Can I put two 10 light strands that require 2 AA each in parallel so they then require 6 volts from an adapter (since it’s hard to find one that puts out 3 volts)?
I did this for my automatic trashcan, which normally needs 6 D -size batteries. The DC power supply cost less than a pack of 6 D-size batteries. So worth it for things that don't need to be moved around often.
I recently discovered your channel.......and am I glad that I did. Thank you, keep up the good job. Disclaimer: Accept this compliment at your own risk, I am not responsible for any happiness on your behalf that may result from reading this.
I'm doing this research to power a motion-sensing outdoor light that for some reason is powered by batteries and doesn't offer an adapter option. Notes to people attempting such a mod, battery compartments could be in series or parallel or a combination. Like, 4 AA batteries could output 1.5v in parallel or 6v in series or something in between. Also, consider the resistor you need to replicate the batteries' resistances. I think a AA battery has about 0.1 ohms. I suppose the adapter may account for that, but for delicate electronics I would want to cover all my bases. Its one thing to convert an outlet-powered device to using batteries, its a whole other to do the opposite. Don't burn your house down.
Hello. We're you able to convert your light to power? I have one that I want to do just the same and the label says is 4.5V. Is a pain in the behind changing batteries every 2 weeks. Please let me know.
I am a complete novice, but this was AWESOME. Really clear instructions and use of tools!I especially appreciate the re-use of cords from the thrift store! ( although I probably have a whole box of appropriate abandoned cords in my house already😁)
Nice! I can't wait to do this to my RC car! Kidding, but definitely something I've considered doing with various battery-powered items around the house. That decoration is quite the perfect use for this modification! Congrats on reaching 100K subscribers!
@Cars Simplified - Don't laugh, I use to have an RC Car with wires connecting to the hand-held power supply and steering. It was the 80's, times were simpler. As a young lad, I wasn't aware that RC actually meant Radio Control. And even if I did,... I still wouldn't know what it actually meant. However, I do remember my first OFFICIAL 'Radio Control' vehicle. Except, Christmas day was RUINED that year! Because my brother and I got the EXACT SAME RC Truck from Radio Shack. And they BOTH had identical frequencies. So, we could only use one at a time.
@@CovertRadio You've brought up some memories for me as well! My first RC car was the "Lobo II", sold at Sears. I begged and begged for it for my birthday, and managed to break it during the first drive. Jumped it over the curb in front of my house, and it broke one of the axles. 😂 Good times.
Solid advice and is one of those life hacks that seems to have been forgotten. I have been reusing old "wall wart" sty,e adapets for years and as long as you keep the voltages correct it works like a charm.
Did a search and this is EXACTLY what I'm looking for. I have 3 pre-lit fairy light Christmas wreaths that hang outdoors on a fence and they eat through batteries fast! I will do exactly how your video explains as I have the same set up. Now I just have to figure out how to get all 3 to an outlet. I will use extension cords of course, unless you have a better suggestion? Also, I followed your tutorial on adding LED lights to a snow blower powered by a Dewalt battery. PERFECT! I got it to work and thanks to your video, the install looks factory! Now we just need some snow so I can use them! Thanks again for your time making these excellent videos!
I'm so glad that you were able to add lights to your blower - that's awesome! As for your wreath lights - an extension cord is about all I can suggest... though I do recommend protecting the power adapter from the elements in a waterproof junction box or something similar. Good luck!
Interesting idea, Dakota! That would make things only *slightly* more complex in that you'd have to install a micro usb receptacle in the housing of the device...and soldering something that small can be a bit fiddly. However, I have several other little devices kicking around that may be good candidates for such a conversion. Thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for watching!
Neat! I have some string lights that I was going to put across my window and realized they won't last long since they're battery operated. I might look into getting the supplies to do this since I've soldered lights exactly like these before to repair them and it doesn't seem any harder than that. It might look a little funny comparatively, but it'll be worth it so I can actually enjoy them!
Thank you for sharing. My dad recently passed away and he did all these things for me to do with replacing battery with power supply. I never understood how he did it. Miss him so much. Thank you for sharing. I’ve learned a lot from this video and I’m going to endeavour to try it.
