let their be light....

Victory is the sweetest thing.... Connected my laptop up to the battery, via the recently purchased DC adapter, a wired and soldered cigarette lighter socket, and bingo.. on pops the light, and the laptop starts booting..... excellent.... we are in business..... Thats computer based navigation sorted for the trip, so at least we'll know where we are.... assuming I can get the GPS talking to the laptop.... Only remaining question is what will the power consumption of the laptop be like.... Magna Carter has two solar panels and an Aerogen 4 fitted, so should hopefully be generating enough juice to power ordinary daily requirements plus the laptop without depleting the batteries..... I do have 3 batteries on board, so relatively well provided for anyway.... Only time I suspect that I'll really need to be careful is when I use the electric windlass....... I will just start the engine before I use the windlass until i've got my head around power consumption... At some point I need to fit an ammeter to see what we are using, and a voltmeter to see what the battery status is.... Ho hum... more money....