I recently got a backup battery charger for the L series Z1 batteries. I got it because it has a cigarette lighter adapter and I wanted that feature so I could charge a battery on the road when needed.

Unfortunately, this "Impact CS-LS" charger doesn't charge. Maybe I just happened to get a defective one, not sure yet. If any of you have found one that works and has the cig. lighter adapter option, please let me know.

Years ago I got an Empire VBC-LIN charger for the NPF960 batteries on my VX-2000. It has a cigarette lighter adaptor, but now that you mention it... I never even tried it!

Mach 1 (I believe thats what it's called) by Lenmar has a cig adapter. I use it for the batteries for my 150s.

Don

I use the Sony AC-VQ1050, which will hold two batteries (but only charge one at a time of course...)
It will charge from mains, car battery, as well as acting as a mains to camera converter.

Robin

I use the Sony AC-VQ1050, which will hold two batteries (but only charge one ay a time of course...)
It will charge from mains, car battery, as well as acting as a mains to camera converter.

Robin


That what we do as well. But we also have a power inverter by for the car that will charge the batteries on anything with an AC adapter. It converts DC power from your car to AC power.

Jeff

I use one on airplanes. I can plug in (but not turn on) my cell phone, then recharge my laptop, and on long flights, I have time to top off my camera batteries.

"...we also have a power inverter by for the car that will charge the batteries on anything with an AC adapter. It converts DC power from your car to AC power"

The power inverter sounds like a good option because I could just use my current ac adapter chargers. What's the part # and who makes it?

I was told that sony no longer makes cig.adapter chargers, but will check further.

Also, when using the various models mentioned in this thread are you all finding that the battery displays the correct charged time both on the charger and also when placed back into the camera?

Funny... I just got back from Home Depot where I noticed they a several different kinds of power inverters in the "tool crib." I have also seen smaller (lower power) models at stores like Best Buy and CompUSA.

Also, when using the various models mentioned in this thread are you all finding that the battery displays the correct charged time both on the charger and also when placed back into the camera?

The cheap chargers don't have displays. I have a Sony ACVQ850 external AC charger which came with my Z1. You can switch the LCD display to show either the time remaining on the battery, the the how long it will take to charge. I've always thought that the "time remaining" display is pretty useless because how would the charger know what camera you're putting the battery on or what your usage patterns would be.

Now when you place it on the camera and let it run for awhile, I think the Z1 gives reasonably accurate estimates of battery time remaining (and my VX-2000 and PDX-10 do also). In that case I think the opposite would be true... how would the camera know what kind of charger you used? It's just computing an estimate based on charge level and power usage.

Can someone clarify some spec info for me - I don't know how to interpret some of this.

I see an inverter on bh's site and want to be sure it wouldn't blow something up (or not work) if I plug my Sony AC/adapter charger's ac plug into it to charge my NP-F "L" series batteries for the Z1U camcorder. The inverter mentions 75W, but the charger says 25W - are those numbers part of what needs to be considered?

Here's the specs for the Inverter:

CTA INV-75 Power Inverter - Converts DC to AC, 75 Watts, Cigarette Plug
Mfr# INV75 • B&H# CTINV75
Input
12 VDC from Cigarette Lighter Plug Connector
Output
120 VAC @ 60 Hz
Conversion
12 VDC to 120 VAC

I'd plug my Sony charger's AC plug into it.

The specs on the back of the Sony charger read: AC IN ~ 100-240V 50/60Hz 25W.

Possible other option - if I could find the right cord:
The charger also has a dc input that says 12V/24V, but I can't get any info about what cord I'd get and where to get such a cord to plug into that input. Sony's website is useless.

Chris, could you please go to the "controls" link in the menu bar, go to your profile and enter you City/State/Country? It helps us answer your questions in the right context if we know where you are.

If the inverter says 75 watts it means that it's capable of powering anything up to a maximum of 75 watts. Therefore you could plug a 60 watt light bulb into it but not a 100 watt light bulb for example. So the 25 watt draw of the charger is well below the rated output of the inverter... you could plug in another couple similar gadgets at the same time even.

As the charger spec indicates, it isn't very particular about what you feed it. It can accept voltages between 100 and 240 volts at either 50 or 60 cycles. Again, the 120 volt 60hz output of the inverter is well within these specs so it will work fine. Of course we always like our members to support the DVinfo sponsors, but I'm sure you can easily find something like this locally in the places I suggested if you're in a rush. As long as you're buying an inverter though you might consider whether it would be useful for other things, like powering monitors or lights. If so then you might consider a larger model with a capacity of a couple hundred watts. Otherwise, it looks like you've chosen a nice, compact unit at a good price so you can go ahead and order.

