could the power supply overheat?

[prostx23]

Hi,

 

Back in the early 80's there were a number of "old wives tales" regarding the Atari 2600 and home video games in general. One of them was the supposed danger of allowing the power supply to overheat, therefore after 4 or 5 hours of play max, we'd shut the 2600 down for a few hours to ler it cool down. What I's like to know, was this a realistic concern, or a bunch of crap?

 

Mike

[Itchy Koala]

Although it hasn't happened to me yet, I always switch power supplies after 2-3 hours. I have never actually heard of someone's power supply overheating though.

 

Better safe than sorry though.

[SlowCoder]

I doubt it. I believe they have overheat cutoffs built in to keep them from burning your house down in the middle of your game of Pitfall.

 

Besides I don't think the 2600 draws enough power to cause a properly working wart to overheat.

[A.J. Franzman]

I believe they have overheat cutoffs built in to keep them from burning your house down in the middle of your game of Pitfall.

 

Besides I don't think the 2600 draws enough power to cause a properly working wart to overheat.

They do have a thermal fuse underneath the transformer windings, but once it blows, the wall wart is considered not repairable. I have in fact repaired several Atari VCS adapters, but if the primary transformer winding reads open, I replace the transformer (stripping and rewinding a transformer is possible but extremely time-consuming unless you have special equipment to do it, which I don't). Most of my wall wart repairs have been fixing wire breaks and replacing bad capacitors or diodes.

 

If your power supply is not in a hot or unventilated space, it should be fine for however long you want to play. The official electrician's definition of "continuous duty" (as opposed to "intermittent duty") in the U.S. is 3 hours or more non-stop. So if it works for over 3 hours without problems (i.e. doesn't smoke or smell like it's burning, and is not painfully hot to touch), it should be good for as long as you want.

[seanhq]

I've noticed that original 2600 power supplies to run pretty warm. I typically use an after market power supply (Radio Shack) when I want to play for extended periods. It never seems to get hot, at least to the touch.

[Coleco Gemini]

Who has 3 hours to play? LOL! I had a sega genesis one smoke on me one time!