Denial

I've just bought a vic20 from ebay with a power supply but after plugging it in for a while it seems to have crapped out. Reading changing values of well under 0.1v when i hook it up to a multimeter so I'm assuming it's the PSU and not the computer.

Seems like they are quite hard to come by so I thought I'd ask here.

I found a site selling an adapter to use 9v DC here: http://coolnovelties.co.uk/coolnoveltie ... cable.html but from what I read, the vic20 needs AC. The guy on the page says "The Commodore Vic 20 will work happily on a DC power supply.", is this true?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post a question at the same time; I'm excited to get up and running

A VIC-20 designed for a 2 prong PSU will work ok with 9Vdc but it will draw about 1.2A so be sure the source you use can feed more than that.

The AC is only required for devices using special internal voltages on the user port such as modems and the good old Promenade C1.

To mods: this should be moved to the hardware section.

I think the PSU should be able to provide at least 2A, maybe even more, to be able to attach cartridges to the VIC-20.
The original PSU has 3A. (afair?)

One just come up on eBay, not cheap though

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Commodore-VIC ... Swax5Y09XO

Are you sure you are measuring correctly ? Your multimeter is set to A.C. and both probes directly in the psu ? You also checked the continuity on your fuse ? I find I hard to believe that your psu is broken.

If it really is broken then keep the cable and connector. This is the hard to come by part. You can get any 230vAC to 9vAC step down transformer and connect the cut off cable. I am sure Maplin will sell them. Also you can get them on Amazon too. Make sure you have at least 2amp (3 or more is better)

See https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00LLHKKZG/

In my experience with the two pronged Vic, you need to supply a minimum of 10V if using a DC supply to account for the voltage drop of the rectifiers in the Vic-20. 9V will barely be at the required 7.5V at the 5V regulator input. It may seem to work, but I have ran into freeze-ups and crashes when using only 9V DC. I made up some buck converter adapters that allow me to plug in any power supply with the required current between 12-30VDC and get the 10Vdc at the two prong plug. I dont even bother with the AC supplies because they are all too high voltage by the time it reaches the regulator, leading to a ton of heat generation in the Vic-20.

See here: http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... =11&t=7995

9V DC 3A works well for me as long as you connect it well to the vic's power input. (Crocodile clamps are not enough). And I have a lot of pheripials connected to the vic-20.