Hey everyone, I recently acquired an unusual item for the Gamecube off eBay that is completely undocumented at the current moment (nothing on Google search, etc.) and I wanted to get this documented so any collectors and Gamecube enthusiasts will know what to look for. This item is a Gamecube AC adapter that has a white power brick on it and according to the stickers on it, it appears to be capable of 100-240v 50/60hz (instead of 120v 60hz for a USA adapter for example) and was meant for a engineer (not sure what kind of engineer) according to the seller I bought it from (I think I can confirm it as well after using Google Translate). Update: According to TriMesh,the label actually says "AC Adapter for Aging". After doing research about AC Adapters, it appears to be that the white ac adapter should have a switch-mode circuit (which is capable of large v ranges and both hz types) while the regular ac adapter should possess a linear circuit (due to the limitations of v and hz mentioned in the text on the back). The brick and everything else (including opening it it to check the circuitry) about the item looks authentic after comparing it with a regular Gamecube AC adapter. Some interesting observations I made while examining the item and opening it is that the cables leaving the brick are different than the cables found on the regular ac adapter and the screws securing the power brick are different as well (twice as long in the white power brick compared to the regular brick). Here are some pictures of this beauty: Front View. Looking at the details of the image, you can tell that the shells of each power brick share the same texture and clarity for the Gamecube logo. Back view. One has a sticker on the back while the other has a ton of text as part of the shell. Close up view of the sticker/text on the back of each ac adapter for easier reading (click thumbnail to zoom in)! Side view. They look exactly the same, including the texture of the plastic. "AC Adapter for Aging" The circuitry of the white and regular ac adapter. As you can see, they look completely different, but built as the same level of quality (click on the thumbnails for a more zoomed in view). Powering my beautiful Symphonia Green Gamecube with it! - Update: According to TriMesh, this power supply is a full-spec production test unit which is why it has a JQA test identifier and a PSE diamond (we are still unsure if it was a test unit for just the adapter or the actual system). - Update 2: According to Ribshark, these adapters were used for testing consoles at the factory before shipping them out which is really incredible considering how many Gamecubes out there could have been plugged into these adapters before Gamecube manufacturing ceased. Do any of you know anything more about this item by any chance?
I suspect the label is actually "aging" rather than "engineer" - but I'm not sure if that means it was intended for an aging test on the actual power supply or the console. The slightly strange thing is that from the markings (the PSE diamond and the "JQA" test house identifier), it would seem to be a full production spec unit. I just had a look, and the only Japanese GC supplies I have here are built by Mitsumi rather than Hosiden, but they are all marked "AC 100V 50/60Hz" as you would expect. Incidentally, I wouldn't read too much into the fact that the US supply says "120V" - it probably is 120V only, but even if it was capable of a wider voltage range the fact that it has a permanently installed power cord with a NEMA 1-15 plug on it means that you can only label it as 120V since the maximum operating voltage of those plugs is 125V.
I am fairly sure that I have got one of these. I believe they are rated 100-240v for use on any GameCube. Not sure if they where for devs or engineers. I got mine from @tichua when I bought a USA/JAP NPDP reader, maybe he knows more about it?
That is really interesting TriMesh, "aging" definitely seems to be a better match after using Google Translate. Knowing that this item is a full-spec test unit, could it be that Nintendo at some point was looking into making all Gamecube ac adapters essentially region free by using switch-mode circuitry? Also, now that you mention the adapters you have are a different manufacturer compared to the one I have, could it be that different manufacturers were trying to win a bid to be the main ac adapter supplier for the Gamecube (Hosiden vs. Mitsumi) and this happens to be one of those test units for the bid? I did not know that USA Ac adapters are technically capable of 125v maximum, but it does make sense that they would label it under that threshold since I know engineers usually design things above the minimum requirements for safety/liability reasons. That's awesome Logi, can you confirm that you have one because it would be cool if there is more than one of these out there? If you do have one, I'm definitely curious what tichua has to say and how he managed to land the unit that came with the power supply in question. If it is a variant of some sort instead of one like this one, I would love to see a picture of it just for curiosity sake! I updated the thread reflecting the latest finds and added pictures of the circuitry and close-ups of the labeling for easier reading. I also got in touch with the seller I got this item from recently and he said that he acquired it through a ebay auction for a spice orange Gamecube. Which definitely makes the story of how this item slipped out into the public more mysterious because the person who sold him the Gamecube definitely had no idea what they had.
