Happy to see channel back in Action again. You picked a good topic since importing computers is such a big thing. 3000 watts is a beastly step up transformer. Look forward to your future videos.
Thank you! 3000 sounds over the top, but I have to say that I can run a computer and a CRT and it doesn't even hum any more than it does without any load. That thing is great. I'd buy it again on a heartbeat.
Welcome back! As someone who moved from the UK to the US, this was very interesting. I brought my PC with me (this was in 2008) and switched it to 115V, everything worked fine...for about 3 months. Then the power supply died. Like you, I think 6 weeks in a container ship hold did a number on the electronics. If anyone else is thinking of shipping any electronic equipment when they move abroad, they should consider this possibility. In the end, I totally sidestepped all of these by getting a MiSTer! Looking forward to more videos from you, Noel! ¡Hola desde California!
@Noel's Retro Lab - A note on that 3000 watt transformer: most residential circuits in the US are generally set up to deliver no more than 1800 watts before you'll trip the breaker. You'll probably never pull that much, but it's worth knowing. If you have a higher wattage circuit, the plugs should have a T-shaped slot where the right-hand blade of the plug would go in. There's a second kind of north american plug where the right-hand blade is turned 90 degrees, and it's for devices that can pull more than that. I think those allow up to 2400W, not sure. I don't know if your transformer has that kind of plug, but it should, so maybe you already know about this.
I use a retro tink on my commodore 64 with a 4k monitor. I think the video output looks more or less exactly like I remember it. Really high quality. Lesser quality upscalers might not output as good. So that's my preferred option. And unlike a CRT it's not loud and obnoxious. CRTs gave me headaches even if I couldn't hear them.
great to have you up and running in your new home. You are one of the best retro computer channels, and I always learn something from you. I have no idea how you only have ~40K subs.. you deserve way way more
In the mid 80s, I moved from the US to France. I had to get my Atari 400 to work so I had a transformer that had to change the frequency. It was a big mess.
One thing to bear in mind: the AC frequency is very important when there is motors involved, like in your CPC 464 with the tape deck integrated. The tape deck uses a step motor to run the cassettes so be careful to use it with a power source that outputs the correct frecuency or you could damage the step motor. Hope to see more of your videos soon. By the way: your lab is looking awesome! Saludos desde Argentina.
Good point. In the case of the 464 all the power it uses is already DC, so there's no problem there, but maybe some standalone tape deck might have that problem. Gracias! 😃
Step motors by definition don't use mains frequency, but instead move at an artificial frequency of one pulse per step, thus allowing the computer to move it an exact number of steps. The head positioning on floppy drives was often a step motor that dud one step per track, so if a program needed to step forward 10 tracks, it would end up stepping the motor 10 times. Motors that run full speed all the time like fans, tape pulling or disk spinning may be mains AC or normal DC depending on whatever the original designer had laying around.
Just a note of caution, if your packages were not hermetically sealed during shipping, they probably got a lot of salt-walter contamination and start to rust soon, so if possible, give them a good clean inside and out to get rid of the salt residue..
If you're lucky enough to have a Sony PVM (or more than one, admittedly I spent "too much" on some when they were still cheap) they can also help in terms of having a PAL and NTSC CRT. That said, if you have the lovely combination of good vision and migraines like I do, 50hz on a PVM might be more than a little uncomfortable. It's nice to have a display that plays nicely with my PAL SuperVision TV link, but I can only handle a 50hz CRT for a few minutes at best @_@
Yes, I'm looking for a Sony PVM for that same reason. They seem to be rare and expensive, so I don't have my hopes up, but I have alerts on Craigslist for that reason :-)
Let's not forget before we get too excited, a US 120V outlet standard in most homes is 15A RMS and some 20A RMS which could produce 2400 VA max or 1800 VA max for 15A. Not sure where the power supply manufacturer went to school.
Very true. I suppose they're claiming it can handle 3000W, but yeah, I'll never be able to feed that many, even on a 20A circuit. It should be able to handle anything I throw at it easily though.
Your transformer has one little problem, it doesn't provde grounding for European plugs. To improve the safety, I would suggest to replace one of the sockets with a proper EU socket with grounding contacts.
Oh! Very good point! I didn't think of that. I should open it up and see what's going on in there and how to change the plugs. Could even be a short video. Thanks!
Interesting. The hardest computer to convert to USA is the Acorn Electron in my opinion, as for the Spectrum, just use a US Atari Jaguar or Sega Genesis PSU.
Interestingly enough, I have a PSU for the Acorn that I think came from some laptop, and I can unplug the mains cord and plug in a US one and it'll work just fine. But yes, I guess you need to find that modern replacement first.
Very nice video and I am looking forward to your next videos and to RL becoming a full time adventure! May I add a couple of notes/warnings? 1. Steer away from Aliexpress/Ebay etc when it comes to power supplies. Yes they are cheaper but sometimes they are dangerous! A proper electronic shop will sell products which must adhere to the local/national/international regulations and will give you peace of mind 2. on your transformer, if those Schuko sockets are like the ones I have on a power extension I have, you can plug your device with the plug rotated around 45 degrees, basically plugging into earth and one of the pins (either live or neutral). I guess your RCD will trip if that happens, but just wanted to mention that. Looking forward to your next videos!
When buying a transformer make sure you do not use ebay/amazon but online websites like digikey - my 110v Japanese MSX2+ works perfectly on the 122v here in Cali. My European Philips NMS8220 (MSX2) works great with a high quality transformer (used by a game studio to develop on PAL Playstations) I never experienced problems with 50/60hz but I never ran a monitor so I can't talk if they are finicky about the frequency - Great video as usual :)
Note that it's NOT a 3000 watt transformer, the rating is 3000 *VA* - transformer ratings are based on when the magnetic core sature and that's based on the VA rather than watt - once the core satures internal heat output start to rise and at some point beyond this it can enter a heat feedback loop (the heat increase wire resistance which increase heat which...). So the powerfactor (PF) of what you connect matters a lot, modern large PSUs are all powerfactor corrected to 0.95+ so it doesn't matter much for those, but small wall-warts won't be PF corrected, I'd guess their PF is probably around 0.5 which means it can "only" provide 1500W based on the transformer rating. If you tried to use it for an inductive motor it would hit the VA limit way earlier than that, unless it includes "PF correction" circuit. Not sure how the PF for say the monitors looks, they probably draw more power than the wall-warts anyway!, but most watt monitors will give you an approximate PF number - but it needs to be measured on the converted (230V) side so you need an EU/UK compatible one. Most US wall outlets are NEMA 5-15+5-20 hybrids on a (shared) 20A fuse, though older outlets or ones on a 15A fuse will be 5-15 only (5-20 plugs has the second blade rotated so on hybrid outlets on side is T-shaped). IIRC the US electric code limits the "long-term" power draw to 80% of that (both on outlet and the fuse), IE 12A and 16A respectively (most 230V system has similar "de-rating" requirements), so depending on what you've plugged in it probably can't provide much more than the 0.5 PF number anyway! But that should be fine because you did go with a oversized transformer, the numbers kind of converge a bit! if you end up needing actual 230V 50Hz the easiest way for lower power requirements is to go the AC->DC->AC route, IE something that generates 12/24/48V DC, then a "pure sine wave" (if possible) 230V/50Hz converter (may need to get it from a 230V country). 12V equipment tends to be easier to get, but 24V DC is used in many trucks and 48V DC is used in "telecom" so sometimes you can get good deals on those - obviously the DC wiring can be thinner with 48V but for this kind of setup that doesn't matter (the DC side will be very short distance). Also, some double-conversion (more expensive) 230V UPS will be able to run on 110V 60Hz, while most? double-conversion 230V UPS will generate 230V 60Hz from 208V (industrial) or 240V (residential) US power - you even had an 240V outlet so you could plug it in there and then set up 230V 50Hz outlets at the work bench! Note that many US double-conversion UPS are actually 208/230/240 and 50/60Hz but you have to check the spec-sheet carefully. But that's really only if you use it a LOT because the AC->DC->AC route is much cheaper. Also, if you have solar panels AND low-voltage (12-48V) batteries for storage you may be able to instead plug the converter into the DC side of that and skip the AC->DC converter.
