Repurpose your original TG-16 PSU

[CZroe]

The Turbo-CD dock replaces your original AC adapter for powering the console and repurposes it as the drive’s AC adapter for use as a stand-alone portable CD player. I doubt anyone these days is using it as a portable CD player. Heck, it strains the definition of “portable” simply by not having a battery power option.

So, what are you using your old TG-16 adapter for? It’s actually surprisingly versatile... like the Sega Genesis/Megadrive MK-1602.

Yeah, it’s rated 10.5v but most ~9v systems will tolerate it just fine and the voltage regulator will just put out a little extra heat. Simple AC adapters were generally linear/unregulated back then so the voltage was variable depending on load (higher when unloaded) and the systems were designed to take it. Japan was notorious for not including AC adapters with consumer electronics that require them so they were usually designed to tolerate each other’s PSUs. Super Famicom expected you to use the Famicom PSU but you could also use Sega Master System, PC Engine, Megadrive Model 1, Sega CD (both models), etc. EU/AU got a taste of this when Nintendo left the charger out of the DSi XL and the rest of us encountered this with the NN3DSXL worldwide.

Even early Turbo-CD drives and CD-ROM² drives can be identical inside, though one is marked as “9v” and the other as “10.5v” simply because of the different PSUs used between North America and Japan. Clearly, it can take both.

Most old Japanese consoles were center negative polarity where most electronics today with the same 5.5x2.1mm barrel connector are center positive. That makes the TG-16 adapter useful for Master System/Mark III, Genesis/Megadrive, Famicom, NES-001/101 (OEM is AC-AC so reverse isn’t true), some Neo Geo AES, Super Famicom, Atari Jaguar, and more.

I’m using mine with a Neo Geo AES that SNK originally sold with NEO-POW3 10v or 11v adapter. 10.5v lands right in the middle but if you need one for your AES make sure yours is not one of the ones that requires regulated 5v. Those will also fit your TG-16 plug or 10/11v SNK NEO-POW3 but they will fry! Stupid SNK. Supposedly you can’t trust the label on the bottom so you have to either open it up or try a 5v center negative supply first. Dim, blocky patterns with 5v usually indicate a that you have a system that needs more voltage. Easiest source of a regulated 5v is to adapt a 1A USB charger.

Just figured I’d throw this out there in case your original is hanging around as dead weight while you have another console that could use it.

[gex]

Always found it interesting that there's matching serial ##'s on the TG16 AC power brick. Not even the TG16 CD AC has a ## stamped on it, and that's coming from a console CIB that has something like 6 matching serial numbers

[NightWolve]

Good read, thanks.

I personally don't recommend using the old, original, unregulated AC adapters with the basic design of 1 dry transformer, 4 diodes for DC conversion, 1 smoothing capacitor and a one-time fuse if you're lucky.

Since my experience with thesteve, our resident EE, I prefer buying new regulated adapters that are the bare minimum of what's needed to take the load off the internal 5 Volt regulator and extend its lifespan.

This usually means a regulated adapter about 1 Volt higher than the most the motherboard needs, usually 5 Volts, but with say a Turbo Duo and its 8 Volt need for the CD motor area, a 9VDC adapter will be needed.

I like the idea of most of the step down regulators being on the outside and generating their heat there instead of the internal 5VDC regulators doing most of the work and generating extra, avoidable heat on the PCB/motherboard.

I like having a small 6VDC regulated adapter for my TurboExpress over the huge unregulated brick that was the original. New adapters are better, safer, so ultimately I see no reason to subject this old hardware to unregulated power abuse by retro adapters.

[Gredler]

Dang blowing my mind with logic right now NightWolve, thanks for that post. I should retire those old ACDC units before my systems get thunderstruck Lol. In all seriousness, do you have any suggestions on specific aforementioned power adapters?

[Lost Monkey]

I've switched over to beautiful, clean coal to power my old consoles.   They are all dead now and I look like a chimney sweep all the time.

[SignOfZeta]

Gee, mister, you sure have a lot of exciting things to say about power supplies. Here I was just using a meter and specs to match everything when I could have simply used an encyclopedic knowledge of cross compatible OEM units.

[NightWolve]

Dang blowing my mind with logic right now NightWolve, thanks for that post. I should retire those old ACDC units before my systems get thunderstruck Lol. In all seriousness, do you have any suggestions on specific aforementioned power adapters?

Steve provided the info awhile back, you can search around. 9 VDC for TurboDuo, 6 VDC for Turbo Express, etc. Any of the Chinese supplies will do in the $2.50 range. They're always better than the original, cheap, linear power supplies of that console era, you just gotta buy the custom plugs separately and do the solder work. The Turbo Duo plug is found at: https://console5.com/store/turbo-duo-power-connector-2016.html

Basically what you're seeing nowadays is the 5 VDC USB power supply model. All the power regulation to step 120 VAC down to 5 VDC occurs on the outside, and you just plug in a microUSB to your smartphone, tablet, mp3 portable speaker, etc. It's good if the adapter is at 5.1 to 5.3, a little above to account for the resistance of the USB wire so by the time it reaches the device it's a perfect 5 VDC.

