AC/DC TV - ???? needs 13 volts DC, ??

[bubblehead1]

Question for anyone who can answer it?

I have my house wired for DC lights and accessories. My television is AC/DC and on the input for DC says 13 volts. My battery system is 12 volts. My tv works if the battery has a fresh charge, but will kick out soon as it starts dropping. Is there a solution to this problem???

any help would be appreciated.

[LMITOUT]

You might try putting two batteries in parallel to maintain the voltage longer, but it sounds like the TV isn't giving you much room to operate with after it gets below a certain voltage. Some sort of charging system possibly? Solar, wind, etc. to keep the battery voltage steady. Some electronics will still operate below 11V, but it sounds like this TV is pretty tight in the operating voltage range.

[spearchucker]

Use a deep cycle battery instead of a regular starting battery also.

[GoodToGo]

I ran into this too. With a fresh charge the deep cycle will power the AC/DC TV/VCR for an hour or two at the most. I almost always hook the truck up to the house so I'm running off of the truck battery and I let it idle. I suppose two batteries in parallel will give you a longer run, but then you have two batteries to charge. I had to shorten up the jumper to the truck as I was getting too much voltage drop to power the TV, so they must be pretty sensitive.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Probably the best remedy for your particular situation is to get an inverter. That way your TV will run on 110 ac and be happy and will run longer.

I had the same problem you are having last winter. My wife bought me an inverter for Christmas and it solved the problem.

Decent inverters are fairly common and not a lot of $$$$.

[Big Ick]

From what it sounds, you know the lower end of the TV's DC operating range from testing it. It's probably a safe guess to say it's between 11 and 12 volts. Does this mean you could assume that the upper range is between 14 and 15 volts? If it were my TV, I'd try to find the specs. and determine a safe upper limit of the operating range.

With the operating range information, I would then create a power supply by wiring a couple batteries in series (assuming a single battery for the voltage needed isn't available). Depending on the batteries and operating range, a DC-DC Buck-type converter may be needed to step down the voltage. For example, if the TV can handle a 15 Volt DC supply, I would wire a 12 Volt and a 6 Volt battery in series and step the voltage down with a DC-DC converter. You'll be able to find 12 Volt and 6 Volt rechargeable batteries with high A/h ratings. I'd also use batteries that had the same A/h rating.

One other thing, I'd see what kind of current the TV draws while it's on. You may find out that even with the highest A/h rated batteries, you won't be able to run the TV on a DC power supply for very long. It would suck to go through the work and find out the TV only runs for half a day on the power supply.

[GoodToGo]

Does this mean that the battery that powers the same AC/DC TV will last significantly longer if it is run off of an inverter than if it is plugged directly into the 12v system?

[Dave]

That's what confuses me about guys using a convertor. If you didn't want to buy a new TV, that's one thing. But, it takes power to run the convertor. You have more stuff to haul and break.

[quietcranker]

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[subzero]

It sounds to me like you may have to much resistance that is drawing the current down. I had the same problem and made the wire to the cigarrete lighter connect short and that solved it.

[McGurk]

Ditch the invertor idea; it's like filtering the oil out of your pre-mixed auger gas to fill up your truck. The DC input on the TV should be the thing to use; most smaller AC/DC TV's come with a step-down AC converter (the big box that plugs into the outlet with the skinny wire coming out of it) which steps down the voltage from an 110 volt outlet to 12 volts.

Most Car batteries which have a stated "12 volt" charge actually hold more like a 13.6 to 13.8 volt charge, and when being charged by a running vehicle actually is closer to 14.4 volts. If you take a reading off of a car battery that reads 12.5 volts or below, it has lost its capacity to hold a good charge and should be checked out. Also, (this is referring to starting type batteries, not deep cycle!) if your battery has run dead to the point of not turning your engine over three times or more, there is a good chance you will have problems starting on a good charge on a cold day. The Max holding charge drops every time it goes dead. Like I said, this concerns only starting-type batteries.

As mentioned in an earlier post; shorten up the wires between your Batt and TV or use larger gauge wires to give the least amount of resistance to your TV. Small wire = heat due to resistance = loss of power. TV's (13" and up) use a decent amount of juice and should be run off of a generator or have your vehicle there to charge up your battery every so often, IMHO.

Good Luck! McGurk