power for laptop trolley

[MRT]

Much to my disgust the school is getting a laptop trolley and i am wondering if there are any power requirements or will it just plug into a normal socket???

[CPLTD]

Much to my disgust the school is getting a laptop trolley and i am wondering if there are any power requirements or will it just plug into a normal socket???

curious of why your are disgusted and which model are you being supplied ?

[MRT]

Don't want to spend my life pushing the damn thing round have been quoted for a Bretford 24 bay trolley.

[CPLTD]

Don't want to spend my life pushing the damn thing round have been quoted for a Bretford 24 bay trolley.

bretford are a great trolley, would you like a comparison quote

[MRT]

My manager say's no all we need to know is if we need a higher ampage socket for it to plug into.

[plexer]

They will plug into a standard 13amp plug I think the bretford now incorporate a soft start up because the inrush of a load of laptops can cause nuisance tripping.

Our Loxit trolleys have 2 plugs on them.

Ben

[brookesandrew]

Two of my primary schools have laptop trolleys, can't remember the makes, one school has a fully steel built one which is great (bought through Dell) has no problem plugged into a standard double 13amp socket in the ICT Suite, it also has lights to show when its on and charging and fans to keep it cool.

The other however, i think its a Lapcaddy (but dont quote me on that, the badge fell off within a week of it arriving) made of chipboard, its about 18months old now, both locks unusable as the keys have been broken off in them. We had a seperate power feed installed which is only used by the trolley, the trolley is capable of having 16 laptops in it (8 each side), but only has 14 at present (all Toshiba) and the second I plug one the plugs into the mains the "trip" is tripped so I tend to plug both plugs in and then wander off to the cupboard with the fuse board and reset the "trip". The problem here is I am in one day a week and none of the teachers read the big sign above the power sockets asking them to check the fuse board so I often get complaints that the laptops are never charged. I am hoping the head will get an electrician in to check the sockets otherwise i'll be looking at buying a couple of surge arresting plugs and fitting them to the trolley over the summer.

If I had my way none of my schools would have laptop trolleys, they seem to cause more trouble than they are worth, fixed ICT Suites are much less troublesome.

Hope this helps.

[MRT]

Thanks Brookesandrew it is as i suspected looks like will have to investigate a separate switch or something my manager and i don't want then either but the head whos an idiot does so already lost the battle.

[maniac]

Much to my disgust the school is getting a laptop trolley and i am wondering if there are any power requirements or will it just plug into a normal socket???

You only have one! You lucky person - we have 13 trollys of laptops here, but if you've got a good enterprise standard wireless system to run them through, then they present very few problems and infact I've grown to like working with laptops - so much easier to move around the building, store and setup. They're here to stay whatever we think of them, so may as well embrase the technology and make the most of it.

Anyhow, in answer to your question a standard 13a plug is fine, but watch it when they are swiched on as 30 low voltage adapters all turning on at once can cause RCD's to trip. Not because of overload, but because of the tiny earth leakage that occurs with these type of adapters. If they are going to be based in one place, I would recommend if there is an RCD in the circuit, getting it changed to a 'C' rated one which has a slightly higher trip rating and is designed for circuits running ICT equipment. (Standard RCDs trip at 30ma and are rated 'B') this will prevent any problems occuring relating to circuits tripping out when they are plugged in.

Saying that, it's not always the case as a large number of our cabinets are perfectally ok on normal RCDs, it seems to be that certain makes that are more sensitive to this than others.

Mike.

[Andrew_C]

I would recommend if there is an RCD in the circuit, getting it changed to a 'C' rated one which has a slightly higher trip rating and is designed for circuits running ICT equipment. (Standard RCDs trip at 30ma and are rated 'B') this will prevent any problems occuring relating to circuits tripping out when they are plugged in.

Close, but no cigar! The letter rating refers to the speed at which the breaker will trip on overload faults; A fastest, D slowest. There are regulations on how slow you can take this, based on the impedance of the entire loop from the substation to you and back again via the earth connection.

The earth leakage sensitivity and speed is indicated by the numbers. ie 30mA/30mS or 100mA/100mS. The former is designed for life protection, the later for fire protection only. I'd guess that this is where your troubles lie.

There are all sorts of variations on speed and sensitivity. If a trolley is causing trips, it would be well worth getting a sparks in to look at de-rating the troublesome device, but it isn't a no-brainer!

[MRT]

Thank you for that information i will now investgate that avenue but what really want is not to be here in Setember and never work in another school.