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Whoa dad is that a vintage 1970s 6.3VDC 400mA?
Yes, yes it is, son.
Oops, the jack is half a millimeter too big. Time to find another one…
just wait until he learns about polarity
And no more radio shack to buy more of these!
I really don’t know where to go any longer for some things like this. I know, interwebs has it but I usually have questions that scamazon won’t answer.
Mouser or Digikey are your friends here.
You pay a little more than the cheap stuff on Amazon but you can be sure you’re getting the exact specs you ordered.
Mouser really is to me a neat lil store. You get in, ask the guy in the counter for the exact stuff you want, they type one or two things in a computer, check if that’s actually what you want and in less than 5 minutes they fetch it
That’s not how websites work
They have physical locations?
Stuart Little himself rings you up
Technically, yes, websites have physical locations in that they are hosted such that, no matter how many levels of containerization and virtualization there are, they eventually run and exist in some way on physical hardware.
No, as in Mauser has physical retail stores
Do they? I thought they sold their firearms through dealers.
If it’s important… Double check the output with a meter just to be sure. Only got burned by it once, but for expensive/complex circuits, just give the critical components a sanity check.
Thrift stores, maybe? It’s been like a decade since I’ve been inside a thrift store, so idunno if they still have these
That’s nothing I have an adapter kit that allows you to charge any type of. All of the big name brands like, Nokia, and Motorola.
It’s a wild collection of 16 pins and barrel jacks and split connectors or if you want to go super futuristic mini USB B. I can charge any phone I want provided the phone I want to charge was manufactured before about 1995.
Last month, the power adapter to my router died out of nowhere. I wasted a ton of time troubleshooting literally everything else other than the power adapter because I’ve never had one die before the actual device itself.
Of course none of the other adapters I had on hand fit. I had to order a new one…
I’ve had that situation a few times.
Just cut off the end and soldered it to another power adapter of appropriate voltage/amperage/pinning (be especially watchful in case one is centerpin positive and the others centerpin negative)
That feels like something I probably could do… But under no circumstances should do.
Should I spend the next hour or two soldering something I will always have anxiety over being a fire hazard, or should I spend $3.97 on amazon to have it here the next day. ¯\(ツ)/¯
With a soldering iron and another supply with the same voltage and amperage, anything is possible.
Seems like a fire hazard
Not if you wrap the wires with enough electrical tape to cover a football field
You’d be absolutely wrong, the adapter is on the low voltage side probably between 5-12v DC Even if you shorted it you’d just blow the transformer.
It’s also extremely easy to do…
Things are easy to do when you know how to do them.
There’s always a first time for learning something new. So go ahead and try it on something small and inconsequential when the opportunity presents itself.
Just need to know the basics of electricity and how it goes where. Many wires are colour coded too, so there’s even less to worry about.
Its also easy to learn how to do
Seems like you’re guessing
I mean, if you want to solder your own power adapter and don’t have any fear of producing something that could present a fire risk and put your home and family in danger, knock yourself out.
I am ok buying one online for $10. I also don’t have time to solder my own power adapters to save $10.
I wouldn’t recommend an inexperienced person mess with AC voltage but a 5-12V DC power adapter with a couple Amps max is a long way from dangerous and it’s not a fire hazard either really
You’re overestimating the skill required. Also, these connections are almost always “low-voltage”, so the risks are easily mitigated.
My dad has been an electrical engineer since the early 70’s. My inheritance in this regard is staggering.
The ferrite is strong with this one.
A lot of those work for other products. It’s still good, don’t throw it away.
The problem is you have to retain like 100 of them for the off chance that one of them fails in a device that you currently own.
Also the older ones are not very power efficient
Virgin inifficent ac-to-dc converter user vs chad pure DC system user
I love that pretty much everything short of heavy appliances you can think of comes in 12v 10a max cigarette plug or USB now. USBC PD -to -dc plug adapter is fuck in awesome
Never really thought about it, but everything being powered by USB has been extremely convenient for the last few years. When did this happen? I’m sitting here watching my flashlight charge with my phone’s power cord, and it never occurred to me that that’s rad as hell
I have a USB-PD wall plug and a battery that are both capable of 100W charging.
I use the same charger and cable to charge my laptop, phone, headphones, wireless mouse, soldering iron, and the portable battery (which itself can also charge all the others) Probably a bunch of others I’m forgetting.
It has significantly reduced the number of chargers and cables I need to carry around. I only buy usb-c capable accessories now.
Anyone who ever has to do some soldering on the go should check out the Pinecil soldering iron from Pine64, it’s a great tool at a truly incredible value and it can do 85W soldering from a USB-PD battery (or wall charger)
I love it so much! Feels like we are finally approaching a true universal connector now (after like 30 years and half a dozen revisions since USB 1.0) My favorite USB thing currently is an extremely energy efficent electric blanket. It may only consume 10w (its just standard USB not PD) but it keeps me surprisingly warm during the winter night and doesnt eat into my limited power. No 3 hour shutoff either it stays on all night.
The fact that USBC PD 3.0 can pump out up to 100w is just nuts
I have a drawer full of these as well. But they wont move to the next apartment once I move.
You will need one within a week of getting rid of them and it will cost you $60-$80 dollars. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had them for a month or 10 years without needing one, as soon as you get rid of them, you’ll need them.
Thrift store. There are always dozens there.
Which is also where you should donate you’re unneeded ones. that way, the day after donating them, you know where you can get cheap ones because you all of a sudden need some.
That’s what you say now.
We should all get together and make a bank of these adapters, gather them all up in one place in every city so that when you have an electric razor with no power cord, you can just go down to the Adapter Bank and find something that fits
The other day I noticed a device with an adapter that had wildly different amps and voltage but the Watts were the same and it fit so…
I think it goes there…
That is going to result either in a bang or nothing happening.
You can use a power supply if:
-
the plug fits
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the polarity is correct ( - and + are at the correct location)
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the voltage matches
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the current and wattage is the same or higher
#4 is subtle. It might work with less current, but this is a caveat not appropriate for novices.
#3 is also sometimes not a problem, many devices work with a bit lower or higher voltage. It’s because the DC to DC converter that is used to control the voltage for the device itself is tolerant enough.
Sometimes devices are multiple volts tolerant with the caviate that the components get warmer with higher input voltage and therefore the device could have reduced life expectency. If the devices where not tolerant especially for lower voltages a slightly bad cable or a long cable could drop the voltage enough so the device wouldn’t function.
-
I think I have a big box of them somewhere. They have come in handy from time to time.
Yeah I use mine a lot. Especially the ones from broken open external harddrives (“shucking”). They’re usually 12V 2A and very useful for a myriad of tasks. Like my Unifi USG that has a notoriously bad PSU. I didn’t even have to change the plug!
Having some spare AC adapters with barrel connectors is a pretty handy thing to have around if you do any electronics work
Can confirm. Hmmm, 5V 2 A….
Are you pondering what I pondering? Type A to barrel.
Wdym by barrel? So inefficient compared to directly plugging in the live wires to whatever you need
An effects pedal collector’s dream, really.
I literally inherited a massive collection of these when my ex died because his family didn’t want to deal with them. I tried to save one of each plug type but I couldn’t store 50 lbs of adapters forever
When I was a kid my dad would spend hours in the surplus electronics shop avoiding my demon of a mother. I used to untangle and wind up these things just for something to do. They had like oil drums (but cardboard) full of them, all tied in huge knots.
As someone who designs and builds tons of gadgets having lots of random wall warts around is very helpful.
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But why would you ever need more than 3 + jumper wires?
