Hello, Australia again - Adelaide

[mark-emark]

Hi All,

I recently purchased a Dick Smith Wizzard from Ebay after years of trying to find one for a decent price.

I had one as a kid and have been building my collection up again so have been on the hunt for one for a while now. As with a few of my older consoles I was happy to buy one that needed some repairing. The one I purchase has a faulty power supply so I will be looking to build/buy a replacement (probably build after looking at the forums). I'd really like to get my hands on a copy of Planet Defender after spending countless hours on it in my youth.

I'd like to get in to modding at some stage, even if it is just replicating what others have already done/designed, but that will come once I can get it to power on

Good to see Luca is still active after many years by the look of it, thanks in advance for all the helpful info.

Cheers,
Mark.

[Scouter3d]

Hi Mark and welcome to the forum!

The Creativision PSU is "dying" rather often... (some short in the windings or a burned "heatfuse") i repaired /rewound one once, but it was a pain in the a.. ;0)
There seems to be no (cheap) replacement PSU for the Creativision...
But it is rather easy to build one, as the PSU is only a AC-AC transformer (or rather 2 of them)

i successfully powered an CV once using two seperate transformers (9V AC from an old C64 PSU and 18V AC from a new "Voltcraft" AC-AC Transformer)
I also thought about using a TI-99/4a PSU (as it has the 18V AC), but they are seldom where i come from ;0)

internally the CV needs +5V DC, -5V DC and +12V DC (-5V and +12V are needed for the 4116 RAM to work)

Good luck on repairing / building a powersupply for your Wizzard! Luca shared an instruction for one long time ago...
Please share pictures / instructions if you succeed in building one ;0)

Greetings, TOM:0)

[MADrigal]

There was a Wizzard PSU once on sale on Ebay.com.au - it went unsold so many times, maybe the listing is still there. Not cheap though, A$75 from memory

As said by Tom above, building a power supply is very easy. There is a thread in the forum, from memory it is titled "How to build a power supply" with a diagram in it.

Playing games on the CV: I suggest you buy the CSL Module that lets you "load" games into the unit through an audio cable connected to your PC. Or buy the "MultiROM" from the guys at TrevisoRC (thread on the forum, too).

Have fun with the console - and welcome to the forum

[mark-emark]

Thanks guys,

There was a Wizzard PSU once on sale on Ebay.com.au - it went unsold so many times, maybe the listing is still there. Not cheap though, A$75 from memory

Yeah I was watching that, he dropped the price to $59 last time but I figured as it's original it might be close to dying itself so would be best building a new one. If it was $20 then I'd grab it but I think the $70 he was after originally was a bit steep considering it may die at any time.

I tried finding some of the ones listed on the old thread but as other mentioned in that they are still impossible to find.

i successfully powered an CV once using two seperate transformers (9V AC from an old C64 PSU and 18V AC from a new "Voltcraft" AC-AC Transformer)

I Had the exact same idea haha, there is a charity second hand store down the road from me who has dozens of power supplies / chargers for $1 each. I was going to see if I could find a 9v1A or 16.5/18v 250Ma there just to wire it up and give it a go. Unfortunately they just closed for 3 months from last week

I think I'll just head to the electronics store and buy the parts listed in the old thread, interested to see if I can fit them in the original PSU box so it still has the original look.

I'll let you know how it goes when I get around to it, I just need to convince my wife the spending is worthwhile

Definitely interested in the MultiROM too

Cheers guys,
Mark.