When the 5 Volt regulator in my SNES burned out, I actually converted it to a 5 VDC model. Desoldered the dead regulator, got a 5.3 VDC regulated power supply, took the SNES cable/plug, soldered it over to the new power supply, got the system working again.

The SNES plug has to be really clean though, not as good as a microUSB connection, but by the time power gets to the motherboard, it's at 5.03 Volts now. Used to go under but I managed to get it at 5 with cleaning.

I've switched over to beautiful, clean coal to power my old consoles.   They are all dead now and I look like a chimney sweep all the time.

Haha!

[CZroe]

Always found it interesting that there's matching serial ##'s on the TG16 AC power brick. Not even the TG16 CD AC has a ## stamped on it, and that's coming from a console CIB that has something like 6 matching serial numbers

Never knew this. Going to have to see if mine matches. Almost certainly does since mine was found in the wild with the original pack-in game as if the previous owner never even played anything else.

Good read, thanks.

I personally don't recommend using the old, original, unregulated AC adapters with the basic design of 1 dry transformer, 4 diodes for DC conversion, 1 smoothing capacitor and a one-time fuse if you're lucky.

Since my experience with thesteve, our resident EE, I prefer buying new regulated adapters that are the bare minimum of what's needed to take the load off the internal 5 Volt regulator and extend its lifespan.

This usually means a regulated adapter about 1 Volt higher than the most the motherboard needs, usually 5 Volts, but with say a Turbo Duo and its 8 Volt need for the CD motor area, a 9VDC adapter will be needed.

I like the idea of most of the step down regulators being on the outside and generating their heat there instead of the internal 5VDC regulators doing most of the work and generating extra, avoidable heat on the PCB/motherboard.

I like having a small 6VDC regulated adapter for my TurboExpress over the huge unregulated brick that was the original. New adapters are better, safer, so ultimately I see no reason to subject this old hardware to unregulated power abuse by retro adapters.

You’re right, but I’m routinely horrified at what I find in typical USB chargers and other modern regulated switching PSUs I find around. There are some very good comparisons and tear downs on YouTube and elsewhere. Most of the name brands have serious issues. While I’m sure there are plenty of decent ones, the only great ones I know off hand are Apple and old HP Touchpad chargers. Because there are a ridiculous number of counterfeit Apple chargers that are even more horrifying.

The other issue with modern regulated PSUs is that they can introduce noise for old analog devices, like our retro game consoles. It’s not usually a big deal with shielded cables and the original voltage regulator but if you bypass it then we’re really asking for it. I’ll keep the original voltage regulator as a bit of a secondary buffer against external voltage spikes. For this reason it was actually a bit of a relief to find that mine was a 9/10/11v console instead of a 5v console. I feel like it’s a waste to just pack it up when I don’t have an original NEO-POW3 adapter for my AES and the TG-16 suits it perfectly, but I would totally buy a regulated PSU if I didn’t have this.

Speaking of crappy 5v regulated USB PSUs, I actually did buy a regulated 5v 3A PSU before I knew if the AES was a 5v unit or not. It had never been opened and I needed to test it without opening it to see if it was a 5v or 9/10/11v unit. I adapted microUSB to standard 5.5x2.1mm center positive then I reversed the polarity to determine that it was a 9/10/11v unit. I used an MK-1602 Sega Genesis adapter to finish testing it, but I got exactly one other use for that $13 5v 3A USB charger before it gave up the ghost. I used that same unit to power an NeoGeo MVS MV-1FZ  arcade PCB and a GBS-8200 CGA/VGA converter. The next time I needed it, it was completely dead. I can’t recall the brand but it was sold in Microcenter’s maker section (Arduino, rPi, 3D printers, etc) right next to an identical-looking 2.5A PSU (both in bags). Anecdotal, I know, but I’d avoid if I were you. I made a bunch of other connection adapters for it too and planned to use it as my go-to 5v PSU for troubleshooting/testing.

Gee, mister, you sure have a lot of exciting things to say about power supplies. Here I was just using a meter and specs to match everything when I could have simply used an encyclopedic knowledge of cross compatible OEM units.

*shrug* Not saying you gotta memorize it. Just gotta put it out there somewhere for whoever might want to refer to it. Doing my part.

[esteban]

So, call me an idiot, but I still use my ancient ac adapters.

I use the handful of extra TG-16 PSUs for all the loose PCE CD-ROM drives I have strategically placed throughout my house: desk, kitchen, bathtub, shower, etc. 

I listen to audio CDs this way.

I only use one pair of headphones, though, so I plug/unplug at each PCE MUZIK STATION.

[NightWolve]

He had an interesting/fair point about noise and more so if you bypass the original regulator which I had to do for my SNES after it burned out, but if a modern PSU works without any of that, I say upgrade, sooner the better. Not much cost so little to lose.