Do not connect FlashScan between a vehicle and a laptop powered by a power inverter

[GAMEOVER]

I've been running my laptop with a radioshack inverter for 2.5 years now and I've never had any problems...whatsoever! Not just on my vehicles but on all other vehicles I work with...I think I've been lucky...
Or I got a well built Flashscan V2...

[m58mw]

how about using a 12v charger plugged into a jumpstart pack? won't that work as a huge battery?

[badassmax]

I checked my chinese DC/DC laptop charger for ground connection with an ohmmeter: Found no resistance from ground in to ground out. I still had doubts, so i opened the sealed unit to see how it was wired inside: I found a circuit board with thick solder track from input ground to output ground, so no possibility for any problem there!

I believe the only remaining possibility for problems here are the ground connections to the vehicle( correct me if i'm wrong).

What about a big diode on the positive side of the charger going to laptop?

[rcr1978]

I'm not 100% but I thought the only problems are when you are using a 12vdc to 110vac power inverter most of those had floating voltages between the grounds. You would think a standard 12vdc to 12-18vdc ones would be ok, I always just make sure the grounds are good and theres no voltage fluctuation.

[bobo]

I'm not 100% but I thought the only problems are when you are using a 12vdc to 110vac power inverter most of those had floating voltages between the grounds. You would think a standard 12vdc to 12-18vdc ones would be ok, I always just make sure the grounds are good and theres no voltage fluctuation.

I blew the internal fuse in my V2 with a standard 12vdc charger. I run just the laptop off the battery or I run a power cord from my garage outside and plug into that.

[Wolfie]

I received my usb isolater today, and while looking it over...
complete isolation from computer, signal and ground...
onboard power - 12v to 5v step down switching regulator, supplied by vehicle, tied to vehicle ground.
$50.00 is a small price to pay to save cooking the V2.

[badassmax]

What is it, and where to buy? Thanx

[Wolfie]

my post, a couple up, has the info.
I just got back from 1200miles and over 24 hours on the computer... works great, no more disconnects either.

[O1Z06]

I unplugged my laptop today thinking I had some battery life left and it just died. So my next thought was I'll just use the wall connector. To be safe I checked the differential between the pins and ground near the laptop usb connector. It's 250mv, which as I read is way above the 50mv limit. So it looks like I will be getting a fresh battery from radio shack tomorrow. But, what are my other options from say Radio Shac? Can I use a DCtoDC cigarette lighter adapter (no inverter) to power the laptop? To be on the safe side, I guess I would check the differential again using this method. Cheers, oh and by the way this is my first post and EFI Live ROCKS!

[Ira]

So, I'm the person in the US who gets to fix these when you blow them up. Usually it's just a $2 fuse that goes, but it means you are out your FlashScan for a few days and get to pay shipping and repair charges. With an iffy battery charger on the car's battery plugged into one phase of the building's wiring and your laptop plugged into the other phase so you end up with 120 or 240 across the EFILive, they can show up with nothing working. If you do that I'll see you get taken care of on the replacement, but you do get to buy a new one. Cigarette lighter converters are usually fine, but when they aren't or when they die in a puff of smoke they will often take other things out with them.

Ira