand how it works. wish you all may provide me some info/link for it. As my understanding, like Bart mentioned, actually most of our electronic gadgets do not need 230/240v to charge it. It may only require 12~30v (with different amp).

Just for example, if i have the voltage adjustable plug, and my laptop required 20v 3.5amp, is that i need to adjust the voltage to 20v, but how with the amp? will the plug have automatic fuse/resistance to block the excessive amp (if any) from entering my laptop? Or if the balance power is too much, should we increase the voltage in order to suite the amp? power = voltage x ampere

If in such as way, it is looks like quite massy in worrying the power supplied and keep adjusting/calculating the balance power. Wish that somebody may correct me if i am on wrong track

Which bike do you plan to use? .

Your alternator will charge at a fixed rate. The rectifier regulator unit will not charge above that rate. So if you fit all manner of gadgets - laptop etc, you may well wind up discharging your battery completely, and be left without horn, then lights, if the RR unit cannot supply enough current. Bikes which have AC lighting usually have miserably inadequate RR units.

Much better you buy a multi pin plug/s and do all you recharging at the hotel.

Else you will have to carry bulky adapters to allow charging using using the cigarette lighter assembly (How this works - please use google). Really, makes sense only if you plan to be cut off from civilization for several days at a stretch.

Only the gadgets that will be in use on the road (cellphone/GPS) need to be charged/powered on the go - the rest including your spare cells can wait for the hotel unless you are planning an extended trip in the wilderness.