DC power adapter question ASAP

Dec 05, 2005 5 Replies

Hey - I'm sure someone here can answer this lickety split.



I have a box with about 20+ of those ac-dc power bricks that I have accumulated over the years. I dug out one of my gadgets that needs one and of course I cant find the correct one. Errr. OK, I have a plug from one that fits but its voltage is wrong. I need 12V 1000mA according to the label on the device. Many of my bricks are 300-500mA, one is 1.2A. I figure I can splice up the wires from a plug that fits to a properly rated power supply. I would like to use one of the 300-500mA supplies but I expect bad things could happen. I suspect that I'm OK using the



12V 1.2A power supply once I get the correct plug on.

Am I correct?



Thanks!



I can't tell you for sure because you didn't say whether the original was ac or dc.

But, if they're both ac then you should be fine. If they're dc, make sure you get the polarity at the plug the same as it was, huh?

HTH,

Jeff

12v 1.2a is ok but wire the plug polarity correctly , see if apliance pin is hot and how the 2 transformers are wired, they are all labled,

It will more than likely be fine although there *could* be issues with regulation if the original was regulated and the replacement is not and puts out excessive voltage. Ditto quality of filtration.

Thanks for the quick replies!

This a an 'X-drive' - Its a portable hard drive with a CF card slot. Its used to automatically off-load contents of CF cards, like from digital cameras, to the hard drive. Much more portable than a laptop. The power supply charges an internal battery. I'm leaving for a trip in the AM and want to be able to avoid buying a bunch of memory cards for my digital camera if I don't have to. I will have a laptop as a backup but I'm not carrying that around on my vacation, that will stay in the hotel room. So, worst case I may need to buy another memory card and then off-load them at the end of the day. This x-drive allows me to off-load the pictures anytime (it fits in your pocket).

Or you could go to RadioShack and get a universal unit and the correct plug. A drive could fail if done wrong, such as polarity or some supplys initialy output to high. But on a drive its still a risk with aftermarket anything.

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