Powering w/ external 12v battery

[shamas]

A Goal Zero Yeti 400 that I have is yearning to charge my MBP. The Yeti is what amounts to a 12v battery, so I'm considering hooking up one of its outputs to this voltage booster or this one, and then connecting a severed magsafe 2 cord to that. Anyone have an idea of how good/bad of an idea this might be?

The only thing that makes me nervous is some information from this teardown page:

The charger provides a very low current (about 100 µA) 6 volt signal on the power pins (3 volts for Magsafe 2).

I don't know if that "low current" is controlled by the rectifier/brick, or the connector with its IC. If it is controlled by the connector, then I'm probably good to go.(?)

 

[harryb2448]

One word - 'brave'. Or as Sir Humphrey would say 'courageous'.

I think you need to do a lot more research before risking your MBP. What is wrong with the magsafe charger?

 

[RadDave]

A Goal Zero Yeti 400 that I have is yearning to charge my MBP. The Yeti is what amounts to a 12v battery, so I'm considering hooking up one of its outputs to this voltage booster or this one, and then connecting a severed magsafe 2 cord to that. Anyone have an idea of how good/bad of an idea this might be?

The only thing that makes me nervous is some information from this teardown page:

I don't know if that "low current" is controlled by the rectifier/brick, or the connector with its IC. If it is controlled by the connector, then I'm probably good to go.(?)

Hello & welcome to the forum!

Boy, that looks like a great unit (and expensive!) - I've been using the Xantrex 300 also shown below for years to help us in blackouts (lot of electric storms where I live) - now mine has one AC outlet and I can easily plug in my standard MagSafe charger for my MBPro; of course, that would be possible w/ the power unit you discussing - so, why fuss w/ the other equipment and potentially damage your computer?

BTW - might look at some of the other products in this company's line - the Xantrex is old and I've had to replace one 12 V. battery - Dave

P.S. basically, I'm agreeing w/ Harry -


.

 

[pm-r]

Why keep reinventing the wheel and why not just purchase and plugin and use an automotive MBPro charger/adapter??

 

[shamas]

Hello & welcome to the forum!

Boy, that looks like a great unit (and expensive!) - I've been using the Xantrex 300 also shown below for years to help us in blackouts (lot of electric storms where I live) - now mine has one AC outlet and I can easily plug in my standard MagSafe charger for my MBPro; of course, that would be possible w/ the power unit you discussing - so, why fuss w/ the other equipment and potentially damage your computer?

BTW - might look at some of the other products in this company's line - the Xantrex is old and I've had to replace one 12 V. battery - Dave

P.S. basically, I'm agreeing w/ Harry -

Thanks for the welcome; see answer to "why fuss w/ other equipment" below.

Why keep reinventing the wheel and why not just purchase and plugin and use an automotive MBPro charger/adapter??

Are you referring to one of these? Do you have experience with any of them? I'm not convinced they are any better than what I am trying to do. In fact, two of the products from that search output <20 volts, but my MBP requires 20v.

One word - 'brave'. Or as Sir Humphrey would say 'courageous'.

I think you need to do a lot more research before risking your MBP. What is wrong with the magsafe charger?

Nothing, I just want to start running more things off my Yeti. Plugging the charger into it as-is is really inefficient.