Uninterruptible power supply?
 

Even a modest UPS would power my phone and laptop for a day of travel. I'm assuming the TSA would confiscate it before I could use it to power my laptop on board. Does anybody know for sure if bringing a UPS on board is prohibited? I would of course have to mute the horrible "warning, I'm not plugged into the wall" beeping....

I think this is a creative idea! I am not aware of any prohibition, but I don't know "for sure."

TSA appear to specifically prohibit batteries in *checked* baggage, which makes sense to me. Instead TSA explicitly requires that (certain) batteries be carried on. See Safe Travel with Batteries and Devices. Depending on the UPS, and the TSA agent on hand, you might be "covered" by this.

I also found a DOT Safe Travel site that discusses larger batteries.

I think carry-on of a small unit (as you suggest) seems plausible. I have seen people carry on entire PCs (I mean no box---it's like they grabbed the machine off their desk and drove to the airport), and in fact I have carried on (packed) computers. Of course typical PCs don't have large batteries in them, but they are visually-similar electronics that are permitted. My guess is if anyone asked, and you "explained" that it was related to your work (as opposed to "I want to watch more movies on the plane"), you might be OK.

Unfortunately it seems like "failure" at a TSA checkpoint could cost you the unit, as you might also be prohibited (see above) from checking it either.

Most UPSes I've had require an certain amount of current being drawn from them to even stay on. A phone charger might not be enough to keep it on. To be honest though, it would be much more efficient to bring one of those phone chargers that uses AAs and a spare laptop battery. At least that way you're going DC-DC and not DC-AC-DC.

What you are looking for is a Energizer Xpal backup battery. No horrible beeps like a UPS. Don't know how the TSA feels about them though.

I have traveled for two year with something similar to that made by Kingston. It is smaller than my BB9800 and half as thick as backup power.
For my X201 I just buy an extra battery. Two batteries will take me from DTW/MSP/ATL to NRT.

Instead of a full blown UPS why not just an AC battery pack which is much smaller at the same capacity without the UPS circuitry. If you are a fan of Macgyver you can buy a 12V battery and a 12V-110V inverter.

I had a 2AA USB charger bought in HK for about $1.50USD that I carry around before th Kingston powerpack.

While there are many external batteries that will server you well, the Tekkeon MP3450 is one special because a) it's extensible b) it will power your devices even while charging. http://3gstore.com/product/2242_tekk...tery-pack.html "the MP3450i will be recharged while simultaneously allowing A/C power to the device being powered by battery". That's awesome. Most external batteries simply won't do that.

I have a related question.
Here is my requirement.
Battery/UPS capacity(12V) 180 Ah Max 125 Ah Min (for 8 hour use)
Current Draw (12 V) 15.4 Amp Min 10.4 A Min (for 8 hour use)
(current draw and capacity would be halved for a 24 batter or UPS
The set up with the A/C mains is the following
~(Mains110V)====>charger====>UPS/Battery====>Inverter(140WMin/260W Peak)====>Device
In absence of mains, the setup would be
UPS/Battery====>Inverter(140WMin/260W Peak)====>Device

The inverter outputs has to be a pure sine wave.
a battery or UPS of that capacity would be very heavy, I think, and expensive too. Am correct?
In that case, I can make do with
Battery/UPS capacity(12V) 22 Ah (for 8 hour use)
Current Draw (12 V) 1.9 Amp(for 8 hour use)
~(Mains110V)====>charger====>UPS/Battery(22Ah)====>Inverter(60WMin/180W Peak)====>Device with reduced functionality
Again, I can use a 24 V battery/ups with half the current draw and half the capacity
The capacity includes a 50% margin.

I would appreciate any ideas. Thanks very much in advance.

Buy a good one
 

The only advice I will add to this is to buy a good external battery. I originally bought a battery from an outfit called Cal-Chip through Airport Wireless. My first unit failed after 2 weeks. I set it back for a replacement, which the company quickly and cheerfully replaced. The second one functioned for about 20 charge cycles and then rapidly deteriorated, retaining maybe 25 % of its original capacity (my estimate based on run time)
I have since bought the Energizer Xpal XP18000. I have been pleased with this unit. http://www.xpalpower.com/us/products/xp18000/

I have always had good luck with items from the 3G store as well. If they sell it it is probably good quality.

PT

The TSA are completely cool with batteries in hand luggage.

I bought two APC 1500VA UPS through MIA about 2 months ago. So as to not exceed my luggage allowance I put a UPS in each suitcase then took the batteries out as they weighed about 7kg each.

Presuming the TSA would be as thick as a whale omelette, I printed out the APC and DOT guidance for Sealed Lead Acid batteries.

http://nam-en.apc.com/ci/fattach/get/415796/

http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/de...VnNVeU1ibms%3D

Nice Mr TSO grabbed my carry on to assist it through the xray machine and said "What the f?" upon realising that it was substantially heavier than he might have imagined.

The batteries got put in a tray and tested for explosives and I was on my way, I didn't even get groped.

Or, more efficiently, there are batteries meant to plug into the power port of your laptop. No conversion losses. They don't put out enough voltage to actually charge the internal pack so you have no losses there, either. (The idea is you use up the externals first.)

Bolding mine: Maybe/maybe not ;): http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...rmish-slc.html

OK how about "The TSA are completely cool with batteries in hand luggage [so long as they are sealed lead acid batteries with non exposed terminals that are unable to short in transit along with their accompanying documentation just in case you need to tell the TSA how to do their job]?

Better ;) (and touché)

I'm curious why the need for UPS on a 'day of travel'?
My last 'day of travel' was 44 hours long.
I used 75% of the charge on my phone for games/movie/music/sms.
I used 1.5 complete discharges of the my laptop battery. Which I topped off both times in my lay-overs in the airport. At no time was I in fear for running out of battery power on either device.