Replacing an AC jack?

[drjayphd]

I just picked up a Polaroid BurnMAX external CD-RW drive cheap. Why would I need this, you ask? I figured it'd be cheaper to buy this and find the power supply (which wasn't at this Goodwill) online than to buy an external enclosure.

Well, lo and behold, Polaroid apparently doesn't recognize this drive's existence. (Sheesh, it's just five friggin' years old, AT MOST...) So not only can I not order the power supply from them, apparently, I can't even figure out what the hell I'm looking for. So how easy would it be to replace the jack with something semi-standard? The problem is that it apparently needs to provide 5V and 12V. The jack kind of looks like an S-Video jack, but not exactly. I'm also guessing it'd be impossible to provide enough power over USB (and that'd only be 5V, probably no room for a transformer either).

EDIT: Looking at the bottom, I need 5V at 1.4A and 12V at 1.3A. So would it be doable to come up with some four-pronged jack (the other two lines in a bog-standard ATX power supply, don't'cha know), find a couple of AC adaptors that would provide the needed voltages and amperages, stick 'em in a box and wire them to one input, with the needed outputs going out?

[Mister X]

I'd just pitch the POS for being a headache. The cost of the adapters and new barrel jacks, plus the epoxy, solder, and jumper work would just make the headache worse. Screw external burners. A GOOD DVD burner will run you $30. Much cheaper than pointless labor that will leave you with an ugly turd of a device that you could never sell later.

[drjayphd]

I'd just pitch the POS for being a headache. The cost of the adapters and new barrel jacks, plus the epoxy, solder, and jumper work would just make the headache worse. Screw external burners. A GOOD DVD burner will run you $30. Much cheaper than pointless labor that will leave you with an ugly turd of a device that you could never sell later.

The idea isn't to sell it later, it's to make one of these portable.

EDIT: Upon further review... it's a friggin' PS/2 port, with one pin broken off. So now all I need to find are two disposable AC adaptors that output the right voltages/amperages, yes?

[APHawkes]

Maybe if you had an old AT power supply laying around you could salvage it. Total overkill, but as long as you're trying to be cheap about it there's a possibility.

[Mister X]

Hell, if it's to restore a tape drive, then full steam ahead. Yeah, match voltage, and make sure the current rating for each adapter is equal to or greater than the requirements of the device they'll be powering. Finding 1A or higher supplies is kinda difficult, since not much running off an AC adapter these days has that kind of current draw.

Just don't buy a Radio Shack adapter, for the love of god. BUILDING an AC adapter isn't difficult, should the need arise. There are plenty of electronic engineers around here who could whip up schematics for them.

[mothatrucka]

I've got a 5V/12V power supply laying around. I don't think the amperage is right for you, though. The end looks like an S-video cable, but larger. I dunno if there's a way to change the amperage, though.

[nitro2k01]

I think there's a certain chance that a PSU meant for Lacie's portable "F.A. Porsche" HD's will work with your CD drive. The plug is the same shape as that of 4-pin S-video. (I checked it, they fit)

[vskid]

I got the same thing (except it can read DVDs, too) for $5 at a thrift store a few months ago. Had the same problem. I was going to wire a 4 pin molex connector (the power connector on hard drives and CD drives) to it so I could just use a computer PSU. Then I remembered that the DVD drive in our desktop was messed up, so I just threw the drive from the enclosure in it. It would have probably taken 10 minutes to wire up the other power connector, but I just shared the DVD drive over my network for everything that doesn't have a disc drive.