Comments on: Wall Wart Scrounging

By: NGinuity

NGinuity — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:12:13 +0000

Just a quick tip….

You can use an O-Scope (provided you can find a friend with one), to diagnose the problem with your power supply quickly.

Since a wall wart is mostly pretty much a sine wave to DC converter, looking at the wave form will quickly tell you the problem.

Perhaps I will have to do a write up. Of course, those who own an O-Scope will probably already know how to troubleshoot something like that :-/

By: drew

drew — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:57:28 +0000

dfowler,

Thanks for the tips. I’ll keep this in mind next time i need some coil wire

By: Apnoe

Apnoe — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:31:58 +0000

That helps – good job,
as many people do I have some broken transformers laying around here, too. Well, honestly I didn’t hear about a thermal cutoff IC or something similar. I couldn’t find the problem when I opened one of my damaged transformers few days ago – but now I have a guess what I could carefully look for

By: Wes

Wes — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 05:15:48 +0000

That’s awesome. I’ve had to do something like this once. I just kind of jerry rigged it. Nice job!

By: dfowler

dfowler — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 21:23:04 +0000

Drew,

Yes the plates are usually coated with a material that it intended to insulate them and stick them together. Fortunately this coating is not usually a very good glue. It’s often brittle and you can separate the plates with some effort. I uses a pair of long nose pliers and an exacto knife to get them off. The first plate was the most difficult as the core is usually very tight with the windings. Once the first plate is out, there is room to work and it gets easier as more plates come out. The first one is a real pain.

By: dfowler

dfowler — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 21:19:08 +0000

Meico,

Yes, magnet wire and transformer wire are two names for enamel coated solid copper wire. The primary winding (120VAC Side) on these wall wart supplies is usually very small wire, almost invisible. The secondary winding usually had larger gauge wire.

By: drew

drew — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 15:25:42 +0000

How did you remove the metal plates from the core windings? Whenever I’ve taken an adapter apart, the plates were always glued together or somehow otherwise attached in such a way that they don’t come apart.

By: AuroraAlpha

AuroraAlpha — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:41:10 +0000

This is a great (and helpful article) I always wanted to get a better idea of the electronics inside these things so I could find out how suitable they would be for running lasers and other sensitive electronics off them. I am somewhat surprised just how simple these things are.

By: Meico Tenkawa

Meico Tenkawa — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 04:03:09 +0000

Is transformer wire the same as magnet wire? If so, this would be a not half bad source for it. ( I have a couple dozen wall warts just laying around the house, oh the joys of being a pack rat )

Meico Tenkawa