Charging laptop while tuning / connected to vehicle

[patooyee]

I read the notice that came with my VCM suite that says no DC to DC adapters, etc while connected to the vehicle. Is this to say that my laptop can not be plugged into the wall charging while connected to the vehicle? My laptop battery sucks and if this is the case I guess I need ot buy a new battery.

J. J.

[Roger Ramjet]

Wall power is fine.

[patooyee]

Thank You God!

J. J.

[murphinator]

read the notice again it reads no external power sources battery only when the interface is plugged into your laptop

take it seriously and only charge your laptop on 12v cord ,invertor ,wall plug etc when the interface is not plugged into your usb.

I fried 2 interfaces before I got strict on battery only and no more issues

[hiddeous]

I have a 12v charger for my laptop, I charge the laptop while making changes to the tune, unplug it from the cigarette lighter and the connect the MVPI and flash the car.

If you battery wont last long enought to flash the VCM doing it this way I reckon you have some issues you need to sort out!

[EC_Tune]

If your inverter output has a common ground to the cig lighter that is the main problem. A simple ohm meter test will tell you right away. Mine is isolated and works all the time every time. No battery or MPVI issues with it.

[patooyee]

I just want to be able to have the vehicle hooked up to the MPVI at the same time as it is hooked up to ym laptop which is charging from a wall outlet. So this should not be done?

And my battery will last long enough to perform a flash but not to spend an hour or two doing real time tuning and such.

So if it can't be hooked to a wall that means I can't flash from a desktop either??? (I have a desktop right next to my lift in my shop.)

J. J.

[hiddeous]

If your inverter output has a common ground to the cig lighter that is the main problem. A simple ohm meter test will tell you right away. Mine is isolated and works all the time every time. No battery or MPVI issues with it.

Can you please explain how you came to this conclusion? Im interested to know what difference it make. Is you invertor/power supply grounded at the battery?

[Montecarlodrag]

I just want to be able to have the vehicle hooked up to the MPVI at the same time as it is hooked up to ym laptop which is charging from a wall outlet. So this should not be done?

And my battery will last long enough to perform a flash but not to spend an hour or two doing real time tuning and such.

So if it can't be hooked to a wall that means I can't flash from a desktop either??? (I have a desktop right next to my lift in my shop.)

J. J.

You should buy a new battery or two.

I have an old Dell Laptop, I can undock the DVD-ROM and put a second battery in the slot. Its like 4 hours of battery power. I have 5 good batteries, so it's plenty of power.

For the new Laptop I bought 2 high capacity batteries (5600 mAH). I keep them fully charged and never ran out of power while tuning (of course, I always have with me an AC extension to recharge while I'm not connected to the vehicle).

It also helps turning down display's brightness and enabling speedstep in the BIOS (if available) to save battery.

I just bought a mini laptop. I'm going to try it to see how long it lasts on battery power. They are supposed to be more efficient.


Best Wishes.