DC adapter ampage question

[liveintheglory]

O.K. so this doesn't strictly relate to building a pedal but I need some help.  I have an Adrenalinn II (Yes, I know it's digital, but i think has some pretty interesting effects and decent amp models) and I am travelling to France to do some playing next week.  My question is relating to powering this thing up without frying it.  Should I get a step down transformer to go from 220V to 110V and use the supplied US adapter (Best Buy sells the step down tranny for $13, but I'm a little leery of it) or Radio Shack (even better!) sells a a 9Volt power supply that is able to run on both 110V and 220V?  The only problem with the Rat Shack unit is it is rated at 1500mA and I only need 500mA which brings me to my question - If the Adrenalinn needs 500mA and there is 1500mA on tap, does it pull just what it needs, or does the adapter send the whole 1500mA through and hence do some damage to those little digital chips?  Any help is greatly appreciated!

Andrew

Sorry for the long-winded post.

[stumper1]

Andrew,

The amp rating on the pedal is the minimum required.  So if it says 500 and you give 400 - that's a problem. 500 is the amount that the pedal can draw - you need to give it that much OR MORE.  As for the Rat Shack PS - even though it is rated at 1500 (which is fine) - make sure and check the polarity and voltage rating.  If those are correct it should work OK.

As to weather(sp?) it's regulated and properly filtered - that's another story......

Good luck in your travels....

[liveintheglory]

Thank you very much - I will check that out!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I can't confirm it without the part number, but that RS transformer sounds like a switchmode supply. If so, the output is pretty well regulated to 9v, no matter what load you put on it.
You might want to get a mains socket adaptor for it, though (the Europe mains socket is different from USA).