Be Excellent To Each Other

Has anyone actually done this. I'll be going on holiday in the next couple of weeks, so would like to know how easy it would be to get it charged up when the battery runs low, only the manual with it is no help whatsoever.

'Abroad' isn't one big homogeneous place you know. And you haven't said where you're starting from.

Read the underside of your DS charger and say what the voltage specification is, then we can tell which countries it'll work in and so on.

A USB charging lead is often useful if you'll have a laptop with you too though.

I have a hunch that the clever DS has a universal power system within it, that means all you need is a local DS charger and it will 'step down' to the right one. That enables me to trouble-free recharge my American one over here.

I could be entirely wrong resulting in it exploding in showery sparks and firing your stylus off like a harpoon into the stomach of a ladyfriend, for example.

If you won't have a laptop, power transformers that just plug into the wall and have a USB output are available and cheap, too.

I've done this.

You should check this on your chargers for everything actually - but most things have 100-240V range and are fine everywhere and just need an adapter to change the shape of a plug.

Thats not enough for a DS though: A uk DS charger is retardley limited to only 240V (uk standard) so it won't work in America or other places that run on 110Vs (I think that includes mainland europe - I can't remember).

However the DS is the same everywhere so a foriegn charger will work fine on your ds. An easier solution if you are taking your laptop though (which will be 100-240V) is to take a USB charger,

EDIT: I think Dealextreme sell usb charger cables for about £3.

Wha...

The DS has no voltage changing stuffs in it. It takes a 5 volt 1ish amp input. The universal power adaptation is either in the power brick (which I think it is although I cannot check just now) or doesn't exist.

USB charging leads, combined with mains USB transformers, are aces.

The DS always expects the same voltage, the chargers are different depending on the country. I had a Japanese one which was 100V only!
But it could well be cheaper and easier to simply get an adaptor and use the supplied charger if the voltage does match.

If you are in the UK and going to Europe, then this is probably the way to go. But he didn't say.

Excellent! I have achieved my long time dream of awesome inaccuracy. Now it's off to the Wikipedia editing suite for me!

What Kalmar('s first post) said. I ended up not taking my DS with me when I went to the US, uncertainty. Imagine my delight when the first thing I saw, after reaching the customer shop area, was a barrage of suitable power converters, which I bet - I have no facts or certainty - would do just the trick. They were covered in little switches and toggles, with different numbers and stuff. And others have since told me that such a thing would indeed be what I needed. They cost maybe as much as £5.

Yeah, but $180 for a power converter?

Economic meltdown FTFY

Wait, what?

When I was out in the states I took my UK DS and charger and just used a cheapo travel plug adaptor (sold everywhere for 5 - 10 pounds). It worked fine.

Also worked fine in Spain, too.

Aha. Yes, one of those cheapo travel plugs, Sir Taxalot. I don't really go for that whole brevity thing. Yes. One of those $297 cheapo travel plugs.

The standard Nintendo DS power supply is fixed voltage, which means you WILL need the expensive connector.

If you're going from the UK, HMV will go you a Logic 3 version for both DSs for £8.50 in the airport that'll take anything from 100-250V and then you can just use a cheap plug adapter.

Your Nintendo charger? Because I'd be astonished if it worked at all, they expect 240V (and would indeed be fine in Spain). I suspect it charged VERY slowly in the US.

A US one in the UK would melt if you tried.

Are you taking a laptop, or have access to a USB port? If so, get one of these:

White: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3401
Black: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3152

They get the job done...

Yep, the charger that was in the DS retail box. Seriously, it worked fine. I didn't make a note of how long it took to charge* or anything like that, but all our stuff (mobile phones, digital camera, DS) charged without any problems.

*I have a feeling I put it on to charge overnight, or maybe while we were out doing something else, so there is a good chance it took a bit longer than usual, maybe even a lot - and I wouldn't have noticed.

Good long term plan but the chances of it arriving in time are only so good

Most things do have multi-voltage, the DS charger does not - look at the info on the thing -, you're lucky it worked at all. You're also lucky you're not an American travelling here because at best it would have melted internally and worst you'd have seen a LOT of sparks.

