Running TV off battery in Bambi Sport 16

[tjwoods1]

I was wondering if I could run the Samsung Television that came with my 2015 Bambi Sport off of just the battery? It looks like the TV Is 12v but presently only runs on shore power or through an inverter. I thought I read on a thread somewhere that if I purchased or made a cigarette lighter adapter plug I could run the TV off the battery. The 2015 Sport 16 doesn't come with a 12v plug, but I switched one of the USB plugs for one. I also read that a 12v regulator would help keep the RV from wigging out from voltage fluctuations. Any thoughts on how to run the existing TV off battery?

[Al and Missy]

IF the TV has a separate power supply and sends 12V DC to the TV, then all you need to do is make a cable to run from the cigarette lighter socket to the TV. If you still have a Radio Shack in your area, take the TV power supply to them and have them get you the parts you need, particularly the plug for the TV. Unless the power supply sends 12V AC to the TV you will need to observe polarity. Either the TV or the power supply or both should have a diagram showing which part of the TV connector is positive and should be connetcted to the tip of the cigarette lighter plug. In most cases, the center of the TV plug is positive, but not all, so you must be careful or you could kill the TV.

Al

[Yachthalo]

Our 2011 16ft has a 120V tv set. We have used a small inverter to power it. Can't do it for a long time, esp with heater on, unless have solar to recharge next day. So, TV set draws little enough to run with small inverter, but the larger question is your overall 12V drain and charge. Try never to take battery down more than 50%, otherwise its life is reduced a lot.

[scamp]

What I did is replace the t.v. Antenna amplifier wall plate with a upgrade wall plate that has a 12 volt power outlet , then I bought a small 75 watt power inverter that plugs directly into the TV wall plate amplifier 12 volt plug and voila! Just plug the TV 120 volt cord into the inverter ,took a whole 5 minutes to upgrade the TV amplifier wall plug! I got it from Amazon it's a original wine guard wall plug - amplifier outlet. No modifications ,mounts in original location no drilling .
Don

[Boxite]

Many smaller TV sets are actually 12V DC already... they simply have a pwr supply built into the cord to convert the 110 VAC to 12V DC for the television's use. Check yours closely. If it uses a corded pwr supply (such as many laptop computers) you may find that to be the case. In such cases, a simple cigar-lighter type plug is probably all that is needed. (In fact, if you have purchased an after-market TV then the packaging probably included such a cord.)
The data-box on the rear of your TV should indicate the voltage and current requirements.

[Shiny16]

Had to bring this back to life.

I have a 2016 sport 16. Is the 📺 supposed to work on battery power?

Thanks

[Troutboy]

Shiny, do you have an inverter? You need an inverter to run the TV off batteries

[jsabatier]

I have 2017 Bambi. Tv needs 16 volts. Runs nice on small inverter and small draw on batteries

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by Troutboy

Shiny, do you have an inverter? You need an inverter to run the TV off batteries

No inverter. I just thought that the TV was a 12 volt TV.

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by jsabatier

I have 2017 Bambi. Tv needs 16 volts. Runs nice on small inverter and small draw on batteries

What kind of inverter and did you install it somewhere or just plug it in.


Thanks

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by scamp

What I did is replace the t.v. Antenna amplifier wall plate with a upgrade wall plate that has a 12 volt power outlet , then I bought a small 75 watt power inverter that plugs directly into the TV wall plate amplifier 12 volt plug and voila! Just plug the TV 120 volt cord into the inverter ,took a whole 5 minutes to upgrade the TV amplifier wall plug! I got it from Amazon it's a original wine guard wall plug - amplifier outlet. No modifications ,mounts in original location no drilling .
Don

I just found this.

https://www.amazon.com/OUTLET-ANTENN...Y2HTJC48FTB066

[NorCal Matt]

Hi shiny! No, your TV will not work on battery as it comes from the factory. On our 16', I installed a small inverter near the TV and used that. I've seen others get 12v from the antenna switch and use a cigarette style inverter.