Awesome tutorial! I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m gonna try! (My brother in law said he would supervise… even at 47, I should be left alone with sharp objects or hot-touchie things… okay… I’ll be honest… I shouldn’t be left alone, unsupervised, EVER) LOL Anyway! Great video, and love the outtakes 🥰😂
Had the exact same problem with my seasonal decorations. Just had it all converted within minutes thanks to your video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge…you rock!🤘🏻
Would it be possible to safely connect the wires to the positive and negative terminals themselves so that the device can still be used with batteries if you want to remove the power adapter?
Sure, if you can get access in such a way that you can preserve the battery connections, then you can have a hybrid set up where you can plug it in if you want to or run it off a battery if you want to.
OK, I had the same idea with a dog training device. It makes a sound we can't hear and reduces the barking from 5 dachshunds next-door. It has a 9 volt battery. I connected the wall adapter 9 Volt and nothing works... Why?
Any chance you've swapped the polarity? Also, it's possible that the wall adapter cannot supply enough current ... it's rated to supply 9V, but at how many amps?
I just threw a adapter in the trash, after seeing this went and dug it out and going to use it to convert my tree just like yours. Thanks for the simple instructions.
Great video. We got a kaleidoscope projector light thingy that shines on the ceiling for 99 cents. Creates a nice effect but I didn't want to eat up AAAs with it. I saw that adapter kits with dummy batteries are $15. I chopped the end off an old USB cable and dug out the soldering iron. Working great. Thanks.
Nice job, and well worth avoiding frequent battery changes! Maybe some ideas for future videos: Sometimes instead of an A.C. adapter, I'll use a battery holder for larger batteries. I.e. your 3x AA decoration will likely run for weeks on 3x D cells, which could get you thru the season without changing batteries. If 3 AA rechargeable don't work well, 4x might do better. Another option is a USB powerbank. 4.5v being "close enough" to the 5v put out by said USB powerbank, just wire it up like an adapter, but now you have a big battery. Final option if you know how to safely work with "raw" LiIon cells, 4.5v is "close enough" to use a single 4v LiIon cell with a simple single-cell BMS and TP4056 charger module (get one with "battery" and "load" terminals and wire the decoration as the "load" so the board can turn it off when the battery is depleted). I lied, there are more options but they get more complex. Such as using a LM2576 step down (or "buck") DC:DC converter connected to a power tool battery and adjusted to output the desired voltage for the gadget.
I dont know how dangerous 4.5volts is 😅 could maybe pop a capacitor in the dc power supply if you short it maybe. But you should also check how many amps you need. It's also good to check if rhe batteries are series or paralell. As 2 batteries may not mean it takss 3volts. It may be 1.5v using multiple batteries for higher amperage.
Good tutorial! 👍 A small tweak to take the finished result up a notch would be to use a small rubber grommet in the hole that was drilled in the base that has the same inner diameter as the wall adapter's wire. I did that for another project and it looked good and also helped hold the wire in place.
Great video. If I'm following this correctly, you were able to bypass the on/off switch? Correct? Will this work for a (3) AA battery operated toy light sabre? Thanks
Depending on the toy, you can probably bypass the switch, yes. Not sure I'd put this on a light saber that will be swung around a room... having a wire dangling from something like that does not seem like the best idea to me. But good luck!
Ok a couple things. When you solder the wires together, you probably want to twist them together first. What you did was called a “lap splice”, short for overlap splice. It’s ok but it’s better to have the wires physically held together before the solder is applied. That way if the solder joint does fail everything will still function. Ok second thing, and I feel like the comic book guy from the simpsons here’s but you referred to the two wires from that power supply as connectors. They’re conductors. What am I supposed to believe here, that scratchy is playing some sort of magical xylophone that produces two distinct notes when the same rib is hit? Hopefully someone was fired over this blunder. Seriously though, good stuff!
