Hey Hey!  I got a good “after Christmas” deal from Target: an RC airplane for $35 (the original price is $50).  The issue is that the airplane charger base needs 8 D-size batteries.  To save buying 8 D-size batteries, I tried to connect a 12V 500mA AC-DC transformer to the positive and negative metal contacts.  It worked!  Pretty amazing.

To my curiosity, I tried to use another AC-DC transformer (9V 1000mA) to the charger base.  Then, I started to smell very strange odors and the light of the charger base went off.  I destroyed the charger base.  😦

To not give up, I opened the charger base and checked the circuit board.  A 16V/100uF capacitor was blown up.  I hurried up to Fry’s and bought a new capacitor ($1.07).  After going home, I removed the bad capacitor and soldered the new one to the circuit board.

After the repairment, the most important thing came.  I reconnected the first AC-DC transformer to the charger base, and turned on the switch.  Bingo!  The light of the base went on.  It worked again!

This was the greatest achievement I got on Jan 1st, 2007.  🙂