That's very useful. Thanks for that info. I learned a lot there. Someone else mentioned the UPS route as well to get 50Hz, but my initial search for those failed (limited to Amazon). So maybe we're talking about super expensive ones?
@@NoelsRetroLab Cheaper UPS tends to run in standby (lowest tier) or line-interactive mode (mid-tier), to do frequency conversion it needs to be an "on-line" UPS, this is the "best" type of UPS but also most expensive variant. These always run AC->DC (with battery)->AC conversion, so the output voltage and frequency is pretty much "what options did they offer in the GUI/CLI". All the high-voltage ones I checked all claimed 50/60 and 208/230/240V output in the data-sheet, but one would need to drill down in the manual to verify that there's actually a way to SET frequency in the GUI - it could do something "stupid" (they'd call it helpful) like base it on the input frequency. You also probably want "pure sine wave" (PSW), rather than the stepped approximation (sometimes called "modified sinewave", for 230V that's either 0, 330, 0, -330, or 0,165,330,165,0,-165,... with duty cycle is set to get the right RMS value), not sure how sensitive these older components are to that but it's known that not all electronics appreciate it. Linear power-supplies tends to not care (a little bit extra heat in the transformer but that's it) but some switch-mode PSUs will be very upset about it. But most on-line UPS will be PSW anyway because at that point it's relatively trivial to do anyway these days, even many newer line-interactive offer PSW these days and that's the mid-tier below. Few (or no) 110-120V UPS will be able to provide higher voltages because they use "low" voltage components to save cost, but (non-split phase) 208/230/240V on-line UPS are usually "same content, different connectors" all over the world so it's mostly a question of whether they expose the necesary options in the GUI. But it means you would need to use that 240V connector a bit away , looking at Cyberpower (Smart App Online) and Tripp-Lite (single phase on-line double conversion) web-pages and prices on Amazon it looks like they start somewhere around $1500 for an 1500VA unit (there's a few 1000VA units but they cost as much), these are well-known "reasonably priced" providers, I expect a similar APC (*the* standard) unit will cost a lot more. So it's a NEAT solution but very expensive if you buy new equipment, when we consider that the first hit on amazon.co.uk lists a 1000W "pure sine wave" 12V inverter for £130, and I expect an US 120V to 12V DC source is likely cheaper. And I doubt you need to go that high power! I know a few other techtubers have talked about setups of this nature. The UPS route really ONLY make sense for your usage if you find an used unit cheaply, a lot of smaller server rooms (say
For any power source I would never cheap out on Ali, just get some meanwells and us the right step converters. Great to see a video again! Good luck with settling in! :)
09:00 "accepts directly the EU plug shape" - yeah, in an unsafe way (you could touch the contacts), which is worse at double the voltage that you are used to with your American plugs. I am semi shocked, but at least not electrically ;)
Mind you, many Schuko plugs these days have the same insulating sleeves around live and neutral as UK plugs do because people will still plug them into the older unrecessed socket. That one is more the exception, I'd hope!
I was hoping you knew of a way and could show it in action a French secam based 8bit being able to work properly (video wise with OK colors) anyplace like where I am, USA. I want a Philips VG5000 and a Matra Alice 90 but want them to work in USA. I am fine for power as I run many 210-220v euro 8but here in USA and even some for video a SCART to HDMI works OK too but this whole SECAM things confuses me and I don't want to spend $500 on a French based 8bit if I can't use it here in USA. Any ideas? Is there a SCART to HDMI that can handle SECAM signal too?
Our Intertec Superbrain machines at college had "wobbly" screen before they booted because they were expecting 60 Hz. Once they booted, there was a flag in the CP/M BIOS that said "your in a 50 Hz country" and the screen stopped "wobbling".
I'd always thought that PAL/ NTSC CRTs were tied to the 50/ 60Hz frequency of the supply voltage in some way, so I was pleasantly surprised that they work just fine with just only the voltage stepped up; your video has cleared up a long standing assumption for me! A quick googling shows that this choice had far more to do with coping with line noise in early TV sets to get the most acceptable picture with least disturbance.
My Panasonic CRT did have something called PAL60. A PAL TV can show NTSC, but not the other way around. PAL is a further development of NTSC (Never The Same Color).
For Spectrum you can buy 9V "music effects" supplies (eg boss) - many of these are centre negative. Fun fact - that 240V plug in your kitchen looks to be the same one Australian houses have in very room at 240V !
Here in Europe things are really easy: get a tv, either CRT, LCD or Plasma from roughly 1990-2010, and you're set. The only ones a bit picky are the tiny ones, 14 inch or so, as they often only handle RGB and composite, not S-video, and some don't do 60Hz either. When I go up in size, 20 inch or more, basically every screen I try has 50/60 PAL/SECAM/NTSC compatibility and 2 or 3 SCARTs with both S-video and RGB. Some are really cheap. Especially a Panasonic Viera from 2008, or a Sony Bravia with wide-gamut CCFL and VA panel, are impossible to beat. They can be found in the range free to max 25 bucks. The only no-go is 16:9 100Hz CRT's. Ideally you go after a 20-27 inch Trinitron, but you spend more on those, maybe like 100 bucks. PVM's are not needed, they may look cool, but they easily fetch 200 bucks or more, where a Plasma delivers a much better image for a fraction of the price, and if you want small and cute, those 14 inch Trinitrons that usually do 25 bucks as well are perfectly fine. Maybe not the stellar geometry, but the scanlines and colours are beautiful, and much easier to carry around.
Good to see you again! Some PSU are also multi voltage. You just need to switch it somewhere in a back. Speaking of screen - I loved Sony Multisystem TVs is Europe - worked with everything, NTSC incl, even Japan standard and also had an RGB input through SCART :)
Welcome back Noel, I moved from Europe to Australia the wait for my retro toys was agonizing (didn't have the voltage issue though) Really excited over your 3d printing upcoming video!!
SECAM is not really a big deal as there are nearly no systems to consider. Plus: you will run into another problem. I recently bought every french games console and some french home computers for a really interesting project I'm working on and you can divide these systems into 4 categories 1. Systems with RGB output (real or converted) - as there is no SECAM in RGB, these are no problem 2. Systems with PAL over composite (most france exclusive) - They're just PAL 3. Systems with SECAM over composite - I only found the Atari 8bits doing this 4. Systems with SECAM over RF - as france has a different channel structure you would either need a compatible tuner anyway or you would have to mod them and as these systems are quite special and an RGB mod is easier to do on these systems then a composite mod. Leaves you with the Atari 800 line including the XEGS. These work fine with the RetroTINK-5X and if I want to use these on a CRT I feed them into the AV port of my DVD recorder which outputs RGB to the TV. P.S.: I find it funny you said that Amstrad shipped every CPC with an RGB capable monitor and then showed a GT65 which ignores RGB and displays the LUMA signal found on pin 6 :D Glad to see you're back!
When you inserted the multimeter probe into the mains plug, I was expecting an explosion or something similar... too much electroboom I guess. Nice to see you back.
yar, 240V!!11!1!one!!1!. But more seriously, one thing you did forget is that the transformer you get is still limited by the wall power supply. You got a 3kW transformer, but it'll never be able to deliver that in North America because most house circuits are on a 15A breaker. That gives a maximum of 1800W peak, but it's really not designed to provide more than about 1600W continuous. If you're on a 20A breaker, which is really rare in North American houses, that's still only 2400W peak. You'd need a 30A breaker to be able to handle 3kW continuous draw, and for safety reasons they have a different plug shape than the standard 120V outlet.
Several things about the CTM644, the Color Amstrad monitor: 1) The STK7308 hybrid circuit used in the power supply is normally ment to be universal (according the the very simple datasheets that can be found). 2) As it uses a switching power supply, it would be possible to modify the input circuitry to work as an internal voltage doubler. This involves: a) Replacing the main bulk capacitor by 2 capacitors in series b) Have a switch connecting the one side of the AC of the rectifier bridge to the middle point (between the 2 capacitors) This effectively transforms the diode bridge into a voltage doubler, when the switch is closed. When the switch is in open (in 220v position) everything works as usual. For details see the schematic of a old PC power supplies with voltage switch 3) The issue with your monitor is no horizontal deflection. The main power supply produces all the "external voltages" 5v and 12v + 100v DC used by the horizontal deflection circuit. So, besides cracked solder joints during transportation - Check for 100v DC for the horizontal deflection generated by the main power supply - Check if the base of the horizontal transistor is actually driven (go backwards, from the base of the transistor to the horizontal out of the sync IC) - Check other components around the output transistor hope that helps.
