Going Battery Poor

[daddygunz]

Geeze! Wyatt has already used more batteries in his first 3.5 months than I did in the last 5 years.

Does anyone know of a system to replace D batteries with a plug in unit? Is there a way to wire the battery terminals into a converter to plug in?

Thanks,
Jon

[tt3]

Have you looked into rechargables too?
Its amazing the number of batteries you go through isn't it! :shock:

[tt3]

I think there's a way. At least here's what I did and it seemed to work just fine on a mini piano my kid has.

First figure on the amount of voltage which is obviously 1.5 X number of batteries. Then head out to radio shack and get a multimeter and a multi volt ac to dc Power supply with multiple connector heads or better yet you can ger the two prong and socket type (the one I have is a Digipak Switching Mode Power Supply SMP 2000A) you might find it on the website. if you get the multihead or you might use those inline blue multiconnector crimps to run a lead off of each of the two wires going into the multihead. Otherwise each head should have it's own lead if possible because you'll sacrifice one of them. Then unscrew the back of the unit and using the multitester and some D batteries fugure out where the positive common terminal is (it's usually a red wire and hopefully it's not a solid state circuit board) inline crimp an 18 gauge or smaller (higher number) red wire from the positive terminal and attach a quick clip female connector to the other end. use an inline crimp and run a black wire same gauge and attach a male quick clip connector. You might have to carve a small notch in the housing of the toy to let the leads run through without getting them caught. Use the multitester to figure out the positive wire (needle deflection will tell you) on your power unit run a red wire from there and attach a male connector and a black wire with a female connector. and there you have it. If it doesnt work, check the voltage setting on the charger/power unit, the connections and the crimps. Sounds like a bit of work but shouldn't take you more than an hour or so.

:shock:
And I thought wiring a room was tough!
:lol:

[daddygunz]

Louis, that's what I was thinking, but I approached it a different way. The device I am trying to power is a mobile for the crib. It runs on 4 D batteries, ergo 6 volts. I bought a 6VDC 800mA AC adapter from Radioshack and cut the multiplug off the end. I hooked the positive wire to the positive side and ditto with the negitive. After all that work and $20 I got, NOTHING. so I switched the wires and again, nothing.

Maybe the Adapter is not strong enough power supply? What do you think?

[daddygunz]

It's 6.44 volts leaving the battery harness going into the motor....

[mjknapp]

Ok, this is completely kindof off the subject that has been running for the last few posts, but I bought a remote control for the T.V. last year, spent $150 dollars on this remote, really a cool remote, people come over and talk about the remote before they comment on the Big screen, anyways, this damn remote went through batteries like nuts, 4 AAA at least 3 times every two weeks, so I bought a battery charger and 8 AAA rechargeable batteries, I just switch them out as soon as one set goes dead, I take 4 out of the charger and put the old 4 in, and so on, the battery charger probably has not only paid for itself, but the remote too.

[mjknapp]

Actually I think waht we're trying to do is akin to NASA's million dollar antigravity pen (vs the Russian's sending up a pencil).


Lol, That is pretty funny

[daddygunz]

Yeah Louis I think your right. We just had a major financial catastrophe, so this project is on indefinate hold. THanks for your help, though.

jgun