[Gordon Setter Lover]

My wife and I are about to start traveling in a motor coach and she won't go unless the Bolt goes with us. It seems that powering it with 12V dc power should work, has anyone done this?

I plan to use a cellular hot spot to connect for guides.

Thanks!

 

[Redoctobyr]

Do you mean a 12V DC power adapter that simply plugs into the cigarette lighter? Essentially just a wire that adapts the physical cigarette lighter plug to a plug that will fit the Bolt, with no electronics in-between?

That would make me nervous. The cigarette lighter voltage can vary with engine RPM (and will likely be more like 13.5V or higher when running, not 12V), and can also be somewhat "noisy", having fast and small voltage fluctuations (kind of like a small AC component, to what should be just DC voltage). I wouldn't be comfortable feeding that directly to sensitive electronics that expect a clean 12V DC input.

Now, if you're talking about something that plugs into the cigarette lighter, but still has a power brick to clean up the power into a proper 12V DC, that would probably be better. The adapter would need to provide at least as many amps as the TiVo-supplied power brick. This thread seems to show that the Bolt supply provides 12V, 3.0A:
Bolt Power Consumption?

 

[jebbbz]

Do we know the dimensions of the DC plug? It would be nice to have a backup handy.

(It looks to be about 5.5mm OD and 2.5 ID but that is me rounding my caliper's measurements.)

 

[Redoctobyr]

This thread
Alternate power adapter for bolt

links to a BenQ 12V 5A adapter that someone is using with their Bolt
Replacement 60W 12V 5A Adapter Charger for Benq LCD Monitors | eBay

The eBay description for the BenQ says
"- Input: AC100-240V (worldwide use), Output: DC12V 5A
- DC connecter size: internal diameter: 2.5mm, external diameter: 5.5mm"

The picture seems to show that the center tip is Positive (polarity is important if buying a 3rd party adapter).