Thanks Boyd for that advice & info.

Meantime I'm considering getting what you have (Empire VBC-LIN) because I could also use it as an extra ac charger. When I read about it on line however, I can find enough details in the specs to fully evaluate it. I like that it has battery status indicator and overcharge protection. Can't find the wattage though.

Only caveat is, I've never used mine with the 12v adaptor, so you might have the same problems you encountered with your existing charger. In fact, it's been years since I've used that charger at all, so don't take my mention of it as an endorsement... I just got it because it was cheap! :-)

Acutally, I think the others had a good idea with using the inverter, because you would probably also find some other uses for it.

With the one I got I didn't even get to the point of trying the cig. lighter connection because it did not work at all with the ac adapter in ac. I think it was either defective or not right for L series batteries.

So far, the one you mention is the only one I'm seeing that does both ac and dc with cig lighter adapter. Just wish I could find a few more details on the specs.

I have a 350 watt power inverter that I keep in the truck. I have to credit Paul Kirby for this idea. It's handy to have and it only cost $39 at the big Bentonville, Arkansas based store chain that every town has. Do the letters WM mean anything to you? Buy the biggest wattage model you can afford because you'll find other uses for it too.

-gb-

350 watts???

Man oh man. Keep the truck running for that one. Talk about a power drain. Yikes! You could practically plug in a refrigerator!

I have a 350 watt power inverter . . .Buy the biggest wattage model you can afford because you'll find other uses for it too.

-gb-


Thanks. At what point do I make sure to keep the car running? If I'm just charging a camcorder battery, is it safe to do it without the car running, and at what point would it be best to only charge while driving?

Thanks. At what point do I make sure to keep the car running? If I'm just charging a camcorder battery, is it safe to do it without the car running, and at what point would it be best to only charge while driving?

Absolutely safe. Charging a camcorder battery is minimal usage of the power inverter. I bought mine last year to not only charge my laptop battery, but to run it as well from the AC adapter. Oddly enough, a cigarette lighter adapter for my laptop was three times the price of the power inverter.

-gb-

Absolutely safe. Charging a camcorder battery is minimal usage of the power inverter. ...

-gb-

If I happened to use the 350 watt (assuming I can find & get it) at close to it full capacity for charging something much bigger, will it drain my car's battery if I don't keep the engine running?

Chris, you keep confusing the rating on these devices with the amount of current you actually need to draw. I have a 400 watt "Husky" inverter also - I think it came from Home Depot and it was pretty cheap. It has both a cigarette lighter cable and also a pair of alligator clips which you can attach directly to the battery.

The 350 watt, 400 watt or 75 watt ratings don't mean a whole lot in terms of power draw (well, one design might be more efficient from another, or have a fan inside or something). You only need to draw 25 watts to charge a battery regardless of what the capacity of the inverter is. I think it should be pretty safe to do this without your car running - maybe not for days at a time, but certainly no problem for a couple hours unless your car battery is on its last legs. It would be comparable to leaving your trunk open with the little interior light on.

Right. But drawing 350 Watts would annoy your battery pretty quickly. More like leaving your headlight on. So don't get greedy. Give your car what it needs. If you are recharging all of your electronics at one time, idele the car. One or two low wattage items? No sweat.

Chris, you keep confusing the rating on these devices with the amount of current you actually need to draw. . . You only need to draw 25 watts to charge a battery regardless of what the capacity of the inverter is..

I got the part about requirements for only charging my one camcorder battery. For clairification, what my later question was referring to was if I wanted to charge other things - a thought prompted by Steven & Greg's posts in this thread.

I started thinking that if it doesn't cost that much, I may as well get something that could also simultaneously charge a battery from my VX1000, or my Bescor 12V 50W NIMH shoulder pack battery (for my light), or who knows what other item may come to mind later that I might want to charge - maybe simultaneously. (I'm not talking about a refrigerator though).

I realize also that my cig. lighter connection in my car is "probably" 10 amps (can't find it listed), so I can use it up to 120 watts. For more watts I would have to connect direct to the car's battery.

I'd take a wild guess that anything requiring high enough wattage to need to be directly hooked to the car's battery might drain the car battery if it wasn't running. That's just a guess though, so if anyone has input on this I'd appreciate it.

i too use a inverter that i bought at costco a few years ago ..
it's a 400 watt (12v to 120 volts) ... you cannot pull 400 watts from cig/data lighter plug ( i believe you can pull 150 watts from cig plug) ... you can get 400 watts by direct hook up to car batt ( comes with cables) ...
i plug inverter into cig lighter then canon batt charger or computer or 1394 drives into inverter ...

