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Hard wiring battery toy to a DC source

Hello all,

I have three of those Star Wars animated sword battling figures (Darth Mul and the two Jedi dudes). When plugged into each other at the base, the two Jedi's gang up on Darth.

Anyways, they each contain 4 banks of 3 AA batteries. I say banks, because each group of 3 batteries is isolated from the other group ... at least from the visible exterior.

How do I use a DC converter with two wire (+/-) and wire up one of these? Should I just soldier up 4 wires, one to each + starting point on each bank, and another 4 wires, one to each - ending point on each bank, twist the 4 positives together and hook to the DC +. Likewise for the - ?

Actually, I tried this and didn't have any luck. Which leads me to my next question. How powerful of a DC converter do I need? If there a 4 banks of

3xAA, thats 12 x 1.5 volts? What size of a DC should I use? The one I have is 3.7 volt, 350 mA.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate your comments.

Cheers, Eric

Reply to
Eric
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You have to know more about how these banks of batteries are connected to each other.

If they need so many batteries they need more current than this converter can deliver. Toys with motors in them often need a couple of Amps.

If you want to continue this project you need to go deeper into the devices, find out what voltages are needed inside, how the battery banks are interconnected and how they are connected to the circuit boards inside.

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Roger J.
Reply to
Roger Johansson

One quick way would be to get a separate 5V wart for each 'bank', and a power strip with plug. It'll cost about 10 bucks from a surplus place like

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Actually, a nice product that I haven't seen would be a wall-wart battery replacement, using flat cable. The cable would have to be flat enough to allow closing the plastic compartments. It could support different voltages, selectable using a switch, and offer 'blank' batteries that are just connectors for the other batteries required. I have a battery powered keyboard from logitech that eats batteries that would be a perfect application for such a product.

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Regards,
   Robert Monsen

"Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis."
     - Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), to Napoleon,
        on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God.
Reply to
Robert Monsen

I have done this many times and I have used miniature crocodile clips or soldering to connect the wallwart to the battery connectors in the battery compartment. It is usually easy to remove a little plastic from the lid so the wires can be used with the lid on.

--
Roger J.
Reply to
Roger Johansson

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