Defective male power connector on computer speakers

They are called coaxial power plugs. I bought some male and female pairs a while back off ebay for only a few dollars. Maybe you can just buy a pair of them to get the sizes to match and replace both pieces.

Might be easier to go back with BNC, if there's room in the speaker.

BNC for power?

Mike.

Probably way too hard to get the wires attached to the male part of a BNC. I sort of thought phono plug but that would leave the male part where it could short out to something when unplugged if the male was hooked to the power supply.

Ebay has lots of the coaxial type power plugs and sockets for a few bucks. Just buy a matching set so they will fit without any problems.

But if you use shielded cable, BNC wouldn't be too hard.

I thought I'd seen them used as HV connectors in power amplifiers somewhere.

Michael

I've seen them used for power somewhere. Maybe it was a lab for some school course.

I've had second thoughts though. A BNC is a pretty firm connection. If somebody trips over the cord it will yank the guts out of the speaker. Then I thought of a phono plug, but yeah that might have the problem with the short.

Could go to some kind of automotive molex? maybe? My thought is there are plenty of inexpensive and available connection options that I would use before hardwiring this. For one thing, wal-warts do go bad. The other is the trip hazard problem.

Or, what about an F connector? Plenty of those around.

BNC are made for specific sizes of coax cable. Try and put any othe size on and it is very difficult. The center pin would probably push back unless it is some of the ones that are for samll cable and the pinis fixed ans soldered to. I doubt the small computer speaker power cube would have any shielded wiring and hard ot put that on a wall cube.

I doubt the BNC is used on power amplifiers as the voltage rating is only 500 volts peak.

Consider Anderson PowerPole connectors. They've replaced Molex throughout much of the amateur-radio community - they're more rugged, even the little 15-amp contacts will handle more current than you'll need, and they pull apart and reconnect cleanly and easily.

There's a de facto standard in the ham community for a two-contact configuration for ham radios operating on 12-14 VDC. If your speaker uses a different voltage, you could pair up the contacts differently (I use a "top and bottom" vs. "side by side" orientation whenever I do this).

No, it seems that the printed wiring board has a crack and needs repair. Or, the solder joint to the connector that connects it to the printed wiring board is faulty, and requires a bit of solder flux and reheating.

Get a lens out, and examine carefully.

Maybe we're over thinking this.

How about a pair of binding posts on the speaker, and strip the ends of the power supply wires?

At hamfests over the last 4 years, I think it's more than one person who has been selling a little transparent bag of 7 power plugs, all different, and I those 7 make up 99% of all the plugs used.

At hamfests one bag was only $2 so I bought 3 on the theory I'd need 3, all the same size.

But that doesn't mean you'll be able to find this. You very often see more than one vendor at more than one hamfest in more than one state selling the same stuff, but how often that happens nationwide, or where you and I are, I don't know. And a lot of hamfests are so small no one is selling this.

This is no good because it's $30. FWIW the plugs are longer than my $2 set. :-)

This is $6 plus shipping:

A more likely bet and something always available online is that there are also universal power adapters, that have a range of voltages from 3 or 4.5 up to 9 or 12, and they have SEVEN or so power plugs on the end all attached at once. Make sure you get one with enough power for yoru speakers because they come in 500ma and 1000mamp iirc. Even the big one is no more than $10.

I have 3 or 4 universal ones of various ratings and I use them to figure out the minimum voltage I need to make something work, if it's not labeled, and to use temporarily until I find or make a one-size adapter. But sometimes temporarily drags on for years, like for my router. I used a universal temporarily until I found an exact replacement on ebay. That worked for a year or two before it burned out in the same way the first one did. Someone, maybe here, said they were known to be unreliable. 5 minutes after the second one broke, I was back to the universal, which was still lying on my desk behind the monitor.

Make sure the voltage and amperage goes high enough.

$18 for 1300 ma but you can probably do better

I hate to push walmart but this at least looks like the same thign, $13 Microcenter has more than one model, not especially cheap.

FINALLY THIS is what I meant $8.35

Well I like the ones where they are all wired in at the same time, including to replace a 9-volt battery, but maybe you don't care.

You might just bag it and replace the entire adapter. See:

Anything 7.5 V and greater than or equal to 350 mA will work.

There is a little ICON on the adapter that can tell you if center is positive. You have to have the correct polarity.

The URL, I mentioned has an adapter set and a reverse polarity adapter available if you need it.

5.5/2.1 and 5.5/2.5 are vary common sizes. The problem is the 5.5/2.5 fits on the 5.5/2.1 receptacle.

With a caliper, you can measure the OD in mm. The ID can be measures using a known receptacle and/or a drill bit. For the 5.5/2.1 & 5.5/2.5, I use two of the known receptacles. If they both fit, it's the 5.5/2.1.

There are plenty of sizes to choose from:

Why? The adapter works fine, it's the female plug on the speaker thats bad.