I am very new to the Virtual Boy, and kind of new to electronics in general. I recently got a VB and a controller, but I don’t have a battery pack or ac power supply tap to go with it. I’ve got this (link at the bottom) power supply coming in the mail, not realizing that I need a tap to actually use it. I think the current is safe, from what I’ve heard. I really don’t want to spend much money, so do you guys think I could effectively make my own tap by directly hooking the positive and negative leads on that power supply directly to the corresponding leads on the controller? Is there something important in a tap or is it just directly wired? Or would it be better to use batteries somehow?
The tap essentially just completes the connection, yes. However, I’d still recommend getting a power tap, especially if you’re fairly green to electronics. It’s biggest advantage is you’re not potentially short circuiting by jimmy rigging something together, bumping it, etc.
So in short, yes it can be done, but I’d advise against it.
Under normal circumstances, I would absolutely love to use official stuff, but what I can find on eBay is going for more than I can justify spending right now. It’s either $50 for an adapter on its own or $120 for that and a controller.
My original idea was to just stick the wires into the male end of the power supply, but I decided to play it a little smarter. I got a female jack with wire leads out the other end, and I plan to use some electrical tape to secure the wires and socket in place. In theory, nothing will come loose and short out.
I know this isn’t ideal, but it’s all I can really do right now. I do have a multimeter, so I am able to verify the voltage that the power supply outputs, and the polarity of the contact pins on the controller. I am absolutely aware that shorting wires is dangerous, that will be on my mind while I work on that.
I would go a step further and open the controller, desolder the contacts that normally go to the tap/battery box, and solder the wires from your female jack in its place (making sure the polarity is correct). If you hot-glue the socket to the VB’s case, the entire mod would be 100% reversible if you ever come across a tap or battery box (just use a little isopropyl alcohol and the hot glue will pop right off). Let us know how it turns out!
Thanks for the tip, I’ll be sure to use that someday! Unfortunately though, my system seems to have shipped with a faulty voltage regulator, so I am not able to get it to work. I’m looking at getting another system that DOES have the proper tap, so if I can get that one, I won’t have to do it assuming it doesn’t arrive broken.
You are right though, if I were to do this again, I would make sure that the wires and socket are soldered, hot glued or otherwise solidly attached in a way that they would never easily come loose.