So, I always thought that the reason that the AC frequency was important (thus the PAL C64 running at about 900Khz instead of just over a Mhz in NTSC models) was actually for that critical PAL sync over RF. Its interesting that running a C64 at 60hz upsets the clock a bit, but the real deal is the compatibility with standard televisions on the region the computer occupied. I can't imagine this only impacts C64s as they catered for the lowest common denominator, which was television displays.
Not sure if you follow Steve from RetroTechUSA but he has a lot of good info on CRTs. If you're going to be bouncing between NTSC and PAL/SECAM computers and want to use a CRT you might want to look for a PVM. Good tips on transformers! Go big is the right idea, as transformers are not 100% efficient and extra devices add extra load. Love your videos and look forward to all the fun stuff on the way!
Nice to see you are back online 😃 I check your Channel at least as often as i check in on adrian black, and the 8bit guy, since you make good videos. Welcome back 🫡 Regarding 50/60 hz, you are right about the computers themself. However, I do have a faint memory about something about an old Floppy there would run only on 60 or 50 hz. But i Could remember wrong. Correct me Here?
Big old 8" disk drives have AC motors (and there may be other types of drives/devices with AC motors), so any from outside the USA won't run properly in the USA. But that's probably a minor thing as 8" drives are not that common!
I actually bought a combination of a transformer and a frequency rectifier from a guy in Spain. It's probably not beefy enough, but I'll give it a go with my American Tandy+Monitor. He offers bigger version as well...
4:05 Not a bad idea to also specify the new connector arrangement, center +/-. The power brick might end end up is someone else's hands, someone who doesn't knows specifics about it, and still relies on the back label info.
I don't like using voltage conversion transformers (in my case step down), in my experience they produce quite a bit of unnecessary heat and are cumbersome items that take up valuable desk space or space otherwise. Therefore I see them mostly as temporary solution for testing 115V, 230V modification is the proper solution. Therefore I'm not sure if I would have made the same choice in your case. You absolutely need to own such a transformer, but as a permanent solution to run CRTs... I wouldn't like that. Nevertheless... when reparing power supplies, these transformers become extremely useful. For repairs I always connect equipment to the step down transformer: The isolation by itself protects against electrical shocks, and 115V is a lot less dangerous than 230V. And... when you get a short circuit, I prefer replacing a fuse in the step down transformer instead of in my meter closet.
Hello, why don't you simply use the so called power plug and connect that to your European power plugs. It is the 3 phase connector used in the us and it delivers 230V and 60Hz all you need. No transformer needed. Take care !nice channel,
Hey, it always makes a day better when a new video is out! I don't really have any foreign systems, unless you count a UK Amiga 1200, but I don't. haha. Very great info here!
Thanks! I appreciate the offer, but I had a neighbor randomly give me a full setup for a TI-99/4A with lots of stuff (including massive disk drive bays). I'm actually preparing a video on that since he also has a tape with a game he was working on at the time and it would be fun to retrieve that. So I'm all set with TI99 for now (assuming I can get it to work). Thanks!
speaking of 3d printing. I had to rescue my printer 3 times during this video. Remind me to never print multiple colors of sunlu simultaniously ever again. I just did a 4 day bulbasaur print. It was mostly esun. It didn't fail even once.
Welcome to the US. Like you I'm also from Europe with a collection of both US and European retro computers. I have a small number of different converters etc. to be able to use all of them. Good fun!
It is a shame that DC is not the standard in our electric outlets. Nowadays we have to deal with lots of EMI due to switching power supplies from LED lamps and power bricks.
Has anyone ever managed to remove the noise from a switch mode psu, I have tried using electrolytic capacitors and Mylar Film capacitors but it didnt make much difference!
Yes, I already talked to him about it a little bit. At this point it could be anything, so I'll have to start diagnosing it. But I'll definitely be drawing on his experience.
Welcome back Noel, it’s great to see you back up and running again after the move. The new lab space is looking fantastic, a great set for future videos.
Usually are autotransformers, not transformers, are the same but using less copper, less weigth but loosing the insolation, but this is not a problem; the mains power has no insolation too.
Le Sinclair ZX81, j'avais 16 ans. Que de souvenirs, et surtout les magazines de l'époque, l'ordinateur individuel, par exemple, que je regardais pour suivre Dell et la marque, Gateway. Les pubs pour le magasin Surcouf.
Good to see you back in the saddle. Brilliant, making a video about this as you are struggling with this very situation. I want to comment on the issue of polarity of the input jacks. Back in the glory days, center-positive was not a standard, and almost all of what I had used center-negative DC inputs. I had a "universal" AC adapter with selectable output voltage, polarity and plug style. It used a multi-tap transformer with outputs up to 12V in 1.5V increments. This was unregulated, as was customary at the time. It came with about a dozen different connector styles that could be attached for either polarity. This is how I came to understand that center-negative was typical for handheld games, calculators and toys. About 15% of the time I would find center-positive. I believe this originated from the use of 2.5-3.5mm headphone-style DC input plugs that predated the barrel connectors. On those, your "center" conductor was on the *tip* of the plug. The term used with my universal adapter was in fact not "center" but "tip". This tip would easily contact any external parts of the device and would be first to make contact as it was plugged in. I imagine it was often made negative polarity as a protective measure of sorts, much as the outer conductor of barrel plugs are most often negative today. It seems to be an accident of history that when many designers started using barrel connectors, they made the inner conductor correspond to the "tip"; ergo, center-negative. Considering the certainty of shorts happening, it is almost unbelievable that headphone-style plugs were once used for power, but indeed they were. I guess that's what they had in the '70s and earlier. The barrel connectors seemed to appear right around 1980, based on the chronology of my stuff. Sadly I no longer have any if it. To get to my point, I never made assumptions about polarity, nor do I now. I'm checking the voltage and I'm checking polarity. I want to dispel any notion that polarity on DC inputs is a standard, any more than voltage is. Center-positive is common, but absolutely not guaranteed.
Agreed. I guess the point is that it's a lot more common now than it was back in the day. But yes, there are lots of applications that still use center negative.
Good to have you back. Don't quit the day-job to soon. TH-cam is fun maybe, but it might not be such a stable income source. Also it seems that quite a few people who do it full-time get burned out chasing the algorithm, running out of ideas. Question: all your retro computers are nicely put away in a closet. How do you use them? Take them out at random, plug them in for an hour and put them back? Keep a single one on the bench and swap it every few months? I have only a few myself, in storage because I don't know where to put them or which one to take out. And what do you do on them? Just random games or do they see actual use?
Indeed Bart, well said. TH-cam, and all platforms for that matter, are steadily becoming more stingy. If not for other revenue sources, many full-time TH-cam video makers say they would not survive. At any moment Mrs. Google can make a change and you're getting little to nothing. Diversification is important, as is not burning your bridges behind you.
Two things, the best way to convert from 120 to 240 is to use a decent pure sinewave UPS. A good one will let you change the output voltage and/or frequency. So 230VAC at 50Hz from a 120VAC 60Hz input is not a problem and vice versa. Note that a lot of monitors won't like being driven at 60Hz. There is a reason why PAL is 50Hz and NTSC is 60Hz 🙂 Secondly later CRT TV's so anything from about 1990 onwards from Europe can do PAL, SECAM, NTSC etc. The reason is that they were by then being driven by integrated IC's and it was cheaper to produce universal IC's that could decode all TV standards and then only have one TV model to produce than lots of different ones.
Oh, I didn't know about UPSs that also did output voltage change and frequency. That would be awesome. I looked around quickly and I wasn't able to find one though. Do you have a link? I'd love to check one out. Thanks.
For running 110 VAC @ 60 Hz devices here in Australia (230 VAC @ 50 Hz), I use a car power inverter from the US paired with a 12 VDC PSU. That way, I get both the correct voltage and frequency. I never see anybody else recommend this approach, though.
