Power supply requirements for external blu-ray drive
September 14, 2014 2:27 PM   Subscribe

I have an external Blu-Ray drive very similar to this one (I think it's the same, but I'm not 100% sure), and I'm trying to figure out what voltage it needs from an external power supply.

It can be powered via USB, but I'm seeing symptoms that I think may be related to it not getting enough power that way. It has a jack for a DC power supply, but either it didn't actually come with such a power supply or I've long since misplaced it. The case shows the polarity for the jack, but says nothing about the voltage or current requirements. I have a big bin of power supplies, and I'm pretty sure I have one that would work somewhere in there, but I don't want to fry it by giving it the wrong voltage.

Any idea what this would be expecting (or how to figure it out)? Would it just be 5VDC like USB? I don't see any info about that on the Amazon page, and it's a pretty generic device so it's hard to Google for information about it.
posted by primethyme to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)
 
Best answer: 5 volts, yep. The generic ones especially. I've seen a few weird higher end(IE plextor) ones that took some not-5v voltage, but not for a long time, and those specified it right on there. The ones that don't bother are always 5v.

They usually have irritatingly tiny power sockets too, that nothing in my similar bin would ever fit in, OEM assholes.

Have you tried a double power cable? That was ye olden days solution, and might also work(don't buy that one, random example)
posted by emptythought at 5:15 PM on September 14, 2014


It can be powered via USB, but I'm seeing symptoms that I think may be related to it not getting enough power that way.

One of the reviews for the Amazon link you posted mentions using a 5V AC to USB charger because he was getting some errors while running off USB power.
posted by Avelwood at 5:53 PM on September 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: They usually have irritatingly tiny power sockets too, that nothing in my similar bin would ever fit in

Hmm, I hadn't thought about that. But I have a bunch of standard 5mm jacks in my shop, so worst case I could just open it up and replace the jack, assuming I can find something that provides enough current at 5V. (It was over 100 degrees here today, so any amount of rooting around in the garage where I keep all that stuff was pretty unpleasant!)
posted by primethyme at 7:58 PM on September 14, 2014


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