Travel Technology - Adhoc Powerpoints on Planes

I know unless your flying first class, you don't get your own private powerpoint to plug your goodies into, but even in economy, surely there are adhoc powerpoints scattered around the place for like the cleaners to plug their vacuum cleaners in etc and if you luck out, you might be near one ?

I have so much cool stuff loaded up on my laptop to watch but of course battery life is a limiting factor. I have one spare battery

Ditto with my Creative Zen mp4 player, also loaded with stuff to watch

It depends on the airline. A number of carriers have outlets available in Y, either throughout or in a portion of the cabin. SeatGuru (http://www.seatguru.com) has details on power at seats for many airlines.

As for "other" outlets, I have seen them around on various planes, though there have been discussion about the power coming out of them, and some indications that they aren't necessarily 110V/60Hz. That may be a problem if you plug in to them. I'm not sure if it is true or not, but it is scary enough to me that I wouldn't risk it.

Oh, and from the title of the thread I really thought that this was going to be a thread about how to hook a laptop up to the overhead IFE screens to give a presentation using PowerPoint :D

A higher class of service doesn't necessarily mean that you can recharge your stuff.
In my last 40 segments in business class (on 5 different airlines), I didn't once have access to a socket.
I did once spot an adhoc point (in an Alitalia MD80), but I asked the purser and he told me that it was not safe for charging electronics.

I know unless your flying first class, you don't get your own private powerpoint to plug your goodies into,

Not necssarily true. American and even US Air sometimes have power points in Economy. But not in all seats. On the other hand, some airlines don't even offer it in First Class! Check out seatguru.com .

Per your original question, I have heard there are a handful of 'secret' power points on some planes, but never seen one myself.

I have so much cool stuff loaded up on my laptop to watch but of course battery life is a limiting factor. I have one spare battery

There is another option, I use 2 APC Universal Notebook batteries.

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=upb70
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=upb60

I first bought the 60W unit, and it did the job for the flight from SYD-LAX, but then I found myself flying further without power, so I bought the 70W (not available when I bought the 60W) which has a nice USB port for charging your devices.

This was back when I owned a IBM T30 with 4 hours battery if I really pushed it.

I've since upgraded to an IBM X60 (8-10 Hours battery) but still travel with 70W as a backup to charge the laptop while I sleep.

There is an art to trimming down battery usage while flying.

You can stop services, make them start manual if needed altogether

I have 2 CMD files on my desktop.

FLYING or NOT-FLYING

1) Shuts down everything including firewall and all the other services I do not need, while I know I'm not on a network or the need for.

2) Starts everything backup as normal as per 1) (I prefer to reboot in the hotel anyway, but good enough for a transit)

Depending on your notebook, it does take some time to work this stuff out, but as everyone knows Windows is just bloated.

Even with the APC devices, you need to configure a profile (Flying on Battery) that keeps your notebook at low power on the APC batteries, else it will suck them dry.

Mainly because the notebook will see the APC battery as a 240/110 supply.

I don't know if they still do, but several years ago Delta's larger planes had a 110V outlet near the front entrance door. It wasn't in a place where you could plug in and use a laptop, too far from even Row 1 with the closet in the way, but more than once I used it to recharge one while I wasn't using it.

Whether the cabin crew would let you leave a laptop on the floor there in this day and age is a question I can't answer.

Be aware that on many aircraft, the "aircraft" power system operates as 110V at 400Hz. Power in the aircraft is then provided as one of three types:
[list] 110V @ 400Hz used for AC power devices on the aircraft, including the power sockets used by cleaner's equipment
DC power buses rectified and regulated from the 400Hx AC system.
In-seat power systems delivered by inverting the DC power into 110V AC

The in-seat power systems operate either as a DC system (such as Empower) or have an inverter system to provide 110V @ 50 or 60Hz. With both of these systems, the power output per connection is generally limited ti less than 90W (often 75W).

The reason the generic aircraft power system operates at 400Hz is that the generators require less ferrous material to generate at the higher frequency, hence saving considerable weight over a generator operating at 50 or 60Hz. While the lower frequency is more efficient for long distance and lossy power distribution systems, an aircraft is very much a closed system where losses and transmission distances are very much contained, making it more efficient to generate AC power at the higher frequency than we would find in a terrestrial power distribution system.

So the end result is that the vacuum cleaners used by the aircraft cleaning crews are specifically designed to operate at 400Hz from the aircraft AC power generation system. But most home and consumer electronics are not designed for 400Hz and some may be permanently damaged if connected to a 400Hz power source. While some devices may work if connected to the aircraft's 400Hz power system, I would never risk connecting any of my devices to it.