Interesting... I thought SCART could be converted to VGA, composite or component (or maybe all of them?) by using cables that route the pins the right way... But then again, an HDMI signal makes everything but lightgun games simpler to acquire. 😊
SCART can be converted to VGA with a passive cable, but on the condition that the VGA input accepts 15KHz scan rate and composite sync, which is not a given, but quite common. SCART to composite is very easy: one of the pins in the SCART plug is the composite signal. Converting SCART to component with passive cables is normally impossible, but there are exceptions as some devices can output a component signal on the RGB pins, this is then often selectable in a menu. In all other cases you need an active converter device.
By default it has RF output on UHF channel 36 via a cinch connector. It can easily be modified to output composite video from the same connector though.
Hi Noel, welcome to the US. Are you planning on making the rounds of the Vintage Computer Fests while you are here? You could increase your collection and meet other youtubers.
I wanted to thank you for your style of video. You are very easy to understand and well spoken. Makes it much easier to follow along and learn. I appreciate your videos a lot as I don't understand a great many things when it comes to upgrades, modding, restoring, etc. I have a ZX Spectrum coming to me from the UK to the USA and this will be great info for me. My friend in the UK has already composite modded it for me, and recapped it. I'm just looking for a USA power solution and an SD card solution. Any thoughts?
Really glad you enjoy the videos! For the Spectrum PSU, do what I did with that 9V PSU (open it and reverse the leads) and you're done. Someone else also suggested using an Atari Jaguar or Sega Genesis PSUs, which I guess are already center negative. You're still going to need a way to display a PAL signal since that's what the composite video will be. As for SD card solution, my favorite is the divMMCFuture, but you can look around for any divMMC. Enjoy!
@@NoelsRetroLab Thank you very much! I do have extra Genesis AC adapters around (modern replacements) so I will take a look at those and see if they fit the bill. Pal I have covered with a Retrotink 2x Pro, it's been fantastic at that. Thank you for the SD card recommendation. I will take a look
great to have you back Noel!.. missed ya vids! ...if the RTC runs fast on the c64..does that effect the running speed of the system aswell? ...games would feel off woudlnt they...altho...c64 was a US based system to begin with..did it actually run slower in countries with 50hz power?
Slightly, yes. Which was beneficial in some ways. The differences in refresh rate and slight clock differences meant that the CPU had more dedicated time on the bus in PAL regions, meaning it had more time per scan line and per field to shunt data around memory. Some games need a RAM expansion unit so that they can take advantage of the DMA controller to shuffle around memory fast enough to work properly in NTSC regions even if they don't take advantage of the extra RAM.
CAREFUL WITH VOLTAGES OF OLD DEVICES!! Don't assume, MEASURE the Voltage! Don't believe the Label! For example a Mega Drive 1 has a 10V DC Power Supply. HOWEVER: When you measure it at idle, its around 14V, under load, when the Mega Drive is ON, its 11,75V. So despite it being rated at just 10V, a modern Replacement would be more in the 12V Range.
I don't know about the Mega Drive, but I suspect it doesn't use the input voltage directly and probably runs it through a voltage regulator (for 9V and another one for 5V maybe?). In that case it doesn't matter if it's 11,75V, 12V or even 15V for that matter (other than running a bit hotter). But that's all a guess based on computers I know though.
@@NoelsRetroLab Yes, the Mega Drive only uses 5V via 2 7805 on a Heatsink, so Input Voltage isn't that important, as long as its above the min input of the 7805 and the PSU is strong enough. Its just an Example that I am aware of, where the VOltage on the Label is a bit different than what it really is.
Rather than take apart a PSU i use the universal voltage ones that come with lots of plugs you can put the "plug" round the otherway, then i glue the plug together and having set the right voltage glue that in too.
strictly speaking, US household voltage is (mostly) 3𝚽230V±10, 1𝚽230V±10, and split phase is 115V±5. That's on a delta transformer. It could also be 200V±8 phase-to-phase, and 115v±5 phase-to-neutral if you're connected to a wye transformer.
Good info, and it brings back some good memories. I used to own the the CPC 464 and later the PCW 8256 back in the day, but the first one was an ORIC-1 which I had a lot of fun with.
It seems a bit counter-intuitive to me that a 50 Hz monitor should just work on 60 Hz!? I mean, as far as I know, it uses the line frequency to sync the picture (yes, I know modern monitors doesn't do this, but generates their own frequencies, but older PAL/NTSC televisons didn't), right? I would at least try that color monitor on a transformer that also converts the frequency before calling it dead...
Maybe in the 50s or 60s, but "modern" CRTs only look at the sync pulses in the video signal. They have an AC/DC power supply and the entire CRT runs on DC; so the electronics doesn't notice anything of the changed line frequency.
I'm not an expert, but I really don't think so. The sync came as part of the signal, it wasn't external. All the other PAL monitors I brought with me are working fine too. I did read that the frequency was chosen to match the electrical frequency to minimize noise and interference, which sounds more likely to me.
Really looking forward to the video about US Amstrad CPC ! I've always wondered what would happen if i connected the jumper, but never dared to try it.
I need to check, but I believe all it does is set the default refresh rate to 60Hz. I even heard of some people "fixing" some really slow games by tweaking that.
When I got my PC-88, I just built a scart cable. On the PC-98, about 1 in 15 or so old lcd monitors support its 21 or so Khz. But it must be from a Japanese company. I have a Fujitsu LCD and Mitsubishi CRT.
Great video! Some MSX are complicated, like those Sony with weird 3 or more pin connectors you mentioned, and luckily others are the contrary. I have an NMS 800 whose power supply is 12 V AC, and it's broken. The good news is that after looking at the motherboard I saw that it had a full 4-diode rectifier and a regular which admits from 10 to 30 V. So, it can be powered with a standard 12 V DC connector with a standard jack, and it works nicely. And you don't even need to care if it's center positive or negative. By the way, I find pretty scary those models with the transformer inside :S
You’re back at talking about retro computers again! That’s great. Your lab is also nicely set up. Looking forward to the next episodes!
Here's one vote for your doing this full time! One can always do game development on TH-cam anyway ;-)
Now you have a mission.
Teach the Americans what the Amstrad is.
Jokes aside, glad you rebuilt your lair.
Happy to see channel back in Action again. You picked a good topic since importing computers is such a big thing. 3000 watts is a beastly step up transformer. Look forward to your future videos.
Thank you! 3000 sounds over the top, but I have to say that I can run a computer and a CRT and it doesn't even hum any more than it does without any load. That thing is great. I'd buy it again on a heartbeat.
Welcome back! As someone who moved from the UK to the US, this was very interesting. I brought my PC with me (this was in 2008) and switched it to 115V, everything worked fine...for about 3 months. Then the power supply died. Like you, I think 6 weeks in a container ship hold did a number on the electronics. If anyone else is thinking of shipping any electronic equipment when they move abroad, they should consider this possibility. In the end, I totally sidestepped all of these by getting a MiSTer! Looking forward to more videos from you, Noel! ¡Hola desde California!
@Noel's Retro Lab - A note on that 3000 watt transformer: most residential circuits in the US are generally set up to deliver no more than 1800 watts before you'll trip the breaker. You'll probably never pull that much, but it's worth knowing.
If you have a higher wattage circuit, the plugs should have a T-shaped slot where the right-hand blade of the plug would go in. There's a second kind of north american plug where the right-hand blade is turned 90 degrees, and it's for devices that can pull more than that. I think those allow up to 2400W, not sure. I don't know if your transformer has that kind of plug, but it should, so maybe you already know about this.
I use a retro tink on my commodore 64 with a 4k monitor. I think the video output looks more or less exactly like I remember it. Really high quality. Lesser quality upscalers might not output as good. So that's my preferred option. And unlike a CRT it's not loud and obnoxious. CRTs gave me headaches even if I couldn't hear them.
great to have you up and running in your new home. You are one of the best retro computer channels, and I always learn something from you. I have no idea how you only have ~40K subs.. you deserve way way more
Here in Brazil we had PAL-M, a mix of system M and PAL color. It was a pain with imports.
In the mid 80s, I moved from the US to France. I had to get my Atari 400 to work so I had a transformer that had to change the frequency. It was a big mess.
The BBC Micro power supply actually has a jumper which allows you to swap between 110 and 220V. It’s a switch mode power supply anyway.
