AC Power Adapters and 12vdc Appliances

[Meck]

Howdy,

I have a question that I bet someone here can answer..

I have a linksys router plugged into a Bullet 2 for wireless on the boat.

I would like to run the Linksys with a direct 12 volts from the boats system, Linksys has a 120 v AC transformer, my boat is 220V AC. Since the Linksys runs on 12 volts can I just direct wire it to the 12volt system in the boat?

Let me know if anyone has lopped off the AC transformer for a 12v appliance and direct wired with success.

Thanks for your comments,

Meck

[David M]

That's a hard question to answer because you need to know the voltage tolerance range for the units internal power supply. Check the manufacturers specifications for the units voltage input. If it has a rather large range of acceptable voltages then you should be okay. A boats 12VDC system generally ranges from 11 to 14.5 volts. It is of course possible for the boats DC system to range outside of those voltages.

If you go ahead and do this, after you cut the wire between the wall wart and the power connector into the router, check the voltage coming out of the wall wart to make certain that you get the polarity correct. You will also want to fuse this new circuit.

[hellosailor]

Probably, or possibly. Your boat's electrical system is only a nominal 12 volts, it will range from 10.5 with discharged batteries to a typical 12.2 or higher and 14.4 when the alternator is running. IF the Linksys can operate properly under that whole range, sure.

Odds are there's enough tolerance in it to do this, but a "buck boost" dc-to-dc converter, or a simple regulator, that provides a regulated 12V for the router would be safer.

[Meck]

Excellent, thanks for the info.

Meck

[Cheechako]

Check the actual DC out of your current wallwart, they are often way off from their specification... you might have been using 14v all along!

[goboatingnow]

In general , in my experience ( and I have done similar things). the Linksys will not very long on the boats 12v supply, which infact could be 14.7 at times. Also there are all sorts of spikes and noise as well. You need a dc-dc convertor for these applications and they are readily available.

[W32PAMELA]

I've got Linksys WRT54G's and Netgear WGR614's and WGT624's that have been operating on customers boats for up to 3 years. No one has reported a failure.

The jack on most routers is a 5.5mm x 2.1mm. You can usually pick up a matching plug at Radio Shack. I hate the idea of chopping up a perfectly good wall wart.

[Meck]

Thanks Bob,

I'll give that a shot.

I do however, think I'm going to reduce the seemingly uncontrolled and unexplained wall wart population

Meck

[Fishman_Tx]

Take a look here for a start....
DC-DC Regulators for CarPC automotive computers