Modify something to work off power not battery?

[yuppicide]

I bought something off DealExtreme.. $26 bucks I thought wasn't bad and it had decent reviews. It's on it's way being shipped to me.

 

I am reading the forum and it takes 4 - 7 hours or so and only runs for about an hour!

 

Would someone here have the know how to possibly make this run off AC also? I'm mainly going to use it at home.

 

Does anyone have experience with a frequency counter and adjusting caps?

[tetrode kink]

I'm confused, I don't understand what you're asking about.

 

What did you buy at DealExtreme?

 

It takes 4-7 hours to do what? What is it that runs for only 1 hour?

 

Yours in befuddlement,

-tet

[Video]

Just do a currency test with a current tester to find out which pins accept power actually, and other than that, get a 1000mah transformer at the required voltage.

 

If your device runs off standard batteries, and it likely will, just select the voltage based on that, like a single AA is 1.2-1.5 volts, 2AA is 2.4-3votls, etc, etc.

 

Anyhow, if your device exceeds 12 volts, or has an obscene MA rating, you may have to get adifferent device to run it, not just a typical AC adaptor from Walmart (try a notebook adaptor, or, your device likely comes with an AC cord)

 

Basically what you do is cut the end off the cord to the wall plug, and wire the positive end to the positive terminal inside the device, and the negative to the negative. If it's a little bit off, it shouldn't be an issue, as most battery powered devices are made to run in a rtather wide range of volt/amps, as long as you don't massively excede it to much.

 

Several of my games and toys I have battery packs for, especially the camera car I built, but I wired the battery brick to a fake battery (dowel cut to size to fit in the battery compartment) so that I can use the official battery with it if I want to. Maybe I'll dig out some pics, it would be easier to see than to explain

 

I kinda agree with the above poster, what are you getting that takes 5+ hours to charge and only runs for about one? Only things I can think of are cheaper end RC toys, and AC's not really an option (though an external battery pack may be, and I've done that for many RC's and handheld games/toys.

[tetrode kink]

Concur with Video. Since most electronic things - even those whose sole source of power is an AC outlet - end up running on DC on the inside, there is no shortage of AC adaptation options.

 

If your device's power needs are modest, a wall-kewb should suffice. If your device sucks some amps, move up to a laptop brick or even a PC power supply.

 

I'm still curious about what you need to adapt from battery to AC, though...

 

-tet