Anyone got a good source for ac/ac adaptors with euro connectors?

[tmod]

Hi, I'm building my daughter's first guitar amp (she's just turned three, so about time she get her own gear...), and the plan is to use a wall wart supplying 18-24Vac through a barrel connector and a dc regulator for heater chain and a 15/230 torroid for ht. Turns out I did a miscalculation on my heater current demands, so I'm slightly under power with the wall wart I've gotten, so now I'm looking for a bigger one. Ideally I'd want about 20Vac, and at least 1,5A and a 2,1mm connector. Turns out this is a lot more difficult to find online than last time I did this, anyone got a good online source for ac/ac wall warts with euro connectors?

[J M Fahey]

Donīt build her a TUBE amp, get an SS amp and even better if battery powered.

Avoid anything which is plugged into mains and where she is also plugged in.

Be sensible, sheīs THREE years old, for Godīs sake !!!!!!

[tmod]

Everything is insulated, so should be fine. The amp itself is not connected to mains, that's part of the reason why I'm using a wall wart. I'm considering adding a 600:600 input transformer, and then everything will be galvanically isolated from both the strings and mains. Should be less risk of shock than her bedroom lamps...

[tmod]

Bump.
Anyone?

[J M Fahey]

Short answer: nobody wants to be part of your recklessness relative a 3 y.o. girl on which you are trying to impose your ideas about Tube guitar amps.
Please be realistic and buy her this, she will **ENJOY** it because itīs matches her brain and emotional development *today*:

read the label, it needs no full translation:



stop projecting yourself onto her, sheīll ENJOY the above, or even this one ... which is already meant for somewhat older girls, go figure:

[bob p]

But Juan, Fender wants you to indoctrinate them at an early age by buying a Hello Kitty guitar and amp!



I got my first guitar as a little kid -- it was a cheap acoustic from Sears. It never bothered me that it wasn't electric and as a 3 year old child I never would have appreciated the tonal differences between tube an SS. If I had acquired a real amp as a kid I would have damaged my hearing at an early age. Hearing protection is worth thinking about. Amplified sound presents a risk to children that they don't fully understand. Children with battery powered MP3 players and headsets can easily damage their hearing without understanding what they're doing. Notice that the Hello Kitty amp puts the speaker right at a child's ear level. when I look at products like these I see nothing but risk. As a manufacturer Juan is aware of those risks.

Electrical safety is worth thinking about too ... as a kid I damn near got electrocuted several times. IMO a battery powered solid state device is a very good idea. Even if the wall-wart and everything downstream is insulated, the real risk is at the outlet. I prefer to keep small children away from outlets.

[The Dude]

I really hate piling on here, but does anyone think a 3 year old would recognize the difference between a tube amp and a solid state amp anyway?

[Leo_Gnardo]

does anyone think a 3 year old would recognize the difference between a tube amp and a solid state amp anyway?

When I was 3 years old, I was already fascinated with tubes. Not that I gave a fig about amps, didn't know what they were for another 10 years. BUT I flummoxed my mom by spending more time looking at the back of the TV than the front - there were fascinating dusty glowing things back there, woo-hoooo! "STOP THAT LEO ! ! ! ! " It was 1956, it was gonna be a couple more years before transistor sets arrived.

Dang! I missed the boat back then. Should'a picked up some tweed Fenders, also Strats, Teles & Les Pauls. Who knew?

[The Dude]

Did they even have transistors when you were a kid?

[Leo_Gnardo]

Did they even have transistors when you were a kid?

"They" certainly did, if "they" were military, spy agencies & the predecessor to NASA. Or making pocket radios in Japan, which started to turn up right around then. "Gee Dad it's a SONY!"

[Enzo]

Transistor invented in 1947. Within 10 years the hobby magazines were full of simple transistor circuits, most based on the CK722 - the first consumer transistor.

If you care:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CK722

[Mick Bailey]

I've read quite a few articles that refer to three-terminal point-contact devices being experimented with in the 1900s/1920s as a result of trying to improve the action of signal detectors using Silicon Carbide. There are some claims to signal voltage amplification, by supplying the junction with a low battery voltage. Maybe a transistor action was observed back then but never realized into anything practical until '47.

On the same theme, I have a magazine from 1930 that describes a liquid crystal TV display - It actually refers to liquid crystal. That had a long gestation period.

[tmod]

Short answer: nobody wants to be part of your recklessness relative a 3 y.o. girl on which you are trying to impose your ideas about Tube guitar amps.
Please be realistic and buy her this, she will **ENJOY** it because itīs matches her brain and emotional development *today*:

read the label, it needs no full translation:



stop projecting yourself onto her, sheīll ENJOY the above, or even this one ... which is already meant for somewhat older girls, go figure:

Sigh...

I appreciate the safety concern, and given what's happening around the internet, I guess I should have been a little more specific...

Getting my first taste of 230V at the age of four myself, and having worked with electronic repair for nine years I fully appreciate the risks involved with mains current and kids. She will of course not be allowed to play with the amp alone, or anything else involving mains outlets alone for many years. This includes TVs, toys and anything else. All outlets in our house are child-proofed, and will stay so fo many years. Even though we're getting her her own guitar, she will not be allowed to play it when being alone for several years either.

This particular amp is one I think will suit her, it's low wattage/inefficient speaker (as a way to address the concern raised by bob p), and she always wears hearing protection when involved with loud noises (like sports events), but it's also a design I've been wanting to build for some time. Thus I have all the parts (except the wrong wall wart), and it costs me nothing to build except time.

Thus I think it's not irresponsible at all to want to build something nice and sturdy, something she can enjoy for many years to come. I appreciate that I didn't give enough information to alleviate any concerns of irresponsible behaviour, but I also believe that I have a right to deside whether I want to give my daughter a plastic pink guitar or a proper guitar. Safety concerns aside, I think me and my wife are the ones most competent to choose what gift we want to give to our child...

If "everyone" feels that I don't have that right as a parent, then fine, no-one is forced to help out. Otherwise I'd still appreciate helpful pointers if anyone got a good source of what I'm looking for...

[Mick Bailey]

You may be able to locate a 12v AC transformer more easily, as this is the voltage used by low-voltage halogen lighting. You could power the heaters directly from this and use a 12v>230v transformer for your HT.

There are high current 'electronic transformers' for lighting that output 12v AC - essentially an SMPS with no output-side rectification. The internal feedback loop regulates the output more effectively, so the part-load/full-load voltage remains reasonably constant. The downside is that most are screw-terminal connections so need their own enclosure. Super-cheap, though and a 5A unit is really small. There's also a trick where you can rewind the secondary very easily on many of these to get a custom output voltage. The secondary consists of just a few dozen turns on a small ferrite toroid. For me though, I'd stick with 12v.

[tmod]

Yeah, I've seen those...

Actually I have some extra low-voltage toroidal transformers around as well, so if I can't find a wall wall wart I guess I'll have to build one myself. It would just be easier and more convenient to get a commercial wall wart, that's all...

Thanks anyway! :-)