Power Woes: It Shouldn't Be This Difficult

[Jason Dunn]

<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1208797182.usr1.jpg" alt="" /><br />All our gizmos and gadgets need power, and for the most part I only get grumpy about power issues when it's time to go away on a business or personal trip. This time, it was our two-week vacation in Japan, and I was extra grumpy about power. Why you might ask? I called Air Canada two weeks before our trip and was informed that the plane we were flying on had no power plugs for laptops in economy class - it seems like every long-haul plane in the world has power except for Air Canada's.<br /><br />Normally that wouldn't have bothered me because I've been rather fortunate when it comes to laptop power: for nearly two years I used a Fujitsu P7010 laptop, one that I could remove the DVD drive on and insert a second battery to get a solid 10 hours of power. To get even more juice on the go, I tried out a <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/30367/valance-n-charge-vnc130-external-laptop-battery-reviewed.html">Valence N-Charge</a> that gave me a huge battery boost - can you imagine 20 hours of laptop battery life? I was living the dream. I also had a <a href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/31495/portable-power-with-proporta-s-laptop-battery.html" target="_blank">Proporta laptop battery</a> that gave me less in terms of extended power, but was much more portable. I was completely covered...until I got a new laptop: the Dell XPS M1330.<br /><br />The M1330 is an impressive laptop, balancing portability with punch - I got mine last September, decked out with the best Dell had to offer: 2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 200 GB 7200 hard drive, 4 GB RAM, and the NVIDIA GPU. It's fast, it chugs through RAW photo files like the bad mother that it is, and I'm generally quite pleased with it - until it runs out of power. Sure, I got it with the biggest battery possible (a 9 cell), and I've gotten used to the &quot;hump&quot;, but after about four hours, the laptop is dead. Here's where I get frustrated: the Proporta battery, which I was so enthusiastic about when I had a laptop that worked with it, doesn't work with the Dell. At first I thought it was the lack of an adaptor (the M1330 uses this bizarre six-sided plug), but I eventually found one of the plugs that fit - yet even switching the Proporta battery between both voltage modes, it wouldn't power the XPS M1330. Damn. <MORE /><br /><br />I emailed the folks at Proporta and they worked with me to investigate whether or not they could get their product to work with the XPS M1330 - even going to far as having me order an AC power adaptor for the M1330 and sending it to them in the UK for research. In the end, after several months of back and forth emails, I was told that it was highly unlikely they could get their product to work with the XPS M1330. During that same time period, I emailed the people at <a href="http://www.valence.com/" target="_blank">Valence</a>, asking them if they had any plans to make an XPS M1330 adaptor for their N-Charge unit. They replied back that they had no plans to support the M1330.<br /><br />Isn't it ridiculous that I have two external batteries, around $500 in total value, and neither one of them can be used with my new laptop? That's just mind-boggling to me. Sure, I know and understand the reasons why these companies can't keep up with every new laptop on the market, but their products are certainly much less useful than they should be because of this. The laptop manufacturers themselves bear most of the blame here though - if all Dell laptops had the same power connector, it would be much easier for these third-party batteries to support every laptop out there (within certain voltage requirements, of course). The lack of standardization, even amongst the same company, is at the root of this problem.<br /><br /><strong><font size="4">Not Quite Giving Up Yet...</font></strong><br />Having struck out on getting either of my external batteries to work with the XPS M1330, I thought I'd try searching for a new product, perhaps one that didn't require a custom power connector. Does such a thing exist? You bet - the <a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2007/11/duracell_powersource_mobile_100.html" target="_blank">Duracell Powerpack 100</a>. The Duraracell Powerpack 100 solves this connector problem by offering an AC power plug, meaning you simply plug your laptop's AC power brick into the Powerpack. That offers tremendous flexibility, but it also means you have to carry your AC power brick with you on a plane or wherever you want to use this. Not ideal, but at this point it was my only option.