hi guys well my wife and I finally pick up our 16 foot pop top van from brisbane last week, after fitting out our tow rig to tow it over the last 6 month or so , now my question is the van has a 12 volt battery system in it so what can I do to run my small tv when we free camp now and then. do I need a inverter adaptor to run the tv from 12 volt power plug . any suggestion on a way to set it up will be great. I will have a gen and a solar panel as part of my set up when free camping , ta one soon to be travelling grey nomad
Happywanderer said
02:17 AM Sep 29, 2012
Hi Seano. I see you have a 12 volt battery system and I presume your TV has the 12 volt connections as well. I had this same discussion with a grey nomad only last night.Learnt a lot from him. If you have a 12 volt plug (hole) you plug your TV straight into there. You don't need an inverter. What the inverter does is change the 12 volt battery power to 240 v which is not needed if you are going 12 volt battery to 12 volt TV.
KFT said
02:59 AM Sep 29, 2012
g'day seano,
HW is correct, why waste power converting from 12v to 230v and then convert it back down again???
the 12 volt connection on you tv will work ok if you can follow a few guidelines
1. the tv will lose sound or vision or shut down completely if the voltage goes below 12 v (some tv sets are even more sensitive and will shut down below 12.3)
2. try to ensure the 12 v lead is as short as possible to avoid voltage drop
3. if possible get a 12v lead that is made from 1 mm automotive cable. The 12 v leads you get from dickies or jackar are way too small.
frank
oldtrack123 said
04:03 AM Sep 29, 2012
Hi
Pehaps the OP's small tv is not 12V
then the question becomes would he be best buying a pure sine wave inverter to use thatTV
or get a small lcd tv with an optional 12v input
I would go for the latter
Peter
KFT said
12:43 AM Oct 1, 2012
G'day all
thanks Peter, I did not twig to that possibility and if that is the case then a PSW inverter will be required if away from 230 v power.
appreciate you pulling me up on that. I too would opt for a digital tuner/LCD/LED tv set which can be found quite cheap these days.
frank
Seano said
03:06 AM Oct 5, 2012
hi all thanks for your help am up dating the tv that came with the van and getting anew 12 volt tv set up as I found the other tv was not working well anyway and the van has a12 volt plughole inside the van. ta seano
Mccanic said
04:56 PM Oct 8, 2012
Most small LCD TV's run and external power supply which you can just un plug from the TV and plug it directly into 12v (with and in-line fuse).
The old style tube TV's are normally 110v to 250v AC and don't run and external supply so unless it's a travel TV then it wont have a 12v input and will require an inverter though it would make much more sense to purchase a new LCD TV as they are only a couple of hundred $ where a good inverter big enough to run the TV and Digi box and a Digi box would probably cost not much less if any.
Cheers Damo
goldcoaster said
11:32 PM Oct 8, 2012
Try the Kogan website for 12v TV's with or without built in DVD player,reasonably priced. I've got the 22" with dvd player,had it for 18mths now hasn't missed a beat.Cost me $169 del.
I had this same discussion with a grey nomad only last night.Learnt a lot from him. If you have a 12 volt plug (hole) you plug your TV straight into there. You don't need an inverter.
What the inverter does is change the 12 volt battery power to 240 v which is not needed if you are going 12 volt battery to 12 volt TV.
HW is correct, why waste power converting from 12v to 230v and then convert it back down again???
the 12 volt connection on you tv will work ok if you can follow a few guidelines
1. the tv will lose sound or vision or shut down completely if the voltage goes below 12 v (some tv sets are even more sensitive and will shut down below 12.3)
2. try to ensure the 12 v lead is as short as possible to avoid voltage drop
3. if possible get a 12v lead that is made from 1 mm automotive cable. The 12 v leads you get from dickies or jackar are way too small.
frank
Hi
Pehaps the OP's small tv is not 12V
then the question becomes would he be best buying a pure sine wave inverter to use thatTV
or get a small lcd tv with an optional 12v input
I would go for the latter
Peter
thanks Peter, I did not twig to that possibility and if that is the case then a PSW inverter will be required if away from 230 v power.
appreciate you pulling me up on that. I too would opt for a digital tuner/LCD/LED tv set which can be found quite cheap these days.
frank
The old style tube TV's are normally 110v to 250v AC and don't run and external supply so unless it's a travel TV then it wont have a 12v input and will require an inverter though it would make much more sense to purchase a new LCD TV as they are only a couple of hundred $ where a good inverter big enough to run the TV and Digi box and a Digi box would probably cost not much less if any.
Cheers Damo