I have a 400 watt inverter: I want to run my laptop and Canon inkjet printer in the field. Inverter will run the laptop but not the printer. Printer uses 24 watts laptop 120 watts . red light blinks when I have printer pluged in with or with out the laptop. I have a 90 watt inverter using it from the same cigarette 8) plug, the printer works fine. Not enough power for both.. Any help would be welcome. bob

 

I think it has something to do with the “quality” of the AC produced. The power supply for the printer can be more “picky” than the supply for the laptop in a way that makes it draw much more current than it normally would. But this is just my theory.

Ante :roll:

 

I agree with ante..Some inverters put out a square wave and others a modified sine wave. Some electronics don't like the square wave at all.
Do you have the specs on both inverters? Compare the waveform outputs and that may be your asnwer...

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gerty

 

I have a 400W inverter made by Coleman, I had a similar problem with mine, only it wouldnt work at all (I think, I cant remember if I only tried using my playstation 2 on it or not). Anyways, I called the tech support number and they had me do a couple of tests on it, and they said to send it in and they would send me a new one. (They also wanted a copy of the reciept, but I bought it off ebay so I didnt have one, and they still gave me a new one. :wink: )

Hope this helps

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Jeff
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

tech support said hook it up to the battery. It is a vector on the 400watts and the 90 watts is a Dynex. I am shooting a football game Sun and printing pix on the field. My first try. bob Thanks for the responce

 

What would you advise ? I guess I could buy a generater, to much money. Thanks for your help bob

 

Is there something i can put between the inverter and the printer that will improve the quality of the AC? bob

 

What about running some 8 ga. wire to run both inverters off of? you buy the wire from a welding supply store for really cheap. That would be a much cheaper solution to buying a generator.

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Jeff
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

Try what tech support said, connecting to battery.. If that doesn't work I'd say they're not compatible, or?? Have you tried any other loads on the 400 yet, something of equal or higher current draw than the printer, and are you sure the printer only draws 24w?

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gerty

 

Yes I can run the Laptop no problem. I could the 400watt for lalptop and the 90watt for the printer... I only have one lighter in van. bob

 

I would like to thank everyone for the help. What i did was to make a 12 foot cable and hook it up to the battery to run the laptop and used the 90watt inverter from the lighter plug to run the printer.. Sun is the big day very thing seem to work on my test trials. thank again Bob