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Variable voltage Power adapter warning. (pics)

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lykan

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Last night, my camera stopped working with the adaptor. I thought nothing of it. I tested it, the second you plugged in the adaptor the camera would shut down. I figured I'll take the camera and the adaptor in the today, and see what they'll do for me.

So, I unplug the adaptor from the camera about 6pm. The wife and I head to bed about midight. Something smells funny to my wife just as we're about to drift off (no it wasn't me).

She goes and checks, its from the outlet. She unthinkingly grabs the adaptor for the camera , it burns the hell out of her.

I checked it out. It;s very hot to the touch, hot enough to cause blisters if youheld it. The sides of the adaptor are soft and goey. The plastic case is hot enough to collapse in on itself.

After a serious inspection we came to a conclusion, the removable tip that fiots the camera is shorted out inside. Causing a direct short in the Adaptor Instead of burning out, or ceasing to function it just started cooking the adaptor.

If we hadn't woken up, and or the adaptor had been in another room, there's no doubt the fire dept would have been here last night. Maybe to put out a small fire, maybe to pull out the bodies. With three kids stuff like this is scary as hell. (smoke detectors in every room).

The pics don't look like much, we caught it early. The reason for this post, is for my friends here to be aware of this certain brand of adaptor, and to either ditch it, or keep a close eye on it.

I didn't push on the case, or try to collapse it because I want it as is for the guys at the store to have a look at it and determine for themselves.

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Yikes! That is pretty scarey. I have something very similar that I purchased from Radio Shack about 2 years ago.

Did you happen to switch the tip causing the polarity to be reversed? I'm not sure if that would cause anything.

Either way thanks for the warning.
 
Actually if you look at the plug, it's can't be reversed. One pin is bigger than the other.

Thought I might mention the voltage selector on the back is fused and bent, won't move, goes from 3.3-12v I think.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't complain if it was old and beat up. It's only about 1 week old, been used a total of about 4 hrs.

I had another on (similar) just quit working. The radio shack ones are a little spendy. Now I know why, they are most likely higher quality. Be ware of the cheap $15.00-$20 one's if it looks cheap and feels cheap it probably is.

I seen adaptors get hot before, but not like this.
 
Oh yeah. I didn't even notice the pin size. You are correct about the price on the Radio Shack brand being a little pricey.
 
I'm suprised taht it passed the UL tests before they released it to be sold. I thought all exectrical stuff had to be UL approved. I'm also suprised that they didn't put a fuse in it somewhere for just the reason you posted about.

Good to hear that you caught it in time. Also, sorry to hear about your wife's hand. Is it really bad?
 
No blisters ;) red and sore tho. Nothing is more annoying than a sensitive burn
 
tell me about it. I got a nice header burn right now.

For all those that are firing up the nitros after the winter, remember to watch those fingers and stay away from the pipe.

Hope your wife heals soon bro.
 
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