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I was curious if anyone has any suggestions about what to use for power distribution for retro game setups at home. I have the consoles listed below and have plans to add additional ones. But I can't plug in all of the power supplies at once, especially when you account for the receiver, scalers, tv, etc. Does anyone have a solution they use for this type of thing?

 

  1. 3DO
  2. Jaguar
  3. Atari 2600
  4. Dreamcast
  5. Saturn
  6. Genesis / Sega CD / 32x
  7. NES
  8. SNES
  9. Laserdisc Player
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I would think twice before attempting to plug in everything at once. Every wall-wart you plug in draws a small amount of power, and generates a little bit of heat. It would be a pain to replace any of these power supplies if they were blown out. You can daisy chain power strips, but I would turn off anything that isn't actively being used. Power "squids" are a nice way to spread out the big bricks.

 

Unless you are putting on a multiscreen multimedia exhibit, I doubt you'll ever run more than one of these at the same time.

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You are right. I'll never have more than one console on at once. I'm just looking to avoid having to unplug one thing in order to plug in another thing. I know daisy chaining power strips is technically a fire hazard.

 

I was hoping for some kind of a power conditioner that had space to plug in a ton of those large AC adapters or some other similar method.

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If the bricks are your issue, then buy a roll of electric wire, male and females plugs, and make yourself power cord extensions. Label the system on the plug, and instead of unplugging the power brick, you have ungrounded flat plugs to unplug.

For the Genny triple combo, here we have "triplets" that your could conenct the 3 blocks onto then use a power cord.

 

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Multiple power strips, labeled by which one does one. If I wanted to play NES, I look for the strip that has NES on the list and turn that one on. Only a few adapters are on at once and only when I am playing.

 

With all I got, I figure I'd waste easily in the range of 2 amps if I left everything plugged in and turned on. Only my TV, BD player, and component switch box are always powered on.

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I bought a 12 outlet power strip from harborfreight but can not find it listed on the website anymore. I found this one on amazon and its very similar to the ones I have

 

https://www.amazon.com/Outlet-Metal-Power-Strip-Beige/dp/B00AJZPRIQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=atariage&linkId=63b37546075b1fa57f3ef233514caaf8

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If you have some skills, you can also buy a mater of electrical wall thing a a bunch of electrical socked, and a power switch to control all of it, like this :

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Of course you don't have to fix it on the wall, and you just wire it with a standard plug.

Edited by CatPix
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  • 4 months later...

I bought a 12 outlet power strip from harborfreight but can not find it listed on the website anymore. I found this one on amazon and its very similar to the ones I have

 

https://www.amazon.com/Outlet-Metal-Power-Strip-Beige/dp/B00AJZPRIQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=atariage&linkId=63b37546075b1fa57f3ef233514caaf8

 

This right here is the way to go. The outlets are spaced far enough apart they can fit pretty much any power brick I've ever seen (snes, genesis etc..) without blocking the outlets next to it. There's a bunch of these out there, but make sure you buy one with the outlets mounted perpendicular to the strip. There are some that have the outlets oriented inline, that won't do you any good.

 

This is a 12 outlet unit with basic surge protection. I decided the easiest way to get at everything would be to bolt it to the back of the entertainment center at the very top. I mainly just use it for the consoles/upscaler. I just leave it off until I want to use one of the consoles. The tv, speakers, cable box etc... normally used stuff is plugged up to a normal power strip on the floor.

 

There's really no need to unplug everything. As long as you are only turning on what you are actually using, the other stuff in standby is going to draw nowhere near 15 amps. I did this quite a while ago, no fires yet. Not that I'm expecting there would be.

 

post-45470-0-62400900-1473528879_thumb.jpg

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I agree with what a few others have said: get some surge protectors with their own power switches, label them so you'll know which systems are on which protectors, and leave them all switched off until you're ready to play.

 

Since you have so many systems set up at once, you might group two or three of them together on a single strip. These APC power strips are the ones that I use; they're good quality and are relatively inexpensive. For wide and heavy "wall wart" transformers, I use short extension cables like these; they not only make it easier to plug the transformers into crowded sockets, but they also allow you to turn the transformers over on their backs and rest them on the floor, so the outlet or surge protector doesn't have to support their weight.

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I have some older power strips that are made exclusively for power bricks and will hold 8. I also have some cords to let you plug bricks into standard power strips that are basically one foot extension cords. Ive seen extension cords that come out to several plugs both attached and individual.

