[Boatanchors] Wal Warts

[Rodger]

Hi Dave and list,

The garden variety wal warts are unregulated so the voltage will drop 
considerably once under load but generally if the device's voltage needs 
are critical it will contain its own further regulation circuitry. You 
can sometimes get into trouble using replacement wal warts with a poorly 
designed device as it may have depended upon the voltage drop from an 
"overloaded" originally supplied wal wart to provide the proper voltage 
but generally these cheap devices are of no great loss if they are 
damaged by a "better" wal wart.

To be safe, for replacement purposes it is a good idea to stay with a 
device with the same voltage and current ratings if the device in 
question is important to you.  When replacing wal warts with a large 
Astron or similar supply keep in mind that the wal wart itself was 
generally the fuse so it is a good idea to place a fuse of proper 
current rating in the line to avoid pyrotechnics if something goes 
wrong.  I remember years ago marveling at the amount of smoke one of the 
old CP-1 computer patch interfaces generated when a bypass cap shorted 
inside while it was being supplied from a "stiff" external power supply.

Rodger WQ9E

 Dave Mayfield wrote:
> I've been doing that for years, run most everything off of my 50 amp 
> Astron. The voltage is not all that important, have you ever checked 
> the voltage from a 12 volt wall wort, it is not 12 volt. more like 18 
> to 20, even items that are marked 5 volt are running 12 or above. Just 
> this week I hook up a wireless router that is marked 5volt, it's 
> running off of my astron The wall wort that came with it was running 
> 18v and the unit was marked 5v
>
> jeff wrote:
>> Nah, I don't like shopping there :)
>>
>> WØQFC wrote:
>>> While doing some wiring behind the op desk I noticed that I have 
>>> about 10 different wal warts and I wonder if anyone else has/had 
>>> this same situation and what, if anything, they have done about it.
>>
>> If everything is one voltage, you can run it from one supply.  You 
>> can also get adapters that extend the socket so you can plug more 
>> into one strip.
>>
>>
>>
>>> First thought would be to run all these devices from the Astron 
>>> supply, but that brings up the problem of the different current 
>>> draws for the various devices.
>>
>> I believe voltage would be the concern, wouldn't it?
>> (assuming the ps puts out enough current)
>>
>>
>> How many different voltages?
>>
>>
>> Then there's my preferred method: if it ain't broke.....
>>
>>
>> -=-=-
>> ... Jeff for President - at least he's not Bush!
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>>
>>
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