First off, thanks Grant for the time spent and education you are providing me. If it’s not already obvious, I know very little about electricity…or maybe just enough to get myself into deep trouble. I’m trying to figure this all out but I am full of doubt and I don’t understand the significance of all these specs. My objective is to find out if this Kensington Converter from DC to AC will theoretically work (charge my MacBookPro battery) when the MBP power is off, the MBP A/C charger is plugged in to the inverter and the inverter connected to a 12V motorcycle battery charged by a 250 watt stator, with the constant electrical demands of the motorcycle (lights) consuming 100 watts while running, leaving 150 watts available to consume without discharging the battery while the bike is running. The inverter will only be used when the motorcycle is running while moving so the stator is actually charging the battery while the electrical demands of the lights on the bike and the inverter connected to the MPB is drawing power from the bike battery…hopefully at a rate less than the power consumption of the bike's lights and MBP charger from the battery.
If you are able to answer this bigger question I’d appreciate it. If you are able to explain it, that would be even better. If you see problems with this set up, from the bike battery to the inverter to the Mac power charger…please let me know what they are and if there is an easy fix. This whole thing started with me trying to find a portable power pak, (battery) that I could use to recharge the MBP, while traveling and camping and not having daily access to A/C charging. But, the power pak mfg’s cannot provide a battery with a Magsafe2 plug because this plug design is patented and protected by Apple and they won’t let any of the portable battery mfg’s use the design. There is no other way to charge the MBP than through the Magsafe port. The USB slots on the old MBP’s flow power only one way, out and not in. Now the 2016 MBP has the USB-C port that flows power both ways so it can be used as a charging port and plug into portable power packs…that’s great but it doesn’t help me, it can’t be retrofitted or added on to my Mac. I could just sell my 2013 MBP and upgrade to the new one but that is not an option for me right now.
The OEM power supply or battery charger outputs a maximum of 3.65A at 16.5V.
The OEM power supply / battery charger input spec is 1.5A, 110-240V. (1.5 x 110 = 165 watts) Is the 1.5A a minimum or maximum? If the inverter can output 120 watts continuous for 2 hrs and 5 minute bursts of 150 watts, will the MBP power charger want to pull 165 watts to operate properly or is that the max it can handle...and is their minimum it needs to work properly and if yes what is it? What will the inverter be putting out or pushing into the MBP charger assuming it is capable of the 120 watt continuous and 150 watt surge. And is all of that dependent on what is available from the 12 V battery and the 250 watt stator that is charging it? I think I have a basic understanding of this flow but I don’t know where the bottlenecks are, where the whole process is limited by one spec or another due Minimums or Maximums and what they mean on a practical level. Thanks in advance for your reply if choose to jump in to this deep hole. Tim
