the blatherings of forivall
stories of code, DIY, music, and (hopefully) geeky romance
My collection of zombie power supplies
Posted by on 3 November, 2011
Here’s my collection of modified power supplies for my laptop. I lost my original one, so I collected a number of third party power supplies. The one in the middle was $15 from hong kong and the one on the right was $45 from a local supplier I found on craigslist. The one on the left is my sister’s.
Basically, what I did was mount 3 pin connectors inside the power supplies (red) and I connected the cable to the other side of the connector (blue), so that I could easily swap cables and fix cables if they’re not working. They tend to break anyways, so I figured I would make it easy to fix.
With my sister’s power supply, since it was an OEM adapter, there wasn’t a lot of empty space inside, so I made a custom part and got it 3D printed in order to mount the socket elegantly (green). Plus, I wanted a more professional job for her.
I got the sockets/connectors from Lee’s Electronics. I used electrical tape and sometimes heat shrink tubing for insulation. Also, if you need to take apart one of these power adaptors, the easiest way to split it is to take a flathead or chisel, put it in the seam, and tap it with a hammer, all the way around, to loosen the glue on the seam. It should pull apart easily. Better than using a saw. Also, rather than disconnecting the solder joints on the circuit board, I just soldered together the wires. Since I’m lazy.
Good first post. Would like to see a more detailed DIY guide.
I do have an older blog at jordoex.wordpress.com, but it’s cluttered and I’m changing my online presense from jordoex to forivall. Also, the main reason why I posted this was to reply to this post that showed up on Planet KDE