HP Smart Pin on power transformer

[David48Francis]

My wife and I have lived full tim between 2 different motor homes - in 2 different countries.

The 12V van I have had equipped with a 12V/19V DC to DC Converter which has powered and run my old Pavilion for 6 years. 

The 24V/12V van I have had equipped with both a 12V/19V DC to DC Converter from the house batteries, and a 24V/19V DC to DC Converter to run from the motor battery both of which have been used to power and run my old Pavilion for 6 years. 

The Pavillion sadly "died" and I replaced it with the Omen.

I have now had made 2 12V/19.5V DC to DC Converters and a 24V/19.5V DC to DC Converter to suit the requirements of the Omen.

Unfortunately, having even disected one of the new 3 pin plugs that I had to go on the end of the power out cables (The Pavilion ony had the common 2 pin plug) I cannot figure out how to get the Omen to accept the new power sources and allow me to run the Omen with the new supply also plugged in so I am running as if I had the 230v Transformer plugged into the mains.

Currently I can only run from the Omen's battery, then turn off and recharge, then start using it again.

I need to sort out exactly how to put the correct power signal on the 3rd pin to get this to work. Googling for an answer produces a few vague and so far unhelpful "suggestions" as to what may possibly be needed.

I am a very heavy user of Lightroom for my photogaphy/travel interests and being a full time traveller, having to be limited on my computer up time, and recharge time is a real nuisance.

Any help with the correct activation of the third pin would be a real lifesaver for me.

[Damnation]

I am not an electrician by no means and I dont know the standards of power in your country. You should find an electrician that knows his stuff in your area. This could potentially be dangerous. My omen is 230watts. I dont know how volts and watts work so please find a professional to help you and confirm. With that being said the following info may or may not help you in your quest.

I believe in the usa our third pin is usually for ground. I dont know how it is for you though so please be careful. We usually have 2 pins on alot of cords but something like the omen comes with a third pin because it needs to be grounded. There is so much power going thru it that it needs a ground just in case something goes wrong.

I would try to find an electrician in your area tho to confirm this. You may be able to just wire the pin to a ground of some type. Ground doesnt always mean the physical ground. When building computers people will wear bracelets that attach to the frame or metal case of the pc so they are "grounded" incase of static discharge. They do this to keep static from destroying the parts they handle. Also grounding to the wrong thing could destroy the device and possibly cause physical harm and even DEATH!

Please Please find a professional to help you. Nothing is worth your life.

[REO51ST]

Welcome to the HP Support Community @David48Francis

The 3rd pin???

The 3rd pin on the AC wall outlet or 3rd center pin on the DC jack???

REO

[Damnation]

oh. I thought he meant the pins on the plug to the wall........... he might mean that. can he even draw enough power from those sources tho? Why would he need to disect that part tho?

[Damnation]

@REO51ST Does he mean that he is not using the provided power brick? Like hes got his own supply to the laptop itself totally bypassing the cable/brick it came with.

[David48Francis]

I am sorry if this has caused some confusion.

Every reference to the pin that you have arrowed in red refers to it as a Smart Pin which is used to tell the computer that it is a genuine HP Power Supply  - (Though Dell works too). The idea seems to be that HP is trying to make sure that people can only use thier own manufacturered power supplys and not use 3rd part mains supply ones from what goggling the Smart Pin seems to tell me.

I have absolutely no issue with using the 230V transformer, except that I live full time in an environment where I have either 12V DC or 24V DC available and no 230V AC.

The DC to DC Converters I have step the 12V up and 24V down to match the 19.5 V output from the mains transformer. It is a far more efficient and "Battery Friendly" way of getting the required 19.5V DC than using an inverter and the transformer. This requires converting DC to AC to DC which generates a lot of heat (efficiency loss) as well as an inverter making demands on the source battery (ies) which shortens the battery life and consumes the avaliable DC storage in the batteries at a very high rate.

As I said, I have had this DC to DC conversion running perfectly for 6 years for a conversion to 19V for my Pavillion, which only used a 2 pin connector and did not have the Smart Pin. 

I am trying to find out exactly what connection to make to the 3rd pin - the so called Smart Pin to convince my Omen that the 19.5V DV arriving through the computer input plug is coming via something that it can recognise as a valid source and allow the computer to use the 19.5V DC being supplied whilst the computer is in use.

Without this recognition the computer will NOT use the supplied DC voltage whislt the computer is running - hence I can only run on battery, then turn the computer off and use this DC input to charge the computer battery up again, then carry on using the computer until I run to apoint where I need to recharge again.

Again I am sorry if there was some confusion and I trust this makes my need clear - I need to know what voltage should be present (under load) on the Smart Pin, the pin labelled with the Red Arrow.

Thanks