<br /><br /><img border="0" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1205532047.usr1.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />About a week before I was to leave for Japan, I started my search for this product (I was still holding our hope that Proporta would come through) - and discovered that no one in Canada sold it. I looked on eBay and found a few, but they were selling for more than retail. In my searches for this adaptor, I also discovered that this isn't even a Duracell product - they're simply re-branding the <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2911207" target="_blank">Xantrex Power Source Mobile 100</a>, which I could order from TigerDirect.ca for $97 CAD (pictured above). Before placing my order, however, I noticed in a few online customer reviews of this product (and the Duracell-branded variation) that it had some very specific limits on the amount of power it could reliably kick out. The product page said &quot;up to 80 watts&quot;, but in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000HVDCZM/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?_encoding=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=1" target="_blank">reading the user comments on Amazon.com</a> (community knowledge rocks!) it seems that was only for short bursts - it actually tops out at 60 watts for continuous power draw.<br /><br /><img border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/dht/auto/1205532013.usr1.jpg" alt="" /><br /><em>Figure 1: Busting out the Kill A Watt.</em><br /><br />So how much power did my XPS M1330 and Samsung Q1 Ultra (the other device I was going to bring to Japan) draw? The AC adaptors don't tell you, which sucks, so I had to bust out my <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/7657/" target="_blank">Kill A Watt</a> to figure out how much power was actually being drawn. The Kill A Watt is one of those gadgets that you might not use very often, but when you need it, you <em>really </em>need it because you can't guess about this stuff. Power should be measured at full draw - meaning, you need to put the electronic device under maximum stress to see how much power it will pull. The Samsung Q1 Ultra, under full load, drew 15 watts. The XPS M1330 under full load pulled around 35 watts - at idle it was closer to 20 watts. It looked like I was within the limits of the <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2911207" target="_blank">Xantrex Power Source Mobile 100</a> so I went ahead and ordered it. Guess when it arrived? Two days after I left. There was an unknown delay in shipping it to me so the day before I left I discovered it wasn't going to make it to me in time.<br /><br />Since I didn't have any sort of a mobile battery solution that would work, I left the Samsung Q1 Ultra behind and instead brought my trusty Fujitsu P7010 so we could use it to watch 10 hours worth of movies on our roughly 17 hour journey to Japan (two flights and factoring in wait time at the airports). We also brought the Proporta battery since it worked with the P7010, and I brought my Dell XPS M1330 for photo processing - all in carry-on baggage of course. Guess what we discovered when we got on the plane leaving Vancouver for Osaka? Power in the seats - both AC and USB power ports. That's right, all the time I spent searching for a solution, and the money I spent ordering a new product, was completely unnecessary - not to mention the six pounds of laptop and battery that we were going to haul halfway around the world...all because Air Canada gave me false information.<br /><br />Someone has to make this all easier. Which company is going to take the lead and unify all their laptops on a single power connector? Dell? HP? Toshiba? Fujitsu? Step up!<br /><br /><em>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys mobile devices, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He wishes laptops ran on nuclear power so we didn't have to worry about recharging batteries - we'd just have to worry about a reactor breach.<br /></em>

