Hi,
I was prompted to reply here after reading another post regarding the $3 adapter which allows the use of the later model (small plug) power supply with the larger plugged Pismo etc.
I own a Pismo which I bought second hand when it was quite new and upgraded with G4 processor and a few other bits and pieces, but the machine has been languishing for some years after the original power supply melted and the cost of a replacement made me spill my coffee...
The above-mentioned post made me go and dig the Pismo out from under the Snow (which was stacked on top of it) and have a look at the Snow's power supply. I remembered that I'd tried to think of a way of modifying the Snow's plug to fit the Pismo but had given it up, until I read about the ingenious use of the stereo plug adapter the other day.
Not having the adapter to hand, and being the impulsive type, I cut the plug of the Snow's power supply (it's screen had died some years ago) and wired an ordinary stereo plug to the cable instead, plugged it into the Pismo's socket... and after a few resets and change of hard drive... it was running again!
Now what bothered me was the plug seemed very loose, to the point that if I bumped the cable or moved the machine it would lose connection. Age, and that fact that there was no metal ring to hold the plug in place meant I had to be very careful while using the Pismo.
After a couple of day's messing around I hit upon a solution. I realised the metal ring on the Pismo plug is the exact same size as that in an RCA plug. Sadly there's no such thing as a single stereo RCA plug - until now.
Unfortunately, I'm not one of these people who can stop and take photos while I work, and believe me there was some painstaking effort involved in creating the plug you see in the photo here. But all it took was the original (quite good quality) RCA plug, a stereo socket, a lot of dremel work, soldering iron (and solder), shrink tube, a multimeter to check connections... and another power supply, because the one from the Snow died as I was testing.
Strangely enough, a 19v Dell adapter I found in a box seems more than up to the task and has been powering the Pismo quite happily all day today through the new plug.
Next, I have a bunch of batteries on the way to refurbish the old battery pack.