Will I hurt my X'Eye?

[candiru]

My X'Eye that I bought some time ago without a power supply turns out to have been fully functional all along. It calls for 9.5 volts but all the Universal A/C adapters I found skip from 9 to 12, and I had always been worried about plugging in a 10 V Genesis adapter.

 

Anyways the system powered up and played cartridges fine with 9 volts but the CD part wouldn't work and it gave me the error message that the lid wasn't closed or there was no disc inserted. Well I bought a Genesis figuring I'd retire the X'Eye and just for the hell of it plugged in the Genny's power supply. I was very pleasantly surprised to find the CD player functioning.

 

I guess 9 wasn't quite enough, and 10 doesn't seem to be doing it any harm--although if someone with more electrical smarts thinks otherwise I'd be greatful for any input. Anybody have any idea just how different the X'Eye vs. Genesis are constructed?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

The first model Genesis only needed 9v as well. However, the actual power supply was rated to put out 10v under load at 1amp. So I would say that if it didn't blow up when you first tried it, your probably okay. I am sure the X'eye as the Genesis and even the atari VCS before them, have a step down regulator that takes that voltage and knocks it down to what it really needs to be. At most your just building up a little extra heat for the regulator to worry about. I really don't know for sure, but I don't think it will be a problem using that 10v supply.

 

Enjoy!

 

[eric_ruck]

Just be sure not to poke a sharp X'Stick in it.

 

Sorry.

[christianscott27]

had the same issue a while back when i found my x-eye with out the plug, now theres more to it than just making it run i found out. this went on forever with me learning the math behind voltage and amps, some of the posters at dp helped me figure it out...long story, hard to search forums but the end result was- the genny ps overtaxes the machine and makes it wear out from being underpowered, feel the ps and see if its getting warm, if it is bad sign. the one ps i found that does meet the specs is the plug for a PS-1 (the baby playstation). i know the numbers dont look right but once you understand the math it makes sense...try it out.

[candiru]

Thanks for the responses guys. Except you, Eric j/k

 

Christian, just so I get it straight, and bear with me since I'm a novice at all of this--Even the 10v Genesis power supply ends up underpowering the X'Eye?

 

Maybe I'll do a little digging at DP and see if I can find any of those threads you mentioned. Thanks for the PS-1 tip, I'll be on the lookout for one.

[christianscott27]

ok actually it wasnt that hard to find after all

 

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic....supply&start=25

 

so heres the deal, much greater detail is contained in the thread, you gotta understand the formula that volts times amps equals watts (total power). you can see i learned a lot in that thread thats why although the genny looks right by volts its not in terms of true output. in a nutshell the x-eye needs more power because it has to power the CD drive as well and thus it strains on the meager genny amount which can kill it overtime. so based on that i arrived at my ps-1 sub as detailed below

 

to review the JVC x-eye requires

X'eye PS: 9.5V at 1.5A

9.5v * 1.5a = 14.25 Watts

small coaxial tip, center +

 

my sub is the power supply from a PS1 (the portable)

7.5V at 2A

7.5v * 2a =15 watts

small coaxial tip, center +

 

in most cases its better to have too much power than not enough, so use that formula to find your own sub. perhaps something else with a CD motor in it...

[Ze_ro]

In most cases, the voltage of a power adaptor has very little to do with the amount of power it can provide. The current rating (amps) is usually a bigger issue.

 

Power adaptors always output their rated voltage no matter what, but the amount of current that is drawn from them is a variable. Whatever the load (in this case, a game system) needs, it draws. The rated value on the power supply is what the designers think is the maximum it can provide, so if a device tries to draw more current, it might not be able to provide it, or it might even damage the power supply itself. Drawing less current than it's rated for should never be a problem at all.

