A quick question about the laptop.

 

I've read that you mustn't use any in car power adapters or chargers whilst using it.

 

Does a car power inverter to provide mains power to the laptop come under either of those categories & would it be safe to use it whilst using VCDS and Hex-v2 interface?

 

Just I have an Bestek inverter available in the car and I can use it to both power and charge the laptop.

 

https://www.bestekcorp.com/bestek-300w-power-inverter-uk

 

TIA

I wouldn't run the risk.

 

Taken from Rosstech

 

'If you are using an inverter, make sure it is a proper one without ground loop issues'

Edited 26 February, 20197 yr by SuperbTWM

How can I find out what their definition of a proper one is? 

 

As far as I know the one that I have is a proper one. 

 

Take a read of this: http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/interfaces/warn-12v.html

 

 

You shouldn't need an inverter, just a decent quality laptop charger. You can check it's safe with a multimeter before connecting the VCDS cable as mentioned in the link above

 

You could do it with your inverter running off a spare 12V battery, not connected to the car. Cumbersome though.

16 minutes ago, Wino said:

You could do it with your inverter running off a spare 12V battery, not connected to the car. Cumbersome though.

 

A similar but lighter solution would be one of the many laptop powerbanks that are now available.

 

@TheWanderer - how long are you expecting to spend in the car with the laptop? In most cases, I'd expect the laptop battery to be fine. If it's an older laptop with poor battery life, a new or extended battery might be a better option than messing about with chargers/inverters/powerbanks.

I'd probably expect to be in there for about 30' or so until I'm fully confident on what I'm doing, which maybe some time.