keilbaca Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Goochman told me I should post this, I just did this the other day. The green LED is the power LED The two red LED's are difficulty switch LED's. When each one is on expert, the corresponding LED lights up. Running off the 9-volt, I get about 3 hrs worth of gameplay in nonstop. Composite Audio/video mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iguana Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 very cool! I wish I had an ounce of technical understanding, but my experience is limited to plug in and turn on. any more than that and I am lost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 The 7800 is in desperate need for this!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HK-47 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Cool. Ben Heck did this with his first vcsp... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Running off the 9-volt, I get about 3 hrs worth of gameplay in nonstop. Composite Audio/video mod. You gotta be pulling my leg, really three hours on one nine volt? -S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HK-47 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Yeah. The vcs drains the battery rather quickly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted January 24, 2005 Author Share Posted January 24, 2005 Yeah. The vcs drains the battery rather quickly... If you think about what it is and what it actually does, that isn't too bad at all. I also have a 8 AA holder from radio shack, and that thing lasts forever. Just don't leave it plugged in, as the atari still drains power from it, you'll end up with a dead battery. Well, possibly longer than 3 hrs, i lost count lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 I have some lithium 9v's How long do you think those will last But just running it like a normal power supply throws a lot of the power away at the voltage regulator, doesn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike OC Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 The 7800 is in desperate need for this!!! 7800 might require too much HP for running off a 9v. It's rated @ 1000ma. It may play ok in 2600 mode running off a 9v, but in 7800 mode you may see either a short battery life or messed up graphics or the like. It would be cool though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 These are the currents I measured for dc powering. Numbers are the same whether applying 9v to the regulator or 5v directly. The regulator doesn't increase current draw by itself. 210ma Adventure in a CMOS multicart 272ma Adventure in normal cart 330ma Pitfall 2 cart (has extra IC) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 Panasonic has new batteries coming out called Oxyride. Here's some info on them from their website: "These innovative new batteries last up to two times longer than traditional batteries in most digital cameras, and 1.5 times longer in other electronics" and they also go on to say "These amazing batteries are so powerful that just two AA-size cells can run the 9-ft long Oxyride™ Extreme Power car for up to 3/4 of a mile with a driver aboard!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindfield Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 Pretty impressive for a set of AA batteries. I notice they don't list an mAh rating though... based on the hype though I'd expect at least 3000mAh outta those. Might be interesting to string six of those together to see how long it can power a DC-modded 2600. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted January 25, 2005 Author Share Posted January 25, 2005 Pretty impressive for a set of AA batteries. I notice they don't list an mAh rating though... based on the hype though I'd expect at least 3000mAh outta those. Might be interesting to string six of those together to see how long it can power a DC-modded 2600. I seriously doubt that thing will die at all. I had 8 normal cheap alkaline batteries running the 2600, and it lasted me for a long time. I mean like a good month or so. Of course, you have to unplug the batteries, or else the Atari will drain them, but they did at least last a month. I never had to change them, then the damn battery connector disappeared. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 What is the point of using batteries? Are you also using a battery powered TV up in a tree house or something? If the TV is plugged in, why not just plug in the Atari too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Franzman Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 These are the currents I measured for dc powering. Numbers are the samewhether applying 9v to the regulator or 5v directly. The regulator doesn't increase current draw by itself. 210ma Adventure in a CMOS multicart 272ma Adventure in normal cart 330ma Pitfall 2 cart (has extra IC) It's misleading (especially to all the electronics novices around here) to say that a linear regulator does not increase current draw (in fact it does, slightly) when what it really wastes is POWER. For a testable, common example, let's use your normal Adventure. If you're powering the system from a 5V source, the power drain is 5 volts X 0.272 amps = 1.36 watts. Now using your 9 volt source, and assuming that the current really is the same, 9 volts x 0.272 amps = 2.448 watts input, an 80% increase. Or to put it another way, runtime would be 1.8 times as much if the regulator didn't waste all that power. There is no perfect solution to this problem, but switching regulators are much better than linear regulators. Most are in the 80-85% efficiency range, with some approaching 95%. Here's an example calculation using a 9 volt battery with an 80% efficient switching regulator: Take the desired output (5 volts X 0.272 amps = 1.36 watts) and divide by the efficiency, 1.36 watts / 0.8 = 1.7 watts input to get 1.36 watts out. Comparing this to the linear regulator, runtime will be 44% longer. Using a more efficient regulator circuit can increase this significantly. This does not even take into account the ~2 volt "dropout" of the linear regulator. Using a "low dropout" linear regulator will increase runtime a bit, but a low dropout switching regulator will improve on that even more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted January 25, 2005 Author Share Posted January 25, 2005 These are the currents I measured for dc powering. Numbers are the samewhether applying 9v to the regulator or 5v directly. The regulator doesn't increase current draw by itself. 210ma Adventure in a CMOS multicart 272ma Adventure in normal cart 330ma Pitfall 2 cart (has extra IC) It's misleading (especially to all the electronics novices around here) to say that a linear regulator does not increase current draw (in fact it does, slightly) when what it really wastes is POWER. For a testable, common example, let's use your normal Adventure. If you're powering the system from a 5V source, the power drain is 5 volts X 0.272 amps = 1.36 watts. Now using your 9 volt source, and assuming that the current really is the same, 9 volts x 0.272 amps = 2.448 watts input, an 80% increase. Or to put it another way, runtime would be 1.8 times as much if the regulator didn't waste all that power. There is no perfect solution to this problem, but switching regulators are much better than linear regulators. Most are in the 80-85% efficiency range, with some approaching 95%. Here's an example calculation using a 9 volt battery with an 80% efficient switching regulator: Take the desired output (5 volts X 0.272 amps = 1.36 watts) and divide by the efficiency, 1.36 watts / 0.8 = 1.7 watts input to get 1.36 watts out. Comparing this to the linear regulator, runtime will be 44% longer. Using a more efficient regulator circuit can increase this significantly. This does not even take into account the ~2 volt "dropout" of the linear regulator. Using a "low dropout" linear regulator will increase runtime a bit, but a low dropout switching regulator will improve on that even more. Where may I find one of these regulators? I am VERY interested, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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