Caltrops - American McGee's Honda Civic

Forum Overview :: American McGee's Honda Civic

by Dunc 08/21/2003, 3:47am PDT

Choson wrote:

My question is, have I fried the shit out of the adapter?

Possibly. Your typical DC adaptor has a transformer (steps down the voltage, steps up the current) followed by some type of rectifier circuit (see the top schematic...BTW, that '7805' box is your regulator, which cleans up the output - the voltage right after the diodes and caps still carries some of the 50/60 Hz hum). Putting 240V on one side of the transformer should roughly double the voltage on the other side (compared to what it was with 120V on the input), which means double the voltage across the diodes. Did they survive? I dunno....did anything smell funny?

Choson wrote:

Also, I've got an AC-DC adapter here from a friend that works on Beijing AC input, and has rated output DC4.5V 1A. I've been trawling Google News for a definitive answer, but those places are full of people arguing about whether or not that extra 0.4A is no big deal or if it'll blow the load up. Anyone want to give this one a shot? I have no idea how to tell if it's a "regulated adapter", also.

I say go ahead and use it. The deal with DC adaptors is they're supposed to look (electrically) like Ideal Voltage Sources - that is, for any amount of current you draw from it (up to the current rating) the voltage remains constant - 4.5V in your case. To your MP3 player, a 4.5V supply with a 0.6A limit should look no different than a 4.5V supply with a 1A limit, since the player shouldn't be exceeding the 0.6A limit anyway. People don't design electronics expecting to hit the limit of their DC supplies in normal operation; they always over spec the current by a certain percentage. So your friend's adapter can supply more current than your old one, but should do the job just as well.

Dunc

FRY MY ADAPTER by Choson 08/20/2003, 6:13am PDT NEW

Re: FRY MY ADAPTER by Dunc 08/21/2003, 3:47am PDT NEW

Re: FRY MY ADAPTER by corax 08/21/2003, 10:28am PDT NEW

Re: FRY MY ADAPTER by Choson 08/21/2003, 1:08pm PDT NEW