Hi all I have a use for powering multiple laptops (four to begin with, possibly going higher than that) from a single source, rather than separate power supplies all wired into the mains. I'm thinking on an open frame chassis PSU supplying 19V or whatever the standard is. Does anyone know of anything specifically tailored for this kind of application?
Thanks J^n
Depends on the laptops; some may use some form of feedback about battery status to the power supply and get upset if connected in parallel.
Owain
Start by defining what voltage you need. Until you have, theres not much worth saying.
NT
I'm curous why? Apart from the obvious advantage of introducing a single point of failure ;-)
And some, Dell spring to mind, just check to see if it's a "proper" Dell=20 PSU and throw a wobbler if it isn't.
--=20 Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.
Dunno about the OP, but we had 20 laptops arrive the other day and I have to arrange to charge them all. Doing it with 20 mains sockets and
20 little chargers is a right royal pain in the arse - it's bulky and prone to people nicking the chargers and not putting them back properly.
I know what voltage I need - would your advice differ whether it is (say)
18V0, 18V5 or 19V1? That's why I left it loose...J^n
If the laptops need individual regulation (which I'd hope they wouldn't, but you never know), buy N car chargers and then run them off the 12V rail of a PC power supply or three. Cable tie the charger bricks down (to a nice metal plate for heatsinking, ideally).
Theo
Hi - the situation is not dissimilar to that, it's for powering an 'array' of laptops for a project, without the bulk and untidiness of multiple PSUs. They are Samsung (single Jack connector) FWIW - though I do take the point about the laptops being 'intelligent' about the power supply...
J^n
It's still bulky.
Ahh. Wondered if you were trying to run them all off low volts DC or something exotic..
I know it's not the answer you're after but if it were me I'd be inclined to a largish plastic storage box and sling the PSUs and a mess of trailing blocks in there so I have a large "multi laptop PSU" with one mains cable in and n*DC cables out to the lappys.
Criterion | Points
-----------|-------- elegance | 0 job-done | 10/10
:-)
Laptop supplies can get quite warm. You need to be careful with ventilation.
MBQ
Few laptop supplies are as low as 12V.
MBQ
Could do this in a largish ventilated aluminium flight case, supporting and spacing each power supply within a matrix of stiff, er, coat hanger wires? Then add a temperature activated fan for forced cooling.
Aye.
Alternatives is to find if samsung have indeed locked the use of the laptops to their specific chargers. For that, why not try a generic on one and see what happens? or, as a large user - ask Samsung technical?
Indeed, which is why you use car chargers to regulate from 12ishV to 19V or whatever the laptops expect. The car chargers are also designed to take the noisy power that comes out of a car electrical system, so should protect you if anything goes wrong.
I'm surprised that straight barrel chargers have any kind of intelligence: I'd have thought all the regulation would be in the laptop. So give the laptop 19V at 2A (or whatever) and see what happens. I'd expect that any voltage around there would also work, but it depends how paranoid you are about frying laptops.
Theo
I'd say the above makes it fairly clear the answer is yes. Not to worry.
Aye, my little 150W invertor when inside a box with all the other gubins to get the playstation to work in the car shuts down with "overheat" after about 45 mins. That's only powering a Playstation II, 50W at the very most.
I suspect that any single PSU will also have to be quite beefy. What does a laptop draw when running and charging, couple of amps at twenty volts (ish)? IIRC there are twenty laptops so that's 40A.
Our local primary school has a set of thin pigeon holesto store and charge a similar number of laptops. The individual PSU's are mounted on the rear and plugged to a large 13A distribution strip. The LV wire comes through a hole in the back of each pigeon hole.
My laptops vary from 9.5v for the netbook to 19V for the Compaq. None of them care whether or not the voltage is from an official PSU except a very old Thinkpad 760, which uses a "unique to IBM" connector. What they all have in common, though is that they are quite insistent that the inout voltage is correct.
Don't know if you are commenting on it, but the 'inteligence' refered to in other parts of the thread is this protection (racket) thing.
Some other manufacturers are up to the same as it apparently exonerates them from blame if the customers machine blows up while using a non-original adapter. Actually the real reason is ... (cont on p94)
My adapter is rated at 16V/4.5A, more like 60W potential.
MBQ
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