wasbit wrote:
"Chris Jenkins" wrote in message
...
Does anybody know where can I buy a power cable for this router? Or
even a good substitute for it. How do I find one?

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/products/details/cat-9_TL-WR841N.html#overview


The power cable of my router is damaged and so the connection is dodgy
or does not connect at all. The router is quite good because I have
tried using a cable from other router.


Look on the existing power adaptor, sometimes call a wall wart, for the
voltage, amps & polarity. It will be either on a label or moulded into
the plastic.
Then measure the connector.
Metric drill bits can be used as a guide to both the external & internal
sizes. Without digital or dial calipers it's hard to differentiate
between 2.1 & 2.5 mm for example.
I've not seen any connectors in Imperial sizes
This will give you the specs to look for.


The OP hasn't made clear whether it's the barrel end
which is ruined, or it's the wire. The wire can
be repaired. It helps to have wire strippers,
but those take practice (only the mechanical ones with
the two jaw sets, automate the whole stripping process
and take the guesswork out of it). The cheapest
strippers with the yellow handles, require
practice so you won't knick the wire strands.
In a pinch, you can use a razor blade, but that
is very fiddly.

This is my calculator adapter, repaired 40 years ago.
The wires are soldered so they won't come apart. The
"tubes" over the wire are shrinkwrap (Polyolefin tubing),
which is selected to be 2x the diameter of the wire,
so it can be slid over. Shrinkwrap is available as transparent
or as colored tubing. The heat stream above the
soldering iron is used to heat the tubing until it
shrinks to half its size (try not to touch the soldering
iron to the tubing). Unlike electrical tape, this stuff
doesn't come off during a warm summer day. It can be
cut off with precision stainless steel scissors
(longitudinally) if you need to remove the tubing later.

https://i.postimg.cc/1tYd1GXg/cats-l...bbery-wire.jpg

As another poster suggested, if I was doing this today,
I would "offset" the two joins, so they aren't beside
one another. This helps "smooth out" the stiffest
part of the repair. I've also slid an additional
larger diameter shrink wrap over the whole thing,
to keep the two conductors from getting snagged
on something. But that makes the wire stiffer
still, and encourages bending breaks near either
end.

I gave up on electrical tape for this eons ago.
Electrical tape sucks.

You don't have to solder the stranded wire.
You could twist it together tightly. But the
polyolefin tubing is ideal for doing a nice
job, and for keeping your twisted wire from
coming apart. So the polyolefin tubing is still
an essential part of the job.

There are cheesy sellers all over the place selling
it for too much. About $3 should buy around a 3 foot
piece of a single diameter. And that still leaves
plenty of profit for the seller. I could find
some for $17, which is outrageous. You want to
see this in the store, to ensure the cut pieces
these idiots provide, are not too short.

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/gar...lam/1000843469

One of the reasons I have so many diameters of polyolefin
tubing, is from mis-estimating the diameter required
for a given job. Take some care, before concluding
you've got the right one, to get a good fit when
shrunk. You don't have to shrink them, but they
slide around otherwise, and won't cover the copper and
prevent a short circuit from happening.

And shrinking them with a match or a lighter is
just asking for trouble. Remember that the cat-chewy
wire insulation on the original wire, *melts* at
less than the polyolefin. Applying a match will make
one big gooey mess. If you're cutting away a cat-chewed
section anyway, you can practice your shrinking attempts
on that piece of wire, to get some idea how much heat
it will take. Even if the tubing only shrinks 10% or
15%, that's better than nothing.

I love cheating the landfill, and I've repaired
more than one adapter this way. You get better with
practice. I remember ruining my first soldering gun
while repairing stuff (p.s. *don't* buy a soldering
gun, only buy a soldering iron, as it'll last you
a long time - the guns are "duty-cycle limited"
and exceeding the ON-time, ruins them).

Paul