On Thu, 24 Oct 2002, Tothwolf wrote: My substitute is rated at 800ma and seems quite 'comfortable' running all day. - don

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On Thu, 24 Oct 2002, Don Maslin wrote: The Voice Faxmodem series do indeed look very different than the classic white-brick style Sportsters. It doesn't surprise me that USR/3Com choose to use the same supply, since I imagine they have quite a stock of those 9VAC/1000ma units. Oh, and for those who haven't had the chance to split one of these supplies open (I had one with an open primary), they basically have no fuses or other protection devices. The primary windings are designed to short/burn out if something catastrophic happens...a very poor design. The unit I have that did this even melted the plastic bobbin. If someone here finds a substantial supply of suitable 9VAC wall warts at a nominal price, do let me know. I have at least 20-30 modems ranging from 1200s to 33.6s packed away waiting for such supplies. -Toth

I have a Large supply of wallwarts, perhaps 50. If someone wants to pay me $3 per supply plus shipping, I will look through the cabinet for what you want. Probably a good deal for those of you needing more than one at one time. John A.

On Thu, 24 Oct 2002, Patrick Rigney wrote: Strangely enough, US Robotics made two different Sportster 28.8 modems. I've only seen a handful that used the 20VAC supply, so I generally don't worry about them. At least you can't plug the 20VAC supply into the modems that need 9VAC. I doubt that plugging a 9VAC supply into the 28.8 would hurt it, but I doubt it would work properly. AFAIK, all of the 33.6, 14.4, and 9600 Sportsters used 9VAC, and I believe most all of the 4800/2400/1200 Sportsters did too. I think some of the really early 1200s used yet another supply. US Robotics/3Com made two distinctly different versions of the 33.6 Sportster (but both use the same supply). One has an Intel flash RAM chip in it for firmware upgrades (these are 56K X2/V90 capable if you can still find the proper firmware, it wasn't commonly available). The other has a ROM in it, and is pretty much stuck at 33.6. I have a number of the ROM type 33.6 modems somewhere, and I've often wondered if they could be modified to support the flash chip. USR also made several versions of the later 56K modem, but AFAIK, all of them can be flash upgraded in one way or another to support the latest 56K X2/v90 protocols. Some (although all should be) upgradeable to v92, but USR wants to charge for the upgrade on some of the units. If you really want to see some power supply weirdness, have a look at Hayes modems, specifically the "classic" aluminum shell ones. I've used *tons* of modems made by USR and Hayes over the years... -Toth

Patrick Rigney wrote: Good info. Mod won't do much good at this location, though. I'm rural, about 42000' from a CO and have average speeds of about 26.4 with occasional spurts to 28.6. No broadband alternatives on the horizon here. :-(

On Fri, 25 Oct 2002, no wrote: I just went to 3Com's support site, got full specs for my Courier's wart. Doc

Just FYI there were maybe a half a dozen totally different internally versions of the 33.6 sportsters, some AC, some DC, some 9v, some 12v. etc etc. you have to go by like the first 8 digits of the serial number to know which modem you have. USR did this very clever trick, they made a GREAT modem, worked excellent, and they shipped off a batch to all the reviewers, then immediately gutted the design and went through a half dozen different cost reductions for the actual production units.