My 510 PT works great with desktop but not laptop

[tims]

Hello All...

I have my desktop in my bedroom but a laptop down in the living room, both are hooked into the house power and my desktop. Powers the PT really good lots of vap and hit, but when I plug it into the laptop it's not giving much vap.

One thing I did notice when using the PT battery, it did not give much vap as well, I'm thinking it may well be the battery's in the PT. The desktop would give more power, while a laptop would try using less power.

But the laptop runs a printer really good, so it's getting good USB bus power, I'm also wondering of it will do the same with my dell mini 9. As it has 3 USB ports on it to use, anyone else run into this problem with laptops.

Would getting a better battery or taking battery out, then making it direct 5 volts may be work, or may be it's the cheap wire they use for the PT. Is not carrying the volts right, I should of never got the cheap china junk PT, it's like burning money.

 

[AlexTM]

Computers of all sizes occasionally hickup when they have to deliver a lot of power through USB. Best way around that is a powered hub; that way, faulty equiptment (and that includes all those neat USB gadgets, not just vaping stuff) can't damage the computer proper.

 

[KitKit]

AlexTM what is a power hub and is it hooked to your computer? I have a lot to learn about computers.

 

[AlexTM]

Check the Wikipedia article for more information, but very briefly, a powered (or self-powered) hub is one where the power does not come from the computer it is attached to (or not), but from its own power supply.

They are easily recognised in a shop because they have, well, a power cable with them. I got mine, btw, because I had an USB ventilator that reguarly caused trouble for my USB-ports. If you just use them to power devices, you don't need to hook it into the computer, either.

 

[ProfessorDaffy]

Some things to consider:

If it's an old laptop does it have USB 1 or USB 2 ports?
What happens when you hook the laptop up to a power supply?

--Prof Daffy
P.S. I used my all day off the laptop, but it was a USB2 port and I had it attached to the power supply.

 

[Sign-Man]

USB ports on laptops are designed to provide 500ma current draw before they shut off the port, at this point you are just using the passthru battery (which is ether not charging or drawing to much current for charging).

This is because laptops must be power conscience to avoid excessive power drain of the laptop battery.

The motherboard circuitry makes no distinction whether the laptop is plugged in or not, it will still turn off the port.

 

[Libertysf]

I had the same problem with both my destop and the monitor with USB plugs and the Pass-through. It would work then quit working and I thought the PT was bad but then I plugged it into a AC-USB adapter and it has worked just great with no shut-offs.

 

[Drozd]

From everything I've been reading about passthroughs the milliamp rating on your ports is pretty important too..the voltage on the ports is a constant 5v but certain PTs have a different amperage need..I've got a PT for my KR8 thats a straight PT (no inline battery) and works well on the desktop and laptop, but trips my car adapter constantly (and that output is 1000ma) but the 510 PT with the inline battery works well on the laptop, desktop and the car adapter...and there have been others on the board that have had issues getting sufficient power from all sorts of ports and adapters when using some of the heavier duty 5v PTs..
I think my solution is to actually go with getting a kensington portable battery pack you can find em on ebay for as little as $30-40.. it's basically a 1800mAh battery that powers a USB port at 5V@ 1500 ma max. ...and it frees the computer from the PT which there is a very small risk that if the PT shorts it could fry your USB port (and I'd prefer not to fry a USB port on either of my PCs)

 

[tims]

It's a old laptop with one USB port and only the PT hooked up, I think the best thing is getting a portable battery, that way it can go anyplace I go to power it.

 

[Drozd]

I agree, I've been eyeing the kensingtons on ebay for a few days now