Ac Adapter Questions

[TheFr00n]

Hi,
First, apologies if this has been asked before. I did search but with no success.

I'm not in a position to acquire an official AC adapter for my GP2X, so I plan to just buy a generic one for it. But I need to know what kind of current it should supply as I don't want to fry my unit. This sort of info might be in the manual, but I bought my GP2X on eBay and it came without.

So, anyone know how many volts DC the adapter should produce? How about amps?

Thanks,
D

 

[oryhara]

Officially it uses 3.3v but from what I've heard it should run fine on the standard 3.6v.

 

[buntz]

I've heard the gp2x will draw as much as 1 amp. But as long as you keep the voltage around 3.3 (in my opinion 3.6 would work), supply as much current as you want as the gp2x will only take as much as it needs. I'm using a ATX power supply to run mine on my bench. It puts out 3.3v at 7.0 amps continuous. But too little current and it wont work. And make sure the tip is negative.

 

[Cervante]

See I dont mess with none of that stuff, I bought the adapter and a converter which cost me $10 (yeah I know I got ripped, but man the girl at the counter looked cute)

 

[donny662]

A 3V 1A adapter will work, but the important thing to do is get one that is "center negative." Also, many people insist that you should get a regulated adapter.

 

[hcaaman]

yeah, you need to get a regulated one. i've seen unregulated 3v ones go up to 5v under zero load. it's 166% higher than it should be! those are usually the kind you get from flea markets or shady shops in chinatown.

 

[TheFr00n]

People, thanks for all your help and suggestions. So I'm looking for something that outputs 3.3v-3.6v at about 1A, regulated, with negative on the center pin. Sweet. I can do that.

Ultimately, the reason I want one is that I've started fooling around with overclocking my GP2x. On a fresh set of batteries I can run it at 280 stable, but after an hour or so, SquidgeSnes crashes, presumably because by that point there isn't enough juice left to drive at that level. There is, however, enough juice to play lots and lots of DrMD/ScummVM/etc.

Presumably, running on an AC adapter would mean you never get this dip, so I could play FFVI til the cows came home.

 

[buntz]

Ultimately, the reason I want one is that I've started fooling around with overclocking my GP2x. On a fresh set of batteries I can run it at 280 stable, but after an hour or so, SquidgeSnes crashes, presumably because by that point there isn't enough juice left to drive at that level

Remeber more speed draws more power, and that means more current. If the offical supply puts out 1 amp for 200 mhz, you might want to consider going higher with the current. This give you more watts, which is more power.

If you run for an hour and you have 2000mha batteries, that means they can supply 2 amps for one hour. So if you start crashing after one hour at high speed, that means that at that speed your gp2x is drawing around 2 amps!

What kind of batteries are you using anyway? And does anyone know how many watts the offical GP2X adapter supplies (multiply the voltage by the current and that gives you watts)?

i.e. 3.3 volts * 1 Amp = 3.3 Watts (That Ohm guy was on to something)

 

[TheFr00n]

Well since you ask, I am using a set of 2700 NiMh batteries from 7dayshop, their generic brand. I don't particularly recommend the brand (or the shop, for that matter) - kinda average performance, does sort of what it says on the tin, nothing special. When not overclocking they last about four to five hours.

When overclocking, they last for about two hours post crash (ie, not playing SquidgeSnes). Woooooo.

 

[buntz]

Well since you ask, I am using a set of 2700 NiMh batteries

wow. It sucks them down. Yeah I might go with a little beefier power supply then. A 1 amp one would be straining it sounds like.