+gnusto Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 The ONLY USB power supply that has worked for me so far is exactly 5V 1A. No more, no less, at least on my unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkman808 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Yup. I noted the same on mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donjn Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 This Atari 400 mini i sounding worse by the minute, mine arrives tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THX-1138 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Well yeah.. it says on the unit underside it needs 5V 1A, therefore, it er.... needs 5V 1A. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+gnusto Posted March 29 Author Share Posted March 29 7 minutes ago, THX-1138 said: Well yeah.. it says on the unit underside it needs 5V 1A, therefore, it er.... needs 5V 1A. Yes, of course. However it would take hardly any effort to have it tolerate higher current and just draw what it needs. I have many other low wattage devices that just care about the minimum current. Some people won't even *have* 1A output USB and it's not included as part of the package. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeberbach Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 There is no tolerate higher current, it's not a thing. To make it refuse to work if a power supply was able to provide more current than required would cost more money. If a power supply with a number bigger than 1A on it will not work then that supply has other issues, including possibly having a current rating that is an outright lie! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+gnusto Posted March 29 Author Share Posted March 29 Ok. I have plenty of devices with recommended amperage that tolerate a wide range, but this isn't really worth an argument, that isn't my point. I'm trying to give people a heads up that if you don't have an exact 1A adapter you'll need one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeberbach Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Just out of interest what didn't it work with? Could it be a phone charger that needs to negotiate with a connected device before it will supply more than 500mA? USB is the likely problem because that rectangular plug connects to a lot of things that can't supply enough power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileronster Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 (edited) I ran mine off a 4 Amp USB charger I use to charge my phones. Worked fine. Also an over volt condition (12 Volt power supply for a 5 volt device) is how you blow the system. Amps are what an electronic device can pull. It might pull .8 amps, it might pull 1.5 amps depending on what its doing. Amps are on tap. So I find this odd. But if the device is sensitive to say 5.6 volts versus 5.2 volts. That might be an issue. You could check to see if your usb charger is running a little hot in the voltage range. If you have a multi-meter. Actually its probably under-voltage. A cheap usb charger might be running at 5.0 volts and once you pull 1 amp its drops below 5 volts to say 4.8 or 4.7. It will be interesting to see what this turns out to be. Edited March 29 by aileronster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+gnusto Posted March 29 Author Share Posted March 29 I first tried using a wallplug adapter that reads 5v/2A (not a smart one, at least no claim of such). Possibly the wallplug is bad, I have never used it before, so I'll find the USB tester later. I happened to have a raspberry pi 3 sitting right there so I used that second (5V/2.5A I believe). At that point I figured I had better go find an actual 1A output which I eventually did, and it worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THX-1138 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 I just double checked my USB power plug, it's 2A and works fine with the 400 mini. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperZapperRecharge Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 5 hours ago, gnusto said: I happened to have a raspberry pi 3 sitting right there so I used that second (5V/2.5A I believe) If you have a long usb cord to the mini, on some cheaper chargers, that 5v can go below 5v because the USB wire is too long. Any electrical wire is a bit of a resistor when pulling higher amps and can make voltage decrease if the wire is long enough. Some chargers actually compensate for this by using 5.1v. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 (edited) Many, many USB power adapters are crap. They either lie about the amperage completely, or they drop down the voltage too mich under the load they are supposed to handle. I run into this powering RPi's all the time. It doesn't even matter if they are name-brand or not. It means nothing. Edited March 29 by R.Cade 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Are you testing the different chargers with the same or different cables? Some devices are picky about USB cables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pps Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 I used 2 different Nokia/MS PSU. One with 1A, the other with 1.5A. Both worked fine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean_1970 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 I have an 8-port powered hub with six ports occupied by my 2600+ amongst other things - no issues. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spanner Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 (edited) I use the USB port on my PC to power mine, it uses the USB-C cable from the Atari2600 Plus and its HDMI cable... it sits on top of it, never unpack the rest of the cables, saves on cables...lol. Well you can't really use both at the same time... Edited March 29 by Spanner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxDiehard Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Just like my Atari 2600+, i've got mine plugged into my PS5's front USB port. Works just fine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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