Topic: Power cord questions

I have a few power supplies here, all invariably work fine with I8 units.

I have a couple of I3.5 units that I need power supplies for. 
If I unplug the power supply from a working I3.5 and plug that in, the other I3.5s all work OK. 

I tried the ones on hand, and they are very tight.  I can jamb the plug in the back but it doesn't connect somehow, unless I push the plug in a downward direction while plugged in.  Then it makes connection and the I 3.5 goes on.  If I release it, it goes off.

So it's not a chumby problem, it's a power supply plug problem.  And heck, for as small as all this is this seems quite critical.

So I am trying to understand the problem here. 
It seems tight, so I assume the outside of the barrel connector works.
I can't imagine what would make the center pin not connect properly. 

Can anyone shed any light on this? 

I could order the proper plug from Digikey, CP-017-ND.
Or order the adapter the forum member makes, in which case I would have to get different power supplies.

But heck, it seems I am so close here.

Re: Power cord questions

if you still have the bad i3.5 ps blocks, you can crack them open and replace the bad capacitor in them, or splice their power cords in on the i8 supplies.

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.

3 (edited by Steevo 2014-01-09 17:27:26)

Re: Power cord questions

diamaunt wrote:

if you still have the bad i3.5 ps blocks, you can crack them open and replace the bad capacitor in them, or splice their power cords in on the i8 supplies.

I have no failed power supplies. I have missing ones.

This thread is about the fit of the plugs. 
It's not seeking a workaround to a problem.

4 (edited by Steevo 2014-01-13 22:46:00)

Re: Power cord questions

I have a whole bunch of power supplies that fit "tight" in the back of an I 3.5.  The also don't work unless I push in a downward direction.  As long as I hold the plug like that it works.  Let it go, it goes off. 

I found the problem. 

It seems the problem is the center pin is not making contact with the inside of the barrel plug.  The ones that work have a much smaller hole in the middle. Obviously.  I measured the hole with a vernier caliper, it's about 1.56mm, whereas the chumby seems to need a .9mm. 



So what I did was cut a small piece of desoldering copper braid. about 1/4" long.  Rolled it up and stuffed it in the center hole.  Now the unit goes on and works.  This is a workaround, not a solution, but as long as I avoid unplugging the plug from the back of the unit and having the braid fall out, it works perfectly. This just takes up space.

Re: Power cord questions

Great job of deductive reasoning. I probably would have tried to sand something down and ruined the whole she-bang. Thanks for the tip, in case any of us run into a similar issue.

Re: Power cord questions

Haha. You read my mind.  The first thing I did was sand down the outside of one.  That didn't do any good at all.

Re: Power cord questions

Actually, before the sandpaper, I probably would have pulled out my giant roll of duct tape and gone to town with that. Nothing like that gummy residue to enhance electrical connections.