More proof of how wonderfully overengineered Acorn's machines were!
One thing to bear in mind: the AC frequency is very important when there is motors involved, like in your CPC 464 with the tape deck integrated. The tape deck uses a step motor to run the cassettes so be careful to use it with a power source that outputs the correct frecuency or you could damage the step motor. Hope to see more of your videos soon. By the way: your lab is looking awesome! Saludos desde Argentina.
Good point. In the case of the 464 all the power it uses is already DC, so there's no problem there, but maybe some standalone tape deck might have that problem. Gracias! 😃
Step motors by definition don't use mains frequency, but instead move at an artificial frequency of one pulse per step, thus allowing the computer to move it an exact number of steps. The head positioning on floppy drives was often a step motor that dud one step per track, so if a program needed to step forward 10 tracks, it would end up stepping the motor 10 times. Motors that run full speed all the time like fans, tape pulling or disk spinning may be mains AC or normal DC depending on whatever the original designer had laying around.
Just a note of caution, if your packages were not hermetically sealed during shipping, they probably got a lot of salt-walter contamination and start to rust soon, so if possible, give them a good clean inside and out to get rid of the salt residue..
If you're lucky enough to have a Sony PVM (or more than one, admittedly I spent "too much" on some when they were still cheap) they can also help in terms of having a PAL and NTSC CRT. That said, if you have the lovely combination of good vision and migraines like I do, 50hz on a PVM might be more than a little uncomfortable. It's nice to have a display that plays nicely with my PAL SuperVision TV link, but I can only handle a 50hz CRT for a few minutes at best @_@
Yes, I'm looking for a Sony PVM for that same reason. They seem to be rare and expensive, so I don't have my hopes up, but I have alerts on Craigslist for that reason :-)
I think I see a collab with Adrian coming! :D
Let's not forget before we get too excited, a US 120V outlet standard in most homes is 15A RMS and some 20A RMS which could produce 2400 VA max or 1800 VA max for 15A. Not sure where the power supply manufacturer went to school.
Very true. I suppose they're claiming it can handle 3000W, but yeah, I'll never be able to feed that many, even on a 20A circuit. It should be able to handle anything I throw at it easily though.
If you haven't already done the 6128 USA video and if you have a UK 6128 a side by side comparison would be great
Yes, that's part of the plan! 👍
Your transformer has one little problem, it doesn't provde grounding for European plugs. To improve the safety, I would suggest to replace one of the sockets with a proper EU socket with grounding contacts.
Oh! Very good point! I didn't think of that. I should open it up and see what's going on in there and how to change the plugs. Could even be a short video. Thanks!
@@NoelsRetroLab Adding better sockets may have merits, but you should not add grounding, the transformer itself protects against shocks.
Interesting. The hardest computer to convert to USA is the Acorn Electron in my opinion, as for the Spectrum, just use a US Atari Jaguar or Sega Genesis PSU.
Interestingly enough, I have a PSU for the Acorn that I think came from some laptop, and I can unplug the mains cord and plug in a US one and it'll work just fine. But yes, I guess you need to find that modern replacement first.
Why? The Electron has a normal DC plug?
Very nice video and I am looking forward to your next videos and to RL becoming a full time adventure!
May I add a couple of notes/warnings?
1. Steer away from Aliexpress/Ebay etc when it comes to power supplies. Yes they are cheaper but sometimes they are dangerous! A proper electronic shop will sell products which must adhere to the local/national/international regulations and will give you peace of mind
2. on your transformer, if those Schuko sockets are like the ones I have on a power extension I have, you can plug your device with the plug rotated around 45 degrees, basically plugging into earth and one of the pins (either live or neutral). I guess your RCD will trip if that happens, but just wanted to mention that.
Looking forward to your next videos!
Maybe the retro computers have jetlag too.
When buying a transformer make sure you do not use ebay/amazon but online websites like digikey - my 110v Japanese MSX2+ works perfectly on the 122v here in Cali. My European Philips NMS8220 (MSX2) works great with a high quality transformer (used by a game studio to develop on PAL Playstations) I never experienced problems with 50/60hz but I never ran a monitor so I can't talk if they are finicky about the frequency - Great video as usual :)
Note that it's NOT a 3000 watt transformer, the rating is 3000 *VA* - transformer ratings are based on when the magnetic core sature and that's based on the VA rather than watt - once the core satures internal heat output start to rise and at some point beyond this it can enter a heat feedback loop (the heat increase wire resistance which increase heat which...).
So the powerfactor (PF) of what you connect matters a lot, modern large PSUs are all powerfactor corrected to 0.95+ so it doesn't matter much for those, but small wall-warts won't be PF corrected, I'd guess their PF is probably around 0.5 which means it can "only" provide 1500W based on the transformer rating. If you tried to use it for an inductive motor it would hit the VA limit way earlier than that, unless it includes "PF correction" circuit. Not sure how the PF for say the monitors looks, they probably draw more power than the wall-warts anyway!, but most watt monitors will give you an approximate PF number - but it needs to be measured on the converted (230V) side so you need an EU/UK compatible one.
Most US wall outlets are NEMA 5-15+5-20 hybrids on a (shared) 20A fuse, though older outlets or ones on a 15A fuse will be 5-15 only (5-20 plugs has the second blade rotated so on hybrid outlets on side is T-shaped). IIRC the US electric code limits the "long-term" power draw to 80% of that (both on outlet and the fuse), IE 12A and 16A respectively (most 230V system has similar "de-rating" requirements), so depending on what you've plugged in it probably can't provide much more than the 0.5 PF number anyway!
But that should be fine because you did go with a oversized transformer, the numbers kind of converge a bit!
if you end up needing actual 230V 50Hz the easiest way for lower power requirements is to go the AC->DC->AC route, IE something that generates 12/24/48V DC, then a "pure sine wave" (if possible) 230V/50Hz converter (may need to get it from a 230V country). 12V equipment tends to be easier to get, but 24V DC is used in many trucks and 48V DC is used in "telecom" so sometimes you can get good deals on those - obviously the DC wiring can be thinner with 48V but for this kind of setup that doesn't matter (the DC side will be very short distance).
Also, some double-conversion (more expensive) 230V UPS will be able to run on 110V 60Hz, while most? double-conversion 230V UPS will generate 230V 60Hz from 208V (industrial) or 240V (residential) US power - you even had an 240V outlet so you could plug it in there and then set up 230V 50Hz outlets at the work bench! Note that many US double-conversion UPS are actually 208/230/240 and 50/60Hz but you have to check the spec-sheet carefully. But that's really only if you use it a LOT because the AC->DC->AC route is much cheaper.
Also, if you have solar panels AND low-voltage (12-48V) batteries for storage you may be able to instead plug the converter into the DC side of that and skip the AC->DC converter.
That's very useful. Thanks for that info. I learned a lot there. Someone else mentioned the UPS route as well to get 50Hz, but my initial search for those failed (limited to Amazon). So maybe we're talking about super expensive ones?
@@NoelsRetroLab Cheaper UPS tends to run in standby (lowest tier) or line-interactive mode (mid-tier), to do frequency conversion it needs to be an "on-line" UPS, this is the "best" type of UPS but also most expensive variant.
These always run AC->DC (with battery)->AC conversion, so the output voltage and frequency is pretty much "what options did they offer in the GUI/CLI". All the high-voltage ones I checked all claimed 50/60 and 208/230/240V output in the data-sheet, but one would need to drill down in the manual to verify that there's actually a way to SET frequency in the GUI - it could do something "stupid" (they'd call it helpful) like base it on the input frequency.
You also probably want "pure sine wave" (PSW), rather than the stepped approximation (sometimes called "modified sinewave", for 230V that's either 0, 330, 0, -330, or 0,165,330,165,0,-165,... with duty cycle is set to get the right RMS value), not sure how sensitive these older components are to that but it's known that not all electronics appreciate it. Linear power-supplies tends to not care (a little bit extra heat in the transformer but that's it) but some switch-mode PSUs will be very upset about it. But most on-line UPS will be PSW anyway because at that point it's relatively trivial to do anyway these days, even many newer line-interactive offer PSW these days and that's the mid-tier below.
