So I doing a pawn shop run today and picked up this peavey 4 track for cheap - only problem is that it doesn’t have a power supply, and on the back it says 16v AC which it turns out is pretty hard to come by here in the UK. All the ones I’m finding on ebay are American.
A few questions:
Does polarity matter? The manual has no details.
Any ideas where I could find this power supply in the UK?
Or maybe DIY one? Perhaps by removing the AC/DC transformer from a 16V DC psu. No clue, just a thought…
It’s a peavey MCR 4/S from the late '80s and I’m probably going to go through a lot of hassle just to find out it’s non-functional, but it’s worth a shot. Place I got it from will take it back no questions if I can’t get it working.
I was chatting to a guy at a shop and he mentioned that polarity doesn’t matter for AC power. Possible lie. Other sources say that if the polarity isn’t stated, it’s usually centre positive.
Was under the impression that the US uses 120V mains instead of our 240V so one of their power supplies wouldn’t be compatible, or would involve some kind of step down box?
If it’s 16vAC then there is no polarity. That’s probably why it doesn’t say anything about polarity.
Yer not going AC/DC in that case yer going AC/AC.
I’d be really careful as that is a pretty hefty requirement. You can find them - I usually go to thrift stores with big boxes of random power supplies and just start checking them. If you find one that puts out more than 16vac, if it’s close, I think it would work. I would not try to use one rated at less, and I would not try a 16vdc.
The guy is correct - for that device, it wants 16vAC in, and so polarity doesn’t matter.
As for the 240/120 thing - that is going to matter only to the power supply. The power supplies have a certain requirement in, and then a certain spec out. Some supplies can handle 240 or 120, and they will say as much on them. I bet at that voltage though, it seems antiquated, and so a switching power supply is going to be rare.
I would find a UK 240V in to 16vAC out plug.
I have used european adapters on my american gear and vice versa - as long it can handle the input and produce the correct output, you should be fine.
Glad to learn that AC doesn’t care about polarity. Good thing you didn’t listen to me first! Hahah. I’ve only recently started dabbling in this stuff a bit.
It lives!! All ins and outs working, tape speed is reasonably stable, buttons working fine… It even has a handy marker feature so you can rewind to a specific location.
Awesome stuff. Definitely need a patchbay now though!
