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New power supplies for the ColecoVision?


PkK

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Heads up, I got notice from Console5 that once these are released, Console5 will be a source for US sales to get these. No ETA on when they will have them, but they did PM me about it to let me know.

:thumbsup:

 

https://console5.com/store/colecoplug-usb-power-supply-for-the-colecovision.html/

 

 

 

post-18-0-10773600-1539485545_thumb.png

 

 

 

I'm sure the current $0.01 list price will change after the product is in stock. :-D

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I just ordered one as well but, alas, it may ultimately prove to be somewhat useless (to me that is) if the ColecoVision Phoenix Kickstarter funds (I am on that list too) http://kck.st/2ynKCVn

 

I'm thinking it may be the answer to powering the roller controller, since the Phoenix won't have an AC connection for it, but the plug will still fit the Roller Controller, but I'm wondering if the Roller Controller cord end would need some kind of blanking plug on the side with the metal plug tines. Maybe you could just plug one into each side of the cord end.

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Okay, CE/FCC tests have been done today and the adapter passed :D

 

So it's time to prepare the production (finally :D)

 

Just a quick question:

Do you think an Indiegogo / Kickstarter would be good (gives a better coverage) or should I just setup a preorder myself and start the production?

I am glad you now have this USB ColecoVision power converter on your website with a possible release date as early as December 2018.

 

Since in a prior post you mentioned that this ColecoVision USB power converter passed safety certification for Europe (CE) and also received passing results for FCC certification, you might want to list the CE and FCC logo with certification numbers on your website. Mentioning CE and FCC safety certification well most likely increase the amount of people that well pre-order this product.

 

I see people quoting a final delivery price of around $42 for this USB power converter, then if one purchases a high quality USB UL listed power adapter for $10, this would place the total cost around $52 or $55. Around $55 is fine since going with a PC power supply converted to the ColecoVision would have most likely have cost $100-$120. I like the size of the pictures of your USB power converter. What type of warranty are you offering on the USB power converter?

Edited by HDTV1080P
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  • 2 months later...

Well I just received my ColUSB in the mail today and immediately tried it out with a SAMSUNG power supply. No luck... it did not work at all. I tried a couple different Type C cables and USB power supplies but each time it appeared as if something was turned on but the screen was still all scrambled. Then I tried a USB charging port that specifically has a 2.4A charging port and BOOM... it finally worked! The colors are now all there on the games where the old power supply had many color and video glitches. Not sure why a standard SAMSUNG USB Power Supply doesn't send enough power but at least I don't have to wait for a new one. I'll keep trying different plugs until I find one that works instead of using the multi-port charging base.

 

EDIT: Just tried with the Power Supply that came with my Galaxy S9 and it works too! Problem solved. I think the old one may have been from an S5.

Edited by malarrya
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Just got my ColUSB in the mail the other day as well, looking forward to using it! I did a quick unboxing at the beginning of my Twitch stream yesterday.

 

TIMESTAMPED LINK: https://youtu.be/qEob-gg1gow?t=508

 

SKIP TO 8:28 TO WATCH:

 

 

Well I just received my ColUSB in the mail today

 

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If the screen is scrambled, the power supply either doesn't provide enough voltage (5V are needed) or power (at least 2A).

Will a 5V 3A work any better than a 5V 2.4A PS? Is there a limit that should not be exceeded? I ask this because I still have occasional image/color glitches with the SAMSUNG S9 charger and there are 5V 3A chargers available on Amazon.

BTW, thanks for creating this amazing little product and all your help.

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There is no "too much" when it comes to A :)

2A on a power supply simply means that it can provide a MAX of 2A.

If a device only needs 1A, then that is fine, but if it needs 3A, it wont be enough and the voltage drops down.

 

So yes, the higher the better.

 

The Colecovision has graphical issues if the voltage drops below 4.7V.

Thats the reason it can glitch if the power switch oxidates: it adds resistance and therefore lowers the voltage.

 

Now, most USB power supplies provide 5V. Some even provide 5.2 or 5.3V, which is good.

Why? Well, the first voltage drop is the cable.

The cheaper cables have a high inner resistor (1 Ohm or higher per Meter).

Which means: Voltage can drop by 0.3V already, when its running with 2A.