Few (or no) 110-120V UPS will be able to provide higher voltages because they use "low" voltage components to save cost, but (non-split phase) 208/230/240V on-line UPS are usually "same content, different connectors" all over the world so it's mostly a question of whether they expose the necesary options in the GUI.
But it means you would need to use that 240V connector a bit away , looking at Cyberpower (Smart App Online) and Tripp-Lite (single phase on-line double conversion) web-pages and prices on Amazon it looks like they start somewhere around $1500 for an 1500VA unit (there's a few 1000VA units but they cost as much), these are well-known "reasonably priced" providers, I expect a similar APC (*the* standard) unit will cost a lot more.
So it's a NEAT solution but very expensive if you buy new equipment, when we consider that the first hit on amazon.co.uk lists a 1000W "pure sine wave" 12V inverter for £130, and I expect an US 120V to 12V DC source is likely cheaper. And I doubt you need to go that high power! I know a few other techtubers have talked about setups of this nature.
The UPS route really ONLY make sense for your usage if you find an used unit cheaply, a lot of smaller server rooms (say
For any power source I would never cheap out on Ali, just get some meanwells and us the right step converters. Great to see a video again! Good luck with settling in! :)
09:00 "accepts directly the EU plug shape" - yeah, in an unsafe way (you could touch the contacts), which is worse at double the voltage that you are used to with your American plugs. I am semi shocked, but at least not electrically ;)
Yes, you're right. I think I'm going to mod it to fix it.
Mind you, many Schuko plugs these days have the same insulating sleeves around live and neutral as UK plugs do because people will still plug them into the older unrecessed socket. That one is more the exception, I'd hope!
I was hoping you knew of a way and could show it in action a French secam based 8bit being able to work properly (video wise with OK colors) anyplace like where I am, USA. I want a Philips VG5000 and a Matra Alice 90 but want them to work in USA. I am fine for power as I run many 210-220v euro 8but here in USA and even some for video a SCART to HDMI works OK too but this whole SECAM things confuses me and I don't want to spend $500 on a French based 8bit if I can't use it here in USA. Any ideas? Is there a SCART to HDMI that can handle SECAM signal too?
Our Intertec Superbrain machines at college had "wobbly" screen before they booted because they were expecting 60 Hz. Once they booted, there was a flag in the CP/M BIOS that said "your in a 50 Hz country" and the screen stopped "wobbling".
I'd always thought that PAL/ NTSC CRTs were tied to the 50/ 60Hz frequency of the supply voltage in some way, so I was pleasantly surprised that they work just fine with just only the voltage stepped up; your video has cleared up a long standing assumption for me! A quick googling shows that this choice had far more to do with coping with line noise in early TV sets to get the most acceptable picture with least disturbance.
My Panasonic CRT did have something called PAL60. A PAL TV can show NTSC, but not the other way around. PAL is a further development of NTSC (Never The Same Color).
For Spectrum you can buy 9V "music effects" supplies (eg boss) - many of these are centre negative. Fun fact - that 240V plug in your kitchen looks to be the same one Australian houses have in very room at 240V !
Here in Europe things are really easy: get a tv, either CRT, LCD or Plasma from roughly 1990-2010, and you're set. The only ones a bit picky are the tiny ones, 14 inch or so, as they often only handle RGB and composite, not S-video, and some don't do 60Hz either. When I go up in size, 20 inch or more, basically every screen I try has 50/60 PAL/SECAM/NTSC compatibility and 2 or 3 SCARTs with both S-video and RGB. Some are really cheap. Especially a Panasonic Viera from 2008, or a Sony Bravia with wide-gamut CCFL and VA panel, are impossible to beat. They can be found in the range free to max 25 bucks. The only no-go is 16:9 100Hz CRT's.
Ideally you go after a 20-27 inch Trinitron, but you spend more on those, maybe like 100 bucks. PVM's are not needed, they may look cool, but they easily fetch 200 bucks or more, where a Plasma delivers a much better image for a fraction of the price, and if you want small and cute, those 14 inch Trinitrons that usually do 25 bucks as well are perfectly fine. Maybe not the stellar geometry, but the scanlines and colours are beautiful, and much easier to carry around.
Foreign to USA, domestic to Euroipe. Apple IBM and M$ are foreign invaders here
Good to see you again! Some PSU are also multi voltage. You just need to switch it somewhere in a back.
Speaking of screen - I loved Sony Multisystem TVs is Europe - worked with everything, NTSC incl, even Japan standard and also had an RGB input through SCART :)
Welcome back Noel, I moved from Europe to Australia the wait for my retro toys was agonizing (didn't have the voltage issue though) Really excited over your 3d printing upcoming video!!
Our Spanish retro guru is back! ❤
SECAM is not really a big deal as there are nearly no systems to consider. Plus: you will run into another problem.
I recently bought every french games console and some french home computers for a really interesting project I'm working on and you can divide these systems into 4 categories
1. Systems with RGB output (real or converted) - as there is no SECAM in RGB, these are no problem
2. Systems with PAL over composite (most france exclusive) - They're just PAL
3. Systems with SECAM over composite - I only found the Atari 8bits doing this
4. Systems with SECAM over RF - as france has a different channel structure you would either need a compatible tuner anyway or you would have to mod them and as these systems are quite special and an RGB mod is easier to do on these systems then a composite mod.
Leaves you with the Atari 800 line including the XEGS. These work fine with the RetroTINK-5X and if I want to use these on a CRT I feed them into the AV port of my DVD recorder which outputs RGB to the TV.
P.S.: I find it funny you said that Amstrad shipped every CPC with an RGB capable monitor and then showed a GT65 which ignores RGB and displays the LUMA signal found on pin 6 :D
Glad to see you're back!
When you inserted the multimeter probe into the mains plug, I was expecting an explosion or something similar... too much electroboom I guess. Nice to see you back.
yar, 240V!!11!1!one!!1!. But more seriously, one thing you did forget is that the transformer you get is still limited by the wall power supply. You got a 3kW transformer, but it'll never be able to deliver that in North America because most house circuits are on a 15A breaker. That gives a maximum of 1800W peak, but it's really not designed to provide more than about 1600W continuous. If you're on a 20A breaker, which is really rare in North American houses, that's still only 2400W peak. You'd need a 30A breaker to be able to handle 3kW continuous draw, and for safety reasons they have a different plug shape than the standard 120V outlet.
Several things about the CTM644, the Color Amstrad monitor:
1) The STK7308 hybrid circuit used in the power supply is normally ment to be universal (according the the very simple datasheets that can be found).
2) As it uses a switching power supply, it would be possible to modify the input circuitry to work as an internal voltage doubler.
This involves:
a) Replacing the main bulk capacitor by 2 capacitors in series
b) Have a switch connecting the one side of the AC of the rectifier bridge to the middle point (between the 2 capacitors)
This effectively transforms the diode bridge into a voltage doubler, when the switch is closed. When the switch is in open (in 220v position) everything works as usual.
For details see the schematic of a old PC power supplies with voltage switch
3) The issue with your monitor is no horizontal deflection.
The main power supply produces all the "external voltages" 5v and 12v + 100v DC used by the horizontal deflection circuit.
So, besides cracked solder joints during transportation
- Check for 100v DC for the horizontal deflection generated by the main power supply
- Check if the base of the horizontal transistor is actually driven (go backwards, from the base of the transistor to the horizontal out of the sync IC)
- Check other components around the output transistor
hope that helps.
So, I always thought that the reason that the AC frequency was important (thus the PAL C64 running at about 900Khz instead of just over a Mhz in NTSC models) was actually for that critical PAL sync over RF. Its interesting that running a C64 at 60hz upsets the clock a bit, but the real deal is the compatibility with standard televisions on the region the computer occupied. I can't imagine this only impacts C64s as they catered for the lowest common denominator, which was television displays.
Not sure if you follow Steve from RetroTechUSA but he has a lot of good info on CRTs. If you're going to be bouncing between NTSC and PAL/SECAM computers and want to use a CRT you might want to look for a PVM. Good tips on transformers! Go big is the right idea, as transformers are not 100% efficient and extra devices add extra load. Love your videos and look forward to all the fun stuff on the way!
Nice to see you are back online 😃
I check your Channel at least as often as i check in on adrian black, and the 8bit guy, since you make good videos.
