Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Which Lead on a wall wart is positive/negative?
On most U.S. Wall warts (wall plug transformers) there is one wire on the DC side that is either striped or ribbed and the other wire is smooth. Which wire is the positive or hot lead, the ribbed/striped or the smooth. Also if you happen to know, is there any reason that I can't wire the outputs of two wall warts in parrellel as to supply a greater amperage without increasing the voltage to my end product? Thank you for your time.
3 Answers
- gkk_72Lv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
There is no set standard. Usually the wall wart will have a diagram printed on it which will tell you the polarity of the connector - whether the tip is positive or negative. If you don't have that then you will need to have a volt meter to test the connector and/or the leads.
As for your second question, it might be possible to connect two wall warts in parallel. However the voltages would have to match exactly. With voltages that do not match exactly you run the risk of feeding back the output of one unit (the one with the higher voltage) into the other which could possibly burn one or the other out. I think you would be safe if you diode isolated both so neither one would feed back into the other. Another problem you might face is the load would most likely not be carried evenly so one unit would be working harder than the other and that might burn it out too.
- 5 years ago
Use a bulb and diode with diode arranged to allow current to bulb. Apply wire of diode to a wire and the other wall wart wire to bulb side if bulb lights that is the positive lead .If not that is the negative Simples
- classicsatLv 71 decade ago
It varies.The wire coloring, IME, is more dependent of the polarity cord to the plug rather than the cord to the supply, in that the striped wire usually connects to the tip, regardless if it is a positive tip, negative tip, or AC supply..
That said, it is most typical that the tip is positive, but you ought to check to be sure.