US SNES in Australia - Power Conversion

[badinsults]

I recently moved to Australia, and of course I brought along my US SNES so I don't have to deal with lockout issues. The US SNES power adapter outputs 10 V DC at 0.850 mA, and uses 17 Watts. I could buy a transfomer for this, but that will cost a minimum of $70. I was wondering if there are any other options that might work that might be cheaper?

[DonMarco]

Why not just track down an Australian AC adapter for an Australian SNES off Australian ebay? I'm not sure of the super famicom power specs, but I thought all SNES consoles had interchangable AC adapters.

edit: http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw=snes+power

$70 for the step-down power converter may seem steep, but if you have any other US consoles or gadgets to plug in or charge it's worth it. When I was in Germany and Belguim, those heavy things were about $30-$80 each (depending on size and plugs) and we had four for all our stuff. The $30 types were okay for small appliances, if you can find one of those.

[badinsults]

PAL SNES consoles use 9 V AC power, not DC. Plugging a PAL SNES power adapter into a US SNES would probably fry it (horray for Nintendo screwing over importers). Really, this is the only electronics thing that I own that either doesn't accept 50 Hz/230 V power, or has an acceptable AC adapter equivalent in this country.

[izarate]

I don't think that there's a way around this. The US SNES used a propietary power plug (the PAL SNES has a regular DC 2.1mm plug) so you won't find an aftermarket one that would fit.

[J0e Musashi]

An Australian MD1 PSU will work fine with a USA SNES.

[Mayhem]

$70 for a stepdown? WTF? I could buy one here and ship it to you for far less than that :p

[Emuaust]

An Australian MD1 PSU will work fine with a USA SNES.

This is a little bit of misinformation, yes the power ratings are the same but the plugs are different. You can mod a MegaDrive 1 PSU to put a US SNES plug on and then it would work.

Also Evan,

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Voltage-transformer-stepdown-110V-150W-Ship-OZ-/300381835219?pt=AU_Gadgets

Much cheaper then you would find in most electronic stores here in Aus.

[badinsults]

I actually found an electronics store that sells a converter for $50, which would be slightly cheaper than buying the item from Ebay after shipping (provided they have it in stock).