Even though we sold off all of the power tools and kitchen appliances, we still brought a huge number of electric devices overseas. It's been real <sarcasm>fun</sarcasm> trying to make all this stuff work on 220/240V 50hz. Some things were easy. These are the manufacturers I now swear my allegiance to. Just plug in an Australian power cable and it works. My next favorites are the ones like the PC's - just flip the red switch on the back and plug in the Aussie cable.

I've got a whole bunch of 'wall-wart' transformers that need to be replaced. These are all still pretty easy - just plug in a new wall-wart and everything is fine. The only problem is the price. These guys are about $30 each here. I need (let's see...) about 30 of them. You do the math. Luckily I found a bunch of standard 9V supplies on clearance for $5 each and bought all they had (7 or 8). They were on clearance because they use a different style connector. So I have to get out the soldering iron (oops, looks like I need a new soldering iron because my old one is 110V) and change the connectors.

Now we're getting to the real <sarcasm>fun</sarcasm> stuff. The Marshall amplifier. In fact Marshall claims that you should be able to use this anywhere in the world. Well yes, but you have to open the case and rewire the power transformer. This isn't something most people are comfortable with. Luckily I am. Did this one last night.

Next are the weird wall-warts. Dual 18V AC, 9VAC@2.1A, etc. These are getting hard. This takes a trip to Dick Smith (the only local place to buy electronic parts), and try and match a transformer to the job. It's hit or miss at this stage. Some of the transformers need to come from overseas, which costs more than the items I'm trying to convert. So it ends up being cheaper to throw them away and buy new - like the soldering iron. And I've got a kid and a house full of pets. Can't just hang a naked transformer off the edge of the desk like I could have twenty years ago. It needs to go in a box with all the bare wires taped up. That's another 5 bucks or so and another couple of hours each. I've gotten clever in a couple of spots - my wireless router for instance requires 5V at a couple of amps. So I plugged it into an extra drive cable on my PC.

But now I'm getting down to the nitty gritty. I've got about 20 more items to rewire and another twenty more wall-warts to purchase. 4 or 5 items that can only be run on an isolation (240V <-> 120V step down) transformer, and 2 or 3 that can only be run via a pure sine wave inverter off a car battery because they really, really need a clean 60 hz sine wave and this is the only way to get it.

Still a couple of months before everything is up and running. But every day I get another one or two working.  And I know what I'm doing. Most people attempting this would just have to suck up and buy everything fresh.