MetaChat - I have a dumb question about the Nintendo DS and power adaptors and foreign travel

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23 March 2007

I have a dumb question about the Nintendo DS and power adaptors and foreign travel →[More:] North American Nintendo DS Lite power supplies appear to only handle 120V (that's all that's listed on the wall wart). I can't find any dual voltage travel adapters for it, so if I bought a 240V DS Lite power supply in Germany, would it would work with my North American DS Lite? Are the power plugs on the handhelds the same?

(I don't feel like hauling a generic converter along since it's the only electronic device I have that doesn't do dual voltage and those things are both expensive and heavy)

PS - If anyone is in Berlin or Amsterdam in the next few weeks, I'll buy you a beer.

Thank you in advance.

post by: cmonkey at: 22:02 | 5 comments

Most likely yes (in a "I won't say definitely yes just because I'm paranoid" sense). It makes no sense to make the device require different DC inputs depending on region, devices are usually designed over a very specific DC voltage. To be absolutely 100% sure:

1) Check if it physically matches. On the unlikely event that they were to make it incompatible for incompatibility sake, it's more probable that they would just use a different plug instead of a different DC voltage.

2) Check the output specs on the adapters, and see if they match. You're looking for something like:

AC/Input/(wave symbol over straight line): 120V/60Hz (US), 240V/50Hz (DE)
DC/Output/(dotted line over straight line): V, and possibly A or W

Now, games are another subject. I don't know if the DS is region-locked, but if it is, German games won't fit on your device.

posted by qvantamon 23 March | 23:13

It's not region-locked. Both DS and GBA games are region-free. I play European Scrabble and Japanese Bomberman on a regular basis.

posted by box 23 March | 23:25

I'm not intending on buying games there, it's just the charger. Stupid Nintendo.

posted by cmonkey 24 March | 13:20

Maybe I am wrong about this, as I lived in Germany a very long time ago (moved there when I was six, left at age 10), but my understanding is that the 240 volts would fry your American DS.

Growing up we had these gigantic converters all over the house. In fact, we still have a German television -- the 240 can be reverse-plugged to 120 and still run fine, but I don't think you can do it the other way around.

posted by brina 24 March | 18:17

As it turns out, even though EB Games doesn't advertise it on their website they sell a 120-240V universal adapter for the DS Lite for $10. Hooray!

posted by cmonkey 25 March | 02:26

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