pain101 said:
guys, 9volts/8.5volts. thats not the important number, the 5000ma is... THATS ALOTA CURRENT!!!
this is why simply plugging in random 9volts wont work as you are only gonna get a few hundred milliamps from a regular 9volt power supply. the key is getting that super boost of current.
think of it like a river, the heating element being the basin thats catching the water.
if the basin is big, it will take a lot of water to fill right, so you want that FLOW to be really strong.
if the basin is small(like your average hand held device would be) then its only going to take a tiny flow, AND that huge flow needed to fill the big basin will wipe out the smaller one!!
if you can find 9 volts at 5000ma you are golden, BUT you should get a multimeter testing on it first if you are not buying it stock as they can vary, then you could add a simple resistor to the power or variable resistor to dial it down to the exact voltage with ease and safety.
power is power, and as long as you arent buying a cheap chinese piece of shit, theres really not much difference aside from voltage variances with the wall warts. and to be extra safe a simple fuse can be attached to the wire of the power with no skill required!!!!
This issue of being forced to buy a new adaptor or pay ridiculous amounts IS an issue of us being slightly shafted from a pure engineering point of view but theres only so much you can do with money
Indeed, I don't just go plugging random power suppliers here there and everywhere hoping for the best
It should have been well over the required current - a very large variable workshop supply which I think went up to 10A, and we decided there was no way on earth the heater was more than 90W.
At 9V it would only heat for a minute or so before turning off- maybe slightly longer than reported in the other example above. This was before the Arizer version had been released so we didn't think to try running it at 8.5V.
Instead my electronic expert friend speculated that it may have been due to the fact it was a switching supply which may have not been compatible, and that the Solo innards were designed for a 'coil transformer' input. But subsequently that doesn't seem to be the case, which lead me to speculate that there might be some little microchip in there that's designed to make that extra 0.5v important, and significantly reduces the number of alternative power supply options.
Or maybe to ensure it doesn't get too close to engaging the 12v charging circuit instead of the 8.5v heating one? But then the more I think about it the more I think that 0.5 of a volt seems a tiny margin to work with.
We even measured the power that was being drawn off by the Solo as it was heating- it wasn't anywhere near 5 amps- I don't actually think it peaked above 2A if I remember rightly. Iit was back in August, could have been a different value, but I an remember thinking that wattage wise it sounded sensible. I don't know what that means. Could the Solo have circuitry that won't allow the use of a different charger, even if the excess current is not required? Certainly the heater doesn't seem to require the full 45W potential provided by that supply- the batteries are only 7.2V 2200mAH (15 watts?). I'm no expert- is my reasoning sound?
It was only one test, and we didn't really 'play around' with input voltage/amperage as my Solo was was still very new and I was a little nervous of doing so. It could have been a dodgy test. I'll try again if I get the chance, but it won't be until Christmas.
