Well, try it without the ignition on and let us know how it works out.  Pay
up your AAA first.

Hint--when the engine in the car is not running then the only electrical
power available is from the battery.  If your car has a great big battery
and the weather's warm you probably won't have a problem.  If it's got an
itty-bitty battery and the weather's cold you may find that you've used up
enough of its capacity that the car won't start.  Personally unless there
was another car on the trip and you had jump-cables with you I wouldn't try
it.

Date: 24 Apr 2005 08:38:56 -0700

    I just picked up a Linksys Power2Go power inverter. All I
    really want to do is recharge my digital camera battery using
    the AC adapter that came with it (this is one of those Canon
    S400s). I may also want to recharge my laptop (Thinkpad T42)
    but can probably live with recharging it while off and won't
    need to use it while it's on the inverter.

    The Linksys instructions say that the car must be running when
    the inverter is on?

    Can this be right?

It depends a lot of the capacity of the car battery and the power
being drawn from it. If your car has a volt meter (or a multimeter),
just check it a lot at first. Most cars will still start when the
voltage drops down to around 11 volts. Although I'd never let it
drop below 12 volts until you know your car well.

    I'm going to be at a campsite for a few days and won't be
    running the car (it will just be parked). Do I really have to
    turn on the ignition and let the car idle while I'm recharging
    things? Thanks

My power inverter will turn itself off if the voltage drops around
10.8v I believe. And supposedly that will leave enough power to
restart the car. Your power inverter doesn't say anything about
this?

Got one of those jump start batteries? As that will jump start the
car if the battery drops too low. I use one and it has never failed
me yet.

I also have a Marine battery installed in my van instead of a
standard battery. As Marine batteries are designed to be discharged
and then recharged regularly. Regular car batteries don't like deep
discharges too well.

Cheers!

__________________________________________________
Bill (using a Toshiba 2595XDVD under Windows 2000)
-- written and edited within WordStar 5.0

The inverter draws too much power to safely use without the alternator
unless you have a second battery or a boost source.

Why not just get the automotive adapter that works off 12 volts DC and
plug it in to the lighter socket?  That still can get dangerous, but it
draws 'way' less power than an inverter.  The inverter is going to 120
AC, then back to 9 VDC or 6 VDC or what every you need, all those steps
eat power.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

The only reason that the car should be running is to avoid having a dead
car battery.  You don't have to run the car, but the power draw from the
inverter can be substantial, and it can run down the battery relatively
quickly.  Not in minutes, probabably, but I certainly would not use it
overnight.  However, charging the digital camera will use an almost
negligibe amount of power.

[Actually, for the digital camera, you can probably find a cigarette
lighter plug that will work directly (without the inverter).  You can
find such a power supply for the laptop, also.  But there is a big
difference:  The camera charger will draw 5 to 10 watts, the computer
power adapater might draw as much as 150 watts.  Major difference.]