Japanese Clock Radio

[journeyforce]

Greetings,

While newly registered, i have been a follower of this forum for a while.

I have a Seiko DL213W clock radio that I brought back from Japan a year ago. It is a modern digital clock that mimics the old school electromechanical flip clocks of the 1970's. I have been using it as a display piece on a shelf since it came home with me. Recently i decided to look into using it as a clock. However Japanese voltage is different then what we in the USA use so I have some questions.

I know the easiest thing is to get a device that steps down the voltage to 100v but I was curious if my other idea would work


This clock radio came with a wall wart for the power supply and on this wart it says:

AC100V 50-60Hz
DC 5V 500mA.

So would simply getting a replacement wall wart that is USA spec and meets the DC 5V 500mA requirements work for this clock radio?

I have no problem buying a device that steps down the voltage but if I can get away with just replacing the wart, that would be cool

Thanks

 

[swechsler]

Yes, getting a 5V wall wart that runs at 120V would work fine. And a much better solution than a step-down transformer.

Make sure you get the correct polarity on the plug though. Most modern equipment has a positive center, but occasionally you find negative center.

 

[lini]

(...) So would simply getting a replacement wall wart that is USA spec and meets the DC 5V 500mA requirements work for this clock radio? (...)

That's very likely. From the pic of the rear side, that I could find on Amazon.jp, it would look, as if the jack for the external power supply might be for the smallest of the Japanese JEITA/EIAJ standard barrel plugs (see for example there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIAJ_connector, though - that would be the one with ca. 2.35 mm outer and 0.7 mm inner diameter. So you might want to verify that on the stock power supply and then either buy a suitable universal power supply model, that already comes with a matching adaptor, or such a power supply plus a barrel plug adaptor kit with the matching adaptor.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[init4fun]

Yep, as the others above me said, 5VDC at 1/2 amp.

And, make REALLY sure of the polarity, getting that wrong could be catastrophic. This should be printed on the original wall wart whether it's center tip positive or negative.

 

[swechsler]

Looks like it's positive center tip:

 

[lini]

(...) This should be printed on the original wall wart whether it's center tip positive or negative.

It's centre-positive, as one can also see at the jack of the clock radio - see the aforementioned pic of the rear side over on Amazon-jp over there: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Seiko-Clock-Desk-White-Product/dp/B07GR433ZD?th=1


Oh, and I forgot to mention: The priceworthy universal power supplies nowadays typically already tend to have a higher current capability than 500 mA. But a higher current capability usually won't harm, unless it would be highly overdimensioned (*).


Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini


*) Some switched-mode power supplies tend to behave oddly, if the current demand of the load is very small compared to the nominal current capability of the power supply.