Trying Not to Burn My Apartment Down (Multiple system hook up help)

[CastlevaniaDude]

I know there have been threads about this in the past, but I can't find the ones that I'm looking for, so I'll just ask specifically to my situation.

I've got enough stuff accumulated that I want to start hooking it all up at once. I've basically got an LCD TV and an older CRT TV and various devices to switch, split, splice, and upconvert to get these things all hooked up in terms of video cables, etc. simultaneously. That's not the problem.

My question is:

What should I do in terms of plugging things in safely? I only ever plan to have one TV and one system running at best. Maybe both tv's and two systems if I'm having a party.

Here's what I want to plug in. This would be on the same circuit (2 different outlets on the same wall, I'm no electrician but I assume they're the same circuit. Haven't tested on the breaker, though). Not looking to get super specific, just looking for general suggestions. I don't know if daisy chaining power strips is safe or what...

CRT TV, LCD TV, DVR Cable box, Roku 2, Blu Ray Player, NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, SMS, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, Playstation, TG16, 3DO, Xbox, Wii U, Xbox 360, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 800XL, Intellivision, Commodore 64, Wii. That's 26 devices in total. The only things that will consistently be on are one of the TVs and the cable box. Everything else will generally be plugged in but dormant.

In the future, I'll probably add an XEGS, PS2, Neo Geo AES, CD-i, Colecovision, Odyssey, Odyssey 2, Ps3, XBOne, PS4, maybe some other things.

Anyone who knows a little about electricity and/or who has experience with this want to offer some suggestions? Thanks a lot.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I wouldn't even have all those things plugged in the same BUILDING at the same time. Even on standby your power bill will go through the roof!

You could probably connect a bunch of systems into various power strips - especially the older systems - then turn them off when they're not in use. This should keep the power bill down. Other people should chime in, but that's what I'd do.

[Ze_ro]

I would say just get some power/video/audio extension cables so that you can hook up your consoles on your coffee table instead of at the TV... just make it easier to switch them out instead of having giant piles of cables stuffed away where you can't get at them.

If you're absolutely set on having everything hooked up, and you're worried about sparks or power drain, just turn off the power strips when you're not using them.

--Zero

[mailman187666]

I'd do what Kitsune said. Right now, at my house, I have the Gen/32x/cd, NES, SNES, 3DO, Saturn, and Atari 2600 set up on power strips that can be switched on and off. I'd probably go with 3-4 systems per power switch so you can choose which group of systems that you'd want to give power to, while the others are completely off. Just label each power strip so you know which system is on which switch, so its not a guessing game as to which one to turn on.

[CastlevaniaDude]

So I'm okay to daisy chain (for purposes of space) as long as the ones (power strips) I'm not using are off, correct? Again, I apologize for my ignorance of electricity.

[Dashopepper]

I'm sure daisy chaining is not the recommended way of doing it but it should be pretty safe. Get a nice surge protected one to plug into the wall outlet and normal ones to go into that. I have one power strip with all Nintendo (Nes,Snes,N64,GC) and one only with sega (gen/cd/32x) and so forth. Be sure to switch them off when not in use to be safe. My child hood SNES was not working a year or two ago, I looked at the power cord and about 6'' had completely burned up. literally just a burn mark on my glass stand where the cord was. I have 17 systems hooked up and its a complete mess so just check your stuff and be careful.

[Rickstilwell1]

Depending on where you live, the power bill in an apartment won't matter very much. Power bills in houses are much larger most of the time while apartments usually have a much lower rate.

[bb_hood]

So I'm okay to daisy chain (for purposes of space) as long as the ones (power strips) I'm not using are off, correct? Again, I apologize for my ignorance of electricity.

If you are concerned about being safe, I just would not daisy chain power strips. Thats just asking for trouble

[Ozy_98]

Here's my work in progress shelving right now:
http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u486/ozzy19961/2014-06-15174529_zps40a77c50.jpg (http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/ozzy19961/media/2014-06-15174529_zps40a77c50.jpg.html) I didn't make the stand, it came with the house we just moved into. I did repaint it cause it was in bad shape, and I'm going to have 2" wide strips on the front painted black, that's why I didn't bother painting the front fully.