I do remember before going away I was thinking about getting a USB charger or a transformer, and I remember looking at the DS charger and just thinking 'fuck it, I'll try'. I knew not to plug things from low-voltage regions into UK mains without a proper transformer/adaptor*, and figured I'd take a chance going the other way.

I was worried it might not work, but it did.

*unless they have a 110/240 switch on them, or other indications etc etc


-------
Edited to quote Dudley.

If you dont want to wait for one, which you probably will have to with dealextreme, I bought a couple off an ebay user for £3 for first class delivery and both came next day.

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/electronic_accessories

Apparently there are some DS chargers with universal input. Mine wasn't though.

Indeed, this is why I asked the original poster what voltage it said on his charger, and where he was wanting to use it.

And I don't fancy the chances of a 230V only one working on 120. I strongly suspect it wouldn't, as you say.

My logic 3 one they sell in HMV certainly is, and has ends for both lite and chunky (which is also GBA/SP).

Which is nice.

Mine has no mention of anything other than 230V ~ 50Hz and it worked out there. I can take a picture of the label if anyone wants to see it. I got the DS around June 2006.

I'm very surprised that worked. As others have noted, if you did the same thing with a US charger over here, you'd let the magic smoke out for sure (a colleague of mine in the new job did that a few months ago with the mini desktop systems they'd been using in the States; they came back to the office, plugged them in, forgot to toggle the Red Switch... boom).

It's probable that the 230 one was designed as a universal charger but didn't make it as such for some reason, so they kept the guts the same and called it a 230V only charger.
Interesting to know anyway. I'd keep an eye on it if doing this as it will definitely run hotter on the lower voltage.

I think I'd just spend the £8.50

That does sound interesting, I'll take a look at that.



That's exactly what I have as well, I also have a travel adapter plug for using UK electrical stuff too.

If you wanted to know, I am going to Tenerife at the end of the month, so, I do at least have some time to get things together.
Thanks for all your help and that.

Used my normal charger with country relevant adapters successfully (no kaboom) in Spain, Thailand and Japan.

Right, Tenerife is euro-standard electricity just like the UK but with a different plug. Pick up a uk-euro adaptor at the airport or in curry's and that's all you need.

It looks like you're trying to take your DS abroad and play it for more than 7 hours!

Do you want to...

• Buy a DS in your target country so you have a charger that works there (I bought my wife one for her birthday when we were in the US).
• Buy an in-car charger and use that (my parents did this for when they went to the US).
• Start using Microsoft Word

Dealextreme are doing even cheaper DS USB Chargers now. From $1.18 for one to $1.90 for three

I've definitely charged my DS using just a UK charger in a European socket adapter.

It set on fire, though.

Yes let's clear this up now.

Europe is 240V. Like us.

America is 110V. Not like us.

Yes, let's.

It's 230V, like us.


120V, not like us.

All is clear.

By the way, I'm not trying to tell anoyone that they should or shouldn't do whatever - make your own mind up.

I just wanted to post my experience with it, and found it curious that it worked for me when people were sure it wouldn't. So surprises all round then.

But importantly - enjoy your holiday (and if you have a flashcart, choose some decent games, I put crap ones on mine when I went to Australia rahter than ones I'd already tried and liked. Ooops)

As far as I'm aware, the UK is only nominally 230. Actually we stayed at 240 but that's within the 10% tolerance level to call ourselves 230 like everywhere else even though it's actually a lie.

I missed that Europe is only the same as us within tolerance.

Point is, you can expect UK stuff to work in Europe, you're lucky if it does in the states.

It's not a lie, we have 230V domestic mains. Go ahead and measure it. If it's 240 where you are it will, as you say, still be within tolerance but it's pretty rare to find nowadays.


It is the same as the UK, to be clear.



Indeed, that is the point, as has been repeatedly suggested from the very first reply in the thread...

Tell that to whichever drug-crazed morons supply my electricity (Exeter):

Wooh. Bet you go through lightbulbs fast..

The drug crazed morons must be e-on.

Hell, even the company name is a confession.

How would one go about collecting such information?

A UPS will usually tell you.

If they can find your house

FTFY.

Try a decent True-RMS multimeter or a scope with "trend" mode.

That graph is generated from data grabbed from my UPS, but I have a proper calibrated meter thing borrowed from work which agrees with it.

"Proper-Calibrated-Meter-Thing"

A brand you can trust.