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Hey guys I have a Japanese 3DO FZ10 which has an internal 110V power supply. I tried looking for a replacement PAL 220V power supply but had no luck so I have to go external step down converter. What do you guys recommend? I don't want anything too big/clunky.

This one can handle up to 100W and brings the voltage down to 110V:




This one says it is for charging only but should be fine for powering consoles? Supports 200W combined:




This one can handle 65W:




This one plugs straight into the wall outlet and supposedly supports 150W but looks cheap. Does it even accept a US power point?



Any opinions or other alternatives would be greatly appreciated!

What about a portable power bank with AC out? https://www.jackery.com/products/powerb ... le-charger

Bit on the expensive side considering that is in US dollars and I would have to factor in shipping to Australia as well. Any other options?

Don't cheap out on transformers. Get a bulky/heavy one (toroidal) that's rated several times higher than your power requirements, preferably without any nonsense features like USB charging.

Thanks for the reply. How many watts would you recommend? I do want to have a few 110V consoles connected up to it via a 4 socket power board but they obviously won't be on at the same time.

You should be able to find the individual power ratings on the underside of the consoles, or on the original 100V power supplies.

Japan uses 100V rather than 110/120V by the way, so you should aim to buy a 100V transformer if possible to reduce the amount of waste heat produced by the console and its power supply.

Ill look into it in the next few days but from first glance the 3DO runs 110v AC to 24v AC transformer which is then rectified down to 12v DC to run some 5v DC regulators.
Im pretty sure you can take out the transformer and swap it for an old sega power brick or something else 12v DC and itll run fine. A Wii power brick might be a touch too big but are easily available, could wire it external.

Please do! And thanks in advance.

I was wrong, the 110 goes to a 19v AC transformer, bridge rectified to 24v DC that then supplies the main regulators.

So you could replace the internal transformer with a 19v AC OR 24v DC 240v one,
doesn't matter which side you put + or - the rectifier will sort it.

Taking a closer look at the 2 switching regulators that do all the work the input voltages can range from 10 to 30v DC.

I tried using a Wii 12vDC power brick without bypassing the rectifier and the voltage gets dropped down to around 10.3v DC, a bit too low. The old Sega brick dropped even lower.
Bypassing the rectifier gives a nice solid 12v to the regulators and they were both showing a strong 5v and 9v DC.
Even the old Sega brick seemed to supply enough volts when bypassing the rectifier. This is all testing on a junk system, im yet to load it and check video ect.


https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/l4960.pdf
https://www.digchip.com/datasheets/part ... 0C-pdf.php

Very nice work. I had a similar idea of using an ATX supply and bypassing straight to the DC side of the PSU circuit.

It's also possible to replace the transformer with a Triad one which fits in the chassis. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/28906 ... b=comments

I would love to do this but am not too savvy with electronics. I can do basic soldering and can follow instructions though. Where would be a good place to learn about this particular mod?

Umm pretty sure I just explained it with detailed pictures.
What else do you need?

Sorry, I'm just not familiar with the 3DO internals so I don't know exactly what was changed. From what I gather the red and black wires added look simple enough and it seems like a 12-24V DC 3-6A internal transformer was installed on the bottom right? Is that either 12 or 24V, or does that refer to the actual range(same question for the 3-6A). As you can see I am a novice here.

Had a chance to test with the Wii 12v switching power supply.

Audio and video are working well. Im using an ODE(MNemo USB-Host) and that's running no problems also.
I've been testing the power supply without removing any of the 3DO components (rectifier D1 and coil L1). Its not an ideal voltage but it seems to be working fine.
It ends up 10.3v which is only around +1v headroom instead of +15v but it has not yet reset on me. (Input voltage after D1 needs to be 9-30vdc)
I should note again that the Wii switching PSU has very little voltage drop compared to an old Sega power brick.

Its safer to not remove L1 and D1 because you don't have to worry about polarity when wiring in the new PSU.

If you choose to remove L1 D1 then be sure to get the polarity correct for the new PSU and only use a DC one.

Simply put:
DC power supply from 12-24v or AC power supply from 10-20v will work fine as a replacement for the internal 110v-20vAC transformer.

DC 12-24v PSU if removing L1 D1.

Only tested on a FZ-1

Couldn't sleep knowing my 3DO was running with less than 1v headroom so I decided to remove the AC parts and feed the Wii psu 12v directly to the 2 regulators.

Another reason for this is the rectifier gets pretty warm, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why Panasonic decided to power the 2 regulators with 24v when every other company around used 12v.
There's an extra 12v of heat for them to bleed off in the stock 24v system its no wonder I read about the caps near that area dying prematurely.
Running on 12v the 3DO heatsink is warm to touch instead of searing hot.

I wanted to keep the 3DO stock looking and was planning to use the black cable that's attached and fit it inside a Wii power brick but by the time you open one you have destroyed most of the housing(they are siliconed together)

Then I had a thought, there's a dead Wii in my parts pile, what if.... No Fing Way! It Fits?


Panasonic WiiDO Mod





I think I spent a total of $5AUD or less on the Wii and powerbrick.