Modifying a wall wart

[YouAre]

I have a yamaha magic stomp, but the wall wart pisses me off. Its a giant.....wall wart. I wanted to take one of these

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=138

and wire the transformer to that, install it in the wall wart body, and use the cord so i could make it more like most laptop power supplies, with the transformer in the middle.

I looked inside the wall wart and saw the transformer with the 2 "prongs" embedded in a plastic casing, and they're soldered to 2 leads off the transformer. If you're having trouble picturing this, i can try to get a picture.

It looks as if i could solder in the new socket in either orientation, and it wouldn't matter which wire (from the transformer) was connected to which turret on the new socket. But i'm suspicious. Does the orientation matter?

[Arn C.]

I would say "no" in this case.....

Peace!
Arn C.

[YouAre]

so "no" means that i can do this safely without turning my magicstomp into a paperweight?

[col]

Be careful! I opened one of these to see why it wasn't working and got a huge shock despite the fact it hadn't been plugged in for a week. I left it alone after that! I know someone else this has happened to as well.

[YouAre]

thanks for the warning man. This thing won't store more than 12v or so right?

[col]

I don't know how much current it stored in there and I don't know exactly where I got the belt from. I just decided it wasn't worth the risk of poking around anymore. You could probably drain it with a high wattage resistor or a 240v light bulb (search the forum for discharging the power caps on amplifiers). I'd check though with someone who knows more about this type of thing than I do. I can't hurt myself with 9v and I'm quite happy to stick with it.
Good luck anyhow!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I don't open wall warts myself - I'll probably die in a pedestrian accident instead - but if you ARE opening wallwarts, distinguish between the heavy old linear ones, and the new suspiciously light and tiny switchmode ones (soon to replace all the others).
The switchmode ones rectify straight off the mains & then have a bunch of electronics.. the thing to remember though is, there is a cap there that is charged to 150V dc or so (even if the output is 9v dc).

[YouAre]

its just a transformer in there, I poked around and investigated by hand before reading all your warnings. I'm still here 

but as far as orientation, since its a 2 pronger, it doesnt mater right?

[mdh]

If the two prongs are the same width (i.e., you can plug it into the outlet in either orientation) and there's no ground lug that has been broken off (usually the case with wall-warts), then it doesn't matter which way you wire it.

[Processaurus]

I don't open wall warts myself - I'll probably die in a pedestrian accident instead - but if you ARE opening wallwarts, distinguish between the heavy old linear ones, and the new suspiciously light and tiny switchmode ones (soon to replace all the others).
The switchmode ones rectify straight off the mains & then have a bunch of electronics.. the thing to remember though is, there is a cap there that is charged to 150V dc or so (even if the output is 9v dc).

Thanks Paul, I didn't know that.

For the original poster, I've seen super short 2 prong extension cords, for big wall warts.  No modding required.

[ashcat_lt]

yeah, i'm trying to figure out why you wouldn't just use any old two prong extension cord.  it's a lot less messing around, less likely to cause catastrophic failure, reusable.  the most common versions have three outlets in them.  you can put your big fat wart on one side and two smaller ones on the other, alleviating your orignal problem and freeing up 2 more spaces for other stuff.

[YouAre]

haha i guess this just seemed more fun y'know. this would be slightly more compact and i could more easily stick it under the tier of a pedalboard. An extension could would be harder to stow away. But i doubt i have to worry about fauilure in this project. It seems pretty straightforwoard.

[black mariah]

haha i guess this just seemed more fun y'know. this would be slightly more compact and i could more easily stick it under the tier of a pedalboard. An extension could would be harder to stow away. But i doubt i have to worry about fauilure in this project. It seems pretty straightforwoard.

No harder to stow than the extension cord you're already planning on carrying.