Welcome back 🫡
Regarding 50/60 hz, you are right about the computers themself.
However, I do have a faint memory about something about an old Floppy there would run only on 60 or 50 hz. But i Could remember wrong. Correct me Here?
Big old 8" disk drives have AC motors (and there may be other types of drives/devices with AC motors), so any from outside the USA won't run properly in the USA. But that's probably a minor thing as 8" drives are not that common!
I actually bought a combination of a transformer and a frequency rectifier from a guy in Spain. It's probably not beefy enough, but I'll give it a go with my American Tandy+Monitor. He offers bigger version as well...
4:05 Not a bad idea to also specify the new connector arrangement, center +/-. The power brick might end end up is someone else's hands, someone who doesn't knows specifics about it, and still relies on the back label info.
I don't like using voltage conversion transformers (in my case step down), in my experience they produce quite a bit of unnecessary heat and are cumbersome items that take up valuable desk space or space otherwise. Therefore I see them mostly as temporary solution for testing 115V, 230V modification is the proper solution. Therefore I'm not sure if I would have made the same choice in your case. You absolutely need to own such a transformer, but as a permanent solution to run CRTs... I wouldn't like that. Nevertheless... when reparing power supplies, these transformers become extremely useful. For repairs I always connect equipment to the step down transformer: The isolation by itself protects against electrical shocks, and 115V is a lot less dangerous than 230V. And... when you get a short circuit, I prefer replacing a fuse in the step down transformer instead of in my meter closet.
Hello, why don't you simply use the so called power plug and connect that to your European power plugs. It is the 3 phase connector used in the us and it delivers 230V and 60Hz all you need. No transformer needed. Take care !nice channel,
Don’t forget; there was also analog RGB and digital RGB, just to make things even more confusing. 😮
Hey, it always makes a day better when a new video is out! I don't really have any foreign systems, unless you count a UK Amiga 1200, but I don't. haha. Very great info here!
Welcome to this side of the pond! I may have to send some US goodies your way to fill in the gaps in your Collection. ;)
Thank you! I just bought a CoCo 2 off Ebay yesterday to start filling in some of those gaps 😃
@@NoelsRetroLab Interested in a TI-99-4a with some software and peripherals? :D
Thanks! I appreciate the offer, but I had a neighbor randomly give me a full setup for a TI-99/4A with lots of stuff (including massive disk drive bays). I'm actually preparing a video on that since he also has a tape with a game he was working on at the time and it would be fun to retrieve that. So I'm all set with TI99 for now (assuming I can get it to work). Thanks!
speaking of 3d printing. I had to rescue my printer 3 times during this video. Remind me to never print multiple colors of sunlu simultaniously ever again. I just did a 4 day bulbasaur print. It was mostly esun. It didn't fail even once.
Hai..... Most likely
The transformer that you have is not the type of the transformer that you showed in the diagram...
Welcome to the US. Like you I'm also from Europe with a collection of both US and European retro computers. I have a small number of different converters etc. to be able to use all of them. Good fun!
It is a shame that DC is not the standard in our electric outlets. Nowadays we have to deal with lots of EMI due to switching power supplies from LED lamps and power bricks.
We’re getting our house rewired next year, and I’m looking forward to the look on the electrician’s face when I ask to have 220 run to my office.
Has anyone ever managed to remove the noise from a switch mode psu, I have tried using electrolytic capacitors and Mylar Film capacitors but it didnt make much difference!
maybe speak to Adrian Black he may be able to help with the crt monitor repair. he is very good at that sort of thing
Yes, I already talked to him about it a little bit. At this point it could be anything, so I'll have to start diagnosing it. But I'll definitely be drawing on his experience.
@@NoelsRetroLab I'd bet you a dollar on that the CRT socket has gotten loose from the tube, just push it back on and it'll be fine 😊
@@NoelsRetroLab awesome great minds an all that lol
Welcome back Noel, it’s great to see you back up and running again after the move. The new lab space is looking fantastic, a great set for future videos.
British computer in USA:I am not a foreiger,the computers of this country are.
I have russian made zx spectrum sockets are russian standard found on eletronic devices audio and video like 5 PIN sockets like din standard
I did not know you went to the US! I don't know if you remember me, but I'm also from Spain!
Ayyy, a shoutout for Technology Connections. Love that channel, and this one.
Usually are autotransformers, not transformers, are the same but using less copper, less weigth but loosing the insolation, but this is not a problem; the mains power has no insolation too.
Le Sinclair ZX81, j'avais 16 ans. Que de souvenirs, et surtout les magazines de l'époque, l'ordinateur individuel, par exemple, que je regardais pour suivre Dell et la marque, Gateway. Les pubs pour le magasin Surcouf.
Glad to have you back at it, I've missed your regular videos!
Might I ask, what made you move from Spain to the US?
Good to see you back in the saddle. Brilliant, making a video about this as you are struggling with this very situation.
I want to comment on the issue of polarity of the input jacks. Back in the glory days, center-positive was not a standard, and almost all of what I had used center-negative DC inputs.
I had a "universal" AC adapter with selectable output voltage, polarity and plug style. It used a multi-tap transformer with outputs up to 12V in 1.5V increments. This was unregulated, as was customary at the time.
It came with about a dozen different connector styles that could be attached for either polarity. This is how I came to understand that center-negative was typical for handheld games, calculators and toys. About 15% of the time I would find center-positive.
I believe this originated from the use of 2.5-3.5mm headphone-style DC input plugs that predated the barrel connectors. On those, your "center" conductor was on the *tip* of the plug. The term used with my universal adapter was in fact not "center" but "tip".
This tip would easily contact any external parts of the device and would be first to make contact as it was plugged in. I imagine it was often made negative polarity as a protective measure of sorts, much as the outer conductor of barrel plugs are most often negative today. It seems to be an accident of history that when many designers started using barrel connectors, they made the inner conductor correspond to the "tip"; ergo, center-negative.
Considering the certainty of shorts happening, it is almost unbelievable that headphone-style plugs were once used for power, but indeed they were. I guess that's what they had in the '70s and earlier. The barrel connectors seemed to appear right around 1980, based on the chronology of my stuff. Sadly I no longer have any if it.
To get to my point, I never made assumptions about polarity, nor do I now. I'm checking the voltage and I'm checking polarity. I want to dispel any notion that polarity on DC inputs is a standard, any more than voltage is. Center-positive is common, but absolutely not guaranteed.
Agreed. I guess the point is that it's a lot more common now than it was back in the day. But yes, there are lots of applications that still use center negative.
jajaj .. entre el dragon y el spectrum me volvieron loco :D
Yeah !!! im glad that you are back to YT. Im a great fan of your channel.
Good to have you back. Don't quit the day-job to soon. TH-cam is fun maybe, but it might not be such a stable income source. Also it seems that quite a few people who do it full-time get burned out chasing the algorithm, running out of ideas.
Question: all your retro computers are nicely put away in a closet. How do you use them? Take them out at random, plug them in for an hour and put them back? Keep a single one on the bench and swap it every few months? I have only a few myself, in storage because I don't know where to put them or which one to take out. And what do you do on them? Just random games or do they see actual use?
Indeed Bart, well said. TH-cam, and all platforms for that matter, are steadily becoming more stingy. If not for other revenue sources, many full-time TH-cam video makers say they would not survive.
At any moment Mrs. Google can make a change and you're getting little to nothing. Diversification is important, as is not burning your bridges behind you.
Two things, the best way to convert from 120 to 240 is to use a decent pure sinewave UPS. A good one will let you change the output voltage and/or frequency. So 230VAC at 50Hz from a 120VAC 60Hz input is not a problem and vice versa. Note that a lot of monitors won't like being driven at 60Hz. There is a reason why PAL is 50Hz and NTSC is 60Hz 🙂 Secondly later CRT TV's so anything from about 1990 onwards from Europe can do PAL, SECAM, NTSC etc. The reason is that they were by then being driven by integrated IC's and it was cheaper to produce universal IC's that could decode all TV standards and then only have one TV model to produce than lots of different ones.
Oh, I didn't know about UPSs that also did output voltage change and frequency. That would be awesome. I looked around quickly and I wasn't able to find one though. Do you have a link? I'd love to check one out. Thanks.
