I just bought my son the fm radio kit from Radio Shack. I knew it didn’t come with power but the saleslady said only additional tools needed were soldering iron and solder. How do we attach a battery to the assembled kit? Thank you.
One more trip to RadioShack. All the images below are linked to the corresponding RS product page.
From the assembly manual I assume that the DC jack on the radio is size M or N. RadioShack has the matching plugs. They are in the parts drawers where you find resistors, fuses and so on.
The voltage regulator on the thing is a 7808 type. The radio should work with anything from 9V to 20V. You will certainly not damage it with that input as long as you don’t let your son screw up the polarity.
You may want to try a 9V block battery first. Then you sure want a pack of these to make a 9V snap connector to DC size M/N plug cable:
If the 9V battery doesn’t work, you will need one of these:
It holds 8 AA batteries (=12V) and it has that same snap connector as 9V batteries.
PS: Yupp, frequent RadioShack customer here.
Much obliged. I have a feeling we’ll be spending a lot of time at the Shack.
Please note that the kit needs 12V.
We recommend a 12VDC adaptor instead of batteries.
It will not operate on 9V.
Why?
Batteries are expensive. Eight 1.5V batteries and a battery holder will cost about the same as a suitable 12VDC adaptor.
Fair point.
We bought the plug as pictured in your post above, and then we got the 8 AA battery pack too. The battery pack has the loose black and red wires and now we don’t know how to connect those loose wires to the radio. I’m reading your post above again, and you mention a “snap connector.” Does that mean there are 2 types of battery packs, one with loose wires and one with a snap connector? I sent my husband and son to Radio Shack with a print out of your email and they came back with the loose wire version. Do I need to go back and get a version with a snap connector, or is there a way to attach the loose wires to the radio? Thank you for your help!
You can solder the loose wires to the DC socket on the radio
This picture shows where to solder the wires.
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http://www.velleman.eu/images/tmp/DC_socket.jpg