For power, daisy chaining strips isn't as bad as people like to think, look at data centers, their power blocks are really nothing more than power strips. It does however add resistance and a cheap power strip can cause all sorts of issues.

What you will run into is the wall warts eating power. The simple way to check if something's an off-line power hog, feel the power adapter, if it's warm, it's drawing power while off-line. Best setup would be buy some DJ power equipment, so each outlet is on a switch. You can turn systems on\off as needed, and the main equipment, TVs, Stereos, ect, are always on. Just make sure you have a heavy duity cable running to the boxes if you need an extension cable, don't buy it from walmart. That's where you run into issues.

Honestly, video game systems are not going to draw that much power to worry about. Your biggest worry would be shorts in cables.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I got the same issue now, I got about 17 systems or so around my TV, a small HDMI flatscreen for the PS4, and if I wanna play a particular system I'm always climbing behind the tv to plug it in and hook it up. I really need an efficient way to just switch from one system to the next without sucking up lotsa electricity.

[Ed Oscuro]

Daisy chaining strips is a kinda touchy issue because historically it's been people thinking they could run a bunch of high current draw appliances off the same strip, at the same time. That's a bad idea, but it's also probably a more severe case of playing with fire than you have in mind here. If you're only doing one or two devices at a time it might not be much - but it depends on what you're using, and whether in aggregate they do have high phantom power draw. A Kill-A-Watt could be handy here. Likewise, flipping the switch or unplugging the main strip when not in use is a sure-fire way to stop that problem (I prefer unplugging the main strips, as that affords a much better - basically perfect - protection from power spikes, lightning, and so on).

If you do run a wire or two, make sure that it's a beefy model with a decent amperage rating. A tiny, thin line will heat up more readily as current draw increases, and I see you've got a couple CRTs there.

Personally, I'd rather box things up and keep them out of the dust and dirt when they're not being used. There's not a lot of physical wear problems with classic power warts / plugs.

[mercuryshadow09]

So I'm okay to daisy chain (for purposes of space) as long as the ones (power strips) I'm not using are off, correct? Again, I apologize for my ignorance of electricity.

I don't really see the issue, if you are using power strips most made now have a breaker built in and most likely will not start a fire, anything that does drain phantom power for time or standby light is not going to drain much electricity so you and your wallet should be fine but change the batteries in your smoke detector anyway! ;)

[sfchakan]

I've typically ended up daisy chaining a couple of power strips any time I've had a number of consoles hooked up to one TV at a time. I just shut off the strips I'm not using. No bad experiences yet in my ~28 years of gaming.

[Ozzy_98]

They're a bit much, but http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0037GPLOE/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER is a nice item to have if you have the room for it (Ok, not THIS model, this one looks like junk).

For video, you would want a high end switcher like from Extron. The one I have is for RGBHV, so not only can it handle RGB, you can use the RGB plugs for composite and S-Video (Need a splitter for SVideo plugs). They're matrix outputs so you can send input 1 to two tvs, and input 2 to a third if you wanted. Nice if you have a two TV setup, you can play any system on one TV, and friends can play on the secondary. Or on systems with linkup abilities (Playstation for example), you can route the second psx to the backup TV.

[ProjectCamaro]

I have several power strips hooked up together for my retro gaming TV. Whenever I'm not playing games I turn off the main one which stops power from flowing to ANY of them thus saving on energy and helping keeping them safe as well. It's worked really well for me thus far.

[bb_hood]

It's worked really well for me thus far.

Knock on wood, right? Thats the problem, when something goes wrong you might wish you had not had 20 different game consoles hooked up.
Im not saying its likely, but linking power strips together could cause issues.
I have many systems set up and Ive realized that most I use rather infrequently so I just keep them unplugged.
Also having one of those sega trio power adapters is amazing. Its smaller than a regular genesis ac adapter alone.