[Stinger]

I called Air Canada two weeks before our trip and was informed that the plane we were flying on had no power plugs for laptops in economy class - it seems like every long-haul plane in the world has power except for Air Canada's.

If it makes you feel any better, I've recently been on a 12-hour business class flight with no power sockets! Needless to say, I was very bored.

[Jeff_R]

Jason, I have to ask... in your profile about nuclear powered laptops, is breeches a clever pun on pants? :) Since a normal reactor has a breach...

[uzziah0]

Sometimes it is crazy.
I've been on planes where they say there are power outlets available, but when you get on, there is one every 3 or 4 rows. And, if you are not in that row, and can't trade seats, you are out of luck.

I used to travel a few times a year to the UK, on BA and AA, and their power availability variety according to the type of plane (767, 777, etc).
But, on all of these the few times my company would pay for business class, and the one time I was bumped to first, those areas always had a power outlet.

I think sometimes it is just luck, and you don't really KNOW what you'll have access to until you are on the plane.

[Tim Williamson]

Haha, oh man that must've been so annoying when you sat down and discovered the power plugs right there. :D

I went through a little of this before my trip...I spent a few hours trying to get my laptop to share my Dash's internet and never got it working. I get to the airport and discover that they have free Wifi in Sacramento and Denver (I don't know why, but it never occurred to me to check whether the airports offered Wifi :o).

[Chris Gohlke]

Energizer makes a similar battery pack to the Duracel one you've got. However, it is smaller and is not designed to run a full laptop, more for recharging smaller devices. But as the Eee does not draw much power, it also works great for that.

[Jon Westfall]

I hope no Air Canada employee happens into you during a dark night out on the town... or there may be a rumble.

[elipsoid]

I have heard that there are things called "books" that you can actually read during the flight because they hold their charge for hundreds of years. Sounds like a complete nonsense to me.

[Jason Dunn]

I have heard that there are things called "books" that you can actually read during the flight because they hold their charge for hundreds of years. Sounds like a complete nonsense to me.

Clever. :D I brought a book with me - the 1400 page monster that is "The Stand" - and did read it, but as much as I love reading, I couldn't do it for 10 hours.

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, I have to ask... in your profile about nuclear powered laptops, is breeches a clever pun on pants? :) Since a normal reactor has a breach...

Haha...no, I wish I was that clever, that's just an error on my part. And to think that Ashley copy-edited that. :o

[gdoerr56]

Jason,

In experience, any recent Dell Power adapter that works for any recent Dell laptop using the barrel triaxial connector works for the M1330. I have an older AC/Air/Auto adapter from an M1210 that works just fine with the M1330. Also have several AC only adapters scattered about that work fine as well, all so I don't have carry them around.

I believe the adapter that comes with the M1330 uses the hex barrel since it is a lower power model and will not work with other laptop model.

Of course, your mileage may vary and if you blow something up, it wasn't my idea...

[Russ Smith]

Jason,
You are absolutely right on target with this commentary. On the one hand, it could be worse. On the UMPC front, the OQO has the power splittting circuitry in the adapter brick so you absolutely need an OQO brick to power your little unit. (The Sony UX, on the other hand, has a standard 16v DC input.) On the other hand, I can't think of no reason in the world that every single laptop manufacturer and often enough every new series from some manufacturers needs a new power connector. It's often useful to have more than one adapter along with the additional power sources you mention. That can be quite expensive if you have to re-buy every time you change laptops. Desktops have centered on a common (ATX format) power supply. (Yes, I'll allow that there are differences in terms of the number and amperage of the 12v rails, but...) You can basically pick out a new power supply from any manufacturer and drop it into your system and have it work. I'd love to see something similar evolve with laptops.

[Jason Dunn]

On the other hand, I can't think of no reason in the world that every single laptop manufacturer and often enough every new series from some manufacturers needs a new power connector.

Indeed. I think that it's unreasonable to expect an industry-wide notebook power connector, because they all want to make money selling accessories, but I think that it's reasonable for each company to unify their notebooks under a single connector: so all Dells would use the same connector, all HPs, etc.

[shaun0207]

Wow! That is just crazy. I went to Rhode Island this weekend to visit my BFF and I had my Dell XPS M1730 with me. I love having this computer at full power. I've only had it about 3 weeks now. The first week, i got a virus and wile trying to reinstall the OS, the harddrive blew out on me. They replaced it in a day. I also bought a new 320GB WD from Bestbuy for more storage. HD Def Monitor, 4GB RAM, 640GB HD (2ea 320GB), Blur--ray Burner with sound sound. (Cant you hear Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor just growling in the background)

I went to Wal-Mart & Best Buy to buy a portable extra battery. Best I could come up is a adaptor for car chargers that worked. But guess what? No plugs on the plane. Luckly its only a 45min flight. But my wife turned it into 3hrs by not booking with Southwest :(

[beq]

Likewise I wonder why Lenovo changed the power connector design for current ThinkPads (the new tip uses a bigger but thinner barrel) -- does anyone know?

