Replacement Battery Chargers have become an increasingly important product range for us over the last few years, manufacturers exercise great ingenuity in their constant ability to make the charger for their product different, either by voltage/Ampage  AC/DC or plug/Socket from that for any other product

Laptop Computers have been amongst the top tier of these racketeers, a replacement transformer  costing anything up to a £100 from the original manufacturer. (Mark you, laptop batteries are if anything worse !!) A couple of years ago “Compatible” Universal transformers started becoming available and we have seen a steady reduction in pricing, for both the original part,  and the compatibles.

The problem with the compatible ones is that you have to figure out the amps your laptop needs then the correct plug to fit your laptop and check it’s polarity, then, (assuming you have the right plug) set a switch on the transformer to the correct voltage (get this wrong and you might blow your laptop!)

So recently Universal transformers have come along that you set using an LED or LCD display to the voltage required by your laptop that’s an improvement … saves time and trouble doesn’t it??

…well no, in fact products like the UA100 by Compucase require that EACH TIME you connect your laptop you set the voltage to the correct one for your laptop as in between times it sets itself down to 14volts to protect your equipment!

So each time you have to remember your laptops voltage (or re-discover it on the small print underneath your laptop (or even worse on the old lost/discarded/broken original transformer)) and go into the dongle on the cable and reset the switches.

At least with the older models once you had set the voltage you could reasonably assume it was set when you reconnected your laptop.

No doubt some designer somewhere is being lauded for this progress…