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Power Supply for Dust Buster

My wife was given a Dust Buster because it didn't work. After a detailed inspection, aha! there are no Batteries.

It's not worth buying batteries, but I would spend some time at my bench whatching NCIS reruns or the news to make a power supply. . The batteries are about $60. Hmm.. after some more looking, I see this is a versapak, seems to be a standard to fit many products, I found it as low as $29 a pair for an unreviewed battery from Amazon. Now it might be worth purchasing. Maybe!

The batteries check out as 3.6v 2100mah NiMH and it uses two in series.

I ran the motor exposed with rotor attached, at 7.2 volts and the motor draws 9 amps. Does this make sense? That seems like a lot to me, but it runs fine, or so it seems. My cheap little jump leads got a little toasty during testing. I see in the reviews that battery life is one of the complaints.

If indeed 9 amps is normal, using a wall wart is not going to work. First plan foiled!

The housing is all plastic, the switch is plastic far from the contacts. No exposed metal, in fact the only metal is the contacts from the battery to the switch and the motor. So I'm thinking about a non isolated supply to run this motor.

Any Ideas for a transformerless 7.2V 10amp/12amp power supply?

Thanks, Mikek

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Reply to
amdx
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My Sears vacuum draws a peak 12 A at 115V, or more than a kilowatt. Yours is only 65 watts, so it seams plausible. Those suckers use a lot of power.

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John
Reply to
quiasmox

so about $5

wouldnt getting the 4x 2.1Ah AAs make more sense?

NT

Reply to
meow2222

A computer wall wart running into an eBay buck regulator, e.g.

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Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net
Reply to
Phil Hobbs

** So it has two THREE cell battery packs ?

** Seems about right.

** That makes no sense at all.

** Sure, just find a place to live where the AC supply is about 8V.

... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

A pair of scrap PC PCUs can deliver that.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

I missed your link to the versapak batteries for $2.50 ea. with free shipping.

Possibly, but. on the other hand the lack of battery life seems to be a problem. I have lots of parts on hand and power cords. So...

Mikek

Reply to
amdx

More like amps I do believe..

Jamie

Reply to
Maynard A. Philbrook Jr.

Ooh, that might work. The first laptop computer supply I found didn't cut it, 19v at 3.42 amps. I have more around here I can look at, it will be close, at 19v I should have a 4.75 amp supply figuring 80% efficiency. However, then I'm into it for $8.29, but the batteries won't run low, or need replacement.

Thanks for that idea, Mikek

Reply to
amdx

Some connector to fit the contacts, I haven't seen it before but it seems several tools use it, "versapak".

Great idea Phil, I'll install a fullwave rectifier and run it from my variac! ;-)

Mikek

Reply to
amdx

...

Close enough. You can get the batteries and charger at Sears. The 'Versapak gold' variant is a NiMH battery, the old original equipment was NiCd (Versapak silver) batteries.

Reply to
whit3rd

I suggested AAs, not versapak

ok, enjoy making life harder.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Ask your freecycle group for some desktop psus.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Of course, for the same money, you could get a real vacuum cleaner, e.g.

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Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net
Reply to
Phil Hobbs

I think I would need 6 NiMH to get 7.2V.

Not my usual mode, I try to take the easy way. Also, I would need some modification to make standard AA batteries fit and connect. Mikek

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Reply to
amdx

We have had one of those and it has been on my mind to ask my wife if we still have it. It has a beater bar or brush, that makes it more useful for my application. Thanks, Mikek

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Reply to
amdx

Yes, I was thinking 4.8v for some reason

Yup. I dont rate the dustbuster much, for 10 notes I'd get a dustette instead. With 140w mains rather than a short lived 60w battery its a much better beast. They also last well, you can still get 1930s ones working fine. Dustbusters are more like toys.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

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