Hi Tony

The only good thing I can think of is that you can have a smaller
housing/enclosure because the transformer and rectifier are over on the wall
in its wart.

Now theoretically speaking you can design you product to use one low voltage
and just throw in a wall wart with your product for the country you are
shipping to and bingo you are world wide but trust me this not nearly as
simple as it sounds.
There is a dog's breakfast of plug styles and compliance requirements.
Many of the plug style look close but won't work...e.g. prongs too short to
skinny too fat ad nauseam 

I have been shipping the same 220V wall wart to my Korean customers/dealers
for five years.
Last week I get a message from Hyundai with an attached picture that says
I'm shipping the wrong plug style.
The picture of the plug they have is definitely different but I'm thinking
what in the heck did they do with the hundreds of transformers I sent for
the last five years.
In Singapore they have the new UK style and older buildings have the old
German/Euro two pronged 220 looking thing without an earth connection.
 
In Russia they have the same prongs as the old German ones but they have a
round thing with an earth connection...as do other countrys tin the former
CIS
If you take the cover off the socket you can plug in a Euro 220 provided you
are brave enough to live with out the earth wire connected or you can trim
the corners off with a pocket knife of an old Euro syle ...that's what I did
with my Dell wall wart for my laptop when I was in Moscow and Kazan.

Japan has 110V just like the US.

We have a large shipment to Brazil that is being held up for you guessed it
wall transfomers.
Everyday finished products sit in my factory my profit margin decreases.

Now when you buy/desing in these transformers/wall warts they have to be
RoHs (reduction of hazardus subtances and WEE  compliant (a recycling
directive).
They also have to have UL CE certification and a dozen other certifications.

I spend probably six hours a week dorking with wall transformers evey week
of the year.
So I have a hate hate relationship with the things.
The things allow me to make my product compatable world wide but provide me
with daily hassles and my customers love them as just as much as the as
comments here suggest/imply.



Phillip
Things should be as simple as possible but no simpler
 
 
 











Phillip Coiner
CTO, GPS Source, Inc.
 
 
Your source for quality GNSS Networking Solutions and Design Services, Now!
-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Breesy
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 8:55 PM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [PIC] Why the preoccupation with bus powered programmers?

On the flip side, what is the advantage of using a wallwart? I cannot 
think of any..

Tony Smith wrote:
>>> They're heavy, so they fall out of the socket.
>>>       
>> ahh tiny flimsy american sockets
>>     
>
>   
>>> Big, so they take up 2 sockets.
>>>       
>> see above
>>     
>
>
> I'm in Australia.  Our sockets are a bit better, but the plugpacks still
> fall out or make a general nuisance of themselves.
>
> In front on me at the moment is a six outlet powerboard, it has 3
plugpacks
> and 3 mains cables plugged into it.  Since you can't put 2 plugpacks side
by
> side, they are alternated, so plugpack / cable / plugpack etc.
>
> However, now I can't get the mains cables out since they are blocked by
the
> plugpacks.
>
> I've seen powerboards with sockets spaced further apart.
>
> Hooray for USB/Fireware. That's knocked the number of plugpacks down a
bit.
> Old IBM PCs used to have a 12v out socket for running speakers.  Shame it
> didn't become standard.
>
> Tony
>
>   
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