12V / 15-21V car inverter for notebook http://danyk.cz/noteb_en.

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12V / 15-21V car inverter for notebook

Often it is necessary to power the notebook / laptop in places where AC mains power is not available, but only 12V DC
power supply, eg battery, car battery, onboard network of the vehicle or solar cells. It would be inefficient and unnecessarily
complicatedt to construct converter from 12V to mains (230V/50Hz), which would then feed the switching supply of
notebook, again creating a small DC voltage. Therefore, it is preferable to use direct DC / DC converter that adjusts the
voltage in a single step. Power supply voltage of various notebooks may vary, but is usually in the range of 15 to 21V. The
output voltage is always higher than the input, and therefore step up (boost) topology was chosen (in the article about the
dc/dc invertes it is A). The circuit can also be used for other purposes than powering the notebook. You can use it as an
inverter 12V / 24V for 24V appliances from the 12V power supply or 12V battery. The control circuit is UC3843, that is
similar to the well known UC3842, but with lower UVLO, which starts working at 8.5 V. As the switching element serves
the low-voltage MOSFET N. It can be any type of voltage Uds 30-60V. The on state resistance should not be higher than
6mR and switching times better under 100ns. Yoz can used SMD types 06N03LA, FDB6670AL or N306AS, which can be
obtained from PC motherboards. IRF2804S is also suitable. SMD transistors does not need a heatsink, only cooling pad on
the PCB, because the loss is low due to the low on resistance. Can also be used with conventional through hole transistor
case, for example IRF3205 and IRF1405. In the through hole transistors, on resistance is not so critical, because they can be
screwed to the heat sink. Because the operating voltage is low, D1 can be Schottky with low voltage drop. Loss on it is at
full load about 2W and requires little heatsink, to which it is screwed or soldered. I used type SBL1040CT (10A, 40V) from
ATX PC power supply. L1 has at least 15 turns of 1mm diameter wire and is wound on the iron powder ring obtained also
from motherboard. The ring is green-red (permeability 55), has an outer diameter of 16 mm, inner diameter of 8 mm and a
height of 6 mm. You can also use yellow-white or green-blue ring eg from AT or ATX (both the permeability of 75). Higher
permeability achieves the same inductance with fewer turns. Too few turns may result in excessive heating of the core. The
minimum input voltage of the inverter is 8.5 V, the maximum input voltage is equal to the output voltage. The output
voltage is determined by resistor Rx. It is calculated by the formula:
Rx = (U OUT - 2.5) . 1880
Eg. for the output voltage of 20V it is around 33k and 31k for 19V. Select the output voltage according to your laptop.
Switching frequency is around 80kHz. The maximum load is 4A. The efficiency is higher than 90%. Boost (step up)
inverter disadvantage is that ot (without the addition of other active power components) can not be protected against
overload or short circuit. In this case the Po1 fuse will blow. Even after closing the T1 the current can flow from input
through L1 and D1 to output. If it bothers you, you can use this converter. Inductance of L1 is 60 - 240uH. Larger
inductance does not make sense because of the unnecessarily large size and DC resistance. With smaller inductance
excessive ripple current flowing through it, and makes unnecessary stress on the components. If too small a number of turns
(too much voltage per turn) may also make the iron core overheat.

Warning! It is necessary to use a proper fuse. I am not responsible for any of your damage caused by this device.

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12V / 15-21V car inverter for notebook http://danyk.cz/noteb_en.html

Schematic of the 12V / 15-21V inverter for notebook

inverter for notebook

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12V / 15-21V car inverter for notebook http://danyk.cz/noteb_en.html

PC motherboard, from which you can salvage the MOSFET, iron powder core, electrolytic capacitors and sometimes even
the schottky diode (if there's no synchronous rectifier).

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Red-green iron powder ring and making of the winding.

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