Al ) writes:
I have disassembled wall warts and used their guts for power supplies in
projects. It works quite well. As our town's recycling center is full of
old electronics, I have assemble quite a nice selection of wall warts
that I use as PSs in projects. And the price is right, zero, except for
your time.

The ones I've opened up (mostly to see if the problem was fixable) have
never seemed too adaptable. The the transformers are too integrated
to the plug, or at the very least have no means of mounting them.

I admit that they are useful for projects unopened.

But I find consumer electronics (VCRs, radios, whatever) are often
a better source of small transformers. They at least come with mounting
holes. Of course, a fair number of VCRs I've opened up recently are
using switching supplies.

I tend to bring home switching supplies from computers I see lying
on the sidewalk waiting for the garbage truck to pick them up. But
ironically, I take out the switching supply board, and build analog
supplies inside, using parts I've salvaged from other equipment.
Rare is the time I actually need the current of a switching supply,
or the noise, yet the cases make quite nice boxes for analog supplies.
I leave the AC socket in place, and then just use one of those cords
that plug in, they now being in plentiful supply from other junk
I've collected.


They'd even make nice construction boxes, covering the back panel
with a piece of metal or circuit board.

On the other hand, when I got an older Powerbook some years back,
once I'd scraped up the details for the missing AC adaptor, I pulled
the switching supply out of an inkjet printer and it was the 24 volt
supply I needed, and I had the needed AC adaptor.

Michael VE2BVW