Duo R ac adaptor

[CrackTiger]

I recently bought a Duo R from doujindance that has, among other things, mods for s-video, rgb and a new led light.

After mailing it off, he sent me a mssage with this:

As you may know, Japanese AC adapter has been fixed "input AC100V". But your country is not 100V. You must prepare voltage converter of stable performance. Or you should use your country's AC adapter of Genesis2 or PSone.

Should I really use a different ac adaptor and if so, what possible side effects could I see if I just use the Duo R power supply?

[NecroPhile]

My RX works just fine with the original 100v AC adapter.  The only side effect you might see is the wall wart getting a little warmer.

[CrackTiger]

My RX works just fine with the original 100v AC adapter.  The only side effect you might see is the wall wart getting a little warmer.

I also played  a modified Duo RX for years with the official ac, as well as loads of other Japanese consoles. I'm just wondering if there are any subtle or long term affects.

[Bernie]

You wont have issues BT.  I had one, no two, and the power supplies are fine.  100v, 110v.... ehh...  If you are worried about it though, just get a power supply from retrogamecave, and save your OEM one. 

[Keith Courage]

It should be just fine. However, the only harm it could ever do in the long run would be to the power supply itself. So if anything did ever happen it wouldn't damage the DUO. Just the power supply.

[CrackTiger]

It should be just fine. However, the only harm it could ever do in the long run would be to the power supply itself. So if anything did ever happen it wouldn't damage the DUO. Just the power supply.

Cool, I don't care about the power supplies. I just wanted to rule out any performance issues for the Duo since I recently discovered a huge difference between CD-ROM setups and want to shoot for optimum performance.

I was also curious in case this could possibly factor into flash cards not working, since some people have reported issues that were supposed to be from the cards drawing too much power.

[NightWolve]

Hm, I would take a DMM and see what kind of voltage it's outputting. I'd wanna know how much more or less it's outputting as a result. If it's like 9V, a reduction than normal, than that's better, if it's even worse, like >14V than a regular one, then that means the +5V voltage regulator inside your Duo just has more voltage to kill off and it's gonna run hotter than usual. Some averages that I saw for them is they can handle up to 30V and they need a minimum like 9V or 10V, etc. to operate, to give you a smooth +5V internally.

But yeah, those AC adapters are cheap and unregulated, and it'd mean less heat for the regulator if you could get a nice 10V regulated one like this here, 3rd one down (I wanted that one, but not at that price). My original Duo's power supply outputs about ~13V I think as my building's supply is about 129V, not 120V, for something that's supposed to be 10V. More heat for the internal regulator...

(http://console5.com/store/7805-5-volt-regulator.html)

So minimum incoming voltage should be at least ~7V and max 35V. So yeah, it just means more heat for that component internally and shorter lifespan if it's way above the stated 10V. You'd rather have all the regulation on the outside adapter so when it goes bad, you just replace it and you wouldn't have to open up your Duo for this if it burns out. I had it burn out for my SNES, but I just modded the whole system to work with a regulated, more complicated (with lots of smoothing caps) 5.22V adapter (had it already, so was cheaper to try it than to order and wait for a replacement regulator).

[tggodfrey]

The AC Adapter itself is nothing more than a Dry type Transformer and rectifier bridge.  Inputting a higher voltage will not harm the AC adapter or shorten its life span at all as long and the BIL is not exceeded.  In this case its not but if you were to attempt to feed 240V into it then you would be and the primary windings would short in 3-5 cycles. 

BIL = Base Insulating Level.

Before anyone comments on the 240v detail..........your voltage is actually 120v/240v.  I have no idea where the 110v/220v came from but in the past 50 years the electrical standard is 120v/240v 60hz in the US and 120v/240v 50 HZ in Europe.  Trust me, its what i do for a living.  I have not been able to find an electrician who can explain why the he or public calls it 110v/220v and they admit if thats the voltage they are seeing, then there is a low voltage problem.  Commerce commisions in each state require 113-127v/226-254v variance windows.  (i know this is more then you wanted to read, sorry)

Like Nightwolve mentioned, i would be more concerned about the regulated 5v circuit in the duo but i dont htink your going to have an issue at all since most of us have been running the same setup for years.

[tggodfrey]

my building's supply is about 129V, not 120V, for something that's supposed to be 10V. More heat for the internal regulator...

Nightwolve, we should talk privately regarding your 129V.......thats is a problem.  Max voltage here In IL is 127V.  I am a load Dispatcher for ComEd, I control voltage and var flow in Chicago, North and South Region.  I see your in Chicago, if your in the Calumet area that is very difficult area to regulate because of the loss of industrial load.  There are a lot of things that will cause this situation and many people just don't realize it but its the only way we know there is a problem on the system sometimes.  If your getting 129V and your testing with a quality DVM such as a Fluke.....contact me when you have a minute and I will give you some direction to get this fixed.  129V is an issue on our side (ComEd) and we need to know it.

Terry

[NightWolve]

Nightwolve, we should talk privately regarding your 129V.......thats is a problem.  Max voltage here In IL is 127V.  I am a load Dispatcher for ComEd, I control voltage and var flow in Chicago, North and South Region.

Hm, that's interesting. I checked it now and am getting ~122V, both with my new Vicky VC99 and my el cheapo model, same thing. That's weird but good; I think it was about 2 months ago when I saw the 128-129V range, so. Now if we could get the phone company (AT&T) to give us some reliability instead of flaking out every other week, that'd be nice.

