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Scored a cheap trainer off the eBay last night, had a look this morning and the adapter the fella gave me is the wrong output 5V/2A, the trainer has a sticker saying it wants 15V/25W (1.6A-ish? 2A?) I've got plenty of old laptop adapters all 18.5V/3.5A (more than double the wattage) if I plug one of those in will I fry the thing or will it be fine?
I don't fancy asking the chap I scored it from, it was a silly bargain and it's Christmas now...
The voltage is the thing that needs to be correct. Too little and it won't work, too much and something will break.
It should just draw the current that it needs providing you can supply at least the minimum
You also don't say if it's AC or DC needed.  If it needs AC you will probably get off with a DC supply at a slightly higher voltage but not the other way round.
Edit: apologies , it says DC in the title. Didn't spot that
You'd probably get away with +/-1V or so , but maybe not 20%.
Old Toshiba laptops run on 15V, get a PSU from one of those, chop the end off, chop the end off the one you have and stick them together with whatever connections you deem to be not too bad a bodge.
I've managed to let the magic smoke out of quite a few items of consumer electronics over the years.
Things to watch for:
- DC vs AC (as above)
- Too much voltage - within reason it will probably be fine, as it more than likely has a switched-mode PSU inside so will just adjust its duty cycle accordingly. But (for example) 12V into something expecting 6V has certainly destroyed things for me in the past.
- Which polarity is it? The centre pin can be + or -. This will fry it for sure if it's wrong. There should be a little diagram.
You could look in the manual for the trainer to see if it lists a range. Unlikely it'll say something different from the sticker, but pretty quick and easy to check
You could look in the manual for the trainer to see if it lists a range. Unlikely it’ll say something different from the sticker, but pretty quick and easy to check
Yep Just checked the online manual, matches the sticker and confirms it as 1.66A.
I will pop for a pukka adapter, it's not a crazy sum really.