Do you keep your 2600 plugged in?

[BigO]

I'd hazard a guess that thermal cycles and voltage surges are the most likely killers of a power supply. If that is the case, leaving it plugged in would be the safer thing to do.

 

Conserving energy and removing the clutter are probably the most valid reasons for unplugging the units. They do stay warm, wasting energy, but the temperature doesn't exceed the normal operating parameters of the components so I doubt that would shorten their lives materially. Plugging in a cold power supply is, in my estimation, more likely to cause a failure than leaving it powered over a long period of time. I've seen plenty of electronic equipment that worked fine, was shut down, then failed to come back up because of a bad power supply.

 

I suppose you could get a Variac (variable transformer) and bring the power up slowly every time instead of just whacking the adapter with full line voltage instantly when you plug it in. I think that could extend the life some.

 

Plugging it into a surge suppressor or even a decent UPS and leaving it powered all the time would probably be a good way to go if your sole goal was to maximize the longevity of the power supply in a somewhat practical manner.

 

I don't leave mine plugged in. If I had a dedicated space to leave it set up, I would. But, I might plug it into a power strip. Or I might not.

Edited June 2, 2009 by BigO

[classicgamingguy]

Heh...I love it. I work for a solid waste company, with heavy emphasis on recycling for the masses. I'm all for keeping things unplugged when not in use, like my Atari 2600 is. I also use the energy-saving bulbs, recycle, etc. I am trying to leave as little a carbon footprint as possible. NOT that this was supposed to be an environmental issue, but...hey, free points to help the planet.

 

Steve

[newtype5]

hi all,

first post here at atari age. i've been an atari addict since 1978, and have collected off and on since that time. my two cents on this topic:

do not leave your atari plugged in all the time. i have had 2 power supplies fail thru the years from being left plugged in. one was the very first ps for our first atari in 1979, the other was lent to my girlfriend's brother in the mid-90's, and even after i asked him to not leave it plugged in he did just that - and sure enough i got back a dead power supply. my understanding is if the unit gets too hot it will trigger a circuit breaker like effect and kill the psu.

just my experience - yours may differ, but i figure why take the chance?

thanks!

[Video]

Now the real question is,

 

is it safe to keep 11 game systems plugged into the same outlet 24/7?

What? Only 11? Game consoles, even modern ones like the power hogging bastard the X-box 360, only use like a tenth of the power that the TV they are hooked up to uses when they are turned on. Yeah, some supply's use energy when turned off, but nowhere NEAR what the console would when turned on.

 

Remember, Electricity has to have somewhere to go, or it doesn't move.

 

That brings me to the capacitors, I doubt having energy in them through the normal power off cycle will harm them (does the 2600 even have caps? I seem to remember taking mine apart at one time, and it had like two chips and a dozen resistors or something..) If anything, draining the caps will essentialy cause more power to flow into them more violently than if they had a partial charge, likely wearing them out faster than if left alone.

 

Same thing with the power supply, yeah, it's warm when plugged in, but the sudden shift in temperature and the energy spike experienced when plugging and unplugging it will wear it out far faster than it's tiny use of power if left in all the time.

 

Me? I've pretty much left mine plugged in all it's life, and still have the same adapter I got with the system 25+ years ago, while my friends have had many die on them, and as near as I can tell, the only difference (besides I play my system hella more than they ever did, and still do) is that they would unplug and pack up the thing when not in use. Of course, it could more likely be, they were damaging the wire in the cable, rather than the power supply itself.