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Question: Can I power more than one electronic device with the wall power adapters included in your battery eliminator kits and if so, how can I determine how many more devices I can power, and what additional items I will need to power them?

Answer: Yes, more than one electronic device can be powered with the wall power adapters included in our battery eliminator kits. The number of electronic devices than can be powered depends on the power consumption of each device, and the total power output that the wall adapter can supply. The power consumption of each electronic device may or may not be labeled on the device, and most of our wall adapters have the total power output listed on them. If everything is labeled, then simply add up the power consumption of each electronic device and makes sure it's less than or equal to the total power output of the wall adapter. If everything isn't clearly labeled, then it's kind of a guessing game. In this case, just keep adding on electronic devices until they stop working properly and then reduce the number of devices until they all start working again. You may even want to reduce the number of devices by one or two more to give you a little extra operating headroom. Our wall adapters won't be damaged by overloading them like this because they are designed to limit the amount of power they can supply in order to avoid being damaged. In order to power the additional electronic devices, each device will need its own active dummy cell battery and the appropriate number of passive dummy cell batteries. These can be purchased separately on our website. You will also need the appropriate POWER SPLITTER CABLES. We have 2-way up to 8-way POWER SPLITTER CABLES. You may also need POWER EXTENSION CABLES. in order to space out your electronic devices and to power devices located some distance away. All of the connectors on our active dummy cell batteries, POWER SPLITTER CABLES, POWER EXTENSION CABLES are compatible with each other making this an easy to implement plug-and-play solution! Below is an example of powering multiple electronic devices from a single wall adapter included in one of our battery eliminator kits. This example is for powering 3 x flameless LED candles where each candle uses 2 x D batteries. The wall adapter included in one of our 2 x D Battery Eliminator Kits has an output voltage of 3.3VDC and can supply up to 1A of output current; therefore, the wall adapter can supply up to 3.3VDC x 1A = 3.3W of output power. Each flameless LED candle only consumes about 0.050A of current (typical for a flameless LED candle) at a voltage of 3.3VDC; therefore, the power consumption of ech candle is only 3.3VDC x 0.050A = 0.165W. This means a single wall adapter can power up to 3.3W/0.165W = 20 flameless LED candles, so powering only 3 is easy. For this particular example, you would need to purchase a 2D BATTERY ELIMINATOR KIT, 2 x D ACTIVE DUMMY CELL BATTERIES, 2 x D PASSIVE DUMMY CELL BATTERIES, and a 3-WAY POWER SPLITTER CABLE. POWER EXTENSION CABLES can be purchased as needed for your particular application depending on how far away each candle is from the wall power adapter and from each other.

Question: Can I use the components and wall power adapter included in a battery eliminator kit to power an electronic device that uses a different sized battery but the same number of cells, and if so, what additional components would I need? For example, suppose I have a 2 x C Battery Eliminator Kit, and I want to power an electronic device that uses 2 x AA batteries, can I use the 2 x C Battery Eliminator Kit to do this?

Answer: Yes, you absolutely can! The required additional components would depend on which battery eliminator kit you already have and what size batteries are required in the other electronic device you are trying to power. In the example given above, all you need to do is remove the AA Active and AA Passive Dummy Cell Batteries from the hollow black plastic AA to C battery converter dummy cases (see picture below). The AA Active and AA Passive Dummy Cell Batteries can now simply be inserted into the electronic device that uses 2 x AA batteries! It's that simple. The reason you can do this without having to get a different wall power adapter is because AA, AA, C and D batteries all have the same initial terminal voltage of 1.5VDC (brand new and unused); therefore, 2 x C and 2 x AA batteries both generate 2 x 1.5VDC = 3.0VDC, so the wall power adapters that come with our 2 x C and 2 x AA Battery Eliminator Kits are the same and rated at 3.3VDC@1A (3.3W). You may notice that this wall power adapter's output voltage of 3.3VDC is slightly greater than the voltage generated by 2 batteries (3.0VDC). 3.3VDC is within the acceptable range required by electronic devices that use 2 batteries. The electronic circuitry inside of devices that use 2 batteries is designed to operate at voltages higher and lower than 3.0VDC. Generally, the maximum voltage is about 20% higher than 3.0VDC which would be around 3.6VDC, but the exact value will vary from device to device. The low-end operating voltage of a single battery has to do with the battery's terminal voltage once it's totally discharged (end-of-life) which is typically around 0.75VDC (half of its terminal voltage when it's brand new); therefore, for 2 batteries, this end-of life voltage is 2 x 0.75VDC = 1.5VDC. Since our battery eliminator kits will always supply a constant voltage, your electronic devices will always be operating just as well as if they had a fresh set of batteries installed!



