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I got this transformer from tedweber.com



How do I safely wire the primary to take 230V?
(what does that black dot between the grey and blue wire mean?)

and also, is there a way to safely enable switching from 230V to 110V inside the enclosure?

thanks a lot!

Building a power supply? : O

I'd go with the 240 tap, I think. Typically, American voltage is 110-115, but a lot of things list 120. It's close-ish at best, and I'd imagine elsewhere in the world it's that way too.

Wire the hot to the tap with the voltage label, and the black goes to the neutral (not ground!-- although it is ground... just... not quite).

You can use a SPDT toggle switch to switch taps. Make sure you get a pretty good one (one meant for power switching-- rated for 240 volts @ 6 amps or so. You could probably get away with less. The little toggles used in pedals are rated for 2 amps... Boggles. My. Mind.

Make sure to run a ground if you're using a metal enclosure.

The dot represents polarity. There aren't any on the other side, so I don't really think it's something to be concerned with...

McSpunckle wrote:Building a power supply? : O

I'd go with the 240 tap, I think. Typically, American voltage is 110-115, but a lot of things list 120. It's close-ish at best, and I'd imagine elsewhere in the world it's that way too.

Make sure to run a ground if you're using a metal enclosure.

hey! thanks a lot for your reply!

yes, I'll try to build one. I'm adapting this: http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/spyder/spyder.htm

I'll try 240 then.

what do you mean by running a ground?
soldering ground from the 230V input onto the metal enclosure? or soldering the ground from one DC outlet onto the enclosure?

There should be 3 wires in your cable from the mains power. One is hot, one is neutral-- and the third is for ground (earth). That needs to attach to the enclosure somewhere.

If you're only using a 2-wire cable, either use a plastic box or make sure to isolate everything on the high voltage side very well. If the hot shorts to the box and you touch it, it'll be like sticking your hand in a light socket.

(do note: I'm assuming your country does stuff the same way the US does.)

The weird thing is, in your house's power box, the ground an neutral actually connect-- so you could just attach the neutral to the enclosure. Older amps are like that... it works, but the extra ground wire could help isolate things a bit better or something.

yes, we got the 3 wires for hot, neutral and ground, but 2-wire cables are very common and the sockets have just 2 holes… (I don't know why), all electronic devices I own have 2-wire cable…

so I'm really considering using a plastic box

I'll post again any advance…