Use a 2m cable and it already drops by 0.6V.

 

The adaptor tries to compensate it as good as possible, but at one point the loss is too high.

 

So, for best results:

 

1. The power supply should provide a stable 5V at 2A (some already drop the voltage when being used with 2A)

2. The cable should have as little inner resistor as possible. And the shorter, the better.

3. Of course, contacts and power switch of the Coleco should be clean, otherwise the voltage drops even more.

 

If you have a bunch of cables and power supplies at home, test and mix them.You might find the best combination :)

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This really needs a sticky, because, if like myself, you have a PSU that died or didn't come with your ebay purchase then you are totally screwed.

 

My only option, for now, is to either buy a 74942 Canadian brick PSU and a Step-down converter. Problems then arise such as costs for both the PSU, shipping, and step-down converter. And, the risk of the converter burning out due to heat from only short usage.

 

Or, build a internal modded PSU. I lack soldering and electronic skills so that is out of the question.

 

What were Coleco thinking ? The Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Intellivision, NES, etc.. all had pretty-much standard PSUs which could be replaced with modern equivalents. The TI-99/4a, is another machine with the stupid same connector as the Colecovision, but is also completely different regarding volts and amps. I ended up buying 3 of the things just to get a working TI with a PSU. So now I have 3 TI's with one PSU.

The Colecovision is probably the worst built game system ever. If they could save a penny in production, they did it.

 

While it is only a guess, I am guessing they had some cheap chips that used weird voltages (IIRC, the video RAM uses 9V)

 

I was having endless problems until I put a new power switch in it. I have no idea why these switches are so bad. The 2600 use the same exact type of switches.

A couple of years ago I removed the switch, took it apart and cleaned it thoroughly and within a few days the graphics glitches came back. Even when it was working, the screen was never good and was always fuzzy. After I replaced that goofy switch with a single switch double throw switch from radio-shack, it was fine. It's a shame you can't get them anymore with radioshack being gone.

 

Transformers pretty much never go, though. There are radios from the 30s and 40s whose transformers are still fine despite many thousands of hours of use. Everything else in that power brick should be just standard stuff you can order from mouser.

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Will a 5V 3A work any better than a 5V 2.4A PS? Is there a limit that should not be exceeded? I ask this because I still have occasional image/color glitches with the SAMSUNG S9 charger and there are 5V 3A chargers available on Amazon.

BTW, thanks for creating this amazing little product and all your help.

 

I don't know exactly how these usb power supplies work, but if it says 2.4A and it has two USB ports, is that a 1.2A limit on each port or can it handle 2.4A through a single port with one USB device plugged in (or 1.5A for each port at 3A)? So, I ended up getting this single port 2.4A (Seems good, so hopefully it is a good enough brand my house won't burn down).

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KWY703I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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The Colecovision is probably the worst built game system ever. If they could save a penny in production, they did it.

 

While it is only a guess, I am guessing they had some cheap chips that used weird voltages (IIRC, the video RAM uses 9V)

 

I was having endless problems until I put a new power switch in it. I have no idea why these switches are so bad. The 2600 use the same exact type of switches.

A couple of years ago I removed the switch, took it apart and cleaned it thoroughly and within a few days the graphics glitches came back. Even when it was working, the screen was never good and was always fuzzy. After I replaced that goofy switch with a single switch double throw switch from radio-shack, it was fine. It's a shame you can't get them anymore with radioshack being gone.

 

Transformers pretty much never go, though. There are radios from the 30s and 40s whose transformers are still fine despite many thousands of hours of use. Everything else in that power brick should be just standard stuff you can order from mouser.

 

Sorry, but I have to call this out for the bullshit that it is. Just because you have had issues with ColecoVision consoles that you have been unable to reliably fix does not provide factual evidence that it was the "worst built game system ever". The ColecoVision that I bought way back in July 1983 still works flawlessly. Does this mean that I think that the ColecoVision is the best built game system ever? No it doesn't. I'm sure it wasn't the best built, but it most certainly is far from being the worst built. It's two weaknesses are the power switch and the video ram going bad. But, what do you expect from consoles that were made 35 years ago with a design life much less than that?

