Power Ports on planes
 

We'll have a "cigarette lighter" style powerport on our seat. Daughter wants to use it for laptop. I guess I can buy these at Radio Shack, or somewhere? Do you know how much they cost?

It varies. You have to make sure the buy the right one for the laptop. Also, look at the required power of the laptop. One of mine is a big 17" wide screen, that requires lots of watts, and my favorite airline power ports only supply ~75 watts of continous power, so I can't use that particular laptop during travels. Just because the same power adapter will work on your car power does not mean it will work on the airplanes.

Good place to do some research:

http://www.lindelectronics.com/

P.S. Sorry, I mean, I guess I can buy the adaptors....

Thanks, AAFF, I always appreciate your airline advice. The lady at AA told me it was "15 volts" (which doesn't mean anything to me). Daughter has an IBM ThinkPad R51.

Oh my, just looked at that link; if I'm looking at the right thing, it's $129. I was hoping this was some little $15 gadget.

I'm not saying you can't get one somewhat cheaper, but it's definitely not a $15 gadget. :-)

Look at your daughter's laptop and see what kind of wattage it needs. AA power ports will only supply 75 watts max. The adapter may work off your car but if the laptop needs anything above 75 watts, it will shutdown as soon as you plug it in. (it's a safety feature so nothing to worry about, but still, if it does not work, it does not work).

Good luck!

I wouldn't plug anything that cost more than $10 into an American plane. They really aren't very good at anything the do.

Give the kid a book.

huh???

Her laptop pulls 72 watts, so a standard car adaptor should work fine.

Thanks <b>Gardyloo</b>,

that settles it. Now the OP needs to look for a bargain priced DC power supply.

www.igo.com is another good company.

Don't give up on Radio Shack.

Good luck, just don't listen to useless advice from some around here, as in the one few posts earlier.

In 1979, my wife and I worked at the American complex in Tulsa.

Mme. Robespierre's job was in the record-keeping division of aircraft maintenance.

We were there on May 25, 1979, when an ill-conceived maintenance shortcut &quot;pioneered&quot; at AAL killed 273 people.

Trust me, this is just one that they noticed. The hurry-up, cost-cutting fervor is unabated.

1979? and 2006?

good one.........

I don't know what your point might be, but mine is that American always has and still does everything the cheapest way it will barely work. The intervening years haven't changed a thing. I know, because friends still work there.

I have put in many hundreds of thousands of air miles since then, but <i>none</i> of them on that half-baked lame excuse for a carrier. I quit them the year of the accident when the cover-up began.

And how many other airlines have had a &quot;maintenance&quot; failure since 1979? And how many more problems has AA had? And how many airlines have gone bankrupt or been on the verge of doing so? And how many employees do you know in other airline maintenance departments who say their airlines never &quot;cut corners&quot;?

I fly American almost exclusively as it is the only airline that seems to know and understand the term &quot;customer service&quot;.

You probably need more than just an adapter; you need an inverter. Take alook on eBay - I bought one of these a couple years ago for about $30. A couple weeks ago I picked up a power inverter at Costco for under $20 that will work with either the typical airplane or car cigarette lighter type sockets (iMobile, by Vecotr Mfg). It has a socket for standard a three prong plug as well as a USB connection.
If this is one time thing, it may be cheaper to just buy her a spare battery and charge it up before you leave.

cover up?

according to FAA:

<i>This method of engine-pylon removal saved man hours and was encouraged despite the manufacturer putting out circulars that <b>warned of the dangers. These were not binding.</b> At the end of the investigation, the American Airlines head of engineering, who had allowed the overhaul techniques, killed himself.

Afterwards

First responders survey the Flight 191 crash site in Des Plaines, Illinois.Problems with DC-10s were discovered as a cause of the accident, <b>including deficiences in both design specifications and maintenance procedures which made damage very likely.</b> Since this tragedy happened just before a Western Airlines DC-10 crashed in Mexico City and six years after a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed in Paris, the FAA quickly ordered all DC-10s to be grounded until all problems were solved. The result of the problem-solving was an arguably more efficient and safe DC-10.</i>

In the last 4 years I flew (actual butt in the seat) 500K miles with AA and I'm still kicking. I'm booked for another 50K miles before the end of this year and I can't wait for the flight next week to Japan on a beautiful and IMHO a very safe AA 777. YMMV.

The McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 is inherently unsafe, because its flaps and slats are air-loaded against hydraulic pressure. This means that if hydraulics are lost, the surfaces retract and the wing stops flying. Changing its name to MD-11 didn't address the problem.

