Hi guys, Just wondering if you were to buy a Master System I/II, Mega Drive I/II, Mega CD I/II, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast from a different region (say US, UK, Japan) can you just swap the powerpack like you can with N64 consoles or do you need the step down converters? I'm under the assumption you need the step down converters but I just wanted to check. May sound like a silly question I know. Reason I ask, I bought a UK SMS II and I'm wondering whether to ditch the console over there as I'm in Australia or whether it's worth me bringing it over... if I can't just swap the powerpacks, I'm planning on doing the RCA mod anyway, is there something I can modify there to use an AU powerpack? Kind regards, Paul
Saturn and Dreamcast have internal PSUs, but I think the rest should work just fine. (Possible video issues notwithstanding of course - that's for a different discussion.) Of course you could swap the Sat and DC PSUs too, but you'd need to get donors anyways so you could just as well use those to play.
Dreamcast PSU swap is easy since it's all the same hardware and voltages inside. Saturn is a bit tricky. I have a model that uses 2 voltages inside and another that is single voltage. One is USA and the other is Japanese. Needless to say they have different PSU types with different pins.
Easy, so I can plug in the Aus powerpack and she'll be sweet! (For the Master System that is). I figured the Saturn/Dreamcast wouldn't be possible, but glad to know the earlier stuff works! Thanks guys!
Are you talking about US/Japanese stuff or UK? The UK PAL consoles are designed to work on either 240V or 230V nominal supplies depending on when they were made, and will in any case operate on the Australian 230V mains without any problem. Australia also has the same line frequency (50Hz) as the UK. US or Japanese stuff won't directly work, because they are designed for 120V or 100V respectively, so you will either need to swap the PSU or use a transformer. In general, you can swap power units between different region consoles without problem - but this is only in general, and it's a good idea to ask. One well known example of this is that PAL versions of the SNES used a different (AC output) power supply from the US and Japanese ones (DC output). You also sometimes need to be careful swapping PSUs even between machines of the same type and region - for example some "4-pin" Saturn PSUs have +5V and +3.3V outputs, and others have two +5V outputs. Trying to use the second type in a machine that was designed for the first will put +5V on the (3.3V) SDRAM and probably destroy your motherboard.
Apart from the plug the UK power pack will be the same. Compare the power for Australia and United Kingdom on this list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country These are the plugs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_pow...ustralian_standard_AS.2FNZS_3112_.28Type_I.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#BS_1363_.28Type_G.29
Perfect, thanks so much for the answers guys - massive help. I am planning on picking up a couple NTSC consoles (out of Japan/US) in future - so I will make sure I get converters for those - I'm not too savvy with electronics though personally, a friend is an Electrical Engineer and maybe I could get his help to swap PSU if I want to head that way. I do have a UK Mega CD I console as it is, and this Master System I may keep for the time being then rather than getting rid of it.
