Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Virtual Unpacking and Charging, bicycle style, of 7" Portable DVD Player from GPX

yes this product was retailed for $80 originally but it got discontinued so I got it for $30 (available for that price at only one retailer in Minnesota)....

So I was very impressed by the image and it only draws 12 watts. But I wanted to power it directly through the DC cord - so that the Chafon generator would not lose 20% power from inverting the DC to AC power (and then BACK into DC to power the DVD player).

So I plugged in the DC cord - and it worked - not at first. So I changed the cord - to a different adapter that I had. And then it started working but then it shut down. I figured - what's going on?

So I remember reading that you can not charge and play at the same time. So I figured that must be the problem - at least I figured the DC cord is getting over powered by the DC charging from the bicycle. I'm putting 4 amps into the generator as DC power and so it must cause the DC powered DVD player to shut down.

So I plugged in the AC cord - I figured well it's only 12 watts so shouldn't be no problem to power the DVD player while I also charge up the Chafon. Before - I still had about 90 watts - and it was through the AC inverter. So even though I could watch the TV with DVD player - the charge was not really happening while it was all plugged in, and I was bicycling. I kind of kept even.

OK so now I definitely was charging while watching the movie - only it was not charging as FAST as I expected!! What was going on? So I decided to try to find a DC cord that did not need to use an adapter (via the car cigarette adapter)....

I could not find a direct DC to DC cord. But then I realized something - I realized that the reason the Chafon as not charging that fast was because I was ALSO charging the DVD player's lithium battery at the same time that it was PLAYING!! Oh - the red light was on showing it was charging while the green power light was also on, to show it was playing the movie.

OK So that explained the slow rate of charge - I was not just powering the movie but also the battery for the DVD player. But how come it turns off with just direct DC power? So then I read that you can CHARGE the battery using the DC car charge connection (the cigarette plug). OK but unlike the DC/AC adapter - you can not charge AND watch at the same time.

So if you are using the DC cord - to charge the DVD player then you need the car battery to be kicking out MORE than 12 volts (since the charge controller in the DVD player needs greater than 12 volts to start charging). BUT if you just plug in the DC cord into the Chafon battery - then the DVD player is only taking the 12 volt charge that the Chafon gives out to power 12 volt devices. It does not give out MORE than 12 volts since it's not intended to charge devices through the power outlet.

So that explained why it shut down - since the DVD battery was not charged at all and it was NOT charging via the DC plug from the Chafon (since it was only 12 volts). Also it explained why the DVD player DID play via the same DC cord once the DVD battery had been charged up a bit through the AC cord that was also playing the movie.

OK so I hope that makes sense to people (if anyone is interested). And so when I charge up the  DVD player using the AC power - then if I wanted I could unplug the connection and just watch the movie via the DVD player lithium battery (thereby charging the Chafon at an even faster rate). Or I could just then watch the movie keeping it plugged in (powered off the Chafon) while charging the Chafon at a faster rate.

Yeah so I plugged in the DC power connection again while I charged the Chafon via bicycle DC connection. The DVD player actually was being powered by the battery - not the DC connection. Which means the DC power connection for the DVD player is to CHARGE the battery, not to power the device directly.

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