Polarity check for Gamecube
Polarity check for Gamecube
I was reading a guide for a portable Gamecube and was confused when it told me to check the polarity on the regulator board. I am very new to all this and would like help knowing what I should be checking the polarity of.
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megalomaniac
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Re: Polarity check for Gamecube
Polarity is positive or negative
Don't connect the wrong polarity
Don't connect the wrong polarity
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Re: Polarity check for Gamecube
Out of curiosity does the gamecube have a fuse in it to prevent damage from shorts? Snes has a fuse, later model famicoms do too.megalomaniac wrote:Polarity is positive or negative
Don't connect the wrong polarity
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Apache Thunder
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Re: Polarity check for Gamecube
Connecting the wrong polarity will kill the power regulator board. Believe me, I had this happen to me about back in 2007. It was a DOL-001 GameCube, so I just bought a non working unit with a bad disc drive of eBay and swapped drives so that the eBay unit worked again. Probably could have replaced the power board for cheaper, but that was in 2007. Needless to say I was much younger then. 
I recently tested the motherboard on the gamecube that I killed the power board on, and it still works, so something in the power board died and it didn't harm the rest of the gamecube. So as long as it's not a DOL-101 GameCube, worst case scenerio, you just have to replace the power board and I'm sure they aren't too expensive.
If you have a later model Gamecube (DOL-101, if unsure check the back of the GameCube. If it doesn't have the "Digital AV" jack beside the normal analog one, then you have the newer DOL-101 model), the power regulator is built into the motherboard. So if you mess the polarity up on one of those, you would have to replace the entire motherboard. If unsure of polarity, simply get a computer case fan/CPU fan, cut the wires and connect it to AC adapter of the Gamecube. CPU/Computer fans only work at the correct polarity and it's how I can quickly tell which end is the Positive terminal. Getting the polarity wrong on a CPU fan won't harm anything unless your pumping like 120v into it or something.
Of coarse you can also use a voltage meter, but something tells me you don't have one of those...
I recently tested the motherboard on the gamecube that I killed the power board on, and it still works, so something in the power board died and it didn't harm the rest of the gamecube. So as long as it's not a DOL-101 GameCube, worst case scenerio, you just have to replace the power board and I'm sure they aren't too expensive.
If you have a later model Gamecube (DOL-101, if unsure check the back of the GameCube. If it doesn't have the "Digital AV" jack beside the normal analog one, then you have the newer DOL-101 model), the power regulator is built into the motherboard. So if you mess the polarity up on one of those, you would have to replace the entire motherboard. If unsure of polarity, simply get a computer case fan/CPU fan, cut the wires and connect it to AC adapter of the Gamecube. CPU/Computer fans only work at the correct polarity and it's how I can quickly tell which end is the Positive terminal. Getting the polarity wrong on a CPU fan won't harm anything unless your pumping like 120v into it or something.
Of coarse you can also use a voltage meter, but something tells me you don't have one of those...