I remember reading Lenovo's response to user complaints, saying something about the change being technically necessary going forward to adapt to new technologies, but the explanation was vague...

As a result our new ThinkPad X300 cannot share the spare A/C adapters we have for all our previous ThinkPads. I find it strange that the new connector uses a bigger barrel, because the connector port barely fit on the X300's thin chassis...

[J4yDubs]

When I travelled (thankfully don't do much anymore) I used SeatGuru (http://www.seatguru.com/) to scope out the plane I was going on. Not sure if they have Canadian flights though.

John

[Jason Dunn]

When I travelled (thankfully don't do much anymore) I used SeatGuru (http://www.seatguru.com/) to scope out the plane I was going on. Not sure if they have Canadian flights though.

Yeah, that was the first thing I did (great site!) - but there are three different variations of the 737, the plane I was flying on, so I had to call Air Canada to ask which variation of the 737 they were using...and that's when I was told the plane I was going to be on didn't have power. But she was wrong. :mad:

[rlobrecht]

Apple has standardized their power plugs (at least for the last two years) however the don't allow any third party power adapters.

I've found two interesting sites
http://mikegyver.com/index.html - this site sells magsafe cables with standard DC connectors on the end, so they can be connected to 3rd party power accessories

http://pangea.stanford.edu/~schmitt/magsafe/ - this guy tells you how to modify your $80 magsafe power adapter to insert a standard DC connector which can then be used with a 3rd party power accessory

The really disappointing thing is that the 3rd parties do it to. I used to have a Dell C600 laptop and an Acer tablet PC. I bought a Belkin Auto/Air power adapter that was super tiny, and had plugs for both laptops. My employer replaced my C600 with a D600 (which had a new plug) and of course Belkin no longer sold plugs for my model power adapter. They had a new model, which took new plugs, and weren't compatible with the old adapter I had.

As someone mentioned above, its all about making money.

[Sven Johannsen]

You know, it really is rediculous. It's not like the guts of all the machines aren't substantially similar. Processors pretty much run on the same voltages, digital ICs have been running on 5 volts since I was in High School, and that was when we used tubes in the electronics labs, other stuff uses 12 volts. Point is the internal stuff pretty much runs on the same voltages, and the amount (current) may vary based on the stuff included. It does make sense that there are different voltage inputs to the various laptops, as the engineers try to match the power requirements to the power delivered. You wouldn't want an OQO with a power brick twice as big as the unit would you? Thing is, any excess power provided by the brick has to be dissipated somehow, and generally that is in heat. So if you wanted to hook the 19v brick for your 17" Sony for you 12" Sony, technically the 12" could be designed to use the bigger brick, but you would have to disspate more energy than you would for the 16v brick it comes with.

So that's why the bricks are all so different. No reason a Dell 19v supply shouldn't work on a Sony product requiring 19v though, except for the connector. The connector in my view is trivial. You can always create an adapter. As long as all you are talking about is a plain DC input. The folks at Gomadic (www.gomadic.com (http://www.gomadic.com)) and CallPod (www.callpod.com (http://www.callpod.com)) have done done that sort of thing for smaller devices. Of course Belkin and others have done so for bigger things. Keep in mind that current capability just needs to be better than what the device asks for. If you have a laptop that wants 16v at 2A, you can hook a supply up to it that delivers 16v at 4A. The laptop draws the current it needs, the supply doesn't push current. The drawback is the 4A supply will typically be physically bigger than the 2A one. BUT, if you have two things that require 16v, and you can resolve the connector issue, just take the big supply.

