New to Saturn, have power adapter questions

[lachdahnan]

Hey all. I recently aquired a Saturn and Im trying to get things up and going. But I honestly am not sure how to go about it.

I live in the US, but this is a european or asian model I think.
It has 2 long round cylinders for power. The specs on the cable read '2.5A 250V~'
The specs on the Saturn read:
Power Source: 220-240V ~50/60Hz 20W

I am not very familiar with electronics in this aspect so Im at a bit of a loss on what I need to get this bad boy going.

I saw some people speaking of taking the Saturn apart and replacing things inside, but I really would rather not do that because this one is brand new. So I would like to try to keep it mint.

Any ideas?

Thanks guys

[termis]

You're right. That is a EU machine.

Quite frankly, if you want to keep it mint, just store it away, because it won't do you much good as a play machine.

To get it going without touching any internals, you'll need:
1) Power transformer.
2) A TV that can display PAL (probably no CRT units, which is best for Saturns)
3) Action replay cart to play anything other than PAL region games. (i.e. like US or JP games)

Even then, most games will come out crippled with squashed borders and slower gameplay.

Again, just get a cheap play-only saturn, and you don't have to fuss with the above details (for sure #1 and #2, and #3 only if you intend to play imports).

[mick_aka]

Feb 2, 2010 21:46:07 GMT @lachdahnan said:

I am not very familiar with electronics

With the greatest of respect if that is the case you need to get yourself a US Saturn.

As termis rightly said you will need to buy a step-up transformer, then either modify the console with a region switch, or buy an region cartridge.

You also need a TV that can handle the PAL video signal.

Even when you've done all that the console is running in 50Hz instead of the American console's 60Hz so any US games you run on it will run too slowly, this again requires an internal hardware modification to fit a 50/60Hz switch.

[lachdahnan]

Well darn I was hoping to play some Castlevania. The tv part is not an issue, but the power and action replay sounds like a pretty good downfall.

Maybe Ill just try to sell it and get a Japanese one instead.

Thanks for posting and letting me know. I appreciate the help

[lachdahnan]

Feb 3, 2010 0:03:21 GMT mick_aka said:

Feb 2, 2010 21:46:07 GMT @lachdahnan said:

I am not very familiar with electronics

With the greatest of respect if that is the case you need to get yourself a US Saturn.

As termis rightly said you will need to buy a step-up transformer, then either modify the console with a region switch, or buy an region cartridge.

You also need a TV that can handle the PAL video signal.

Even when you've done all that the console is running in 50Hz instead of the American console's 60Hz so any US games you run on it will run too slowly, this again requires an internal hardware modification to fit a 50/60Hz switch.

Im not saying your wrong Im just moreso wondering, why does it show 50~60 Hz on the back. I read that as being capable as either, of course as you saw, Im not too familiar with this.

How dissapointing! lol


***Edit***
Heres something interesting:
cgi.ebay.com/NEW-SEGA-SATURN-SYSTEM-CONSOLE-WHITE-JAPAN_W0QQitemZ170433434170QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27ae9fd23a

This is the link where it came from, the guy has more of them. But I noticed, and its the same on my box. It says its NTSC in the upper right corner. Any idea whats going on here?

Now Im wondering if hes claiming NTSC-J systems, but they are really PAL ? Im confused lol.

[mick_aka]

Some asian countries use 240V, that's why the console you linked to is a 240V system, but still NTSC.

[lachdahnan]

Ohhhh, so there is a chance I can still play castlevania then? I just need to work on the power issue I suppose.

I dont suppose you guys have any links to where I could find a transformer that would do the job?


***Edit***
Think this would do the job?
cgi.ebay.com/50-Watt-Voltage-Converter-110v-to-220v-TO-BE-USED-USA_W0QQitemZ360224620499QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20100109?IMSfp=TL100109229005r27009

[mick_aka]

Looks spot on to me.

[lachdahnan]

Feb 3, 2010 3:23:29 GMT mick_aka said:

Looks spot on to me.

Oh wow, I really thought something like that was going to be much more expensive. Thats great.

Thank you for the help guys. I know I never posted on here before, but yet you came to help me out anyway. Just want you to know that I appreciate it.

I cant stand when people get what they want, then never come back to update or say thanks or anything.

If I manage to get Castlevania up and running, Ill be sure to let you guys know hehehehe

[mick_aka]

Glad to help, good luck

[lachdahnan]

Right on, thanks

[termis]

Yeah, there is a chance that you have an Asian NTSC system, though I don't know why it'd have the round two-prong plug. The only Asian country I know with NTSC + 220/240v + round plug is Korea, but then you'd have the Samsung-badge Saturn (and if you have a samsung unit in mint condition, holy crap dude, hold on to that thing)

And MOST Asian systems are set to Japan region, so as you say, Castlevania may be good to go once you solve the power issue.

Either way, the only surefire way to know what you have is to turn it on, and check out the menu settings screen -- this will give you the info as to what region your saturn is and whether its displaying ntsc or pal. (more info on that if you want)

As for the 50-60Hz label on the back, that refers to the system's power supply requirements, not the video refresh rate, so that's irrelevant.

[lachdahnan]

Feb 3, 2010 11:59:59 GMT termis said:

Yeah, there is a chance that you have an Asian NTSC system, though I don't know why it'd have the round two-prong plug. The only Asian country I know with NTSC + 220/240v + round plug is Korea, but then you'd have the Samsung-badge Saturn (and if you have a samsung unit in mint condition, holy crap dude, hold on to that thing)

And MOST Asian systems are set to Japan region, so as you say, Castlevania may be good to go once you solve the power issue.

Either way, the only surefire way to know what you have is to turn it on, and check out the menu settings screen -- this will give you the info as to what region your saturn is and whether its displaying ntsc or pal. (more info on that if you want)

As for the 50-60Hz label on the back, that refers to the system's power supply requirements, not the video refresh rate, so that's irrelevant.

Ohhhh I see. Well once I get the power transformer and hopefully fire it up w/o burning the system up, I will check and let you guys know what it says.

I see what you mean about the 50-60Hz, that would be the wavelength or frequency of the power no?

Thanks for the update

[lachdahnan]

Lets say for a moment is it a mint condition Samsung-Badge. Could you convert "holy crap dude" into a dollar value? You now have me wondering what I could potentially have here lol.

[Kibbles]

Well an easy way to tell if you have a Samsung Saturn is if it has a fucking huge Samsung logo on it somewhere, if not then you probably just have some Saturn that's been imported to somewhere by someone else and has shipped you their power cord... or something shitty like that.