The Geeky Asian Guy Blog

You’re driving along, your cell phone dies.  No problem — you have one of those phone chargers that plugs into the cigarette lighter.  You hook it up and…

Nothing happens.

What they don’t tell you when you buy the g.d. thing is that a lot of car chargers don’t work if the cell phone’s battery is completely dead.

Geek tip:  Don’t waste your money buying a charger that plugs into your cigarette lighter.  Instead, get something called an “inverter,” which converts the output of your cigarette lighter socket into 120V AC.  When you need to charge your cell phone (laptop, pda, etc.), just plug the regular charger cord (the one you plug into a wall socket) into the inverter. 

You can find a decent one on the internet for $30-$40 bucks (and it will be good for *all* your chargeable gear, as well as any small corded electrical appliances you may want to use while the car is running).

Warning — when it’s plugged in, you should treat the inverter just like you would treat a live extension cord from a wall socket.

Also, you may find that the car has to be moving at a reasonable clip in order for the inverter to work at full capacity.