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UPS + MBP + 12hr Bus Ride = Survival?

Tankgunk

Tankgunk

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 2, 2007
123
0
Background info: UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply
Obligatory wikipedia link.

I am going to be forced to endure a 12 hour bus ride soon (thankfully on a comfortable charter bus), and I've been considering the battery life of my MBP. Not enough. So I was looking at external batteries, and I'd rather spend the whole time sleeping than spend that much, as I won't use it often. Then I had a brilliant idea; namely steal the UPS from under the computer desk temporarily, and deal with the bulk in return for at least doubling my battery life. I don't tend to think crazy things like this through, so does anyone here see a flaw in my plan (aside from bulkiness)? At least my UPS doesn't beep...
 
jknight8907 said:
How big of a battery does the UPS have? That would be the determining factor.
Click to expand...
Doing the math and using kill-a-watt readings, probably enough for 3-4 hours of using a charged MBP.

Back to the trip, it's really three trips. Two bus rides to get there, and one all the way back. So there's two 6 hour rides and a 12 hour ride, spread out over four days, so I could charge my UPS between. So I'm thinking that the only part of this trip I'd be stuck without my MBP would be the last half of the last ride. And being it a nice bus, we'll definitely be able to pop in a DVD.

I'm mostly wondering if this use of a UPS as a one time thing is bad. I wouldn't think so, but I'm not really a battery expert.
 
Tankgunk said:
Doing the math and using kill-a-watt readings, probably enough for 3-4 hours of using a charged MBP.

Back to the trip, it's really three trips. Two bus rides to get there, and one all the way back. So there's two 6 hour rides and a 12 hour ride, spread out over four days, so I could charge my UPS between. So I'm thinking that the only part of this trip I'd be stuck without my MBP would be the last half of the last ride. And being it a nice bus, we'll definitely be able to pop in a DVD.

I'm mostly wondering if this use of a UPS as a one time thing is bad. I wouldn't think so, but I'm not really a battery expert.
Click to expand...

Is that 3-4 hours on top of the Macbook's life, or including it's life?

As for the UPS' battery, it shouldn't harm it.
 
You'd probably want to take the laptop battery out while using the UPS. Otherwise, some of the juice will go to powering the laptop and some to charging the laptop battery.
 
Look out the window.
Really you can't disconnect for the time period that your battery has died that you are seriously considering this.

You haven't been drinking draino recently have you?
 
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