charging my laptop in my insight

I think I've read somewhere that the insight 12V system would not be able to power a cigarette lighter. I use it to power and charge my GPS all the time, but does anyone know if I'll have trouble if I charge my laptop in the car? And what's going to happen if I try and draw too much current from the power point? Could the car be damaged or just the equipment I'm trying to power?

[Guillermo]

The 12V accessory power socket is protected by a 10A fuse.
Read the Amp rating of your laptop charger, i'm sure it's no where near 10Amps.

[Dgate]

Hi redluvr,I once plugged a 12 volt impact wrench in which imediately blew the fuse but can't remember where I found it,Probably in the fuse box.
On my next visit to Owensboro Ky via Evansville airport it would be nice to meet up to discuss our Insights.Contact me via the message board.

DGate

[LoNOx 1]

I have a 4-way adapter plugged into the single socket. In the adapter, I have a 120v inverter to power a laptop, a radar detector, an aux. fan in the summer, and a heated coffee cup in the winter. I have never blown a fuse.
If you guys meet in Evansville, pm me also. I'm 60 miles from Evansville.

[dberns]

I've got a nominal 50 watt dc->AC adaptor plugged
into the "cigarette lighter", and I plug my iBook AC cord
into that. I've been doing this without any fuse problems
for over a year now, but....
... but.... I get a hell of a lot more recalibrations on the
days it's plugged in for extended periods.

My guess, and that's all it is... is that the power draw
confuses the IMA reporting/recording circuitry, so it
doesn't "see" the charge level it "expects".

[Aaron Cake]

The "lighter" socket is just a direct line to 12V through an IGN switched relay at a 10A fuse. You can draw whatever current the socket allows, which apparently is 10A based on the fuse. It's not quite rocket science. For 4 years I have been running an entire Pentium 166 computer as an MP3 player ( http://www.aaroncake.net/projects/mp3player.htm ) without a single issue. It draws about 4A. In the winter, I use a small inverter and string lights around the car AND use the MP3 player. Continuous draw is about 7-8A.

Keep in mind that the rear defroster grill pulls about 35-45A, so adding a little draw on the lighter socket is not going to hurt your DC-DC.

[JimmyHiggins]

An FYI *bump*.

I was at the Staples and saw a power adapter plug for the car. It was on clearance. After looking online, I noticed Buy.com has a better version for about 30% less.

But I wanted to check here to see if that is something one wouldn't want to use in the Insight. Looks like I'll be fine to plug in the Laptop to charge without the hassle of buying something for about $60 more from Toshiba. That's nice!