TV Recommendation Micro Minnie 2108 TB

[BigE]

Just purchased a Micro Minnie 2108 TB. The TV is an AC tv. It is a SANSUI. Is there any way to mofidy it to work off of 12V?

Any recommendations on a 32" DC TV? I recall that I used a plain old Insignia TV which had a 110 to 12 Volt brick on it and was able to just purchase a 12V cable to get it to work with a 12V lighter plug. I am wondering if there are any units out there in the 32 inch size that convert 110 to 12 volt so I don't have to spend much on the TV. Any recommendations?

Also, would a 12V TV work with some sort of USB cord? I suspect not because the amp draw might be too much for a USB cord.

Anyways, need a recommendation.

Thanks in advance.

[Eagle5]

Hi BigE,
I would recommend that you get a 12 VDC to 120 VAC Inverter that has at least 200 watts of deliverable power. Here is a 300 watt one on Amazon that is just $25:

• 300W Power Inverter DC 12V to 110V AC Car Inverter with 2X 2.4A Dual USB Car Charger Adapter Cigarette Lighter Plug Outlet red

Thanks, Eagle5
P.S. Don't forget to pack some TV Dinners while you are camping!

tv dinners

[BigE]

Thanks Eagle5,

That is a viable and good idea. Did not think of that. The amp draw and watt requirement for the TV should be somewhere around 60 watts and 5 amps or so. Not much. A TV went bad in my kitchen at home so I was going to use the one in the RV to replace it and then just buy a 12V capable TV. I think this would be the most energy efficient because of no loss on the inverter. However, you present a very good idea! Did not think of that. With 460 am hours of new LiPo4 batteries I should be able to handle the energy consumption with no issue.

[JLUSoCal]

My only additional recommendation would be to spend a bit extra and specify Pure Sine Wave. I think it'll work since my RV has a modified sine wave but I'm getting ready to replace as electronics and motors can sometimes be sensitive to the sine wave output.

https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-300Wat...ef_=ast_sto_dp

I have this one and use for various devices as it's portable. Works very well and didn't break the bank till i can replace the built in.

[BigE]

Agree on the PSW recommendation. Sitting here wondering if I should just not go this route until I also install a Victron 2000W multi-inverter. Kind of like $150 off of the victron inverter.

[reeman]

Many of the newer 32 inch leds can be cranked down in brightness and use much lower wattage. We changed over to a 24 inch led and it only uses about 26 watts. The problem with inverters is that they all create heat and use wattage to convert dc/ac. So the specs on the inverter resting without load are very important. We just use a cheapo 80 watt with a single power plug, the type that are designed for cigarette lighter outlets on vehicles. It warms up a little but uses very little power in the process of converting the dc to ac. It runs the TV just fine because the TV rests at 15 watts and does not use over about 30 watts booting up.

The Jensen 19 inch that came with the trailer was terrible it used 30 watts continuous and was hideous for a small screen led. But what do you expect from a dealer who is going to install the cheapest crap possible on TTs and charge at least twice what they cost as an upcharge install!

The new 12 volt "RV" tvs are obscenely overpriced and are targeted at suckers. They have the selling point that they are made to take bumps and abuse but in reality they are no different than off the shelf home devices only without built in ac to dc dog boxes. Indeed one could create a TV that took 12 volt dc power by hacking into the circuits and creating a power supply but one would require schematics of the tv and some little simple electronic knowledge to do the trick of converting a 120 volt ac tv to use 12 volt dc directly.

[reeman]

Here is a link to an answer if one can solder and knows a little bit about electricity and has a VOM.

This is what I am going to do to our rv 24" instead of using an inverter which does use more power.

[Thindirtline]

I installed a small 200w inverter behind the TV in my 2022 2108 TB that I purchased on Amazon. I connected it to the 12v wiring in the cabinet above the tv. When boondocking I plug the TV into the inverter. It also has four USB ports along with the two 110v outlets. The cost was about $60. It has an on/off switch that works for the 110v only. This solution has been working well.
Scott

[reeman]

Originally Posted by Thindirtline

I installed a small 200w inverter behind the TV in my 2022 2108 TB that I purchased on Amazon. I connected it to the 12v wiring in the cabinet above the tv. When boondocking I plug the TV into the inverter. It also has four USB ports along with the two 110v outlets. The cost was about $60. It has an on/off switch that works for the 110v only. This solution has been working well.
Scott

That is essentially what I have right now. The unfortunate part of going that route is, that the inverter does lose amp hours to heat as does the 120ac to 12dc circuits in the TV. A small amount, but depending upon the ratings of the components they can add up to the equivalent to running a 60-100 watt incandescent light bulb.

The way I intend to do it is with no conversion loss at all, just the draw of the tv and the 12 volt dvd player in the trailer. Which will be the equivalent of about a 30-40 watt light bulb or half the power draw of our current setup. It would make it possible to watch old movies on dvds for twice the time we can now without using too much of the ampacity of our batteries.

The whole point of a true 12 volt tv is to bypass the inverters that go dc/ac and then in the tv ac/dc and instead run off the batteries directly because the TV does not require 120 volt ac to 12 dc at all. I suspect some company will come out with a cheaper 12 volt home TV some day which will run off just a separate power supply than the 120 ac house line.

They are making many tv's so that it is possible to do that but they don't tell the customers that it is what is coming in the future with televisions, as the solar panel industry become more common and in consequence there will be a huge market for battery capable off grid TVs with both 12 volt dc and computers and their monitors. Avoiding 120 volt ac use in off grid as much as possible saves on power usage. Like a Ford Lightning being used to run ones house dc to ac inverters suck the power if they are running 120 volt ac devices. Good for short term emergency use but useless for long term power management.

Basically the TV could run off our 100 watt solar panel alone and not even need to be hooked into the trailer batteries during the day time.

Anyway I will start a thread based upon how this works out but first I need to do a little surgery on our new 24 inch RV tv and see if there is a 12 volt connector right on the board if not then it might just take some tracking and fine soldering instead of a cheap connector and a little bit of wires and a lighter plug.

[Marine359]

If OP is considering changing to 12v tv to conserve power, there is an alternative.
For boondocking, we don’t use our tv. We use our iPad which consumes a meager 10 watts versus 70 watts for a 32” LCD tv. So to watch a movie you save over 100 watt hours. The image on the iPad is plenty big enough if you’re sitting in bed, on the sofa or in the dinette, annd iPad is placed on sink cover. Easily recharged with any USB outlet.

[reeman]

Originally Posted by Marine359

We use our iPad which consumes a meager 10 watts versus 70 watts for a 32” LCD tv.

Tablets are ok but newer LED TVs are not that power hungry. They idle at less than a laptop and use only 30 to 40 watts only when the screen is bright. LCD is going the way of the dinosaur as did plasma tv because they are power pigs.

[BigE]

I ended up purchasing a 300 watt pure sine inverter with two plugs. I hooked it into the power circuit for the stereo. It now supplies power to the TV and the T Mobile home internet gateway. Hopefully the load is not too much. I don't think so. The T Mobile runs off of 2.9 amps at 15 or so volts. I don't think the TV draws much. I don't detect any increase fan heat discharge and it seems to work well. Knocked out two birds with one stone. Hope it works well. I am going to try everything out extensively this weekend.

[Eagle5]

Hi BigE,
The best thing about improving your RV is that you have to take it out to test everything .
Have fun and let us know how it goes.
Eagle5