Are you tired of changing the batteries in your infant/baby swing?
This instructable covers how to convert your baby swing to wall power, so you can just plug it in and not have to change the batteries.
It's designed so that you can choose wall power or batteries, depending on your needs.
This Instructable requires soldering--There are other instructables covering that if you need help learning.
This instructable covers how to convert your baby swing to wall power, so you can just plug it in and not have to change the batteries.
It's designed so that you can choose wall power or batteries, depending on your needs.
This Instructable requires soldering--There are other instructables covering that if you need help learning.
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Signing UpStep 1: Tools & Parts Necessary
Tools
Screwdriver(s)--Used to open up the motor/switch/battery housing
Wire Stripper/Cutter--Used to cut and strip the old and new wiring
Soldering Iron--Used to solder the new switch and wires to the existing wiring
Heat gun or Cigarette Lighter--Used to melt the heatshrink tubing
Parts
5 VDC Power Supply--I used an old cellphone charger. It needs to have a similar voltage output to the batteries in your swing. Count the batteries in your swing. Each one puts out 1.2VDC (Whether AA, C, D, ect). Obviously 9V batteries are a different animal. Mine used 4 "D" batteries, so I needed at least a 4.8VDC power supply.
Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) Switch--A small one from Raido Shack, etc. is fine.
Solder--Used to secure the new wiring
Heatshrink Tubing--Used to protect the solder joints
Epoxy or Super Glue--Used to secure the switch to the housing
Screwdriver(s)--Used to open up the motor/switch/battery housing
Wire Stripper/Cutter--Used to cut and strip the old and new wiring
Soldering Iron--Used to solder the new switch and wires to the existing wiring
Heat gun or Cigarette Lighter--Used to melt the heatshrink tubing
Parts
5 VDC Power Supply--I used an old cellphone charger. It needs to have a similar voltage output to the batteries in your swing. Count the batteries in your swing. Each one puts out 1.2VDC (Whether AA, C, D, ect). Obviously 9V batteries are a different animal. Mine used 4 "D" batteries, so I needed at least a 4.8VDC power supply.
Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) Switch--A small one from Raido Shack, etc. is fine.
Solder--Used to secure the new wiring
Heatshrink Tubing--Used to protect the solder joints
Epoxy or Super Glue--Used to secure the switch to the housing
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If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, we'd be all ears.
Thanks,
I used a 6V 1A adapter which worked for about an hour and then the motor burned out. Amazon says the battery life is only 3 hours. Duracel batteries say they have 18000mAh or 18 Amp hours in them. Thus this swing uses 6 Amps during the 3 hours that it's in use? If that's the case, I probably burned out the A/C adapter which in turn fried the swing. But eveyone here is using 1A adapters at 5 volts so something is no right with my math or this swing uses a lot more power.
The control panel is burnt as well as it aways has it's "on" light lit even when the switch is in the 0 or off position.
Thanks again to the author and others with helpful comments. Hopefully I will never have to buy batteries for this swing again!
1) Instead of the DPDT switch, I bought a DC coaxial male plug and female receptacle. The receptacle has a DPDT switch built in, such that if the male plug is plugged in, it will draw the wall power, and if it is not plugged in, it will revert to the batteries. Hence no need for a switch and if you don’t want a wire hanging off of your swing you simply unplug the wall cord from the swing. I mounted the receptacle just above the battery compartment, and it mounts almost flush with the swing casing and looks great. Then it’s super easy to plug in the coaxial plug or pull out the coaxial plug as needed.
2) To "drill" through the plastic shell for the receptacle (or for the wire in these instructions) I decided spur of the moment to use the solder iron - the amount of plastic melted was small and it was easy to clean off of the iron when I was finished, and it was less messy that using a drill.
3) For the people who commented that when they hooked it up the motor and music started playing even with the switches in the "Off" position, you probably had the positive and negative feeds from the AC adapter switched and simply need to switch them to the opposite terminals - you might have noticed if you have a moving fish or animal mobile that it was running "backwards" - another indication that you've got them backwards. This is not a case of too much voltage being applied to the system.
Thanks again! jg
Batteries are 1.5 volts each, not 1.2
Recharable batteries are 1.2 volts, why if your device has 6 batteries, recharables don't allways work well because you are almost 2 volts low at that point.