Hi! I have Christmas ornaments and led lights too. But they all have 2 batteries only (3V in total) and I have 5V phone chargers and I can’t find 3V ones. Do you think there could be issues ? They do shine a little brighter but other than that they seem fine. Than’ you for your help
Yes, thanks Les, now, along those lines... if I had a series of packs (each of the same input requirement), could I power multiple units from a single supply, or would I need a converter for each unit.
@@albavel consiter using a zener diode to lower the voltage to your 3v target. This way you are not overdriving the lights. I learned to use a 0.3v variance per AA(A) battery as a rule of thumb.
Thank you very much for making this video. I've been searching for a way to convert my little battery garlic blender to something like this. Just to confirm, at 4:08 when you were testing to see if the light will turn on, you plugged in the travel adapter at this moment right? is there anything to be cautious about at this step? Thank you.
I wish you can share how can i replace it with batteries because mom doesn't want me to cook on my electric pot but if its batteries i can just buy batteries without using my mom electricity please help me
This is VERY helpful. Quick question: is there an "ideal" range for the adapter voltage to be within for the battery total? For example: 3 AA's = 3 x 1.5 = 4.5 volts. Should you only use an adapter that is 4.5 - 4.8 volts? Or could you push it up to 5.6 volts? etc? You get what I mean. Oh and also how about the amps? How much does that matter? Thanks!
Hi Chris - in general, with lower volt stuff, being within 1 volt or so of the intended target is fine. So, if you have a device that uses 3 * 1.5v batteries, using a 5v supply will be fine (It's 0.5v more than batteries provide, but won't hurt anything). As for amps: Remember that volts are supplied, amps are pulled. So the amps will be drawn by the load - i.e, the device you power will determine how many amps are drawn. Again with low volt stuff, most things pull only a very small amount of current - on the order of a few milliamps. As long as your power supply is has a higher amperage rating than your load will pull, you'll be fine. Thanks for watching!
Old heavy power supplies were unregulated and output a higher voltage with a very light load, settling around the rating with a nominal current draw. These are better used with radios because they don't create noise other than AC hum. A fully charged fresh cell is 1.6V, so it's already a bit over.
A type C battery is rated to provide 1.5 volts. 4 of them wired in series would provide 4 * 1.5, or 6 volts. The hand soap dispenser may work fine on 5 volts (slightly lower than 4 fully charged C batteries) but I would not try the 9 volt adapter. That may damage the dispenser. Good luck!
Wouldn’t it be necessary to know the amperage requirements as well? The charger didn’t list them. I’ve heard it’s okay to over-amp the device, but we didn’t really know what the minimum being required was or what was being sent by the charger.
So, it's important to understand that a charger/power supply does not push amps. The device that is powered draws amps... as long as the power supply can provide as much as the load needs, you'll be fine. You can certainly use a power supply capable of proving a lot more amps than the device needs... because the device will just pull what it needs and no more. But that's *not* the same with voltage: If a device runs on 5V, DON'T use a 12V adapter with it, as the adapter *will* supply 12V, and likely damage the device. If a 5V device needs 1 amp, and you connect it to a 5V, 5 amp power supply, the device will happily pull the 1 amp it needs and the power supply will not have to work hard. Great question!
Awesome! I wanted to do this also to my door bell (AAx3) device itself, I even found the same EXACT wall adapter that you used (LG 4.8v | 0.9A) multi meter shows 4.83v so it's good...but, once I did a test run...nothing happens, any ideas? FYI: Door bell one with 30 pre-programmed rings in it, button on device you click to go threw them all. With the batteries in, I quick click on the button and the door chimes just fine, but with wall-power, once I let go of the button it stops sounding...and ideas? I even tried a 5v|1A power wall adapter, same result ;(
Hmm... the only thing that comes to mind is that the doorbell may possibly be drawing more amps than the power supply can provide... but then it would eat batteries very very quickly - so I doubt that's the case. Still, I'd try finding a 5v 2A supply and see if that makes any difference. Also make sure you don't have any loose connections.... Good luck!