ComEd eh? Heh. I actually interviewed with 'em back in '98 and got a job offer, fresh with my CS Bachelor's, but I wound up turning it down. It was for a data analyst slot at $49,600/year with benefits. I wonder how differently things would've gone for me if I had accepted it... I was a little annoyed by the amount. See, my college buddy interviewed at the same time with me, they took us out to lunch as well to impress us and all that, but anyhow, when it came time for exact offers, they offered him $49,800. Of course we shared details about it and I was like naw, it should've just been an even $50k, why fuck around like that ? Anyway, I did get an even $50k offer 6 months later but that was after working with some IT consultants on an hourly basis.

[tggodfrey]

wow that's good money for 98!  The company is good with raises after your on the "inside". Everyone is a little low when hired off the street.  Its a good company to work for even with the stress.  If you ever see yourself with the option of applying there again let me know.  you might be able to use me as a referral.

I am right along with you on AT&T......dear god they are horrible.

If you have issues with your power, dont hesitate to get a hold of me, its our dept that controls the live system and the ones who get your power back on!

Terry

[Fidde_se]

A little off but an answer to tggodfrey, we in Sweden actually had 220V now 230V but should at all circumstances be fully operational at 240V,
Translated with google translate from the Swedish Wikipedia this is what is says:

Voltage:

With voltage refers to the voltage that is normally found in a standard electrical outlet.
Voltage is sinusoidal and down with respect to the effective value and the frequency .

In Sweden voltage always an alternating voltage and the frequency is 50 Hz .

Sweden has three voltages: 230 V +6 / -10% 50 Hz. [1] [2] Standard voltage in any standard wall socket.
This is termed the phase voltage and the voltage between each of the three phases and the neutral conductor (and the earth wire )
at the distribution terminal to the incoming line.  Until 1988 this voltage was 220 V, and therefore, you hear sometimes that figure
to be mentioned in connection with the supply voltage, and some older appliances and outlets can also be labeled with 220 V.
They are nevertheless permitted for use at 230 V.

115 volts.  Half the regular power supply, is permitted in wet areas.
Accomplished by means of an intermediate transformer that transforms the voltage by half to reduce the risk of injuries because
the risk of electric shock is greater in damp / wet environment.  The same plug that fits in standard sockets in most cases.
Nevertheless, one should only use equipment suited to this tension in their application, such as some razors and curling irons.
Previously (before the increase in 1988) was the thrill of these outlets 110 V and some older appliances and outlets can also
be labeled so.  These outlets have recently been increasingly replaced with sockets for standard voltage 230 V supplemented with RCD.

400 volts.  This voltage is called the main voltage and the voltage between two phases of a three phase system.
They are phase shifted 120 degrees relative to each other.  Until 1988 this voltage about 380 V, and therefore, you hear
sometimes that figure to be mentioned in connection with the supply voltage, and some older appliances and outlets can also
be labeled with 380 V. They are nevertheless permitted for use at 400 V. This voltage occurs only in three-phase power,
and in some permanently installed equipment, such as certain types of cookers, heaters and washing machines.

In most countries in Europe used voltages as above.  In many other countries, including the United States and large parts of Asia,
the line voltage is 120 V, 60 Hz.



Heres also a list of the worlds all line voltages (in English non translated) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country

The world is mixed soup of voltages and frequencies but most is so close together that they seldom give any problem, on the other hand
this is on the high voltage side of the transformer, on the low side that 10V or even 20V difference JAP/US will be transformed into a few millivolts,
with another word they will work just as good in the states as in japan, but if we were to put it in a european socket on the other hand.... =)

Fun thing is that half of Japan runs 50Hz and the other half 60Hz, so most original PC-Engine adapters says both... but the PCE doesn't care as the rectifier bridge and the capacitors (hopefully there is some capacitors or it will be pulsating direct current) will straighten that AC into DC.
Remember old cheap Gameboy adapters were they had very small or no capacitors and made the audio sound smattering and garbled.

[tggodfrey]

Thats interesting.  Very interesting that Japan uses both 50 and 60Hz.

[NightWolve]

Hmm, I'm glad we just stick with 120V in the US then.

I had a correction to make actually: I remembered later that the Duo motherboard has two +5V regulators next to each other with their respective heatsinks so an incoming voltage slightly below 10V would not be good. I'd bet the 2nd one is to separately power/operate the CD-ROM reader/module, but whatever the case, in light of that, I think the sweet spot for the best voltage would be between 10.25V and 10.50V.

As was mentioned, the standard Duo power supply is just a cheap transformer, 4 diodes to form the bridge rectifier to convert from AC to DC and one smoothing capacitor (30,000uF in this case), that's about it (SNES one takes an extra step and connects a very high megaohm resistor between AC neutral and the [-] negative DC output, and that's why one plug, the neutral, is polarized - I guess this helps discharge the motherboard faster when you turn it off)... As such, depending on your home's voltage, you could be getting ~12-13 volts out of such a power supply, you don't know, but what you DO know is it's not gonna be what the label says it is: 10V. A good regulated power supply will have one or two regulators inside, a few smoothing capacitors, a ceramic one as well for surge absorption, resistors and even an IC. The 12V ones I've seen for monitors are even far more advanced to give ya a guaranteed 12-12.25 voltage range. Anyway, yeah, if you want a better one than the original, the one I linked prior is it (3rd one down) - though it's sold out, one might try asking the guy for info on it to go eBay hunting.

EDIT: I DMM checked my Duo "10V" power supply the other day and I get almost an even 12 volts... So FYI.

[monads]

doujindance told me the same. 

But I have my Japanese cabs running fine without problems here in the USA.  I also have a step up/down transformer for Japanese standards to the USA, but I've never used it on the cabs.  Haven't noticed a problem yet with the Duo-R without the step up/down transformer.  Looks like others can confirm as well which is good for both of us ;)