Voltage levels used in Sega Genesis?

I have a question that has been pondering my mind for some time now. You see, the Sega Genesis requires a 9-10 volt DC power supply to run properly. I have found that it seems to run through regulators to cut that down to 5 volts. I have a model 2 that runs just fine with a PSOne 7.5 volt supply.

My question is this: Does anything in the Genesis even use the 9-10 volt input or is it all stepped down to 5 volt before getting used?

If it all gets stepped down, then I know a way to reduce the power consumption greatly. Those old style regulators waste a lot of the juice as heat and would like to ditch them to save some wattage and keep things cooler. I could even go with switching regulators if the consoles need that 9-10 volts for something. No more heat issues that way.

 

Except that introduces a shitload of video interference.

 

It does? Then I hope it doesn't need the 10 volt and will work on 5 only once regulators are gone.

 

This.

If you would like to do so, you would have to replace the internal "most probably used" 7805 linear voltage regulator through a 5V switching regulator, else it would habe absoltely no effect on the power consumption.

 

Yes, I've used a few different types of switch-mode drop-in replacements for the 7805 and all of them introduced a noticeable amount of video interference. One way to reduce it is to place a large inductor in series with your voltage output, but it doesn't completely eliminate it.

If you want to reduce heat, you could try swapping out the original heat sink with a larger one and use a good thermal compound like Arctic Silver.

 

Tiido over at Sega-16 once recommended a part number for a replacement regulator for the genesis. I omitted to write it down

Wonder if it was a switching.

 

I believe it was an LM2676, which is a switching regulator. He mentioned wiring it up with an inductor as he also had interference issues, and even then he kept a 7805 in his Mega Drive II for the video and audio circuitry.

 

Ok, I think he mentioned it as a reply to someone looking to run a 32x or something with the same power supply. That is annoying that this convenient solution would be plagued by noise induction