Can anyone tell me once this is done are you still able to turn the switch off and on or does it constantly just stay on until you unplug it? I have some beautiful angels that have flowing snowball glitter and would love to transition them to a AC adapter❤❤❤🎉
I have a homemade Christmas decoration that has six sets of battery powered fairy lights. Three AA batteries (4.5 volts) for each set of lights. I switched to rechargeable batteries, but still need to change them about once a week. I want to switch to plug-in. My question is: Can I somehow connect all six sets of lights together if I get a power supply with enough total voltage capability (6 X 4.5 volts = 27 volts), or do I need a separate power supply for each set of lights?
Hi Anthony - You can certainly wire all the sets together, but the math does not multiply voltages, but amperage. i.e., rather than 6x4.5 volts, it'll be 6 loads at 4.5 volts and ??? amps. Wire them together in parallel, and the amps go up, but the volts stay the same. You want all 6 to get the same voltage, and be able to draw the same amperage as before. If they last a week or so on 2 AA batteries, they draw very few amps individually. 4.5v is close enough to 5v that I'd recommend you find a 5V power supply capable of at least 3-5 amps. Something like this would work well: amzn.to/3sQ02lE Then just wire all the + from where the batteries used to go to the + of the power supply, and all the - to the - of the power supply. Make sure you do this in parallel, not series. If you are not clear on the difference, a quick google should help a lot. Good luck!
Could you possibly connect to the battery terminals if the wiring isn't exposed? I have some battery operated candles that only let you get at the battery terminals. Amazon has these ready-made conversion kits, but at $15ea. per 3x AAA device, that can get expensive for what it's worth.
can you convert a battery powered sofa so that it runs off a wall socket? We bought new couches but are constantly having to re-charge the batteries and if it all goes out with the foot raised up, it is darn near impossible to climb out of the sofa chair or couch & love seat. It really is frustrating, but we simply didn't think this would be an issue when we purchased to battery-operated furniture or we would have stuck with manual ones. Thanks.
In theory yes, this could absolutely be done. Are the batteries integrated into the furniture? Are they removable? Do you have any way to find out an accurate current requirement for the couch? (you'll need to know what voltage the batteries supply, and have at least some idea of how many amps the couches need...then just as in this video, replace the batteries with a power supply that supplies the same voltage and can handle the amperage the couch pulls.) Good luck!
My bedlamp needs 3 AA batteries. I have a phone adapter which is 5V and 6Amps and Another adapter with 5V and 2Amps and another old adapter with 5V and 0.5Amps. Which one should I use? How does Amps matter here? Can you explain please. Will the Ampere change the brightness of the leds? Thanks in Advance :)
Hi There - Amps are not pushed TO the device, they are pulled BY the device. So a power supply which is rated at 5 Volts and 2 Amps is capable of providing up to 2 amps continuously. This does not mean it will "push" 2 amps, only that it can support a load of up to that much. If you have a bed lamp that needs 3 AA batteries, it needs around 5 volts, and likely only draws a few milliamps, so any of the power supplies you mention will work fine - though I'd suggest you probably only need the 0.5Amp one. Good luck!
There used to be adjustable power supplies. Now everything seems to be converging on 5V or 12 V. How would you easily step the voltage down for something that takes 2 cells?
There still are adjustable power supplies readily available, or you can just buy a very cheap power supply at the exact voltage you need, if you don't already have one. Thrift stores can be handy for this as I showed in the video, but they are also pretty cheap online: Adjustable power supply: amzn.to/3rL0P6J 3v (2 cells) power supply: amzn.to/3Fbc37A
I would not change voltage that much. See if you can find a 3.5V or 4V power supply. Here are some options on Amazon, including some adjustable power supplies so you can experiment a bit: amzn.to/3W5Tzh9
Can you make one of these with the blink camera...hard to find info..or has anyone themselves had success or know where to find said source. Forced battery operation just makes no sense less you control it all (products materials in stock market control). It kinda gets costly restocking them batteries lol 🤔🕵♀🤑
I don't know much about Blink cameras other than a vague awareness that they exist... what model do you have? I'll be glad to see if I can do some quick research about how to set this up...