Voltage on the other hand is very important. Too low and the internal electronics that develop the needed voltages may not be able to create them. Too high and you may exceed the internal electronics ability to dissipate the excess. In the first case the device may not work, and in the second it can burn up, spectacularly, or just a pfffft and dead. You can create a supply with a switch to change the output voltage. You can find these 'universal' supplies at Radio Shack that do 3, 6, 9, 12v based on a switch setting. That requires the user to know the device requirements and remember to set the switch before hooking it up. Not a great idea for devices that can cost $500 to $2500. So the voltage switching on things like the Belkin and I-Go power adapters is based on connector arrangements at the power supply end. So, you buy the right cord for your device, and the configuration of the cord effectively switches the supply to the right voltage, and comes with the appropriate connector for the device. It's understandable that the supply guys, want to ensure that they have thoroughly tested their product against a new portable unit. Even a change in the laptop connector though may cause them to decide not to support the new device, as testing and tooling for the new configuration might not be seen as profitable considering the potential user base.

Oh, well, sorry about the tirade, rant, pontification. It's just a topic that irritates me too, though I understand it to some degree. Just glad that small portable devices seem to be gravitating to 5v min-USB connectors.

[aristoBrat]

Yeah, that was the first thing I did (great site!) - but there are three different variations of the 737, the plane I was flying on, so I had to call Air Canada to ask which variation of the 737 they were using...and that's when I was told the plane I was going to be on didn't have power. But she was wrong. :mad:
Airlines do sometimes make unscheduled equipment changes, so don't me too :mad: at her. Two weeks was far enough out for a lot to have happened!

[Jason Dunn]

Airlines do sometimes make unscheduled equipment changes, so don't me too :mad: at her. Two weeks was far enough out for a lot to have happened!

Um...you're suggesting that the whole plane could have been switched? I guess that's possible, but Occam's Razor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_Razor) tells me that it's probably just a case of her not knowing what she was talking about. :rolleyes:

[aristoBrat]

Um...you're suggesting that the whole plane could have been switched? I guess that's possible, but Occam's Razor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_Razor) tells me that it's probably just a case of her not knowing what she was talking about. :rolleyes:
Either way, a call the morning of the flight could have saved you a bunch of hassle. :rolleyes:

[i244]

Rather than going with a inefficient 3rd party power device, just buy 2 more 9 cell batteries for the Dell, last I looked on ebay they were pretty cheap.

[follick]

Um...you're suggesting that the whole plane could have been switched? I guess that's possible, but Occam's Razor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_Razor) tells me that it's probably just a case of her not knowing what she was talking about. :rolleyes:

Umm, yeah. I think airlines do this all the time.

Hypothetical example with made up numbers:
They were going to use plane#347 for your flight. Plane #347 was going to be coming in from Tokyo as flight 715. But they saw a week in advance that flight 715 wasn't sufficiently booked so they cancelled that flight and rescheduled the people on that flight for a slightly later flight 717. They told those people that the time of their flight had been changed. Then they reshuffled their lineup and, voila, your flight will now be going out on plane #282 that will first come in as flight 521 from Taipei.

Or, alternatively:
Plane #347 had a mechanical issue and needed to spend a few days in the shop (or needed to get repainted, or cleaned, or whatever) so instead they will use plane #422 for your flight.

A large airline with many aircraft might have many economic or logistical reasons to switch which specific aircraft it will use for any given flight.

Of course it is still possible (likely?) that they don't bother to put something like power availability into their computer reservation system. If it doesn't show up on her monitor, then it's safer for the agent to just say it's not there, rather than risk saying it is there and be blamed for promising and not delivering.

[Jason Dunn]

Either way, a call the morning of the flight could have saved you a bunch of hassle. :rolleyes:

Perhaps, but I think you underestimate how long I had to wait on hold the first time. :D