A electrical question re CardBus

[CTB]

I am trying to get Belkin CardBus Firewire adapter (F5u512-MAC) working in my Wallstreet. Problem is I only have a FW400 hard drive that needs bus power. From the manual.

1. Use the included 4-pin to 6-pin cable, or a 6-pin to 6-pin cable, to connect your favorite FireWire devices to your PowerBook.NOTE: The PowerBook CardBus slot does not provide sufficient power to operate most bus-powered FireWire devices. To solve this problem, the dual 6-pin FireWire adapter provides an auxiliary power jack for use with an AC/DC power adapter. Choose a power adapter from 8 volts to 30 volts DC with a power rating of at least 4 watts.

It is the last sentence I am not sure about. What adapter do I need? 8-30 volts seems like a big spread and I am use to adapters that have a fixed voltage and current. I have an adapter that fits but it is 12v 1.5A. That look like 18 watts to me. Will an over powered adapter fry the card?

 

[chelseayr]

its only the voltage and minimum ampere that really matters as if you use a 5v 900ma adapter with a 5v 400ma device it'll simply only draw 400ma then (but trying use a 5v 300ma adapter may cause weird behaviour if it ever bothers wanting to initially function at all tho)

 

[cheesestraws]

8 volts to 30 volts is a range, you can use anything in that range, so your 12V should be fine. As @chelseayr says, the current rating is a *minimum*: the current rating says how much electricity is available, but it will only actually supply what the load needs. So your 18W adapter ought, if the spec the card is saying is correct, be fine.

 

[CTB]

Thanks for the helpful advice. I will give it a go tonight and let you know. The card seems to appear OK on the Desktop on 8.6 but shows a broken icon on OS 9 so I have to figure that out first.