Great video. Goodwills are a great way to source the adapters. Batteries are way too expensive to keep replacing them for these sort of things. One thing to note is how many milliamps the power supply outputs too. A 1000mA unit is ideal for anything that has a larger load. Some phone chargers only output .1mA and sometimes that isn’t enough current to run certain items.
Small nitpick. The wire connectors you used for heat shrink are fully capable of soldering rhe wires together on their own, this is actually why theyre used in the field. You didnt do anything wrong, just figired it woukd save some time to not solder first
Yeah, but I'm a "belt and suspenders" kind of guy when it comes to any electrical connection. I know those connectors are good on their own, but a bit of extra insurance (especially when others may follow this as a guide on higher-current applications) is a good thing. Thanks for watching!
I'm the opposite, I can't put electric into my shed as it's to far away so I have to use a 12volt solar panel to charge up a 12volt car battery and use a 12volt inverter to 220volts to run some of my power tools, ALL FREE ELECTRIC, USE OLD RECHARGEABLE DRILL BATTERYS TO POWER TORCHES, RADIOS, USB CHARGING AND IT'S ALL FREE, SO TO CONVERT SOMETHING USING BATTERYS TO LOW VOLTAGE MAINS POWER WILL COST YOU MONEY AND TODAY YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR MONEY AND NOT BURN IT AWAY GOOD VIDEO BUT WHY WASTE MONEY 😳
I have a lot of blow molds that are battery operated. A tree that has about 30 bulbs, each bulb has 3 wires attached up inside the bulb. Operates on 3 AA batteries, should I follow the same instructions? I'm so tired of battery operated stuff. I'm a little nervous doing this, I want to make sure I'm using the correct adapter that has a black and red wire only, correct? I have a picture but I don't think I can post it here.
Hi Gretchen - yes, you should be able to do this with your tree. If it runs on 3 AA batteries, you should be looking for a 5V power adapter. If you'd like to send a few photos of your situation I may be able to offer more instructions about exactly where and how to get things connected: amplifydiy (at) gmail (dot) com. Good luck!
Hi William - when you add more lights, do it in parallel. This will increase amperage, not voltage. You need to make sure each light is getting the correct voltage supply, and the light will draw as many amps as they need. Bang around on Google for parallel vs series wiring if you are unsure of what I mean. Good luck!
I stripped the top of the cord on my plug but instead of just a red and a black wire, there is also a white, and a green wire. White is supposedly neitral and green for grounding. Can I just ignore these wires and not connect them in the circuit? It's for a 4.5V toy, nothing big.
Hmm... is the cord a USB cord? They generally have 4 conductors in them in an arrangement like you describe. Do you have a multimeter you can use to test each of the 4 conductors to see exactly which color does what?
Hi Jose - we need to be careful to make sure we are talking about the same things: Your house should have circuit breakers that will detect if you accidentally touch the hot to either the neutral or ground of your house wiring, and flip off the circuit before any damage is done. But... I suspect you are actually talking about touching the low-volt negative and positive wires from your wall adapter, not the actual house wiring. Touching those together won't hurt the house wiring, but depending on the wall adapter you use may damage the adapter. Most have protection to avoid damage if you accidentally mix things up.
Hi Aman - if the input is 5v@2A, I'd recommend getting an adapter capable of 5v@3+A. 5Amps would be ideal, as it provides plenty of head room. This adapter would be perfect, as it comes with a plug designed to clamp leads for a project just like this: amzn.to/47LBoS5 Good luck!
Hey Dale! A hot wheels track launcher would be a perfect match for something like this! Yes, a 6v adapter is what you are looking for. Something like this would likely be a good match: amzn.to/3vGSFe4 Good luck!
Awesome explanation of what needs to be done! I didn't have a clue how to convert my holiday snowman who runs on batteries to a plug in - so much better! Haven't done it but will be doing it soon. Love the explanation of how to calculate what is necessary.
Lamp wire? If you mean can you just use a plug from a lamp, NO - do not do that. You need to convert your (most likely) 120V AC power from the wall into a much lower (5V, 9V, 12V DC) power for your device.