It took the plaintiffs two years to uncover the fact that an AA internal report had laid out the entire maintenance error shortly after the accident, but had been &quot;lost&quot; so that the company could deny any responsibility.

The 777, and every Fly-by-Wire airliner, is a catastrophe waiting to happen. A pilot friend of mine was in a 757 with a total cockpit failure over New Mexico a few years ago. All those pretty lights went out, and the yoke went slack. Only re-booting the computer fixed it. Good thing he had five miles of air under him at the time.

I guess you will drive to your destinations then....???

Gee, just what I love to hear: talk about plane crashes and denigration of my chosen airline right after I booked my flights (on AA).

But thanks for adaptor advice, everyone. Seamus, the backup batt might be a good idea. I'l have to check into that as well.

If you think the power &quot;gadget&quot; is expensive, wait till you see the price for a laptop battery.

I would not go with the inverter as it may not work with the DC low power supply.

If your daugther just want to watch DVDs then do the e-Bay thing for a very low cost portable DVD player. Most if not all do come with DC power plug and they require very little power so they are guaranteed to work.

According to Targus, their Mobile 70 Universal Auto/Air Adapter (Model APD10US $79.99 MSRP) is compatible with the AAL aircraft listed here: http://www.targus.com/us/downloads/A...patibility.pdf

I have used a similar Targus product, and have found its performance satisfactory.

AA Frequent Flyer, as always, offers excellent advice. I have a laptop but when I travel for leisure, I do not take it with me. I have a 5&quot; screen Mintek portable DVD player that costs less than $100. This size of DVD player is just a little larger than a CD player. It came with a battery, battery charger, and with an adapter (that plugs into a cigarette lighter or powerport. The battery only lasts for 2 or 2 1/2 hours so I try my best to get a seat with a powerport on transatlantic flights. I have watched DVDs for over eight hours straight on many AA flights and have not experienced any problems using AA's powerport and my cheap adapter.

Instead of buying a $100 dedicated-purpose DVD player that duplicates one function of her laptop, she could:

Rip the movies onto the hard drive of the laptop and charge the battery completely before boarding. With any decent battery life at all, she can watch movies all the way over.

No expensive battery. No more expensive adapter. No still more expensive DVD player.

I use this software for ripping: http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip/

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate your help. I'm going to send this thread to my daughter to give her an idea what she needs to think about.

Yeah, Maire - welcome to our board - ask what time it is and get a dissertation defense on the the subtle aspects of the space time continuum. Just one of the reasons we are so much fun! ;-)

It is fun :)

Ask one poster what time it is, and you get a history of timekeeping.

Ask me, and you get a description of how to build a watch.

For some reason, power ports on planes scare me...

Do we <i> really need </i> to be using any of the energy on a plane for our laptops?

Yes, I know that the electricity is all probably one in different energy cells and such....but the post just made me question someone trying to plug in a 1994 20-lb laptop and shorting out the plane! :O

People with 20-pound 1994 laptops scare me!

For about $50 you can get a 75W APC (brand) inverter from Comp USA.

Thanks ahotpoet. Ilovetotravel--this laptop is only 2 years old, so hopefully it won't be too much for the plane to handle ;)

. . . but it does make me wonder what would have if one tried to plug in the wrong kind of adaptor/inverter/plug that had the wrong kind of volts/watts/batteries, etc.

What would have is that the converter or inverter could fry. The likelihood of your laptop being cooked is somewhat lower. Think of the adapter as a very expensive fuse.

Thanks, Robes.

As I said in my earlier reply, the power will shut down, that's it. Nothing will burn, nothing will fry.

It will just not work. The system is designed to prevent any damage to any &quot;gadget&quot; :-)

Thanks, AA. This is all so confusing for non-tech minded people, like me.

Actually, a blanket statement like that can't be valid in all cases. Unless one has inspected the circuitry in a <i>particular</i> device, it is impossible to tell whether its overvoltage or overcurrent protection is adequate, whether it handles surges and spikes gracefully, and whether it limits its output voltage over a wide variety of conditions.

I have told you what CAN happen. Only a seer or a fool will tell you what WILL happen. Good luck.

<i>p.s.</i> A simple cord connecting your $1500 electronics to a half-assed aircraft power system is no protection at all. Your safest course is to charge up the battery and watch movies from the hard drive, as above.

You are welcome. One of the other uses for this is in the car when I am using my PDA as a GPS,I can keep it powered up the whole trip

An automotive electrical system is the LAST place I'd plug in my iPAQ. Besides, the battery is field-swappable, so with a hot spare, I can run for a day without having to plug it in.