i’m a total thicko when it comes to electronics so i’m really hopeing someone on here can help.

yesterday my scanner (few years old epson) suddenly stopped working. checked plug fuse and it had blown. replaced with same rated fuse, but still no power. fiddled around with a multimeter and it would seem that power is going in, but not coming out. wiggled wired and even took apart to see if anything obvious but no joy.

went onto ebay to buy a replacement, thinking it would be a fairly generic and cheap as chips thing only to discover that there was only one used on there of the same model and they wanted 30quid for it (i could buy another scanner for that).

can anyone tell me if i need to get an adapter with exactly the same output (24v 1.1a) or is there some latitude?

any other suggestions also greatly appreciated.

power supplies are often silly expensive to replace. For £30 go nuts and buy a new printer with scanner built in and it will even come with a power supply!

You need the 24V but could go higher with the amps

Is it a bespoke socket on the scanner for the PSU?

thanks for the replies. its a scanner i use for negs so can’t really replace it for a new one to the same spec, i’d have to get a used one off ebay… and besides i like this one.

i don’t think the plug is a special, i’d have to compare it to some of my other ones. i don’t have another epson though annoyingly.

main reason for asking about compatibility is that there are a fair few epson ones on ebay for a lot less but different outputs. i saw one with 24v 1.5a for instance.

main reason for asking about compatibility is that there are a fair few epson ones on ebay for a lot less but different outputs. i saw one with 24v 1.5a for instance.

If you’ve no idea what you’re looking at, you’d be better off simply taking the old one to Maplin & getting them to supply a suitable generic replacement rather than chancing that any eBay one has the correct plag/polarity etc.

The polarity is likely to sting you. I’ve a selection of about 30 “wall warts” (sorry, no 24 volters) collected from various things over the years and I’m usually lucky if I can find the right combo of voltage, min current and polarity, usually end up wiring up a new plug to do the trick, which is cheap enough if you have the right adapter.

Don’t forget that you also need to be damn sure whether it’s taking DC or AC – I’ve a few appliances where the adapter is a step-down AC – it’s possible that it could take a DC supply but you can’t guarantee it.