VCRs are so Eighties. Unless you're married to your collection of 80's
Betamax or VHS porn, get a little portable $89 DVD player with a 12-volt
cigarette plug. The screen is built right in and you won't need to use
an inverter.

For laptops, 12-volt adapters can be found on eBay that have adjustable
voltages and different fittings to work with just about any model of
laptop computer -- that's how Mrs Squirrel and I run ours.

Now that the sensitive equipment has been handled, you can get a far
less expensive modified sine wave inverter for your less-sensitive
appliances. Here's a 800W modified sine wave inverter that we've been
using for our coffee bean grinder and immersion gazpacho-makin' blender.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92708 -
on sale right now for $19.

We've been using one of these for two years now with no trouble. Small
low duty-cycle motors are perfectly happy with modified sine waves.

--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR

On 6/20/2007 11:31 AM BJ Feddish wrote:

> One thing I have not seen mentioned on this thread is making sure you have
> the correct inverter for what you want to use it for.  For sensitive
> equipment, VCR's, etc. you need a pure sine wave inverter. I found a writeup
> (the first Yahoo hit I got) at
> http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/inverter_faq.html#modified .
>
> Those cheap inverters are creating AC current that looks like this _|-|_|-|_
> .
>
> The pure sine waver inverters are more expensive per watt output but beats
> replacing a piece of equipment that did not like square AC current.
>
> I have several inverters. When in doubt I use the good one.
>
> Bryan
>