[NorCal Matt]

Sorry, I hadn't refreshed since last night.

[Shiny16]

Thanks guys.

[Boxite]

My TV came with a 120V wall plug but I noticed it had an output of 12V DC, so I located a suitable end-plug identical to that of the output of the wall transformer and wired it to a common cigar plug and plugged it into the 12v outlet adjacent to the antenna amplifier and it works perfectly off the TV battery. In fact, while camping at Chaco Canyon two weeks ago I also wired my Blue-Ray/DVD player into the same plug so that the 12V cigar plug powers both and I can even watch a DVD if I'm out of range of Air-Broadcasts (such as in Chaco Canyon.)

Yep... 22 miles of 4-wheeler-torn-up dirt/mud road to get there and the campsights were FULL...except got lucky and there was one no-show...so we camped out for two days of blissful enjoyment of that remote pueblo showcase.

Watched "French Kiss" and the Chaco Canyon DVD on TV 12V battery power.

BTW... for all you guys who worry endlessly about which batteries and which converter and what kind of solar power you think you need to boondock for a week.... we did just that for an entire month with our SINGLE Wal-Mart EasyStart 27DC flooded cell battery and the Airstream OEM WFCO converter and we never ran short of power, even running lights, water heater and furnace without extraordinary conservation effort. About every 2 or 3 days we drove several hours to a new campsight and the Tow Vehicle recharged the trailer battery just fine! I occasionally checked with a digital VOM and found that we left campsites with about 12.1 volts in the battery and began the next campsite with about 12.9 volts. We ran the furnace all nite long for two days on top of Santa Fe Ski basin and still never ran short of battery power. (I hope this encourages newbies to quit worrying over battery power that the endless discussions seem to fret over and go use your ordinary flooded cell batteries and avoid all the trouble and expense the nitpickers get themselves into.) Hope this helps.

[waninae39]

no, it cant run on 12v. Our sport 22Fb LG 22LJ4540 TV runs off 19V.

thus you need the inverted to power to TV's brick

i suggest getting a replacement TV with more features

ie ours does not have AUDIO out thus it cant play sound through the trailer speakers

[uncle_bob]

Hi

If you are super into DIY electronics, you can build a 12V to 19V converter. The advantage of doing this is much better efficiency than a 12V DC -> 120 V AC -> 19V DC conversion process. The downside is that if you get it wrong, you blow up your TV

Bob

[Boxite]

Originally Posted by Boxite

My TV came with a 120V wall plug but I noticed it had an output of 12V DC, so I located a suitable end-plug identical to that of the output of the wall transformer and wired it to a common cigar plug and plugged it into the 12v outlet adjacent to the antenna amplifier and it works perfectly off the TV battery. ...

Ooops. I didn't mean it "works off the TV battery". I meant it works off the trailer battery...a common flooded cell, WalMart EasyStart 27DC. We've run the furnace, all on-board necessities, and the television/DVD-player and FM-radio for days on end without difficulty. I'm trying to figure out why so many others seem to need much more/much more expensive battery-equipment to accomplish the same tasks. KISS seems to work fine.

[larry9000]

We just got a 2006 16' Bambi. It has an older TV that doesn't even get digital channels, so we are swapping it out for a 12v model. There's an accessory socket nearby we can use. But here is a strange situation: the antenna amp switch only goes on when connected to 110v. Though the amp runs off of 12v, it must be powered by a transformer (or converter) from the trailer's 110v circuit. I guess Airstream did it this way by assuming that no one can run the TV unless connected to 110v anyway. So, my question is this: will the TV work with an unamplified antenna? If not, I will need to figure out how to get native 12v for the amplifier too.

[waninae39]

the LG 22LJ4540 TV in our sport 22fb runs on 19V DC
thus will NOT work on 12 V

check the voltage needed for your TV first before doing any changes