Anyone use gaming or workstation laptop?

[A Savage Adventure]

An ammeter, either inline or clamp is like $40-60. Can even get AH-counting over time. Considering the value of all the other gear, better to not fly blind.

Theiznezz, I agree with John. As an EE I also worked in Tech Support for a company (Engineering Tech) and one thing I always told customers who called was that if they were going to work with our product they should really invest in a DMM, even a cheap one. The company even sold one for $7.00 that did volts, amps, resistance, etc. Cheap little digital unit from China.

Anyway, I have been using a Fluke 287 for years. I have two of them. This particular one does log readings over time, so I will be characterizing my usage as soon as I can get some wiring information.

P.S. - If I still had one of those extra DMMs I would send one to you free. I had a stash that I kept for certain customers, but since I moved into the RV I have been selling many of the tools / test equipment I used in my career such as Oscilloscopes, DMMs, Logic Analyzers and Benchtop Power supplies. I gave all the free ones away with microcontroller kits that I sold on eBay.

 

[A Savage Adventure]

An inverter - or any high amps load - pulling down voltage that much means the bank is either too small, not getting fully charged, old and worn out, or all three

So I finally got around to working on stuff outside recently (been working on my website lately) and uncovered the batteries. I have two of these:



As I said, I also have a 90W solar panel and the following charge controller, which most of the time indicates fully charged.



So after all is said and done my best guess is that I was trying to pull too much current through the 12VDC (ciggy) socket, which is why neither inverter would stay running.

 

[highdesertranger]

your ground cable is way to small on that battery. it should match the positive size, maybe a little bigger because of the number of positive cables. highdesertranger

 

[A Savage Adventure]

There are actually two batteries, installed by Camping World. That was the Starboard battery, the port battery is shown below. But I hadn't even noticed. I should really connect that ground to the other battery.

 

[tripper]

I use twist lock 12V sockets (ciggy ports) from blue sea systems, they hold the 12V plugs in nicely, have not had any problems since. It is convenient to use the 12V sockets as there are too many accessories that use them and I do not want to make custom connectors for everything.

I'm using a PROwatt 1000 pure sine inverter with 2 feet 2 gage cables running to it. It is an excellent inverter, it supposedly is good for 900 watts continuous, but I have pushed it to 1050 watts for up to 15 minutes at time and it does not trip. Has a remote button.

I have found that the main problem with normal 12V sockets is cheap construction and WAY too small gage wiring going to them. Quality twist locks and heavy gage wiring/connectors have made a big difference.

BTW I used to be a programmer too, and was ultra addicted to WOW, had two guilds, one a heroic raiding guild and one a feeder guild with max people in it generating gold. The game consumed 40 hours a week of my life on top of a 50 hour workweek job, it really is an addiction so I quit cold turkey after 8 years of it.

Like HDR said, your cables are way too small to run much of any converter, or really anything pulling much more than a few amps.

 

[A Savage Adventure]

Camping World set it all up. I will contact Jayco tomorrow and see if I can get the information I need. Perhaps if I show them what Camping World did and let them know I am an EE they will help me out on principle. I opened the battery boxes briefly earlier just to get photos of the batteries. I was in the middle of trying to get my generator running and didn't even notice the mess with the wires until y'all brought it up. Looking at the junction box behind the battery box now I am very disappointed. Not to mention there's no cut-off / disconnect switch!

 

[B and C]

Not to mention there's no cut-off / disconnect switch!

There should be a panel on the wall somewhere that has switches to check tank levels, water pump and a battery on/off switch.  Your batteries run to a continuous duty solenoid that the switch controls.

 

[John61CT]

The marine twist-lock connectors are **far** better than stock ciggie ports it's true.

I would trust their ampacity rating much more.

But I believe that's usually just 10A, so 120W or so.

For the 150W monsters discussed here, or anything running for long periods at 110+W, I'd stick with Andersons.

Obviously the wiring, connections etc should be robust, and fuse rated to cutout below the max supported.

 

[A Savage Adventure]

There should be a panel on the wall somewhere that has switches to check tank levels, water pump and a battery on/off switch.  Your batteries run to a continuous duty solenoid that the switch controls.

Yes, this is that panel, sans the battery on/off switch.



But usually right on the battery box on most RVs I have seen a disconnect switch like the one shown below. I don't have this.

 

[John61CT]

There are also remote-switched units for bigger rigs, Blue Sea ML series is great.

 

[B and C]

I just did some googling. Jayco doesn't put disconnect switches in? They say to remove the fuse on the positive cable as a disconnect. Most owners seem to put their own battery disconnect in or disconnect the negative cable.

 

[John61CT]

Better to disconnect via the positive side.

Don't ask me how I found out 8-D

 

[A Savage Adventure]

Better to disconnect via the positive side. Don't ask me how I found out 8-D

I agree, hence my "floating ground" comment. Since there are multiple power paths currently. Still, I will be adding a disconnect switch.

 

[Dingfelder]

Anyone else out there use a high speced or "no-compromise" type laptop or do any computer? You know the Alienware, MSI, ASUS and such? I still have the Alienware M14x from when I started and just got a new MSI WE72 7RJ 17.3 in workstation laptop. Got a nice Nvidia Quadro in it.

