Foolproof power supply interfaces

[Chuck Guzis]

On 02/06/2018 08:10 AM, Peter Coghlan via cctalk wrote:

> I asked my friend if anybody else had done anything to the radio before
> he asked me to look at it.  He said there used to be a big black heavy lump
> of a moulded plug on the end of the mains lead but he got someone to cut it
> off and change it for a normal sized plug because it wouldn't fit into the
> socket he wanted to use it with which was too close to his worktop.  He
> didn't recall hearing a bang when he first plugged in the new arrangement.

Probably was a quiet "fizz" and a puff of smoke...

Well you can't fix stupid.

But I do have a couple of wall-wart powered devices with either no
indication of polarity (why the hell did someone get the bright idea of
making inner conductor negative?) or voltage/current required.

It's a good thing that I've labeled them as such.   Very often, the
"wart" bears some manufacturer ID (if any) that isn't related to the
brand of equipment that it's powering.

I've got my "big box o' warts" that range from 3VDC to 24VAC.  I'm not
sure of what many of them were intended to power at this point.

--Chuck