 

Usually, electronics are designed with quite a bit of leeway (For example, they might have just designed the Genesis power supply without testing it's limits, and just said that whatever the Genesis draws from it was it's current rating)... so you can often use a power supply beyond it's current rating without any trouble. If your device is drawing far too much current for the power supply to provide, it will likely burn out the power supply itself. When this happens, the internal damage to the power supply might cause unexpected things to happen (for example, if the transformer burns out, it could change the output voltage... or it could end up pumping too much power into the device (remember, this thing is hooked up to a wall socket, so the power supply has 120v, 16A worth of power at it's disposal). The most likely situation though, is an open circuit in the power supply, which just means the supply will be damaged, your system will not be damaged, but will shut off.

 

Most game systems are also fairly flexible with voltage ranges. Almost every system has a circuit inside it that steps down the voltage to around 5v or so, since most semiconductors use 5v logic (But systems with CD roms may need higher voltages for lasers and motors). Providing more than the suggested voltage usually isn't a problem... the circuit will still drop the voltage to 5v, but may run a little hotter. If the voltage is excessively high, you may burnout the step-down circuit, which may cause further damage. Providing less than the suggested voltage may or may not be a problem. The electricity that comes out of your wall sockets is considered "dirty", since it fluctuates quite a bit. The whole point of the step-down circuit is to make sure that you're always getting the right amount of power... even though the power supply is said to provide 9v, slight fluctuations may cause this to fall to 8v momentarily. However, the chances of a 9v supply dropping below 5v is remote. If you instead used a 7.5v supply, the possibility of it dropping below 5v is much greater, causing a "brown out" of sorts. It shouldn't damage the system, but the system will probably crash, lock up, reset or something. The only damage I can imagine coming from this case would be possibly erasing saved data on cartridges that save your game.

 

I'd say you could probably provide a system with 1 or 2 volts more than it wants with no significant problems (You're better off providing a higher voltage than a lower voltage... but going 1 volt lower shouldn't be a problem depending on how reliable the power is in your area), and you could probably tax a power supply for an extra 300mA (or 25%, which ever comes first) of current beyond it's rating without issues. Don't consider these to be hard and fast rules though... these are just estimates. If you burn out a power supply, or burn down your house because of this advice, then well... sorry . Remember that before anything burns out, it will get very hot... so if you're worried about something, keep an eye (hand?) on how hot it's getting, and if you think it's too much, then disconnect it.

 

I would imagine that an X'Eye would probably draw as much current as both the Genesis and SegaCD combined (I don't know how much current a SegaCD draws, but I imagine it's probably even more than a Genesis alone)

 

--Zero

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Well..had I knows that the Xeye needed 1.5amps..I wouldn't have advised using the Genny 1 ps. That only outputs at 1amp. So your right..the voltage is enough..but the PS can't realy provide it in the manner it really needs under a real load.

 

Had I known the Xeye needed that .5amp I wouldn't have advised using the Genny 1 supply.

 

Same for those who like to use 2600 PS in converted 7800 power mods. The 7800 requires about 700+MA to operate hence why the Atari made 7800 supplies have a 1amp rating on them. If you use a 2600 supply with a 7800 it may be okay for 2600 games...but you kick that Maria in for 7800 games..and the amperage requirements increase to the point of me almost toasting a "Grey" heavy sixer supply in a test. The power supply was actually humming load enough for me to hear it in another room!!

Luckly I didn't totally kill it..but I aged it a bit more I suspect.

 

[Lost Monkey]

Anyways the system powered up and played cartridges fine with 9 volts but the CD part wouldn't work and it gave me the error message that the lid wasn't closed or there was no disc inserted.  

 

Once you have a satisfactory P/S, if you are still getting the error messages, it may be that the CD lid switch isn't resting in place properly either... If the X-Eye has been taken apart or has been "jarred", the sensor for the lid may be out of place. It takes a bit of playing to get it in the right position when you are putting the cover on the X-Eye - I don't know why they used such a small switch...

[candiru]

Many thanks for the crash course guys. I found that the Sega CDX use the same power supply specs as the X'Eye but I definitely don't hold out much hope of finding one of those either. Looks like I've got some scrounging and tip splicing to do, especially if I ever want to play any of the 32X cd games.

 

Once again, many thanks.

[Inky]

You'll shoot your XEye out, kid!