After not finding any replacement power supplies on Linksys' website, I decided to try their 'chat support'. I highly DO NOT recommend it. It was an irritating experience. I thought I was being pretty clear in what I was asking, but they were just not getting it, directing me to other strange products. Finally after they realized what I was looking for, they told me that they don't carry replacement power supplies for my camera. Thanks for nothing!
eBay had a bunch of options...ranging from just a few dollars to about $15. Most of those adapters looked a bit sketchy so I didn't really want to take the risk.
A little more thought and I remembered that I have a few 5V adapters that I bought from Sparkfun already! I checked the polarity on the camera and the power supply, and the amps, and they actually match!
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| Linksys Camera specs |
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| Sparkfun AC Adapter specs - they match! |
However, it did not fit in the barrel - the camera's jack is 5.5mmX2.5mm, but my adapter has a 5.5mmX2.1mm barrel connector. :(
First what I tried doing was drilling out the hole in the adapter's connector, but ended up runing the whole thing. :(
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| FAIL! |
Eventually I remembered that I have a bunch of 'barrel' connectors laying around somewhere. I test fitted them, and sure enough, I had a 5.5x2.5 barrel connector. Cool!
Sooo...I cut the end off of my AC Adapter since I ruined the connector anyway, and stripped back some of the wiring. Then I took a pigtail that mates with the 5.5x2.5 barrel connector that I found and connected it. Then I stripped back some of the wiring on the pigtail. A few twists, solder and electrical tape later, I had a functioning power supply for my camera.
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| Sparkfun adapter with the proper connector now! |
I plugged it in, and it worked! Woohoo!
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| Happy camera (see the blue led?) |
Good way to reuse old adapters vs buying a universal at Radio Shack. Good thing you matched the polarity before you smoked it because that would of been no bueno.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually where I bought the set of adapters originally I think, and haven't used them for a long time. Use what you got, right? ;) Thanks for the comment!
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