Trains from other countries and power supply

[SnapLock]

Hi all i have purchased some 9 volt trains from Germany recently , they use a different power supply rating to where i Live In Australia.

I am wondering if anyone else has bought trains from Germany to use in Australia & if you need a Europe adapter from a hardware store to use them?

Or is there any place that i can purchase just the wall plug? or do i have to have a whole new speed regulator to use it in Australia

Thanks

[1974]

Both Germany and Australia uses 230VAC, no problem. You just need a simple adapter to convert the plug (or cut the old one off if possible)

[Rick]

Hi all i have purchased some 9 volt trains from Germany recently , they use a different power supply rating to where i Live In Australia.

I am wondering if anyone else has bought trains from Germany to use in Australia & if you need a Europe adapter from a hardware store to use them?

Or is there any place that i can purchase just the wall plug? or do i have to have a whole new speed regulator to use it in Australia

Thanks

Please pay some more attention to your spelling, capitalisation and punctuation. Thanks.

[peterab]

Hi all i have purchased some 9 volt trains from Germany recently , they use a different power supply rating to where i Live In Australia.

I am wondering if anyone else has bought trains from Germany to use in Australia & if you need a Europe adapter from a hardware store to use them?

Or is there any place that i can purchase just the wall plug? or do i have to have a whole new speed regulator to use it in Australia

Thanks

You have a couple of options.

As 1974 says you could use an adapter. Germany uses 230 VAC, Australia uses 240VAC so it will work, though is slightly above the rating.

You could also replace the wall wart with an Australian one, the things to look for are a similar plug at the controller end and similar output. You could try an electronics store such as Jaycar, and you should find something useable. The outputs varied slightly from region to region, so it's not critical. There are photos of the various wall warts on Bricklink so you can compare.

[1974]

Are you sure (yes, I know you're down there!)?. It used to be 240VAC but it's been changed to 230VAC (alllthough mostly only on paper, just like the switch from 220VAC to 230VAC in Denmark) as far as I know?

Edit : Apparantly "The Utilities Act 2000" formalized the changeover of Australia to a nominal 230V Supply, I found some official pdfs explaining it

Sorry for the OT!

Edited December 2, 2013 by 1974

[SnapLock]

You have a couple of options.

As 1974 says you could use an adapter. Germany uses 230 VAC, Australia uses 240VAC so it will work, though is slightly above the rating.

You could also replace the wall wart with an Australian one, the things to look for are a similar plug at the controller end and similar output. You could try an electronics store such as Jaycar, and you should find something useable. The outputs varied slightly from region to region, so it's not critical. There are photos of the various wall warts on Bricklink so you can compare.

Thanks for the info i have a Jaycar where i live i will drop in and see what they have.

[peterab]

Are you sure (yes, I know you're down there!)?. It used to be 240VAC but it's been changed to 230VAC (alllthough mostly only on paper, just like the switch from 220VAC to 230VAC in Denmark) as far as I know?

Edit : Apparantly "The Utilities Act 2000" formalized the changeover of Australia to a nominal 230V Supply, I found some official pdfs explaining it

Sorry for the OT!

I did a bit of research and you are technically correct. 230VAC +10% -6%. What is still most commonly supplied is 240 VAC since this is within the tolerances and what the transmission equipment is designed to deliver. You learn something new every day.

[1974]

Yeah, we get the same megablocks in Denmark, Peter Up from to 220VAC to 230VAC, but it's +6% / -10%! Same as allways, sigh ..

UK went from 240VAC to 230VAC +10% / - 6% (same as AUS, but you share the same power history (<- bad pun, I know!). So basicly, it's 230VAC/50Hz on half of the planet, 110VAC/60Hz on the other half ('Cept Japan, they got BOTH!)

Technically, there have been some regulation though. There are several HVDC (high voltage direct current as you cannot have AC cables, they'll act like a capacitor and a lot power will be lost) links (=undersea cables) between the the european mainland and UK. But since they convert everything (voltage and frequency) it does not matter too much. It's all syncronized in the end

But an extreme case would be if someone bought an old tube amplifer from Germany (220VAC) and used it in a poorly regulated place in the UK. Then you could get as much as 15% overvoltage on the heaters and that would surely shorten the tubes life

I can see the local 60kV substation from my window and I'm pretty close to 230VAC allways. Wouldn't matter as all my hifi/music/studio gear (and of course LEGO!) is plug into power conditioners anyway. 230VAC here +/- 1%

Ok, lesson over!

It does not really mater if it's 220/230/240VAC, both the outboard transformer will deal with it and the internal regulation in the 9V controller don't care

Back to something more trainy then ...

Edit, I just love that EB replaces bvllshit with megablocks, haha

[zephyr1934]

Wandering back on topic briefly, I THINK the 9v controllers were standard world wide, but the wall wart varied by country. If you scroll down on the BL inventory listing for the 9v controller, So first the good news, it looks like you need 70930, now the bad news, it looks like none have been available on BL for the past 6 mo. If you have ebay or similar, you might be able to pick one up there. Otherwise, as one of the earlier responses noted, If you brought the controller and wall wart to an electronics shop, they should be able to fix you up with a replacement wall wart that works with the local outlets.