I needed a reliable remote control solution for my bed-ridden wife, who resides in a nursing home.  She can only move one arm and hand with much difficulty. Apple's iPad + Dijit + Griffin Beacon was the solution that I chose.

Unfortunately, this thing eats batteries in weeks - not months.

With no option to use an AC adapter for the Griffin Beacon, getting it to run off of AC required a bit of tinkering. With a little effort, you too can go from AA to AC by following the directions below. (Warning: Don't try this if you are faint of heart or can't afford a new Beacon.)

First, you'll need to acquire a 6V AC adapter to use.  I looked around the house and found two "left-over" AC adapters: one 6V 150mA and the other 6V 200mA.  Didn't want to cut off the plug until I was sure they worked, so I bought a "DC power pigtal female adapter" from my local electronics hobby shop for $1.25 (but you could cut off the plug if you're sure it will work).

Once you're ready to dive in, cut two 1/2" wooden dowels at 1 7/8" long.  Strip the wire on the female adapter (or just the wires if you skipped the pigtail adapter) back about 1/2" and wrap it around a small sheet metal screw (rounded top, phillips head). Screw them into the wood dowel (making them 1/2" x 2" overall).

Next, cut a small notch about 3/8" in the bottom of the Beacon's battery cover so the wire can come out.

Insert the dowels (a.k.a the battery replacements) and wires into the case. Note that the batteries are connected in series. So, look for the positive and negative terminal with just a single contact (vice the bar that connects to the adjacent battery slot). Both of my AC adapters had the outside barrel as the positive terminal and the inside as negative terminal, although you'll want to check yours with a Multimeter in case its reversed.

Viola! Your very own custom, Beacon compatible A/C adapter for $1.25 (plus spare parts.)

In my case, both A/C adapters I had worked great, and the Dijit app reported 100% charge. As soon as I plugged it in, the blue light flashed a few times and responded to Dijit commands.

Now there's no more additional worry or expense for batteries. What's great about this solution, however, is that you can take out your battery replacements and stick some real AA cells back in there if you need to for some reason.

(edited by the Dijit Community Team)