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I had a power supply die, and we have universals. But the original power supply did 12 V 400 mA. The universal one we have does 12 V 4.5 A.

I know theory says its fine, it'll only take what it needs. I'm just curious if real world physics behaves the same with the hardware. It is was something like 4 A & 5 A I would be more comfortable, but its 400 mA vs 4.5 A. It's that 10x current that worries me.

ProjectPokket
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  • 4.5 A is 1125 times the current, not 10 times. What power supply did you have that's only rated for 4 mA? That figure is probably incorrect if you're talking about an AC to DC converting power supply such as a wall wart. – JYelton Jun 29 '23 at 20:51
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    Power supply may have requirement for minimal load. Read the spec. – user263983 Jun 29 '23 at 20:52
  • typo, should have said 400mA – ProjectPokket Jun 29 '23 at 22:05
  • Thought experiment: what will happen if you plug a 20 W lamp into your domestic supply which is powered by the national grid which can supply gigawatts? – Transistor Jun 29 '23 at 22:15
  • Simple, non-smart answer. Yes you can, It's the voltage that has to match. The load extracts the current it needs, rather like a tap connected to a tank of water. – Rohit Gupta Jun 29 '23 at 23:39
  • The 1mA clock in a car runs fine from the 600A battery. – Audioguru Jun 30 '23 at 01:43
  • Just making sure. I understand theoretically should work fine, but I personally hadnt mismatched current that high of a difference. – ProjectPokket Jun 30 '23 at 06:39

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