Monday, December 24, 2012

Linksys WVC54GCA camera useless from a dead power supply?

My poor little Linksys WVC54GCA network camera recently stopped working on me. After doing a couple of tests, I figured out that it was the ac adapter (power supply). It's supposed to supply 5V, but was outputting about 3.5V. What to do?

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!

Linksys Camera specs

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. :(

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.

Sparkfun adapter with the proper connector now!

I plugged it in, and it worked! Woohoo!

Happy camera (see the blue led?)

2 comments:

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That'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!

      Delete