"Aging" is a word often used by Nintendo to refer to pre-shipment tests of their devices. See https://tcrf.net/Aging_Card_NTR and https://gbatemp.net/threads/request-ctraging-3ds-debug-app-research.411704. I would assume that this adapter was simply used to power the console in the factories to perform these tests before they were shipped out.
It's not just Nintendo - it's a standard term in electronics in general. The more common US term is "Soak test", but basically it means running a set of units in normal operating conditions over an extended period of time to see if there are any failure patterns.
That's awesome Logi, good to know that there is more than 1 out there (makes me wonder how many others are out there)! Just like mine, it appears that they these adapter have received a decent bit of wear (scuffs, scratches on the stickers, etc. which are all more apparent on light-colored plastics) which would definitely confirm what RibShark was saying about these being used on every console before shipping (imagine how many Gamecube consoles out there our adapters tested! ). Another interesting observation I notice is that the code etched on the back of the ac adapters are the same, I wonder what the significance of this code is? I am glad we were all able to figure out the use of these adapters, it definitely makes them really interesting pieces of Gamecube history and it definitely makes me wonder how these slipped out into the public back in the day (would equipment like this typically be back in Nintendo's possession and probably destroyed?). Thank you everyone for your help and information on this neat item!
I noticed that myself when I uploaded the image. I originally assumed it was a unique serial number. I was going to mask that number to protect any previous owners until I noticed it was identical to yours. Anyway I am glad that you made this thread because I knew that the PSU was unusual and fairly rare, but other than that I hadn't put much thought into it . It would be interesting to get an idea of how rare these actually are.
I never thought of that before about codes on items of this nature Logi; I'll definitely keep that in mind whenever I post anything for items of unknown/undocumented context. I really appreciate the advice! I am glad to hear that you are glad that I shared this item to the community, I hope that this thread will continue to be available for anyone seeking information about these adapters and be able to make informed decisions for purchases, etc. of these adapters. I also hope that others who have these will be able to find this thread and be able to share with us that another exists so that way we gain a greater sense of scarcity and possibly gain more back story of how these slipped out to the public in the first place. I really do think the coolest thing about this item is that it can be utilized in everyday gaming sessions instead of purely being a collectible (one other Gamecube item that I can think of that would be really cool to own with this sort of characteristic is one of those prototype controllers that you can actually plug into a Gamecube ). EDIT: There appears to be more of these adapters out there, I found a auction listing that appears to have been dead years ago (& it indicates that the seller of the auction had 9 of them! ) which can be found here: https://www.ola.com/auction/1645602/japan-made-nintendo-gamecube-ac-adapter-white (look farther down to see the stock image) I am not sure how legitimate the auction is (particularly the count mentioned), but I thought it was a interesting find especially since the code on the back of the ac adapter shown on the stock image appears to be the same as Logi and I's adapters! What are everyone's thoughts on this interesting find?
I ran into this personally - one product I was working on had a universal power supply board in it, and we marked it as such, only to have the test lab doing the UL approvals reject it because it had a hard-wired power cord with a US spec plug on it. We were basically told we had two choices to get the approval: 1) Replace the permanently connected power cord with a removable one. 2) Change the label to say "120V 60Hz" and ignore the fact it was really a universal supply. It was much simpler to change the label, so that's what we did.
That's really interesting TriMesh, I knew that engineers designed above specifications because one of my siblings is a structural engineer so it's really neat to hear a electrical engineer (or are you another kind of engineer?) perspective on that.
This wasn't really intentional overdesign - it was simply that the customer wanted a single PCBA that could be installed in both the US and the European market units. So we designed it with a universal input power supply and tested it to both the FCC and the EN specs. The net result was that the EU market variant was marked "120V-240V 50/60Hz" and the US one was marked "120V 60Hz", although they both contained exactly the same PCBA. In general, regulatory stuff is pretty annoying, and can end up burning up an alarming amount of design time. I guess I'm an electronics engineer, although I hardly have time to do any actual engineering recently...