 

With regard to the power switch, of the two switches that I have had a need to refurbish they have worked perfectly ever since (5+ years later). You also comment that the switches are goofy - well they are of the same design as those used in the Intellivision and I suspect many other devices.

 

And no, you do not remember correctly, the 4116 video ram chips require three voltages, +5V, -5V and +12V. The 4116 was also used in TI 99/4A computers and some Williams arcade PCB's like - Defender, Joust, Robotron. So, Coleco's choice to use these chips was not some crazy ultra low cost precedent.

 

BTW - transformers do fail. Just ask anyone in the Commodore 64 community who fried their computer with old Commodore power supplies! Fortunately, the failure mode of the ColecoVision brick isn't so deadly - and many ColecoVision power supplies have failed in more recent years.

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The Colecovision is probably the worst built game system ever. If they could save a penny in production, they did it.

 

While it is only a guess, I am guessing they had some cheap chips that used weird voltages (IIRC, the video RAM uses 9V)

 

I was having endless problems until I put a new power switch in it. I have no idea why these switches are so bad. The 2600 use the same exact type of switches.

A couple of years ago I removed the switch, took it apart and cleaned it thoroughly and within a few days the graphics glitches came back. Even when it was working, the screen was never good and was always fuzzy. After I replaced that goofy switch with a single switch double throw switch from radio-shack, it was fine. It's a shame you can't get them anymore with radioshack being gone.

 

Transformers pretty much never go, though. There are radios from the 30s and 40s whose transformers are still fine despite many thousands of hours of use. Everything else in that power brick should be just standard stuff you can order from mouser.

You're talking about 30 plus year old equipment. The fact that it even turns on is a win :)

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Sorry, but I have to call this out for the bullshit that it is. Just because you have had issues with ColecoVision consoles that you have been unable to reliably fix does not provide factual evidence that it was the "worst built game system ever". The ColecoVision that I bought way back in July 1983 still works flawlessly. Does this mean that I think that the ColecoVision is the best built game system ever? No it doesn't. I'm sure it wasn't the best built, but it most certainly is far from being the worst built. It's two weaknesses are the power switch and the video ram going bad. But, what do you expect from consoles that were made 35 years ago with a design life much less than that?

 

With regard to the power switch, of the two switches that I have had a need to refurbish they have worked perfectly ever since (5+ years later). You also comment that the switches are goofy - well they are of the same design as those used in the Intellivision and I suspect many other devices.

 

And no, you do not remember correctly, the 4116 video ram chips require three voltages, +5V, -5V and +12V. The 4116 was also used in TI 99/4A computers and some Williams arcade PCB's like - Defender, Joust, Robotron. So, Coleco's choice to use these chips was not some crazy ultra low cost precedent.

 

BTW - transformers do fail. Just ask anyone in the Commodore 64 community who fried their computer with old Commodore power supplies! Fortunately, the failure mode of the ColecoVision brick isn't so deadly - and many ColecoVision power supplies have failed in more recent years.

 

I've had my Colecovision since the early-mid 90s (94, I think) and these switches were a problem even then, when they were much newer. That switch is a very cheap design. I sprayed mine down with contact cleaner in the 90s and it helped for a while. In the early 2000s, I took it out and gave it a good cleaning and that worked for a few years, then I did it again and it did not help. At first, I though maybe the brick was weak, but it was measuring fine. I even replaced the 2 little springs in the switch and it still didn't work. So I replaced the switch with a proper switch and it has worked fine since.

 

Coleco was known, even outside of the electronics business to be a poor manufacturer with cheaply made products. Poor quality killed the Adam computer. There was probably other reasons, but poor quality was a major reason.

 

4116 is not a specific chip. It simply denotes that the chip is 1 bit wide 16k. I'm sure price played a role. But honestly, it's all guess work.

 

Obviously transformers do sometimes fail, but it really isn't that common.

 

I'm sure there were cheaper ones, but not the major ones. The controllers are very well made, I must say. WAY better than Intellivision or the later 2600 sticks.

 

I wish Atari would have stuck with their initial controller design. In all of my years of collecting I have only ever come across one or two. I still have one and it is so much easier on my hands. What sucks is that they look exactly like the ones everyone is familiar with. But they have so much more movement as does the fire button. It makes all the difference, at least for me.

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