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cheeryble

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
199
0
Hi
I'm the chap in Thailand who saved buying a 3800bt iBook charger and found a 120bt ($3.50) charger which I connected to the iBook plug. You may think me a cheapskate but it worked. It says Hitachi on the front and Delta Electronics on the back (who knows what it is at $3.50), and looks quite well made, and rated for 20v and 3.5a.

The charger however has stopped working after some weeks. I just bought another of these 120bt chargers, but I have noticed something I'm amazed I didn't see before.
In the low voltage cable from the charger there is
1. a white wire
2. 2 thin red wires
3. bare sheathing (inside the outside insulation of course)

I don't think I'd even noticed the red wires before, or thought they were only plastic, but there is indeed copper inside them.
I believe I took the white core wire as +ve and the sheathing as -ve.......and it worked.

Could anyone explain the wiring.....perhaps i got a little short from the cutoff ends of the red wires and should be using them instead of the sheathing.......and shall I just connect the two reds together as one?
If all else fails i shall do the same as last time being more careful to insulate the reds.......but I'd like to understand it.

cheers Cheeryble
 
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