Hooking up low voltage DC power adapter.

I hope someone can help me out and hope I put this in the right forum.


I have a NordicTrack exercise bike that uses 4 D alkaline batteries to power the display, fan, & to change resistance.

The batteries only last a month or less.

I want to buy and hook up DC power adapter to plug into the wall outlet so I don't have to use batteries.



I was going to solder 2 wires on where the battery terminal wires are at then have that hook up to a female plug adapter that is mounted on the bike somewhere. Then I could use the DC power adapter and plug it into the female connector.


Few questions:
I thought most DC devices are lenient on the voltage input.
Should I go with a 6v power adapter or a little higher?
If so what voltage?
What max amps on the adapter I would need? 1A, 2A? ETC.

Should I put a inline fuse somewhere?

Sound about right?

Thanks in advance.

 

You should use a 6vdc 1A or less transformer. Something like in the following link. If you wanted to use a fuse you could put a 1A fuse right at the battery holder.

Amazon_6vdc_1A_power supply

 

I would test it first before soldering - batteries supply clean dc power - the transformer may (will) have some ripple in it that may affect the circuit. If they had intended for this to be used with a transformer they would have supplied a connector and the filtering would be built in.

 

Many exercise equipment companies use batteries in their upper control boards.
Never could figure that one out.... either a cost thing or a UL thing.

The supply I linked to is a switching supply and will work on a battery circuit.

 

What I have done before is make wood batteries. At the two battery contacts that provide power to the device I use a brass pan head screw with the wire underneath. This way you can easily switch back to batteries if you ever need to (or if the supply you chose doesn't work).

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

Got parts on order.

 

This.
D cells are 1.3" in diameter. What I did as a starving student using a boom box for dorm tunes was cut a 1.25" closet rod the length of 4 batteries (9-3/8"), strip the adapter wires & trap them under unpainted thumbtacks. Redneck for sure--but worked great.

 

Yep, that is the idea.

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