hi guys.

so im trying to buy an adapter in australia,
except im not sure which one im supposed to buy.


it says

AC220V~60Hz, 60mA.

DC12v/ 500mA.


i live in australia,
so it's 240v, . would the milliamp thing differ?



because i remember in school we used to do that amp over voltage, or amp times current, etc.
something like that.

or would it just not matter.

What exactly is it for/what's it supposed to adapt?

The amperage output is just the maximum current the power supply can source while maintaining the regulated 12V. If you put more load than that the voltage starts to drop. If you put in more voltage in the output may or may not change, depending on how the regulator works, but anything you plug it in to will be able to use it since the voltage will only be a little higher than 12V if anything.

Watts = Volts x Amps

Amps = Watts/Volts

Volts = Watts/Amps

BTW, each of those things was named after some important dude. James Watt invented teh steam engine, Alesandro Volta electrocuted frogs and made the battery, and Andre Ampere invented the magnet. Yay useless info!

A little known fact is that recently the voltage was standardised across the whole country at 230V.

To maintain the same amount of power at a low voltage current needs to be increased. That is why at 12V it allows 500mA.

At 220V 60mA is about 12W
12V at 500ma is 6W

Sounds realistic. The transformer probably works.

so how much for 240v, when the adapter is 220v 50ma?


also,

i tihnk it's 50hz there, and the adapter in question is 60hz.

its for a small electronic dictionary.

I have to believe the issues about frequency (50 vs 60 hz) will disappear when the signal is rectified from alternating current to direct current.
In other words, 50 or 60 is made to disappear, and thus becomes zero , and therefore irrelevant.

Just look at the output numbers and don't worry at all about the input numbers.

It'd be nice if you could check out the final ouptut voltage with a meter, just to be sure it wasn't much higher than say 14 volts or lower than 11 volts. (voltage needs are sloppy)

Make sure it is not a switch mode power supply. If it is then 60Hz may cause a problem (then again it probably won't). If it is fairly heavy and large (ie the size of most plugpacks) then it isn't switch mode and frequency is not an issue. Chances are it is not switch mode.

220V versus 230V is nothing.

Your adapter should work.