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The HyperMac Pure DC Car Charger for Apple MacBook looks interesting but unfortunately looks as if it might have a fan it, is expensive, has an intervening DC socket and plug in the output cable and has a right angle in it for some reason? It's taken a long time for something like this to turn up and is that all because of the Apple magsafe connector being copyrighted? I've always thought this is ridiculous of Apple producing a portable computer and not providing or allowing a portable non-mains means of powering it except for aircraft - completely ridiculous any one else agree?

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The other product from this company, the "HyperMac Pure DC Car Charger" seems to be the perfect solution for those looking to power their MacBooks from Cart Power (batteries). It takes 12 vdc IN and comes with proper MagSafe connector. For use with Cart power or block battery all one would have to do is replace the auto cigarette lighter adapter with a 4-pin XLR. I know $149.00 is a lot of money but it is less than many of the other solutions.

-  Jeff Wexler

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I have this thing, made by http://mikegyver.com/ - which I imagine is very similar.  This picture shows the MacMini adapter.  Mine is the MagSafe adapter.

It works well other than the fact that for some reason, when fully integrated into my Powermax Ultra and mixer, etc., there is some terrible DC noise that gets introduced via the headphone jack into the mixer, making it useless for playback or listening to music in my headphones via my mixer.  So I still keep the AC adapter integrated, or simply unplug the magsafe adapter when I want to listen to music.

I went to the guys at PSC, and played with making cables with filters and all kinds of goodies, but it still had the end result because of too many things on my cart giving off noise (hard drives mostly - from the internal drive to the portable USB drives to the 744T).

The good news is that going directly out of the headphone jack is fine, and there is no noise introduced into anything critical, like recording to Boom Recorder.  So in terms of doing the actual JOB of recording sound, I can plug this into my Powermax Ultra or 33aH Pelican, and have all the power I need for the laptop.

Robert

post-485-130815080879_thumb.jpg

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It works well other than the fact that for some reason, when fully integrated into my Powermax Ultra and mixer, etc., there is some terrible DC noise that gets introduced via the headphone jack into the mixer, making it useless for playback or listening to music in my headphones via my mixer.

Robert

The use of several different DC to DC converters powered from the same battery source can cause all sorts of noises. It is often the case that each piece of gear you have on your cart utilizes DC to DC converters with their internal power supply systems and the interaction amongst all these devices is very difficult to sort out. Some people have utilized 2 battery supplies just to cut down the likelihood of noise from these interactions.

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The use of several different DC to DC converters powered from the same battery source can cause all sorts of noises. It is often the case that each piece of gear you have on your cart utilizes DC to DC converters with their internal power supply systems and the interaction amongst all these devices is very difficult to sort out. Some people have utilized 2 battery supplies just to cut down the likelihood of noise from these interactions.

Yup.  That's what I discovered, and it's a real pain.  It did make for hours of welcomed, geeky investigation over a number of days.  The good news is, it works really well for what I "need", and it has an easy work-around for what I "want".  I was fortunate enough to get some sort of clearance or overstock or something, so it only cost about $50-75.  Can't remember exactly, but it was worth it.

Robert

Robert

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I asked Hyperdrive about the recharge specs--they sent this:

It is fast charge followed by trickle charge.

HyperMac 60Wh takes 2.5 hours to full charge

HyperMac 100Wh takes 4.17 hours to full charge

HyperMac 150Wh takes 2.5 hours to full charge

HyperMac 222Wh takes 3.7 hours to full charge

Pretty good, would work overnight between days.

Philip Perkins

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I bought the 222 model. It's a little big, a little heavy. I started testing at 7pm. At 2am it was still powering my MacBook which had wifi up and an external hd bus powered. The hypermac was down to 1 bar at this point and my laptop battery was 100%. I threw in the towel and went to bed...

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