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I have just enough knowledge about electrical stuff to get in trouble... So that is my background, and hence why I am asking before I do something stupid.

I have a device I want to power that is missing its plug. I purchased a plug that has the same power stats, but upon getting it in the mail it seems that the device requires a barrel plug that has the outside positive, and inside negative. Of course the one I ordered is opposite. My question is: Is it safe to cut the wires in the middle of the cord somewhere and swap positive so instead of being on the inside of the barrel, it's on the outside, and negative so that it's on the inside.

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Yes, it's safe. The DC barrel jack polarity is not a universal standard. You'll find that most things use negative on the outside, but some things definitely change this (guitar pedals for example).

You could even add an inline connector which would allow you to swap polarity as needed, in case you have different devices that you'd like to use the power supply with.

I'd recommend making a label for the power supply so you can easily tell how you've configured it in the future:

Barrel jack polarity symbol

Source

JYelton
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    Safe *provided you do a good job* and make electrically and mechanically sound splices. – hobbs Feb 04 '23 at 14:22
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    And also if you make sure not to use the wrong polarity for whatever you plug it in to. Some devices will smoke if the polarity is wrong. – datenheim Feb 07 '23 at 07:23