TG-16/CD Power Adapter

ctophil · 07/29/2014, 03:42 PM

Hi everybody,

I'm new here to PCEngineFX. But I just bought a Turbografx-16 CD System. It didn't come with a power adapter. So I had to "frankenstein" it by purchasing a power adapter at Radio Shack. I heard that the power requirements for an American TG-16 CD is 11v and 1.53a. So I bought a Universal adapter that goes up to 12v and 2.5a. It works great at 12v for about 2 hours. My question is if it's 11v, is it okay to use 12v? The Universal adapter adapter doesn't have 11v. I can do 9v or 12v.

I played the system for about 2 hours or so, then it started glitching up with the graphics and freezing. Could this be the cause of the 12v or something else? Thanks!

SephirothTNH · 07/30/2014, 09:25 AM

I've been using a Genesis Model 1 adapter with my tg16 and have had no problems. It outputs 9v 1.2a. Not sure if 12v would cause graphical issues though. The tg16 has a 7805 regulator in it so sending in 12v shouldn't be a problem.

Edit: Disregard I just noticed you are talking about the cd unit.

schweaty · 07/30/2014, 02:40 PM

Quote from: ctophil on 07/29/2014, 03:42 PMHi everybody,

I'm new here to PCEngineFX. But I just bought a Turbografx-16 CD System. It didn't come with a power adapter. So I had to "frankenstein" it by purchasing a power adapter at Radio Shack. I heard that the power requirements for an American TG-16 CD is 11v and 1.53a. So I bought a Universal adapter that goes up to 12v and 2.5a. It works great at 12v for about 2 hours. My question is if it's 11v, is it okay to use 12v? The Universal adapter adapter doesn't have 11v. I can do 9v or 12v.

I played the system for about 2 hours or so, then it started glitching up with the graphics and freezing. Could this be the cause of the 12v or something else? Thanks!

I am using a radio shack 9v 1.2a and it has never given me a single problem. I would recommend trying your adapter on the 9v setting.

ctophil · 07/30/2014, 03:30 PM

Thanks, guys, for your responses. The first power adapter I got was a 9v, 1.5a, and the TG-16 CD gave me a lot of graphical glitches and game loading issues right away. So when I upgraded to the 12v, 2.5a one, it worked fine for 2 hours. But I will try it at the 9v, 2.5a to see what happens. I will update this thread when I get the results so that other folks on the forum will benefit from my experiments. :-)

schweaty · 07/30/2014, 03:35 PM

Quote from: SephirothTNH on 07/30/2014, 09:25 AMEdit: Disregard I just noticed you are talking about the cd unit.

I just noticed that you noticed he was talking about the CD unit. I also withdraw my bullshit comments as I was talking about the deck only

cr4zymanz0r · 07/31/2014, 12:28 AM

Yeah, I was attempting to use two different Turbografx CD units with a 9V 3A adapter and it wouldn't boot game or music CDs. After I gave it 12V it worked immediately. I haven't gotten a 2+ hour play session on it yet though.

Keith Courage · 07/31/2014, 01:10 AM

The CD drive may need some slight potentiometer adjustment. When I test CD drives I let them run for over an hour to see if they still read well. 50% of the time I find small adjustments need to be made after a 90 minute period. Usually a spindle speed adjustment.

ctophil · 07/31/2014, 02:21 PM

Quote from: cr4zymanz0r on 07/31/2014, 12:28 AMYeah, I was attempting to use two different Turbografx CD units with a 9V 3A adapter and it wouldn't boot game or music CDs. After I gave it 12V it worked immediately. I haven't gotten a 2+ hour play session on it yet though.

Let me know how it goes when you play the Turbografx CD for 2 hours or more. My TG CD might just need adjustments like Keith Courage said. But I need to know if it's a power issue first. Thanks.

ctophil · 07/31/2014, 02:31 PM

Quote from: Keith Courage on 07/31/2014, 01:10 AMThe CD drive may need some slight potentiometer adjustment. When I test CD drives I let them run for over an hour to see if they still read well. 50% of the time I find small adjustments need to be made after a 90 minute period. Usually a spindle speed adjustment.

That's probably something I might have to do. I've worked on modern consoles from the NES, SNES, & Sega Genesis all the way to Xbox 360 and PS3. I have never worked on a Turbografx CD unit. But I'm willing to give it a try if necessary. Do you know if anybody who sells new lasers for the Turbografx CD? Maybe a reproduction or compatible laser?

schweaty · 08/01/2014, 10:43 AM

Quote from: ctophil on 07/31/2014, 02:31 PMDo you know if anybody who sells new lasers for the Turbografx CD? Maybe a reproduction or compatible laser?

There is a sticky on this topic:

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=7193.0

ctophil · 08/05/2014, 04:27 PM

Okay, update on my experiments. The Tubografx CD would not play on 9v. So I went back to 12v and 2.5a. I played for another 2 hours. This time it worked just fine. It had a graphic glitch one time at 1 1/2 hours. But then, the system cleared itself and worked fine for over 2 hours.

So what I believe is that my Turbografx CD just needed to run itself for extended periods of time to re-adjust whatever problem it had. It's kinda like an automobile. You need to occasionally drive the car to keep the engine working in top performance. The Turbografx CD I bought from someone on Ebay apparently has not used it for years. I think the laser is also working fine. Loads very quickly.

Well, I just wanted to update for other people who are curious with the same issues I had.

Akina86 · 08/18/2014, 09:08 PM

I am no expert, but it might be time for a "tune up" on your drive, that might help things. what i mean by tune up is to take the unit apart and clean the worm gear and apply new lithium grease to it. i wouldn't mess with the "middle" gear if it is working fine, or maybe if you want to do a little preventive maintenance go ahead and order up a new middle gear and do everything at one time. like i said; im no expert, but you never know this might just help.

ctophil · 08/19/2014, 04:17 PM

Quote from: Akina86 on 08/18/2014, 09:08 PMI am no expert, but it might be time for a "tune up" on your drive, that might help things. what i mean by tune up is to take the unit apart and clean the worm gear and apply new lithium grease to it. i wouldn't mess with the "middle" gear if it is working fine, or maybe if you want to do a little preventive maintenance go ahead and order up a new middle gear and do everything at one time. like i said; im no expert, but you never know this might just help.

Thanks for the advice. I will surely do that if it acts up again. Like I said, I fix current generation consoles for a living. So, opening up a Turbografx-CD is not a problem at all. But normally, I don't like to mess with my personal consoles unless I really need to. In my 26 years of gaming, I never had to open up a console until recently when I cleaned out a regular Turbografx-16, but I sold that one a couple of months ago. I have since bought a new Turbografx-16 in better condition.