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I am hoping to attempt to fix my childrens ride on electric car as the power supply was left charging and has cracked / broken (see pics).

Original Broken Power Supply Connector

I am completely new to electronics, but was hoping to replace the power supply and get the car working again.

The power supply seems to have a non-standard connector and I cannot seem to source a replacement on the internet so the only option "I can see" is to replace the power supply and solder / re-attach the connector to it, hence this question.

I have measured the voltage across the car battery and getting about 13 volts so can I assume that this has not been damaged?

I have looked at a few articles / videos such as -

https://superuser.com/questions/166876/can-i-patch-my-laptop-power-cable

Is it OK to solder a power cord?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTAUupMxT1U

But the over-riding theme seems to be its fine to DONT MESS ABOUT unless you know what you are doing?

I am in the UK.

I was hoping that someone who knows what they are doing could describe if / how they would attempt to repair this (maybe there is an alternate way or the connector is not so non-standard). They may also describe how dangerous is could be if done wrong?

I can at least then go forward knowing I can pay someone to complete the repair if I am not comfortable doing it myself.

EDIT: As this question has been put "on hold", here are some original notes that I did not post but probably should have to show where I had got to, but on reading the link again, think I would have to know how to design a power supply before asking how to repair one? yet individual questions regarding parts of the steps to repair on are OK on this site -

For the record, from those others links here is what I would do if I wasn’t concerned about safety.

  • Cut the connector end off the broken adaptor, cut the end of the new replacement adaptor.
  • From the picture, would separate the 2 wires.
  • Strip wires tidily.
  • Twine them (people seem to think this is better than just touching and solder).
  • Solder them
  • Heat shrink wrap each wire
  • Heat shrink wrap the external wire around the join to keep tidy.
  • Test the adaptor without letting it out of sight (but to be honest how would I know it was OK? I will check for heat in wire etc).
Community
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WickedW
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  • Really, if it looks like that, throw it away, this is an accident waiting to happen. – PlasmaHH Jul 13 '15 at 15:45
  • @PlasmaHH, I only intend to use the connector bit on a newly purchased supply with equivalent specs? still a no go? thanks – WickedW Jul 13 '15 at 15:48
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    That looks like an american 4-way trailer connector. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_Connector/North_America – brhans Jul 13 '15 at 15:48
  • @WickedW: Something has caused it to melt, and that is certainly not only depending on the quality of the power supply. – PlasmaHH Jul 13 '15 at 15:52
  • @PlasmaHH good point, I left it plugged in for a week or so and the case ended up cracking. – WickedW Jul 13 '15 at 15:58
  • but it did not melt as such, that is some black tape around the outside that looks messy. – WickedW Jul 13 '15 at 16:04

1 Answers1

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All you would need to do is note down the polarity of the connector, cut the wire off the old supply and wire it to a new 12v DC supply rated for the 1A output Making sure the polarity is correct to avoid burning out any reverse polarity protection diodes.

B-TECH
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  • thanks @B-TECH, how would I note the polarity of the connector? do I take apart the existing supply and check how it connects internally? – WickedW Jul 13 '15 at 16:12
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    @WickedW there is a drawing on the front of the power brick. The three metal prongs are redundantly connected to + and the hooded prong is connected to -. – crasic Jul 13 '15 at 20:30
  • Thanks to the people who took the time to reply, I went ahead with repair, I used the markings on each wire to note polarity for both adaptors wires, I also measured polarity using multimeter to be sure, I then soldered the 4 way connector onto the new adaptor and insulated, I did my best to check all was OK, and the kids are now driving around the back garden in the car. – WickedW Jul 17 '15 at 06:54