🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov13.143003.26580@keinstr.uucp> chaplin@keinstr.uucp (Roger Chaplin) writes:

>  ------------
>  |          |
>  |   AC     |                     ______         _____             _______
>  | Adaptor  |---------------------|    |       --|   |-------------|     |
>  |          |                     ------         -----             -------
>  |          |                      1/8"           1/8"             original
>  ------------                     stereo         stereo           AC Adaptor
>                                   in-line         plug               plug
>                                    jack

>The reason I chose a 3-conductor (stereo) rather than a 2-conductor
>(mono) connector is that for some stereos, the `ring' of the connector,
>rather than the `tip', is the positive voltage connection.  All of the
>2-conductor plugs I've seen have exposed metal which is connected to
>the ring.  I didn't want any chance of shorting that conductor to the
>grounded metal of the car's gear shift, etc.

Looks like a great idea.  But, since the 1/8" plug/jack is of arbitrary
polarity, you could have made it always have a negative (or whatever your
car frame ground is) ring and a positive tip in all cases - the tip of
the 1/8" doesn't necessarily need to be the same polarity as the tip of
the original plug.

There are "universal" AC adapters on the market which have a four-way
connectors on them that looks like    |     and sometimes has a 9V
                       ___          --O--
                     =|   |__________/|
                      |___|
battery clip dangling as well.  These often have switchable voltages
and polarities.  I THINK I may have seen the molded + plug/cord or
an interchangeable-tip cord/plug without the actual power supply at
Radio Shack.

I do essentially the same thing as your 1/8" universal converter except
I use a 1/4" mono plug/jack since (1) I can get more current through it
to operate spotlights, compressors, etc, (2) It is more heavy-duty, less
likely to break, especially if you buy studio-grade plugs/jacks, and (3)
of course, at the time I had large quanitites of plugs which were donated
to my high school and jacks which were donated to my college.  The other
big advantage is that you can buy off-the-shelf Y-splitters, extension
cables, etc if you don't have time to make your own before that big road
trip.