 

None of its cheap but its worth it for convenience.

 

Look at your local store, but look in atypical places. I found the 'squid' extension cords in automotive sections and the 'many brick' power bars in hardware, whichs is weird cause I cant think of a single tool that uses a power brick. I actually did find the stubby extension cord in electronics but not till they hit bargain bins for a buck, marked down from five apparently from an original price of ten. Yeah it was really going to sell at ten or five for that matter.

 

Heck I still daisy chain power bars though. The MYTH that that is a fire hazard is just that. Excessive power is what could cause a fire, not the length of cord or how many are daisy chained together. The problems occur when someone has a rats nest to power a coffee pot, microwave, toaster and oven all at once. Any one of which will use more power than your Tv and every game console running at once likely will. Any two of which shouldn't be run on the same circuit (outlet) at once. But rather than blame the morron who burned his house down trying to run 4500 watts through a 15 amp breaker (about 37 amps if you wanted to know) it's. Easier to blame the power bars and granny cords. Lord forbid if the use of common sense was suggested.

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^^ that. Some of the power strips can top out at 10A or 15A (and do observe the limit on outlet, typical USA household outlet are only 15A) Most AC adapters and consoles that aren't on may draw a few mA so in theory having 20 or 30 systems all connected to single outlet via rat nest of power strips and stuff are fine provided you don't have more than 1 console on at a time. And the benefit of using switched power strips is to cut off vampire power when you're not playing anything.

 

I have multiple power strips and each one has a list of consoles it's connected to so I could turn on only what I want to play.

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I use a slightly less efficient system but it still kills most of the vampire power issues I would normally have. I have a monster brand Smart power at the heart of everything. This power strip if you will, only provides power to most of the other outlets when a certain device plugged into the Master outlet is actually powered on. Say a TV or the receiver as an example.

 

I have anywhere from 12 to 15 devices all plugged in at once. Obviously they don't all fit on this one master surge strip. So the satellite outlets that only get power when the master device is powered on, is where I have other surge strips plugged in. From these I have all the consoles, TV, Receiver, my AV switcher and upscaler all plugged in essentially to 1 single outlet behind the game console display.

 

Works like this. I power on the receiver (Required as it is also the HDMI switcher and powers the sound system). This turns on the rest of the outlets on the same surge strip. At this point everything plugged in is now in instant standby mode and can be powered on as normal. I then power on the TV and whatever game console I want to play.

 

I love these smart surge protectors and have them in use pretty much everywhere in the house. They definitely work because with three large screen TVs, all the game systems and everything else a techy guy and his wife would have... plus two outdoor full size AC units, lights, fridge...etc.

 

My highest electric bill this summer here in Oklahoma was just under $160 for the month. That might sound expensive. But not for a house this large. In the winter time my electric bill is usually right at 50 - 55 a month. According to the electric companies records, I have some of the lowest electric bills in my entire neighborhood. LED bulbs and smart surge protectors for the win.

Edited by -^Cro§Bow^-
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Does Power Still go though the Power Strip even when it's off?

most power strips have a physical switch that kills everything online.

 

You can get a smart power bar that has one outlet that is always on and shuts down the rest of the bar when its slot one powers down. In theory. I've. Never tested it to see if it kills all the vampires sucking away on it or not but sounds like a nice idea.

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most power strips have a physical switch that kills everything online.

 

You can get a smart power bar that has one outlet that is always on and shuts down the rest of the bar when its slot one powers down. In theory. I've. Never tested it to see if it kills all the vampires sucking away on it or not but sounds like a nice idea.

 

This is what I use throughout the whole system. With a smart strip at the beginning of it all. From there I use a large 10 outlet strip that was used on server racks and have a few other smaller strips off this. They are all turned on, but do NOT receive power until the main device is powered on first. So the smart strip is always on power, but the other outlets are electrically cut off until whatever plugged into the master is powered on. Then it turns on the power to the other outlets. In my case I used to use my TV as the master device so the TV was always in standby when not in use but that draws very little wattage. But I had to switch to my receiver when the newer TV had a habit of tricking the power strip back to off status when the TV switches video modes. (The screen goes completely dark as it switches resolutions, and the sudden drop in power from the TV doing this was causing the smart strip to think it was being powered off, killing power to the rest of the system downline.)

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