I had an old Toshiba laptop with a worn out battery that wasn't readily
available. Since it was a 12 V battery pack, I took out the cells and wired
in a cord to a 12 V. lighter type socket so the kids could use it in the
car. It worked great except that the keyboard developed some dead keys
before we used it much. I'd now like to do the same thing for the boat since
it will be more effecient than running it through an inverter.

Does anyone know offhand of any particular models that have 12 V batteries?
I'm looking for something used and cheap for occasional evening trip
planning and writing; not for continual navigation use or Wi Fi connection.

I've been looking at the collection of laptops around the house and
batteries in this random sample run from 10.8 to 14.8 volts. This brings up
another question. How sensitive are the power supplies in most laptops? Do
I have to find one with a battery very close to 12 volts or would any of
these run off the boat battery?

--
Roger Long