Question: Can I power multiple electronic devices from a single wall power adapter if the devices don't use the same size batteries but each device uses the same number of batteries? For example, suppose I have a 2 x D Battery Eliminator Kit, and I want to power an electronic device that uses 2 x D batteries, another device that uses 2 x AA batteries, and a third device that uses 2 x C batteries, can I use the 3.3VDC wall power adapter that comes with the 2D Battery Eliminator Kit to power all three of these devices?

Answer: Yes, you can absolutely do this! The picture below illustrates this application. The components needed in addition to the 2D Battery Eliminator Kit are a 3-WAY POWER SPLITTER CABLE, a AA ACTIVE DUMMY CELL BATTERY, a AA PASSIVE DUMMY CELL BATTERY, a C ACTIVE DUMMY CELL BATTERY, and a C PASSIVE DUMMY CELL BATTERY.

Question: Can I use different wall power adapters other than the ones that come with the battery eliminator kits? For example, the wall power adapter that comes with the 3 x AA Battery Eliminator Kit has an output voltage of 5.0VDC. Can I use a wall power adapter that has an output voltage of 1.5VDC, 3.3VDC, 6.0VDC, or some other output voltage, and if not, why?
Answer: I general, the answer to this question is "No", but this answer requires a little more information, so you can better understand the possible consequences of using a wall power adapter with a different output voltage. The voltage required by the electronic device can be determined by the number of batteries it takes. Each battery generates a voltage of 1.5VDC, so to determine the required voltage, simply multiply 1.5VDC by the number of batteries (batteries are connected in "series"). This procedure is valid for electronic devices that use AAA, AA, C and D size alkaline batteries. The graphic below illustrates the series connections and voltages for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 batteries. As an example, suppose you have an electronic device that uses 3 x D batteries. The voltage required by the electronic device is 3 x 1.5VDC = 4.5VDC which means you would need a wall power adapter that generates 4.5VDC. Almost all battery powered electronic devices are designed to operate at voltages slightly higher than 4.5VDC and substantially lower than 4.5VDC. A good rule of thumb for the high-end operating voltage is to add 20%, so for this example, multiply 4.5VDC by 1.2 (20% higher); therefore, the high-end operating voltage is 1.2 x 4.5VDC = 5.4VDC. This means that electronic devices that use 3 x alkaline batteries will operate from wall power adapters that generate output voltages of 5VDC which is the same voltage supplied by USB power sources. The low-end operating voltage for battery powered electronic devices is determined by multiplying the battery's end-of-life voltage (voltage when it's considered dead) by the number of batteries used. Almost all AAA, AA, C and D size alkaline batteries have an end-of-life voltage of about 0.75VDC, so most electronic devices are designed to operate at a slightly higher low-end operating voltage of about 0.8VDC per battery. A graph illustrating the typical discharge curve for a D cell alkaline battery can be seen below. Notice that when the battery is new and fully charged, its voltage is 1.5VDC, and at the end of its useful life, it has discharged down to 0.8VDC. This typical discharge curve is for D cell alkaline batteries powering a radio for 4 hours per day. For an electronic device that uses 3 x alkaline batteries, the low-end operating voltage is 3 x 0.8V = 2.4VDC. Even though a 3-cell battery powered electronic device might work at voltages this low, you really don't want to use a wall power adapter that generates 2.4VDC, 3.0VDC or even 3.3VDC because the electronic device might exhibit undesirable behavior such as reduced brightness, slower speeds, lower volumes, etc. It's best to select a wall power adapter that supplies an output voltage close to the high-end operating voltage which was determined in this example to be between 4.5VDC and 5.4VDC, so a wall power adapter that supplies 4.5VDC or 5VDC would be a good choice. Some electronic devices may actually have internal circuitry that disables the electronics in the event that the input voltage is too high or too low. This is done in order to protect the electronics from potential damage cause by attempting to operate at voltages outside of its operational range. Also, you want to avoid using a wall power adapter that has an output voltage greater than the device's high-end operating voltage because the internal circuitry may be damaged or even permanently destroyed. The table below summarizes the voltages and recommended wall power adapter output voltages for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 alkaline batteries (AAA, AA, C and D sizes).