Powering my Nintendo 8bit (NES)

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I live in Europe where we have the European version of the NES. But
there aren't really not that many games for the NES here in Europe, so
I've begun buying US games on eBay. After having soldered my NES it
was able to play the games, but not at the right speed. This is
because the US games run at 60 fields/s and the European NES outputs
50 fields/s. Therefore I bought a US Nintendo from eBay so I could
play the games at the right speed. Now here's my problem:

I can't figure out how to power the NES. It needs 9VAC at 850mA.
That's the same things as the European adaptor supplies, so I tried
connecting it to the NES, but the NES just powers on and off every 1
second... I guess it's because of the powers frequency. So here's my
question:

How can i supply my NES with 9VAC 850mA at 60Hz? I've got the original
US mains adaptor, so a 230V 50Hz -> 120V 60Hz would do the job. I just
can't find any device that besides converting the voltage will change
the frequency.

As far as I know the NES needs AC because the RF modulator uses the
60Hz frequency to output the NTSC signal. The 9VAC is actually
converted to 5VDC before it gets to the motherboard.

Johannes Clausen

 

It sounds more like you have the infamous "blinking" NES problem than a
power problem. It occurs when the cartridge don't make good contact inside
the system. See the following page for details or search for "blinking NES"
at www.google.com.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dsullo/q&a.htm

Note: I am not affiliated with the web site above in any way and don't take
resposibility for any information contained therein. It looked pretty
accurate when I glanced over it, though.

Dave

 

now you also need an american TV for the american NES unless you have
a multisync TV.
In america the NES generates a NTSC signal
and the europen NES generates a PAL signal
There is still no way to change 50Hz to 60Hz without using expensive
voltage/frequency converters.
rw..

 

I almost every TV can output NTSC if it's fed with an RGB signal. All
my NTSC DVD's play fine on my very cheap 14" European TV. The NES only
outputs composite, but here my parents' lovely Philips TV does the
job. It can also handle that French SECAM.

I was afraid you were going to say that. My only hope is now either to
move to the US or maybe supply the mainboard with 5VDC and then build
my own RF modulator than runs on DC - if it is possible...

The dude on this page has done it:
http://www.classicgaming.com/nestable/

He had to remove the RF modulator from the NES in order to make a
portable NES. He than made his own amplifier. But that amplifier is
for a little LCD screen - don't know if it'll work with a TV set.

Johannes Clausen

 

But isn't it the picture on the TV that blinks when you experience
that? When the cartridge doesn't make contact on me European NES the
TV just shows a blank grey or green image.

My US NES powers on and off. The LED next to the power button blinks
every 1 second. and the TV can't show the image before the NES turns
off again.

I would love to try to clean the NES and try with 50Hz power, but I
just want to make sure: can it damage my NES when I'm supplying it
50Hz instead of the required 60Hz? What about DC?

Johannes Clausen

 

Get a US 12VDC to 120VAC inverter (ebay) and run your US transformer
from that.