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The power supply on my Airport Extreme died on me today. After finding that the replacement cost is about $50 and seeing that the old unit is sealed for eternity preventing access for repair, I decided to see if an easy, inexpensive substitute could be made. According to the cover on Airport Extreme, it requires 12 volts at 1.8 amps. However, the supplied Apple power supply was only rated for 1 amp. (Perhaps this was an Apple-planned equipment self destruction and, besides, any new one would also be rated at only 1 amp and be destined for destruction by overload).
Being a ham radio operator, I have a few Radio Shack 12 volt power supplies I've picked up at swap meets for a few dollars each. I found one rated at 1.75 amps (close enough to the required 1.8 amps and a lot more than the 1 amp of the Apple power supply). Then I went to Radio Shack and bought Size L Coaxial DC Power Plugs (you only need one, but they are sold in pairs). I then used some speaker cable and soldered the speaker wires onto the new connector. Then, being observant of polarity, I connected the wire going to the center of the power plug to the positive (+) terminal on the power supply and the wire going to the outer ring to the negative (-) terminal on the power supply (hooking them up correctly is critically important!!). This completed construction of the new power supply. I plugged it into the Airport Extreme, the light came on and it worked like a charm.
I am posting this as a solution and workaround in case your 12 volt power supply dies and you don't want to spend $50 dollars for a new one that also will likely die.
Note: The older Airport Extreme units take a 5.1 volt power supply, so, if you have one of those (it will be marked on the power supply and Airport Extreme cases), you CANNOT use a 12 volt power supply.
Being a ham radio operator, I have a few Radio Shack 12 volt power supplies I've picked up at swap meets for a few dollars each. I found one rated at 1.75 amps (close enough to the required 1.8 amps and a lot more than the 1 amp of the Apple power supply). Then I went to Radio Shack and bought Size L Coaxial DC Power Plugs (you only need one, but they are sold in pairs). I then used some speaker cable and soldered the speaker wires onto the new connector. Then, being observant of polarity, I connected the wire going to the center of the power plug to the positive (+) terminal on the power supply and the wire going to the outer ring to the negative (-) terminal on the power supply (hooking them up correctly is critically important!!). This completed construction of the new power supply. I plugged it into the Airport Extreme, the light came on and it worked like a charm.
I am posting this as a solution and workaround in case your 12 volt power supply dies and you don't want to spend $50 dollars for a new one that also will likely die.
Note: The older Airport Extreme units take a 5.1 volt power supply, so, if you have one of those (it will be marked on the power supply and Airport Extreme cases), you CANNOT use a 12 volt power supply.