Start by figuring out how much current (amps) just 1 of them uses. Then multiply that by however many you have. So, if you are doing trees, say the first one draws 100mAh of current at 5v. If you have 5 trees, you'll need a power supply capable of supplying more than 500mAh (or .5 amps) of current. I'd recommend getting a lot of headroom (oversize the power supply) - something like 2 amps at 5v. Then just wire them all up exactly as I did in this video, but you can run a separate + and - lead to each tree, and have them all join up to the single + and - from the power supply. Use a soldering iron and heat shrink to protect all your connections. Good luck!
You should be able to find an adapter that is adjustable from 1.5v all the way up to 12v. Something like this: amzn.to/485zpcb would work well. Good luck!
Need your help ASAP. I'm trying to convert a rechargeable battery powered fan to wall power, but i'm not sure if It will be safe. What voltage power cable do I need for this fan? This fan has 2 batteries each one is 20,000 mAH and 3.7 V and 74 OWh. Thats what each battery says on the outer part. Here's the parameters shown on the actual plastic part of the fan itself: Power: 22.5W Max TYPE C (INPUT) : 5V - 3A, 9V-2A, 12V-1.5A TYPE C (OUTPUT) : 5V - 3A, 9V-2A, 12V-1.5A USB A (OUTPUT) : 5V - 3A, 9V-2A, 12V-1.5A Battery Capacity: 40,000mAH Please tell me what type of power plug I can use. Thanks for your help!
It seems these are rectangular batteries 4 -1/2 in X 2-1/2 inch. Each one seems to be two batteries wrapped in one (double battery). So we have TWO double batteries.
This sounds like it's a fan *and* a power bank or something - based on your first comment about the USB-C input and output. Can you simply plug this into a USB-C wall adapter rather than pulling the batteries out completely? It seems designed for that in the first place....
@@AmplifyDIY The fan stopped working when I removed the speaker buzzer from the motherboard. I wanted a silent fan when turning it of and on and also when changing the settings. Now it turns on for 1 second and then shuts off automatically. I got it from amazon. SALLOUS 40000mAh Rechargeable Camping Fan.
I'll be honest, thought from the image and title it was some new super rechargeable batteries. Was hyped since could use some new ones in my Xbox controller, my current ones are around 3 years old. Still working but starting to get a bit jinky.
If you don't mind a wire from your controller to a wall adapter, this technique will work fine for a controller like that. But something tells me you probably just need new rechargeable batteries for that application. Good luck!
Is it possible to power supply multiple of these example tree decorations ? How would you do it, if you have 3 trees instead of one (as in the video) ? You just buy a 15 V power supply ? How to decide the value of amps for the power supply ?
Hi Adrian - If you have 3 trees that each take 5V, you don't put them on a 15V circuit - rather, you put them on a 5V circuit that is able to handle the combined amperage draw of each of the 3 devices. Power supplies supply Volts. Devices (loads) pull Amps. So, get an appropriately sized power supply (5V, 3x the amperage of 1 device) and wire them in series. As for how to calculate how many amps you need - it's a little tricky, but there are some convenient rules of thumb: it's unlikely that anything powered by 3 AA batteries draws more than a few hundred milliamps at most. If you had 3 such devices, a 5V power supply rated at 2 or more amps should be *plenty*. Good luck!
@@AmplifyDIY thank you very much. Now im finaly in the picture how it works :-) Somewhere i red that AA / AAA baterys can deliver around max. 50 mA power. That should mean that one device can pull out max 150 mA (calculate 200 mA with reserve).
I have 3 outdoor sets of mini string lights that go around my deck, each string runs on (2)AA batteries. Would I need to make three seperate 3V adapters or could I wire all the sets together and then use one 9v power adapter?
Great question, David! Each string needs 3V, so you'd only need a 3V adapter even to run all 3. The voltage does not need to go up with the adapter, but the ability to supply amps will need to increase, as each string will pull a certain number of amps. I'm guessing that each string pulls less than 500 milliamps @ 3V, so if you had a power supply capable of at least 1500 milliamps (or 1.5 amps) then you'd be just fine. You should have no problem finding a power supply that can handle 2+ amps at 3V. Good luck!
