Success! It sure does taste sweet. Finally a proof of concept showing that this early Saturn PSU arrangement can be powered from an external DC supply feeding suitable DC-DC converters. This is very good news as it paves the way for me to spend some cash and invest in some proper DC-DC converters.

For this early Saturn revision, a regulated 12V brick with enough power capacity would provide useful headroom for DC-DC converters producing the required 9V, 5V and 3.3V rails. The source and converters would need to be sized for the actual rail currents and conversion losses. If one of the required rails is missing, the console may show no signs of life or fail to operate correctly.

Now I can sleep at night not fearing that all my model 1 Saturns will die and never be resurrected. They all have the potential to live forever (or as long as their mainboards and CD decks choose to live for).

Related posts

• Sega Saturn Model 1 Power Supply Issues
• Sega Saturn External PSU DC-DC Converter Test

Sources

• Sega-16 Forums - Sega Saturn Revisions and Models Guide - documents the Type A and Type B early Saturn PSU pinouts, including 3.3V, 5V and 9V rails, and the later Type C arrangement.