I think everyone has pretty much answered this already... just use some common sense. It certainly won't hurt to have the car running if in doubt.

BTW, there are also other options. I recently got a Husky portable power pack that has a fair sized battery inside, a builtin inverter and 120VAC outlet, jump start cables and an air compressor all in one small unit. It cost about $90 and could come in handy for lots of things, like a power outage or a dead car battery. I haven't used it enough to get a sense of the run time, but I suspect it could charge quite a lot of camera batteries and other things before running out. There are other similar products out there, but this looked like a good value and since I live out in the middle of nowhere it seemed like a good thing to have around the house so I bought it on an impulse...

http://huskytools.com/husky/Category95788/Category95791/Product2.html

Don't skimp on the power inverters. I have owned 2 cheapo inverters that burned up on me....literally. Now I have a pro-watt 350. Power inverters should not be run with a constant load of more than 50% of the rated capacity. Now my laptop is 45 watts, cell phone 10 watts, Sony battery charger 22watts. I can run them all safely at the same time, even if it was a 15 watt model. I would not leave them all on while not in the car for fear of a dead battery, but if I am driving for an hour I can charge all of these devices safely. Best to hardwire to a terminal instead of the cig plug. I know my blazer has a fuse box under the back seat that I tap into for that and the sub-woofer.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=275679&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Don't skimp on the power inverters. I have owned 2 cheapo inverters that burned up on me....literally.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=275679&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Goods points. I'm seeing such a huge range in prices and see one for only $40, 400w and has a built in fan, overheat shutdown.

I'll probably just run a load that's acceptable for the cig lighter. For greater loads it might get more involved because I guess I'd have to get special cables or something to go all the way to my battery under the hood of my Honda sedan.

Goods points. I'm seeing such a huge range in prices and see one for only $40, 400w and has a built in fan, overheat shutdown.

I'll probably just run a load that's acceptable for the cig lighter. For greater loads it might get more involved because I guess I'd have to get special cables or something to go all the way to my battery under the hood of my Honda sedan.

That's what I thought about the power too, but I have a fuse box under the back seat. There are terminals in there just like the ones on the battery. I hooked to thosefor the power. With the cost of the gear that you may be hooking up I would not skimp, especially when a good one is only $130-$140. Not a huge cost considering what you can do with it. The ones that burned out on me were rated at 90watts and I only charged my cell on them at less than 8 watts. I would have lost my car if I wasn't inside--it started smoking and was too hot to touch in seconds. It was similar in style to this : http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100397&navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod2274212

That's what I thought about the power too, but I have a fuse box under the back seat. There are terminals in there just like the ones on the battery. I hooked to thosefor the power. With the cost of the gear that you may be hooking up I would not skimp, especially when a good one is only $130-$140. . . . CATID=100397&navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod2274212[/url]

Thanks, I'll check under my seat etc. It would be good to know what specs constitute a "good one" to evaluate at what point I'd just be paying more money unnecessarilly. The specs on the $35 one I described look pretty good to my eyes - though I'm no electrical guru. I thought the 400W with fan and built in overheat shutdown would make it safe.

I don't know if anyone brough this up, but a few years back, I bought a cigarette lighter adapter that plugged directly the charging plug on my Sony Cameras. I used it for my Digital 8 and a still camera, but they all use the same fitting, so I assume it would work with the current crop of cameras. I'll have to dig it out to see if my recollection is correct.

If any of you have found one that works and has the cig. lighter adapter option, please let me know.

http://www.hawkwoods.com/site_pages/promotional_offers/mini_dv_battery_pack.asp

I bought this package, and the batteries are great - the charger has also saved my bacon in a few trying circumstances.

Anyone know where I can obtain some 12' cables for a Vector 750-Watt Inverter? My goal is to mount/place the inverter under the passenger side seat in our Lancer.

I need direct connection from the battery into the passenger compartment for use with a HP Laptop that requires 180-Watts (minimum). I've laid out a path for such cables, ...now I just need to find them.

Anyone know where I can obtain some 12' cables for a Vector 750-Watt Inverter? My goal is to mount/place the inverter under the passenger side seat in our Lancer. . . .

Try this http://www.dcacpowerinverters.com/inverter_cables.html

I just received a 400 watt inverter from them. Haven't tried it yet but it looks good, and I see cables on their site.