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Aug 27, 2015 • 17:46 Profile Photo unstablewarpfield

Dear planet vb,

Since I am now the owner of a virtual boy I want to be able to play it!

Mine is a japanese version that came in the box, with stand, japanese power tab, booklet, inlay, 3 jap games etc. So a very complete set. Very pleased with it, specially since the condition of the box is nice.

So… The situation is as follows:

Jap VB + Jap AC power tab —> Dutch (EU) power supply.

Am I correct in that I can use an EU Mega Drive 1 power supply?

I have been reading some things on the web but mostly these cover connecting it to an american power supply so I am somewhat confused. Is there some sort of overview available online that describes all the possible combinations (including mine) of hooking up VB’s with AC taps from both zones to whatever power supply is needed for the region you live in?

Probably this has been asked a lot but I could not find a definitive answer on the web so I thought to put it on here.

Thanks.

10 Replies
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Aug 28, 2015 • 14:12 Profile Photo unstablewarpfield

Allright, after reading more about it and researching even more I came to the conclusion that I needed my pal NES power supply.

As far as I understood, the region of the virtual boy doesn’t matter, but the AC adapter does. If you have a Japanese AC adapter, you need a power supply that outputs AC. If you have a US AC adapter, you need a power supply that outputs DC.

Furthermore, it doesn’t matter what kind of power supply (with or without step down convertor, EU/US/UK/JPN wallsocket etc) you use, as long as the output of the power supplies has the right voltage, and supplies AC or DC according to your AC adapter as mentioned above.

I hope this makes any sense and that I got it right. My japanese virtual boy with japanese AC adapter tap works perfectly with my pal NES power supply, which outputs 9V AC.

Cheers.

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Aug 28, 2015 • 15:06 Profile Photo dasi

> Am I correct in that I can use an EU Mega Drive 1 power supply?

Hi. A PAL Megadrive adapter is what you should be using, i.e. a 9V DC center negative adapter. Using an AC adapter may damage your Virtual Boy.

  • This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by dasi.
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Aug 28, 2015 • 19:24 Profile Photo norty

hello,

i’ve recently created a thread about the same subject, so maybe you’ll find some informations at :

http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6231&forum=1

Personnaly, my situation is as follows:

US VB + Jap AC power tab —> French SNES (EU) power supply.

Here is an interesting quote by The Force 81

Using a Japanese Adapter tap you need to use an AC/AC adapter! When using a USA tap, you need an AC/DC adapter!

I just checked and confirmed with a multimeter, the European (S)NES adapter is AC and I can use that one perfectly fine with my Japanese Adapter and the USA tap works fine with a universal DC adapter I have here.

Seems there is some electronics in the Japanese tap that converts the AC to DC and that isn’t present in the USA tap.

EDIT:
After opening up both taps, the electronics are the same for both, so it seems it doesn’t matter if you feed the VB AC or DC.

EDIT2:
After measuring the voltage, the DC adapter with the USA tap outputs 8.75 volts on the pins of the tap and the Japanese tap with the AC adapter outputs 4.85 volts. So I am not completely sure what is happening with this on the voltage regulator. It seems that there is some automatic switching going on to account for these differences.

so maybe we can ask further informations to him.
Also if you want to keep me informed how you solve this (without burning your VB), i’ll be interested as i have the same problem 🙂

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Aug 29, 2015 • 06:57 Profile Photo unstablewarpfield

I have played my vb now with the pal nes 9v AC power supply and it works fine. I read on several independent forums now that it is the AC tap that you should watch out for. US AC tab —> DC power supply. JPN AC tab —> AC power supply.

That is as far as I got. Maybe I’ll try to find some ancient wizzard from the 90’s at Nintendo who can give a definitive answer.

Cheers.

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Aug 29, 2015 • 07:15 Profile Photo TheForce81

unstablewarpfield wrote:
I have played my vb now with the pal nes 9v AC power supply and it works fine. I read on several independent forums now that it is the AC tap that you should watch out for. US AC tab —> DC power supply. JPN AC tab —> AC power supply.

That is as far as I got. Maybe I’ll try to find some ancient wizzard from the 90’s at Nintendo who can give a definitive answer.

Cheers.

That is total nonsense, I have believed that for a long time as well, but it doesn’t hold any truth to it at all! Seems that people have just been assuming things about it and I have been the first one actually measuring both taps with a multi-meter.

As we have a Dutch saying, “meten is weten”(measuring is knowing) I came to the conclusion both taps are the same except for the plug, talking about the electronics in it, they are the same and as Norty quoted me from his thread, they both output a different voltage and they both still work.

I have used them both for long sessions without any problems.

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Aug 29, 2015 • 12:25 Profile Photo unstablewarpfield

Allright… In that case… We can just narrow it down to “any power supply that delivers around 9V (whether it be AC or DC) that fits your AC power tap” I guess? (As long as it’s a center negative power supply)

In that case… I think a pal mega drive 1 power supply would also work since that outputs 10V DC.

meten is inderdaad weten 😉

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Aug 30, 2015 • 15:07 Profile Photo norty

ok, i have another question about the voltage.
i just saw a video from our eminent forum member VectrxRoli :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL6UI5QtPHM

at 4’55, he tell the adapter was design for 110V and that Austria (same for France and Netherlands) is a 230V region.

So, it didn’t fry your VB when you plug it to the 230V in netherlands with a snes european AC adapter and a japaneese adapter tap? or are you using a converter?

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Aug 30, 2015 • 15:39 Profile Photo TheForce81

That will never be an issue, what goes in is pretty much irrelevant since it is an adapter, only the output counts. 10v is 10v, doesn’t matter what comes in.

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Aug 30, 2015 • 18:17 Profile Photo norty

thanks for your help TheForce81, I think i start to understand now. I’ll try next week with my european snes AC adapter and my japaneese tap 🙂

by the way, i’ll probably have to contact you in the future as i heard that your the one to contact for “soldering” in europe, am i right ?

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Aug 30, 2015 • 18:27 Profile Photo TheForce81

Both Runnerpack and I can do it, but as you have mentioned, it is easier for both sides if people located in Europe contact me and people in the North America contact Runnerpack.

 

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