Charger Cable..how Do The Wires Work?

[sleepyjohn]

Hi

I'm the chap who saved buying a 3800bt iBook charger and found a 120bt charger which I connected to the iBook plug.

The charger however has stopped working after some weeks. I just bought another of these 120bt chargers, but I have noticed something.

In the low voltage cable from the charger there is

1. a white wire

2. 2 thin red wires

3. bare sheathing (inside the outside insulation of course)

I don't think I'd even noticed the red wires before, or thought they were only plastic, but there is indeed copper inside them.

I believe I took the white wire as +ve and the sheathing as -ve.......and it worked.

Could anyone explain the wiring.....perhaps i got a little short from the cutoff ends of the red wires and should be using them instead of the sheathing.......and shall I just connect the two reds together as one?

If all else fails i shall do the same as last time being more careful to insulate the reds.......but I'd like to understand it.

cheers John

[Cuban]

...er voltage, polarity, pin outs?

From what I see these connectors break quite easily.

Image link - http://blog.openwww.org/wp-images/ibook-adapter.jpg

[Crossy]

The chaps at Applefritter[dot]com (it's a forum so no direct link allowed) should be able to help. You'll need to register to ask the question, but busted iBook power plugs are a common problem.

As to what's coming out of your charger, who knows, best to attach to the fitted connector rather than cut the lead

A 120Baht charger is unlikely to have sufficient oomph to charge and run a computer of any sort, possibly that's why your previous one stopped working. Whatever you do be careful, those cheapo chargers are unregulated and could fry your iBook

[sleepyjohn]

The chaps at Applefritter[dot]com (it's a forum so no direct link allowed) should be able to help. You'll need to register to ask the question, but busted iBook power plugs are a common problem.

As to what's coming out of your charger, who knows, best to attach to the fitted connector rather than cut the lead

A 120Baht charger is unlikely to have sufficient oomph to charge and run a computer of any sort, possibly that's why your previous one stopped working. Whatever you do be careful, those cheapo chargers are unregulated and could fry your iBook

Thanks for the replies

I'm not going to bother photographing the existing (120bt deal) plug, because I remember it has a simple wiring diagram on the transformer which shows the outer as negative, the inner as positive. As there seem to be only two polarities, maybe the white is positive, the two reds are connectable and neutral (why two ??!!) and the outside sheathing earth connected to the neutral as with the national grid (why sheathing for low voltage??!!) Can't imagine why though which is why I'd be fascinated to know. And of course I need to know which one I should best be using for my connection.

Cuban.....can't see how I can avoid cutting off and replacing the laptop plug end with the iBook version......

cheers John

[sleepyjohn]

Well I just cut open the supplied jack on the charger with a very sharp blade.

The two reds are soldered together and to the outer negative pole of the plug. The outer sheathing was more or less touching all of this which was why i was getting my connection originally. So I know to wire to the reds and the white now.

The mystery question is.......why two (conjoined) reds?

[Crossy]

The mystery question is.......why two (conjoined) reds?

It's probably just the wire they had available at the right price.

I had a PC mains lead that I was happily using until I removed the moulded Schuko plug to install a local one and revealed SIX wires, the manufacturer had used data cable for mains There's a picture of the offending lead on TV somewhere.

Glad you've sorted your power problem, I do however suspect that this power unit will go the way of your previous one due to overload. Did you get a smell of cooking electronics perchance?

[sleepyjohn]

The mystery question is.......why two (conjoined) reds?

It's probably just the wire they had available at the right price.

I had a PC mains lead that I was happily using until I removed the moulded Schuko plug to install a local one and revealed SIX wires, the manufacturer had used data cable for mains There's a picture of the offending lead on TV somewhere.

Glad you've sorted your power problem, I do however suspect that this power unit will go the way of your previous one due to overload. Did you get a smell of cooking electronics perchance?

Yes I had thought that about the wiring ha-ha.

Sadly it now looks as if somethings wrong with the iBook. I had my girlfriend take it to the MacZone and use their charger. Nothing happened. I rigged up my new charger and likewise.

On enquiring I discover that she shut down the iBook perhaps 97% charged, but opened it two days later with no charge to the point it wouldn't start and the battery light underneath would flash slowly if the button was pushed.....a sign of no charge or at least very little indeed.

So I'm wondering what happened to the iBook and this thing about the charger being unregulated came to mind.

The thing is the charger is rated 20v DC, which means any surge would have to be to about 300volts to even reach 24 volts charger output. By the way, the charger's also rated at 3.5amps.

Any ideas? Sad to dump a nice old iBook that she was enjoying so much since her birthday.

John

[astral]

"Cheap and Nasty" comes to mind!!

[Gary A]

I have replaced several power blocks and the all had only two wires. I am always careful to use the correct voltage and make sure the amps required are more than the device requires.