[Nz17]

Courtesy of Room of Doom member "Gaming the Systems," this is what you need to do:

http://www.digitpress.com/room-of-doom/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=412868

That's 44 consoles all ready to go.

For a nice video tour of how it is set up, check out this YouTube video he made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jybepTJHjcI

[Ozzy_98]

That room of doom uses server\dj grade rack mountable power strips like I said, so that's two votes :P Dislike his video switches though, but honestly, it's smaller than my switch and most likely has the same number of button presses.

[Rickstilwell1]

I have several power strips hooked up together for my retro gaming TV. Whenever I'm not playing games I turn off the main one which stops power from flowing to ANY of them thus saving on energy and helping keeping them safe as well. It's worked really well for me thus far.

Just don't plug your Saturn into one of the power strips that gets turned off or your save battery will die faster.

[Nz17]

Just don't plug your Saturn into one of the power strips that gets turned off or your save battery will die faster.

True, and true for any console that uses an internal battery (e.g. SEGA CD and Dreamcast). Though they might not all rely on a battery to keep their save files alive, having them disconnected from some electrical flow will instead use their internal batteries to track the time on their internal clocks... and of course, to keep alive the save files on those which use volatile storage.

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

I do have two strips chained off a larger one. However, the way I control the power to everything is really quite easy to manage. I use a smart strip as the main source the others are fed from. The way it works is that power isn't applied to the other strips until whatever plugged into the master outlet on the smart strip is turned on first. For me that is the TV itself, since I can't play any games without a TV being on.

So.. I hit the remote on the TV and once it powers up fully, the rest of the strips all kick on as well. This way I'm only eating up power when actually playing any games and I can switch to any console I want by simply changing the AV source since the power is already connected and powered up with the TV.

I use these smart strips all over my house...on mine and the Wife's computer, home theater, and the game room.

I have a 2500sf house with two AC units and 2 gas furnaces. My average electric bill in the winter is about $50 per month, and the average in the summer is about $100 with the AC units. In other words, the smart strips really kill the vampire power in a simple automated manner for me since everything is controlled by simply turning on the tv.

[Ozzy_98]

I have a smart strip in my arcade machine. Some of the LEDs run off the +5 rail of the computer, so they turned off when the machine was off. I added usb ports, and a powered usb hub was needed. That hub back fed +5 even when the computer was off, so my LEDs stayed on all the time. With that and a few quarks with the monitor, I just decided to change power strips, worked great ever since.

[8-Bit Archeology]

The best way to have these hooked up at once imho, is to run an old office computer power monitor on a good surge protector or ups.

Computer power monitors usually have 6 or 7 power outlets that each have their own switch on the front that can be labelled.

You can plug the power monitors into the surge protector or ups and have no issues. Since the power monitor is a simple passive switch box there is very little elecricity feeding the bill.

If you have big wall adapters like the NES, Genesis or even blocks like the 360 or TG16. They run tons of electricity. Wheither they are on or not those power adapter/converters are still converting power. Thats why they get warm and even sometimes hot to the touch. That is why you will want these switched off.

And there is a fire concern with daisy chaining cheap power strips. Especially with a/c adapters. My grandfathers house burned down from a cheap (not old) power strip he was using to charge a cell phone.

Also use good insullated systems as in the items discussed above and stay away from lamp cord extensions.

I use this and saved about 100 bucks a month after changing over to this method.

Lastly, to get your adapters onto the power monitors use really short (3"-6") extension cords. Just try to find ones that dont have the in use leds.

[Vigilante]

I was thinking about those computer monitor switches as well. I had one once, that sat between the computer and montor, flat like a small pizza box, with 6 switches in the front: 1 master, then 5 switches to 5 power outlets in the back. A few of those, properly labeled, can turn each system on and off when you want too.

[Ed Oscuro]

The best way to have these hooked up at once imho, is to run an old office computer power monitor on a good surge protector or ups.
Cheap maybe, but any of those with output filtering probably use a simulated sinewave (i.e. the second and even third options here (http://www.minutemanups.com/support/pwr_un10.php), which isn't really great for retrogaming.

