charging a laptop with a panel for an electric fence

I have a solar panel that came with a portable electric fence. The panel is part of a case that appears to also have a small lead-acid battery and I think an inverter(?) that is labeled 12v 40mA. I obviously have a lot to learn about this stuff

Can someone point me in the right direction for equipment I would need to charge a mac book at night with this panel.

Thanks!

If you can plug the computer into a USB slot to recharge, you can buy a 12vdc to USB converter.
http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/12v-dc-to-5v-dc-usb-converter-car-dash-port-3-amp.html?utm_source=googlepepla&utm_medium=adwords&id=19136088729&utm_content=pla&gclid=CLqvpsru_LMCFQmCQgodYWoAkw This is one such (I've never ordered from this company, just found it on google search.)
You'd need alligator clips. Radio shack carries them and may have the converter.
Make sure you are not drawing that battery down too far. Not sure if a portable fence charger battery is going to have enough juice for your computer. You'll have to check on amps needed for the computer. A multitester would be a good thing to have too.

Hanley Kale-Grinder wrote:I have a solar panel that came with a portable electric fence. The panel is part of a case that appears to also have a small lead-acid battery and I think an inverter(?) that is labeled 12v 40mA. I obviously have a lot to learn about this stuff

Can someone point me in the right direction for equipment I would need to charge a mac book at night with this panel.

Thanks!

Off hand it seems you can use a DC/DC converter designed for a 12 volt input. You might use a laptop charging adapter designed for use in a car (i.e. 12 volt DC supply).

NOTE: You want to charge your mac book "at night" with a solar panel? Clearly you would be drawing on the battery to do this. Please take a look at the system and let us know the amp-hour capacity of your battery so we can tell whether not this is a good idea. As long as you can access the 12 volt battery leads and the battery is not too small, then it should be doable. However, from what I know of the energy consumption rates of a typical laptop compared to that of a portable electric fence, I doubt it's going to work out. Please describe what you hope to accomplish. Perhaps a relatively simple solution can be had in another way.

Mac stuff takes a "high output" usb plug, think it is 8.5 or 10v.

Standard USB output wont work.
Is a pain to hook up electronics to these usb plugs too.
Better off finding an itermediate charge system , and use the solar/batt pack to charge that.

look at the solar and batt charging backpacks, they usually have the high output charge circuit you need.

I checked the specs on Macbook chargers: 18.5 volts output. Either way, if there is a charger designed for use in automobiles (12v volt power supply), then getting a solar panel w/12 volt battery to work is doable.

One example: http://www.amazon.com/Gator-Crunch-Inverter-Lifetime-Warranty/dp/B0042QNFDM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1354575589&sr=1-1&keywords=macbook+car+charger

The main problem is the capacity of the battery on the solar electric fence set up. I doubt the capacity is high enough to prevent excessive discharge on the battery while charging a Macbook. Also, I doubt the power rating of the panel is high enough to permit much charging. It should be fairly simple to set up something like this for charging a Macbook, it's just that a system designed for an electric fence is not a good match.