Japanese Saturn Voltage Question

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 2:13 am

Ok, just got my new white Jap Saturn, and i have a question about the electric. Japanese run on 100V 50Hz current where as in America we use 120V 60Hz current. Is it safe to run my console like this, or should i buy a voltage adapter? I have read only sensitive electronic equipment might have a problem, would a Saturn fall in this category? Thanks

rolins · Post by **rolins** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:34 pm

Don't worry, your japanese saturn will run fine without problems. If your paranoid about it, then I suggest purchasing a 120v <-> 100v step down converter. But it's not really necessary.

overkill55 · Post by **overkill55** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 12:19 am

Yep, mine runs fine too. I don't think such a small voltage difference really will do anything damaging at all

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:08 am

Thanks guys for the help. I dont know if its me but i think the colors on my Japanese Saturn are a little brighter and more vivid than my other two US Saturn's. I thought maybe the voltage had an effect being that more juice is going to the motherboard and all. Also maybe the video encoder used is different than North American Saturn's, or maybe i'm just seeing things.

overkill55 · Post by **overkill55** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:12 am

Hmm, never really noticed a difference in the brightness, though I guess I wasn't really looking.

I'm pretty sure that the encoder is the same as they output to the same format (NTSC). I just think there is a region lockout and this is the only difference. Could be wrong about that though

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:22 am

Yeah, i will compare them tonight

im thinking maybe getting one of these to be safe, since they are cheap

http://www.international-electrical-sup ... ormer.html

rolins · Post by **rolins** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 1:51 am

lawnspic wrote:Yeah, i will compare them tonight

im thinking maybe getting one of these to be safe, since they are cheap

http://www.international-electrical-sup ... ormer.html

That'll work. It's the same model I'm using for my japanese consoles too.

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:13 am

did some more poking around

here is a quote from another thread-

you must use a voltage converter

go to voltage converters.com

they have the best deal

i got a 120 v to 100v

which is what all japanese systems are they arent 110 i am sure some are but are 100v like pc-engine core grafx PC-FX

twenty extra volts isnt good for any system but if you only play for a half hour at a time its fine,
but if you like to play a hour or more you should def have one and dont stress out the system more than a half hour without one i know form having a pc-fx and a core grafx they get super hot within a half hour without the converter.

hope this helps you.

for 24.99 (inc. ship) i gonna get one, i dont want to risk it

overkill55 · Post by **overkill55** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:24 am

Yeah, I guess maybe it's less of an issue for me as I generally don't play it for too long

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 10:10 pm

Well i was bored and opened up all three Saturns. Two were model 2 North American systems and the other my new Japanese white model 2. Printed on the Japanese power supply board it says 85-135 volt AC as its input. It says the same on one of my USA Saturn's. The two power boards look identical except the USA one has what appear to be one more resitor on it. One the other USA Saturn the power board looks completely different than the other two (new revision, or different part) I gonna assume that though the two board look the same the USA has some added stuff to accomodate our native voltage here in America. One thought is that i probably could swap the power supply's and it would work fine being that the output on the four pins is the same (ie. 5V, 9V, and 2 grounds). One thing that had me concerned was the bunt yelow brown look the transformer had on the Jap Saturn. Later i found some pics of the same transformers online and they looked the same. That was a relief because i thought maybe the extra voltage put extra heat stress on the tranformer possibly damaging it. All in all i playing it safe and getting a step down converter, though people have never had a problem with running import consoles fron Japan on US voltage unless it was in Europe which would kill it for sure.

grovsnus · Post by **grovsnus** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 11:28 am

Could an uber-bright picture be the result of wrong voltage going in to the console (SFC in my case), i.e 110 instead of 100v?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:14 pm

Voltage:
You do not need a step down (or up). I took a few things from America with me to Japan, and they worked fine. I took an entire house worth of Japanese shit (toaster, 32" Plasma, computers, 5 consoles, alarm clocks, etc. etc.) and used them for two years in Hawaii. They are now back in Japan with me (working fine on Japanese outlets)

Colors:
NTSC-J standard is different from NTSC-U. I have absolutely no proof to back it up, but I was told more vivid colors was the most noticeable difference. However, I don't know what that plays out when you have an NTSC-U TV. I recall playing JSR on my DC for a while, then playing a demo of Jet Grind Radio (gayest fucking name ever) on my friends in the states and noticed it looked kind of dull. It could've just been his TV though (not that mine at the time was anything to wank over).

EDIT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC-J

Seems the "blanking level" is the only difference.

ReKleSS · Post by **ReKleSS** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:17 pm

Only Japan's variant "NTSC-J" is slightly different: in Japan, black level and blanking level of the signal are identical (at 0 IRE), as they are in PAL, while in American NTSC, black level is slightly higher (7.5 IRE) than blanking level. Since the difference is quite small, a slight turn of the brightness knob is all that is required to enjoy the "other" variant of NTSC on any set as it is supposed to be; most watchers might not even notice the difference in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC#NTSC-J

What goes into the power supply should have very little effect on what comes out, for low voltage electronic stuff. If it's beyond spec the power supply will probably kill itself, but as long as it's within the rated voltages the outputs will still be very close to 5V and 12V and whatever else the console needs. If you're super paranoid you should be able to swap the power supply from a US saturn into the JP saturn.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:18 pm

Lol... good timing, RekLess.

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 2:51 pm

Nice work GP, i guess thats the reason for the color difference. NTSC-J is alot more colorful where as NTSC-U is a little more dull. I thought i was seeing things. I would swap the power supply's but my new White Saturn is modded and the guy who did it soldered the wire to the 5 volt pin. Im too lazy to unsolder it and clean up the pins to remove the board. So the step down converter should do the trick for now. Its funny on the box is a big warning label to not use HK power. I bet that would be a good light show, huh.

lawnspic · Post by **lawnspic** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 11:16 pm

Got the voltage converter today, nice little piece of equiment. I'm up and running!