[Fragems]

I simply have a power strip for each generation of consoles and a separate strip that is kept plugged in 24/7 for the TV and any other devices that I use on a regular basis. Whenever I need to play something I simply plug in the power strip that it is on and I'm ready to play. On average when I play I mainly stick to one console or another for weeks at a time so there is no reason to have them all sucking down power at the same time anyways.

[camarotuner]

K here's what I've always done for setups. This is based on my experience and the advice of a master electrician. But this is the internet so for all you know I'm 12 and wikipedia'd this. Take it for whatever it's worth.

Cheap surge protectors suck. There is an awesome one Lowe's sell it's white/grey. Has built in surge protector indicator lights. The side grey plugs rotate which will allow up to 8 FULL SIZE ac bricks to be plugged in at once along with it's either 4 or 5 standard size plugs. So that'll give you 12/13 plugs perfectly suitable for gaming. Then just plug it into the wall. You'll have 2 plugs into the wall to work with so that'll bump you up to 24/26 plugs. Are you seriously going to plug in more than 2 dozen things at once? Let's pretend you said yes because you're hardcore and want it all. You have options, the BEST option is simply to do some very basic wiring and add more plugs to the wall and make sure every single one of them is properly grounded. If you don't know how to do this a basic wiring book and all the materials needed can be bought at lowes while you're there buying power strips. If you run each strip into it's own plug and each strip is a high-end surge protected unit you'll be fine. You can turn off anything you're not playing with the press of a button. I would leave the tv/blu-ray/stuff you use all the time on it's own strip and not turn that off. This is not a cheap investment but nether is your gaming collection. Protect it.

Now the word of warning, a surge protector is only as good as the ground you're plugging it into. Most household outlets, even those with grounding plugs, aren't actually grounded. Use a DMM or dummy light to confirm the ground is actually a ground before trusting the plug in the wall.

[GamerTheGreek]

I use a 4 shelf unit to do my video gaming . Each shelf gets a surge protector and I only connect 4 or 5 items to each one.

Top one does my Atari 2600, and a 5200 4 port.
2nd - Atari 5200 2 port ( not plugged in ) Atari7800, NES , SNES, N64 and Gamecube
3rd - Colecovision, Sega Master SYstem, Genesis 1( not plugged in ) , Genesis 2, Sega Saturn
Bottom- Atari 400, Atari 800, Atari 810,835,850, 1200XL

Each surge protector runs into a main surge protector and the systems I dont use the shelf surges are turned off. the 29 inch LCD is plugged into a seperate part of the main surge. It works pretty well and all the systems run into 1 tv and works great.

I have another TV that does my Intellivison a Commodore monitor for my plug and plays, a 47 inch main TV to play PS2, WII ( when i get it ) and Atari XEGS systems and Cable TV, DVD and Radio tuner (with 8 track ).

[camarotuner]

Each surge protector runs into a main surge protector and the systems I dont use the shelf surges are turned off. the 29 inch LCD is plugged into a seperate part of the main surge. It works pretty well and all the systems run into 1 tv and works great.



I'm gonna throw this out there just because I've heard it enough and it's theoretically a concern. Connecting surge protectors to surge protectors is potentially bad. In the event of a "surge" it'll seek out the path of least resistance. If you have protector A running into B it'll likely leave A, find B less hospitable and then go through one of the systems attached to B for an exit. Now, number of times I've actually had someone with a dead system due to this happening, zero. But it's theoretically possible.

[Ozzy_98]

I'm gonna throw this out there just because I've heard it enough and it's theoretically a concern. Connecting surge protectors to surge protectors is potentially bad. In the event of a "surge" it'll seek out the path of least resistance. If you have protector A running into B it'll likely leave A, find B less hospitable and then go through one of the systems attached to B for an exit. Now, number of times I've actually had someone with a dead system due to this happening, zero. But it's theoretically possible. There's only one path, the surge protectors are inline. If you have A -> B -> System it has to go through them both to get to the system. Course many\most surge protectors do not work without a ground plug, so may want to make sure the outlet you use doesn;t have an open ground.