Power Supply vs Adaptor

[bijli]

My DSL modem came with an adaptor. It burnt. I bought a new cheap adaptor,
it burnt too and the next one too. So some one told be to buy a 9V DC power
supply. He said unlike adaptors they dont get hot. Now I'm running my modem
with a PS. It does get hot but not that much compared to the adaptors (the
PS running my laptop doesn't get hot at all). However one good thing has
happened. I dont get disconnected when a power failure occurs and my UPS
kicks in. On adaptors I always disconnected. So what's the difference
between an adaptor and PS? also on the PS the current mentioned is 1.1 Amp
where as on adaptors it was 500 mA. So the current is double. What does it
mean? And finally I've been told to not use adaptors with UPS because the
normal average UPS doen't give correct voltages? Is that right?

thx.

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2009-04-07, bijli <bijli@nowhere.com> wrote:

My DSL modem came with an adaptor. It burnt. I bought a new cheap adaptor,
it burnt too and the next one too. So some one told be to buy a 9V DC power
supply. He said unlike adaptors they dont get hot. Now I'm running my modem
with a PS. It does get hot but not that much compared to the adaptors (the
PS running my laptop doesn't get hot at all). However one good thing has
happened. I dont get disconnected when a power failure occurs and my UPS
kicks in. On adaptors I always disconnected. So what's the difference
between an adaptor and PS? also on the PS the current mentioned is 1.1 Amp
where as on adaptors it was 500 mA. So the current is double. What does it
mean? And finally I've been told to not use adaptors with UPS because the
normal average UPS doen't give correct voltages? Is that right?

adaptors are powersupplies, powersupplies are adaptors.

the stronger the powersupply the more headroom (excess capability)
there is, the excess capability is useful in extreme conditions.
for this reason the 1,1A supply out-performs the 500mA supplies

the wall-wart type adaptors often have a simple transformer
based design, and these transformers aren't designed to operate from
the modified square wave output of a cheap UPS.

the brick style powersupplies (and some plug-adaptors) have a different
design called switched mode which uses a special miniature transformer
and high frequencies that is better suited to the UPS output.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-mode_power_supply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_wart

hope that helps.

 

[Nobody]

On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:39:57 +0500, bijli wrote:

My DSL modem came with an adaptor. It burnt. I bought a new cheap adaptor,
it burnt too and the next one too. So some one told be to buy a 9V DC power
supply. He said unlike adaptors they dont get hot. Now I'm running my modem
with a PS. It does get hot but not that much compared to the adaptors (the
PS running my laptop doesn't get hot at all). However one good thing has
happened. I dont get disconnected when a power failure occurs and my UPS
kicks in. On adaptors I always disconnected. So what's the difference
between an adaptor and PS?

"Adaptor" is an extremely vague term. A wall-wart is just a PSU (power
supply unit) built into the same case as the mains plug.

also on the PS the current mentioned is 1.1 Amp
where as on adaptors it was 500 mA. So the current is double. What does it
mean?

It means that you can draw twice as much current. If your modem used e.g.
400mA, the wall-wart would be operating at 80% of its limit, while the
brick-style PSU would be operating at less than 40%. Like most things,
PSUs will be more reliable if you leave some slack rather than pushing
them to their limit.

Also, the 1.1A PSU probably has a larger output smoothing capacitor than
the wall-wart, which is why you don't get disconnected by the brief power
outage before the UPS kicks in.

And finally I've been told to not use adaptors with UPS because the
normal average UPS doen't give correct voltages? Is that right?

A UPS typically puts out a very crude waveform, which puts additional
"stress" on the PSU. If the PSU was operating close to its limit on mains,
this may push it over the edge.