For running 110 VAC @ 60 Hz devices here in Australia (230 VAC @ 50 Hz), I use a car power inverter from the US paired with a 12 VDC PSU. That way, I get both the correct voltage and frequency. I never see anybody else recommend this approach, though.
Yes thats the same root that i went.
Adrian black is your friend when it comes to monitors
Interesting... I thought SCART could be converted to VGA, composite or component (or maybe all of them?) by using cables that route the pins the right way...
But then again, an HDMI signal makes everything but lightgun games simpler to acquire.
😊
SCART can be converted to VGA with a passive cable, but on the condition that the VGA input accepts 15KHz scan rate and composite sync, which is not a given, but quite common. SCART to composite is very easy: one of the pins in the SCART plug is the composite signal. Converting SCART to component with passive cables is normally impossible, but there are exceptions as some devices can output a component signal on the RGB pins, this is then often selectable in a menu. In all other cases you need an active converter device.
New viewer here, thanks, YT algo! Why would a Dutchman?/Belgian? move from Europe to the U.S.? Wish I still had my Spectrum...
Yay YT algorithm! 😃 I'm from Spain and was there for a few years but I lived longer in the US. So this was more like coming back home to me.
One thing also to consider is that CRT monitors / TVs from the Northern Hemisphere wont work without modification in the Southern, and vice versa.
Wait, what? Really? I never heard of that. Is it due to some weird magnetic changes?
I read the title as "How to use retro computers" and I was like Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wat?", then I read it again and it made a lot more sense.
Great answers to lots of questions for those of us who want to branch out to computers across the pond.
Looking forward to the Amstrad Monitor Learning Experience video. It should be fun. :)
Haha, me too! 😃
Where abouts in the US did you relocate? East Coast? West Coast? If you don’t mind us asking. :)
I moved to Massachusetts. I used to live there and love the area!
Great video Noel! What kind of video connectors does the ZX Spectrum use? I think it’s RF, but I’m not sure.
By default it has RF output on UHF channel 36 via a cinch connector. It can easily be modified to output composite video from the same connector though.
Hi Noel, welcome to the US. Are you planning on making the rounds of the Vintage Computer Fests while you are here? You could increase your collection and meet other youtubers.
I would love to start attending at some point. Still too gun shy with COVID though. Maybe next year? Here's hoping!
Hi Noel, nice video. Had you changed the camera or something? There is something different now from the videos you did in Asturias...
Thanks! Camera is still the same (Sony A6400) but the lighting is different. Hopefully that's a good change? :-)
Brownie points for callin' the first one a wall-wart!
Vidéo très intéressante et instructive, il vous manque juste un micro Français comme le Thomson MO5.
Merci! C'est vrai ça à propos d'un micro français (mais l'Oric c'est presque ça 😃).
I wanted to thank you for your style of video. You are very easy to understand and well spoken. Makes it much easier to follow along and learn. I appreciate your videos a lot as I don't understand a great many things when it comes to upgrades, modding, restoring, etc. I have a ZX Spectrum coming to me from the UK to the USA and this will be great info for me. My friend in the UK has already composite modded it for me, and recapped it. I'm just looking for a USA power solution and an SD card solution. Any thoughts?
Really glad you enjoy the videos! For the Spectrum PSU, do what I did with that 9V PSU (open it and reverse the leads) and you're done. Someone else also suggested using an Atari Jaguar or Sega Genesis PSUs, which I guess are already center negative. You're still going to need a way to display a PAL signal since that's what the composite video will be. As for SD card solution, my favorite is the divMMCFuture, but you can look around for any divMMC. Enjoy!
@@NoelsRetroLab Thank you very much! I do have extra Genesis AC adapters around (modern replacements) so I will take a look at those and see if they fit the bill. Pal I have covered with a Retrotink 2x Pro, it's been fantastic at that. Thank you for the SD card recommendation. I will take a look
Qué rápido hablas, nen 😜
great to have you back Noel!.. missed ya vids!
...if the RTC runs fast on the c64..does that effect the running speed of the system aswell? ...games would feel off woudlnt they...altho...c64 was a US based system to begin with..did it actually run slower in countries with 50hz power?
Slightly, yes. Which was beneficial in some ways. The differences in refresh rate and slight clock differences meant that the CPU had more dedicated time on the bus in PAL regions, meaning it had more time per scan line and per field to shunt data around memory. Some games need a RAM expansion unit so that they can take advantage of the DMA controller to shuffle around memory fast enough to work properly in NTSC regions even if they don't take advantage of the extra RAM.
@@talideon i know its a think on nintendos.. just curious if same on c64
you are foreign! ;) hi from poland
CAREFUL WITH VOLTAGES OF OLD DEVICES!! Don't assume, MEASURE the Voltage! Don't believe the Label!
For example a Mega Drive 1 has a 10V DC Power Supply. HOWEVER: When you measure it at idle, its around 14V, under load, when the Mega Drive is ON, its 11,75V.
So despite it being rated at just 10V, a modern Replacement would be more in the 12V Range.
I don't know about the Mega Drive, but I suspect it doesn't use the input voltage directly and probably runs it through a voltage regulator (for 9V and another one for 5V maybe?). In that case it doesn't matter if it's 11,75V, 12V or even 15V for that matter (other than running a bit hotter). But that's all a guess based on computers I know though.
@@NoelsRetroLab Yes, the Mega Drive only uses 5V via 2 7805 on a Heatsink, so Input Voltage isn't that important, as long as its above the min input of the 7805 and the PSU is strong enough.
Its just an Example that I am aware of, where the VOltage on the Label is a bit different than what it really is.
Great video Noel. Hope to see you again soon.
welcome back!! best lunch ever!
Rather than take apart a PSU i use the universal voltage ones that come with lots of plugs you can put the "plug" round the otherway, then i glue the plug together and having set the right voltage glue that in too.
Yeah, that works too. Just have to make sure that the plug and the output don't ever change. I'm too scared that they would somehow (glue and all) 😃
strictly speaking, US household voltage is (mostly) 3𝚽230V±10, 1𝚽230V±10, and split phase is 115V±5. That's on a delta transformer. It could also be 200V±8 phase-to-phase, and 115v±5 phase-to-neutral if you're connected to a wye transformer.
Good info, and it brings back some good memories. I used to own the the CPC 464 and later the PCW 8256 back in the day, but the first one was an ORIC-1 which I had a lot of fun with.
It seems a bit counter-intuitive to me that a 50 Hz monitor should just work on 60 Hz!? I mean, as far as I know, it uses the line frequency to sync the picture (yes, I know modern monitors doesn't do this, but generates their own frequencies, but older PAL/NTSC televisons didn't), right?
I would at least try that color monitor on a transformer that also converts the frequency before calling it dead...
Maybe in the 50s or 60s, but "modern" CRTs only look at the sync pulses in the video signal. They have an AC/DC power supply and the entire CRT runs on DC; so the electronics doesn't notice anything of the changed line frequency.
I'm not an expert, but I really don't think so. The sync came as part of the signal, it wasn't external. All the other PAL monitors I brought with me are working fine too. I did read that the frequency was chosen to match the electrical frequency to minimize noise and interference, which sounds more likely to me.
Really looking forward to the video about US Amstrad CPC ! I've always wondered what would happen if i connected the jumper, but never dared to try it.
I need to check, but I believe all it does is set the default refresh rate to 60Hz. I even heard of some people "fixing" some really slow games by tweaking that.
Nice ! It could be wired to a Turbo button, like in the first PC compatible, then. 🙂
When I got my PC-88, I just built a scart cable. On the PC-98, about 1 in 15 or so old lcd monitors support its 21 or so Khz. But it must be from a Japanese company. I have a Fujitsu LCD and Mitsubishi CRT.
Welcome back to the US, by the way.
Great video! Some MSX are complicated, like those Sony with weird 3 or more pin connectors you mentioned, and luckily others are the contrary. I have an NMS 800 whose power supply is 12 V AC, and it's broken. The good news is that after looking at the motherboard I saw that it had a full 4-diode rectifier and a regular which admits from 10 to 30 V. So, it can be powered with a standard 12 V DC connector with a standard jack, and it works nicely. And you don't even need to care if it's center positive or negative. By the way, I find pretty scary those models with the transformer inside :S
Lots of great videos to look forward to. )