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I read an article recently on the net,about a guy who was cycling with a 16v laptop and using a bank of rechargeable Ni cd batteries to power it,charged with a 10w solar panel.
I was thinking of doing similar in the future,obviously trying to purchase a 12v laptop,but having to accept a different voltage,if necessary.
My question is:I guess if the voltage would drop to low,the laptop would shutdown without damage but what happens if the voltage was to high?Also what sort of voltage range would a laptop work on? (for example 16.5v laptop,range 14.5v-17.5v)

The eeePC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_P ... l_overview) runs at 7.2-7.4v and is less than a kilo in weight!

Generally, you'd be better off running the laptop from the built-in battery and recharging it as you cycle. For this you would need some kind of dynamo and a DC-to-DC converter to step up the voltage so you could trickle charge the cells (allthough that's likely to be insufficient for the purpose - a 24v stepper motor might make a better generator).

You would also need to ensure that the lithium-ion cells are not subjected to overvoltage when charging as this would likely cause damage...

You're unlikely to find any ideal off-the-shelf solution - although there are a bunch of solar trickle chargers available if you google hard enough - but the electronics involved isn't outwith the the range of the hobbyist.

rb