Nintendo Power Supply: 9V AC or 9V DC ?

[Mike]

Hi,

Does anyone know for sure what the NES PS is ? I see 9V AC on the FAQ
but I have 9V DC PS for them and I did try a 9V AC and it worked as
well.
Are they dual AC and DC power conversion on the board ?

Thanks,
-Mike

[John Soper]

Mike <br...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<3CA2A18D...@yahoo.com>...

The first thing in a NES power circuit is a rectifier ring to turn AC
into pulsating DC. Then there are big capacitors to smooth that into
constant dc voltage. That goes into a 5V regulator to give you a rock
solid 5 volts that all the main circuitry needs.

If you plug in a DC supply off sufficient voltage and current rating,
the energy just passes through the rectifier and smoothing stuff.
Don't plug an AC power supply in a machine designed for a DC one
however.

See this site for more details:
http://users.erols.com/tiltonj/games/tech/power.html

[Mike]

Hi John,

Thanks for the info .. so does that mean an NES is designed for AC then ?
Or are there 2 types of NES consoles, a DC and an AC ?

For sure other machines that take DC should be given DC, just that the
NES is dual due to the circuitry then?

Thanks again,
-Mike

[John Soper]

Mike <br...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<3CA4CCA7...@yahoo.com>...

> Hi John,
>
> Thanks for the info .. so does that mean an NES is designed for AC then ?
> Or are there 2 types of NES consoles, a DC and an AC ?
>
> For sure other machines that take DC should be given DC, just that the
> NES is dual due to the circuitry then?

I think NES's are all designed for AC, but happen to work with Dc.
The power adapters I've seen are all AC.

[Mike]

Hi John,

The funny thing, all the NES adapters I've seen here in Canada are 9V DC
which puzzled me. Maybe some Canada regulation or something... *shrug*

Thanks for all the help and good site !
-Mike

[Michael K-F]

Technically 9V DC should work, but on my NES it the screen just turned on for a second and the turned off.
Though the light on the front turned on so my NES might be dead.

You should also check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTqcb8hl8YI