How do you set yours up or use it? I previously held it on the lap but recently got one of those adujustable little desk thingys that sits on the bed as well as setting the laptop on top of a cooling pad which I keep it on when also sometimes using on the lap. I wish I could find a small enough one of those little tables that is only supported by a post on one side and hangs over the bed like they have in hospitals.

Amazon recently had a few of those in stock, including what looked like two really good ones.  There is a lot of variation in quality, price, even design.  I was dying to get one of those for a long time, but now in my trailer I couldn't put one in unless I did an extreme amount of modification; I have under-bed storage so the legs couldn't fit underneath ... and the space to the side is substantially taken up with cabinets too.  Awesome if you can do it, though!

I used to buy cutting edge computers for gaming, but haven't for a good 10 years.  I just buy decent ones now and am not interested in anything but a laptop and a tablet anymore (multiple tablets actually).  Laptops almost always come with a 5400 rpm hard drive, which is very slow for modern gaming, unless you special order or buy the top laptop in the whole superstore.  The solid state HD's are making headway, but I got my last laptop when the SS ones were still small and very pricey.  Next time, I'll probably get a SS HD.  Right now I'm just on an inexpensive HP laptop.

I still get by just fine on the old games, which I tend to have most fun with anyway.  First person shooters get me motion sick, and I don't have the reflexes I used to, so I won't be competitive in real-time strategy games anymore.  So I don't need the latest and greatest PC.  I go to GOG.com (great old games) and get the classics, like Heroes of Might and Magic III, or Total Annihilation, or Crusader: No Remorse, or X-COM: UFO Defense.  They still play great and still look good on modern computers, but are old enough that by now almost any modern computer can play them.  Plus they are DRM-Free on GOG (important!!!) and usually very inexpensive.

I play on a wooden lap desk that Staples carries, with cushions underneath that have long since fallen off.  I sometimes use something under the laptop to help air circulation and keep things cool, especially in summer.  I also use, when playing a game like Torchlight or an RTS, an accessory that lets you use your left hand on a big pad off to the side with dozens of customizable keys and a joystick.  Those things are amazing.

I've gotten a lot of joy and distraction out of such things over the decades.

 

[A Savage Adventure]

I still get by just fine on the old games, which I tend to have most fun with anyway.  First person shooters get me motion sick, and I don't have the reflexes I used to, so I won't be competitive in real-time strategy games anymore.  So I don't need the latest and greatest PC.

Before shutting down my workshop I built a small retro game station using a single-board computer called a Raspberry Pi and running something called, "RetroPi". I can play NES, SNES, Sega, Arcade, Commodore and other games. I haven't touched it since I moved into the RV full-time, but I was amazed at all the old games I used to love still being playable and all on a system that costs $35.00, not counting the power supply, gamepad and a monitor (I just used my PC monitor's extra HDMI input).

First Person Shooter games were my thing in the 2000s. We used to have LAN parties at my computer shop. I dominated in games like Quake 2 / 3, Unreal Tournament and later games like CoD: Modern Warfare 2 / 3. But the game that sucked the life out of me and took up most of my time was World of Warcraft. So glad I gave that all away to my youngest boy. It's his time to enjoy the games now.

 

[WanderingBiker]

my favorite game was "Decent"  3d spacecraft going down into underground mines.... it was not an online game... but you could tie multiple computers together for one on one play

jT

 

[A Savage Adventure]

I used to play Descent. It wasn't a bad game, but not really my style. THe only game on my PC now, because it came pre-installed by M$ is Minecraft.

 

[Dingfelder]

my favorite game was "Decent"  3d spacecraft going down into underground mines.... it was not an online game... but you could tie multiple computers together for one on one play

jT

I LOOOOOVED that game!  And Descent II.  I played it with a joystick and a throttle stick, from Thrustmaster and later from various others.  Immensely fun and figuring out all the trajectories to properly confuse and then blast someone could be a real mind-bender.  I played a lot of it over the net with a friend, which you could do with I guess we used to call it a LAN emulator or something ... forget the precise details,but it worked fine.  They still have those games on GOG too.  Terrific, terrific game!

 

[Dingfelder]

But the game that sucked the life out of me and took up most of my time was World of Warcraft. So glad I gave that all away to my youngest boy. It's his time to enjoy the games now.

I played that for a bit less than a year but was glad to give it up.  I had just come from Everquest, which didn't look anywhere near as good but was vastly more developed in its Bazaar than WOW was with its auction house, and also had an amazing and highly customizable chat system.  WOW just struck me as a more beautiful more of the same ... and also flooded with chumps just getting into that type of game who couldn't be counted on in raids and quests.  Just jump in and out without apology, screw things up, whole servers at a time of Leroy Jenkinses.

That's a type of game I'll never play again, though I did enjoy, for the most part, losing those years in Everquest.  Hey, it kept me sane under very tough and dismal work and life conditions, so it wasn't a total waste.

 

[WanderingBiker]

I LOOOOOVED that game!  And Descent II.  I played it with a joystick and a throttle stick, from Thrustmaster and later from various others.  Immensely fun and figuring out all the trajectories to properly confuse and then blast someone could be a real mind-bender.  I played a lot of it over the net with a friend, which you could do with I guess we used to call it a LAN emulator or something ... forget the precise details,but it worked fine.  They still have those games on GOG too.  Terrific, terrific game!

what is GOG, I really havent played games in a long time.... I still have decent I and II on cd... but doesnt load anymore : might have to get an old computer just to play again