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Commodore Plus 4 & 16 PAL & Power issue


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Hello to you all !

 

If I brought PAL Commodore Plus 4 or 16 and bring it back into USA from Europe. Will they work with my USA power Supply version 110 volts instead of 220 volts power supply ? Will they NOT blow up internal power capacitors ? And will those PAL work with my NTSC/PAL Sony CRT monitor & another HDTV NTSC/PAL , too ?

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Should work with those TVs. I hook up my Plus4 and VC20 via SCART cable off ebay. Costs like 10 bucks and picture quality is great. As for the power supply: you need a converter.

 

The Plus4 is a fun little piece of technology, and looks great. However, most of the games (even in 64k mode) fall flat compared to their C64 counterparts. Do you have a 1551 floppy drive to go along with it?

Edited by karokoenig
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Hello karokoeing & Rybags,

 

I see both are in conflicts about power supply ? Which one is correct ? I has to be sure PAL Euro Commodore Plus 4 or 16 will work US Power Supply.

 

Karokoening, I do not have 1551 disk drive (black case) for Plus 4 & 16 NTSC. I do not have any PAL Commodore at all, ONLY NTSC version expect 2 PAL Atari 800XL.

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The thing is like this:

 

The Commodore 16 and 116 take 9.5V DC, 800 mA or better through a barrel connector.with centre negative polarity. This is very much alike a ZX Spectrum, a Sega Genesis, an Atari Jaguar. DC voltage is independent of the voltage and frequence of the AC line voltage in the wall wart, which means if you have a US power supply that is specified to output the same voltage and at least the required amount of ampere, and with the same polarity, you should be able to use it. I think the 9.5V is a gimmick and that it internally has a 7805 voltage regulator anyway so 9V or even 10V may work. Remember though that both the CPU and TED chips are fragile in these computers, so be careful.

 

The Plus/4 on the other hand has a 4-pin square connector. It takes 9V AC + 5V DC just like a VIC-20, C64 or C128. You would be able to use a US power supply if you get an adapter or modify the computer so you replace the square connector with the more common round DIN connector. There may be a small discrepancy here in that the 9V AC will have the same frequency (50/60 Hz) as your wall wart. Generally it doesn't matter, but things like the TOD clock may derive its time from the AC frequency which means the clock might be off by a little if you use a US power supply with an European machine or vice versa. Otherwise the voltages are the same.

 

What was said above is that if you got a 230V power supply from Europe, you can't just replace the connector to the wall wart and plug it in, in that case you would need the mentioned step-up converter to convert the wall wart 120V to 230V (or whichever actual voltages there are).

 

As for floppy drive, doesn't the 1541 work with the Plus/4, only slower than the 1551 would be?

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Caterpiggle wrote:

 

> If I brought PAL Commodore Plus 4 or 16 and bring it back into USA from Europe. Will they work with my USA power Supply version 110 volts instead of 220 volts power supply ?

 

Yes, the PAL Plus/4 that I have from England works fine with a North American p.s.

 

> And will those PAL work with my NTSC/PAL Sony CRT monitor & another HDTV NTSC/PAL , too ?

 

I have the Sony GVM-1311Q multiscan CRT monitor, and it works fine with displaying the PAL Plus/4's screen. As for HDTV, I don't know.

 

Still in Las Vegas after CommVEx,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

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