Burned PCE Duo-R power brick and power converter question

[briareos_kerensky]

Or so I think...and hope!

I was searching for a 110 to 220 V power converter (JPN to Italian plug) and found one of those travel adapters with omni sockets and interchangeable plugs and before plugging in all the expensive equipment I tested the cheap one...apparently that power converter could support up to 250v.
The Nitho Wiimote charger had no problems in accepting the new coverter, but it has its own integrated 100-240 power brick, so the PC Engine Duo-R was next in line.
The moment I plugged in the power brick with the travel adapter to the wall socket I heard a buzzing noise, but of course I tried to turn on the console...it run for five seconds then no more video and audio signal. Oh Joy.
I've tried to plug the PCE brick into the old but power converter (which I used happily with a JPN GC for quite some time) but I wasn't lucky enough.

So, dead PCE. Or is it just a dead power supply? Anyone knows where to find one for a Duo-R, without buying the whole console again?

Now I'm starting to wonder if the travel adapter is simply and adapter and not a true converter (as the one I already have it's much bigger, heavier and accepts only JPN plugs) so it's fine with universal 100-240 power bricks but not with 110 only bricks...the PCE brick was old (obviously) and I haven't used it in a while, maybe it's only due to time, but now I'm suspicious of using that damned adapter and I don't know what I should be searching for a new converter.

I need to convert this:
専用ACアダプターにより供給
　　　電圧：DC 11V　最大消費電流：2A
(http://www.micomsoft.co.jp/xrgb-3_spec.htm)

Any suggestion on the specs the converter should have?
Current converter has an output of 110v 75W, input of 230v 50hz and happilily supplied a GC, a PCE (well, supplied) and the Nitho Wiimote charger.

[Link83]

I may have misunderstood your post here, but as I understand it you used a travel adaptor to plug a PCE straight into your wall?

Travel Adaptors are usually just adaptors that re-arrange the pins on the plug - they dont do any power conversion at all.

Im not sure if you saying your wall voltage is 240V and you need 110V, or if you wall voltage is 110V and need 240V? (I think the PC Engine is meant to be used with 110V systems? Unless your using an aftermarket Italian PCE power supply that takes 240V?)

You possibly could have blown the PC Engine power supply (Depending on if your wall voltage is 110V or 240V) but hopefully the PCE itself will still be fine.

Really, we need to know what your wall voltage is and what type of socket it has, and then what the PC Engine power supply needs, and what plug it has.

[briareos_kerensky]

I may have misunderstood your post here, but as I understand it you used a travel adaptor to plug a PCE straight into your wall?

Yeah.
Yeah, I know, it's stupid but I thought it would do fine.
I though that thing could handle a stepdown conversion. Wall plug is 220v, so I needed the power down to 110v to feed the PCE.

First thing I plugged the Nitho Wiimote charger, which is universal (100-240v) and of course it would have been OK...at least I plugged in the PCE and not some hard-to-find piece of electronic, even if it's still a huge loss!

The more I think about it the more I realized how stupid is what I did.

Found a spare PCE power brick on eBay, official item from NEC with the same product model ID as the one I had; I really hope only the power brick that's busted...Duo-R value has risen since I bought mine and right now it would be too expensive to replace.

Today I've learned that travel adapters can f*ck right off, damn thing had no warning it was a simple passthrough and the shopkeeper assured me I would have been fine.

I just hope that the electric shock was absorbed by the travel adapter and the power brick...

[J0e Musashi]

Just use a Mega Drive 2 PSU...

[briareos_kerensky]

Easy if I had a MD2.

[J0e Musashi]

Easy if you had an internet connection and an eBay account .

[chaoticjelly]

Do you have a link, or any other information on the power converter?

If it's really light, compared to the one that you already have then it probably is just a physical plug converter as opposed to a stepdown..

The actual premise these converters follow to "step down" the voltage is that there are two windings around the transformer coil, primary and secondary, so in a step down, the primary would be around double the windings of the secondary i.e. 240/230 to 110/100.

So basically an electrical transformer should be inside which is a pretty heavy thing

Thankfully the Duo-R has a glass fuse inside, which may have saved the console from oblivion, you should check it with a multimeter if possible. If it tests good then the console may be OK, but if the PSU has had double the recommended voltage go through it, would mean that is now dud.

Oh and I forget to mention, you don't need many watts to power retro consoles. I'd recommend getting a stepdown that does 100V for Japanese machines however, most stepdowns out there do 110V (as they are designed for US devices) which is fine, but as Japanese is technically 100V they can get a bit toasty (don't leave plugged in!) which can reduce the life of the PSU's and stepdown itself.

[briareos_kerensky]

Easy if you had an internet connection and an eBay account .

The MD has always been on my list of consles to buy, but right now I don't have the space where to put it and buy enough games to make a good collection.
Thanks for the suggestion and I'll keep it in mind, but since a replacement power adapter for the PCE is already on its way, I'll stick to it for now

Oh and I forget to mention, you don't need many watts to power retro consoles.

I know that. In fact, the stepdown would have served an XRGB-3, I used the PCE as a guinea pig...I already have one "proper" stepdown converter (I used it with the same PCE and even a GameCube) and the second one was to power both XRGB-3 and PCE at the same time.

I've found a stepdown converter capable of outputting 110/120v AC 60hz for devices up to 100Watts (much more powerful than I need), it should be enough to safely power the device I've wrote in my first post? (heat aside...I always unplug consoles) I'm a bit confused on the AC/DC thing.

Thankfully the Duo-R has a glass fuse inside, which may have saved the console from oblivion,

So chances are that the fuse inside the console is blown and I could replace it, right? I gave up on the power brick, but the console is much harder to gave up

[briareos_kerensky]

It's aliiiiiiveeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

I think I'll celebrate with some R-Type tonight.