I own a Phatbox LE, with a USB 2.0 DMS cradle.
After a reorganization of my home office, I lost the power supply to the Phatbox DMS cradle. I have a pile of power supplies/power bricks/power adapters in a drawer and none of them seem obvious as far as being the correct one (several of them fit the opening on the back of the DMS cradle). I have tried to STFA using these terms: PSU, power supply, power adapter, power brick, cradle power, plug, cradle plug, power plug. No luck in the forum search or in the WIKI.
I looked at the FAQ Hardware post and this information is absent. Would someone please amend that post ( http://forum.phathack.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1111166455 ) to include this information, or perhaps, could a kind soul take a detailed picture of what the actual power brick/adapter looks like?
Thank you.
it's 12V, 800MA with positive center -- that should be all you really need to know...
Thank you. That helped me sort it out. I appreciate the very very fast response.
Here's all of the text for archival purposes:
AC ADAPTOR
INPUT: 120VAC 60Hz 17W
OUTPUT: 12V DC 800mA
MODEL: SCP48 - 120800
CLASS 2 TRANSFORMER
(-)---C---(+)
UL LISTED US
E148121
4T72
MADE IN TAIWAN
Interesting. The USB2.0 adapter shipped w/ my VW unit is different.
Mine has the following text on it:
Logo: FoxLink AC Adapter
Class 2 Transformer
Model No.: FA-4G080
Input: 120VAC 60Hz 15W
Output: 7.5VDC 1A
(-)---C---(+)
I'm a bit surprised at the voltage difference.
All,
the cradle has a voltage regulator inside it which is used to adapt from the mains transformer down to the 5 volts needed for the USB interface and the hard disk drive. When I bought my unit from the US it came with a supply that could be set to a range of voltages, so the first thing that I did was to open up the cradle and see what was inside.
For the electronics people (like me ;)) the USB2 version of the cradle uses a 34063 type switch mode power supply controller. This is good for a wide range of input voltages, and the upper absolute maximum limit of the circuit is set by other components to around 25 volts.
My unit is very happy running from either 9 or 12 volts from a regulated supply. (I binned the supply from the US since it was not regulated and had US style pins for the mains socket).
While a 7.5 volt supply seems a bit low, it is probably giving out more that that unless it is a regulated unit (most cheap units are not). The drive in the DMS takes at most about 500mA at 5 volts, and the USB to ATA adapter chip and it's local flash memory chip take very little from two smaller regulators (probably 3.3 volts).
So any supply giving around 9 volts or so to the cradle and capable of 800mA should be more than capable. From my investigations above, 12 volts seems fine. A supply of up to 15 volts non-regulated should be OK, but I would avoid going higher just in case something goes bang.
Hope ths helps,
Les.
I recently moved and have 4 or 5 adapter that look the same...Thanks for the topic. FWIW mine says FoxLink also.
vw version