2 Batteries 3 volts
3 Batteries 4.5 volts
4 Batteries is 6 volts
If your device uses 3 batteries, a 5 volt adapter should be ok for 3 and 4 battery devices.
Too much voltage is bad, and can burn out your swing, a little bit extra voltage and it will swing faster, too much and you will burn out the motor or other parts.
Example Lightbubs are normally 120 volts, if you put in a little extra voltage, it will be a little brighter. Less voltage, will be more dim.
Too much extra voltage, and will just burn out the bulb.
It may work fine, it may burn something up as that's double voltage it was designed for.
Regarding amperage, a 5V ~1.5 amp would be great. More amp capacity is better.
What I would add is this when you have the DPDT (Double Pole Double Pull) switch and you have identified which side your going to put your positive and Negative cables on in a row, use the wires that was originally coming from your battery pack to the control as the wires going to the motor. On the one end you would have wires going to your battery pack, the other end wires going to your 5V (or whatever voltage you require) power supply and the center poles (originally your battery wires) going straight to your control panel.
This way you have full control whether you use batteries or AC power.
I have this exact swing and the same exasperation with the repeated purchase of "D" batteries!
I do not know how to solder, however, so I probably won't try this at home. :-/
I have never seen a baby swing with an AC adapter and all the hand-me-down swings we got are battery operated. I looked for swings with AC adapters in local (Pittsburgh) stores and found none. My sisters actually didn't believe that they existed, and they almost had me convinced. We figured there had to be a law against them, because who would want a battery powered swing if plug-in swings were available?
Are you listening, Fisher-Price?! (Probably not. Sigh.)
It's a shame that they don't make both options.... It's probably a "safety" issue with having a corded product... they have to go through UL certification I think.. or something probably like that..
If you only want the wall power, then the DPDT is not necessary. It allows one to toggle between wall and battery supply.
So feel free to wire the wall power directly in.
A "less than ideal" way to do this (without buying a lower voltage charger) is to use a resistor to drop the voltage. The downside is that your failure mode isn't ideal (the resistor fails/shorts and your electronics get full voltage), and it's not efficient (the resistor gets hot).
I have this beautiful large Wall Clock with music and lighting which turns on every hour and has a sensor that automatically shuts the music and lighting off at night or in darkness and back on in any lighting. The clock requires 4 C-size batteries and have changed them several times within just six months whilst taking clock off the wall and adjusting the time each time. Would appreciate the response. Thanks.
To try it (prior to soldering wires/messing with the housing), you could hook up your power supply to the contacts the batteries touch, and make sure it functions normally.
Have fun!
To further clarify and upon noticing, the clock has two sections adjacent to each other in a compartment each requiring two C-size batteries; a total of four. I believe that one section is for the clock and the other for music/lighting - in conjunction. I can see two wires (black/red) passing through each section. I just hope it doesn't require two separate adapters.
I have a cell phone LG AC Adapter that has an input of 100-240 VAC, 50-60Hz, 0.2A and an output of 5V, 1A. Can this be used?
You would want to hook the positive lead of the power supply to both of the positive leads to the batteries, and same for the negative leads. Essentially you would connect the two sections to the power supply in parallel.
Good luck
Cost about $5 in parts- batteries are $10 a pop and last for 1-2 weeks, so I figured I saved easily $100!
I was lucky enough to have pretty much the same model shown here, but mine has an extra function. So you know, that has no effect on how this fix works.
The adapter is an AC adaptor:
P/N: PSA12D7P5P7-A
Model: MKD-4175700
In Put: 120VAC 60 Hz
Output: 7.5VDC 700mA
ITE power supply.
I just want to make sure I don't blow myself up when attaching the wires to the swing or at the very least touching them to the positive and negative areas of the battery faces to test it.
If the display states "7.5" then the red lead is on the positive wire, and the black lead is on the negative.
If the display states "-7.5" then the red lead is on the negative wire, and the black lead is on the positive wire.
Good luck.
Can I Still do this?
What parts do I need?
Here's a link to the 800 mA unit.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3807942&filterName=Category
Use this in lieu of the 5 VDC units mentioned in the instructable and you should be good.
This one isn't cheap; you may be able to get one on eBay for a lot less.
Hope it helps.
One thing didn't seem to work out for me - it doesn't appear to be rocking. Manually, it freely moves and continues rocking, but for some reason it's not working via the controls.
Lights and music work fine.
Good luck!