It varies. I have some that do an excellent job - great stability right up to their rated maximum current and no sign of ripple. I have others that are quite hopeless. One of the awful ones turned out to be from a device that contained only a small heater - it was never intended for electronic devices, and performed accordingly. A lot of the low-current adapters are just capacitive droppers with little or no additional filtering - they are usable at very low loads but perform badly at anything approaching their rated current.
Hi Jeff
Well said, would have to agree with that.
But Mark has too many switch mode devices connected to the mains giving trouble. I don’t believe they ALL would be crook. There are some well branded (Belkin etc) ones and even his PC USB supply that caused problems. The only switch mode device he used with success was the power bank but significantly that was not connected to mains.
So to me it all points to something the switch mode systems don’t like that is ADDED to the mains voltage. He could look at the mains directly but DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMENDED AND VERY VERY DANGEROUS. That is why I suggested looking at the secondary of a low voltage transformer to possibly see something amiss.
Mark has said he is rural so there could be anything connected causing problems like speed controlled rotating machinery or some other large current use devices. I think you would have to be there and have a look personally to form any definite opinion.
Mark also says he is about 40M from a transformer which I assume is stepping down from 11kV distribution. Is the transformer faulty in some way? Is it a wooden pole, these are notorious for causing interference when they get older. Go out and have a look at night. Might frighten you sometimes with the arcing running up and down the timber. Especially if you hit it with a rubber hammer.
Cheers Bob
1 Like
I’ll give it a try after Christmas
Tried that last night. Nothing to see at all.
Hi Mark
Probably good pole, good insulators. Wet or foggy nights provide the best shows.
You have probably seen an electrical guy walking around hitting poles with a rubber hammer and listening to a hand held transistor radio. He is looking for “noisy” poles where people have complained about TV or Radio etc interference. Simple but effective. I have done similar at a TV transmitter site when looking for arcing or otherwise troublesome connections in the RF “plumbing” system.
Cheers Bob
1 Like
