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Led / Lcd tv running on 12v battery

Hey All,

Our family has just bought a camper van. Will be used mainly at unpowered locations, but not too far from relative civilisation.

Been looking at fitting it out with a few comfort accessories for the wife & kids, including a Television.....

The camping & 12volt specialist mobs have "purpose made" 12v led / lcd tv's which retail upwards of $300.00 for 19 inch screen.

I recently noticed that most of the cheap house brand tv's like Kogan, Dick Smith etc 19-24 inch tv's have 12v input from switch mode power supplies... and retail for around $130...

Would the power circuits in these tv's be happy running off a 12v battery?

Would they be subject to interference from 12v pumps etc... running off the same battery?

Was also wondering on the quality of the tuners in these cheapies compared to the "purpose made" ones, which are also what I would call "cheaper" brands like "Teac" "Sphere" "Majestic" "Fusion"

And finally, there is a few different types / stiles of antenna for "RV" use... ranging from $80 up to $300.... Any advice on what the real difference is on these?

I understand the chassis and mounting on the RV & marine specific types could be a bit more rugged to withstand bumping around, corrosion etc... but for something that realistically only be used a couple of times a year, would a cheapie do the job?

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers,

Gary.

Reply to
G S ng
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"G S ng"

** What do Kogan say?

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** Maybe, maybe not.

Depends of the pumps and the battery.

** Probably good as any other.

** The more expensive one have a bit more signal gain and directionality.

So you need to point them more carefully.

You are on the WRONG forum - pal.

Try a caravaner's forum.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

I have an older dick smith analogue lcd flat screen and stb in my caravan. Runs off a 12v supply I don't have any problems. Jaycar have an antenna suitable for vans /caravans. Its a good idea to fit a masthead amplifier for those times when you are in weak signal areas.

Reply to
bristan

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Hi Gary

Can't help you with the antenna question but we have on off-grid shack down the south coast of NSW. I run a Kogan LED TV (with built in DVD) bought ea rlier this year direct from battery. It is a fringe reception area and we d o have a high gain antenna on the roof but get great reception, so tuner ap pears to be fine.

The LED TV model we have draws 3 amps so there's no special need to worry a bout cable thickness etc. We sometimes get some noise when switching lights on and off - however, only at time of switching. The lights are 240V CFL a nd draw power from an inverter connected to the same battery. You could get noise from pumps but you could probably add a smoothing capacity to the su pply point for the TV to help reduce this.

Cheers Glenn

Reply to
Glenn

Hi Gary

Can't help you with the antenna question but we have on off-grid shack down the south coast of NSW. I run a Kogan LED TV (with built in DVD) bought earlier this year direct from battery. It is a fringe reception area and we do have a high gain antenna on the roof but get great reception, so tuner appears to be fine.

The LED TV model we have draws 3 amps so there's no special need to worry about cable thickness etc. We sometimes get some noise when switching lights on and off - however, only at time of switching. The lights are 240V CFL and draw power from an inverter connected to the same battery. You could get noise from pumps but you could probably add a smoothing capacity to the supply point for the TV to help reduce this.

Cheers Glenn

Hey All,

Thanks for the informative replies. I have read through a few of the caravaning forums, but thought I would put up a post here as I was looking for a more technical response. Which I did get which is great and I am most thankful.

Looks like the Kogan Tv will be the unit of choice... I dropped in to the local mob that does the 12v things and found there "Van specific" tv's draw about 6amp which is about double the specified rating of the Kogan, and more than double the price!. Teamed up with one of the cheaper Antenna (Jaycar) I think should be fine. Not sure about masthead amplifier in this situation. I thought these only are useful for amplifying signal for longer cable runs / additional distribution points etc, but any advice on this would be appreciated.

As far as noise etc. I am sure the family would cope with interference while pumps running or lights are switching....

Thanks for the links the the "camping" forums News 13... They are a couple I have not tried yet. Had a quick look on them last night and see there is lots of useful information. Thanks also for the heads up on the Merit Plugs. Those cigarette jacks have been pesky to me in the past...

Cheers,

Gary.

Reply to
G S ng

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