How much current should my N64p be drawing?

[cellogirl]

Hello,

This is my first post and my first portable

I've been researching a lot on this forum and working on an N64p, which is going pretty well so far. Today, I tested out my Psone screen with the disassembled N64, the screen running on a power supply and the N64 using the original wall plug.

When I measured the current going through at the screen's power input point, it looks like it's drawing about 5 amps, which seems ridiculously high. Is there something wrong with my setup? I'm wondering if things are getting weird because of using both a power supply and the wall adapter - the reason I switched to the power supply for the screen was because I wasn't able to draw enough current from my batteries to stop the screen from flickering, and I just wanted to make sure the screen was in good condition, since it was used. However, running this thing at 5 amps will last about 10 minutes with any normal batteries.

Any ideas or similar experiences? Do you think the problem will resolve itself when I get a better battery setup that can provide enough current, and power the N64 off batteries as well?

I'll obviously do more tinkering around with the setup, but any input is appreciated!

[vskid]

So is the 5A reading just for the screen? If it is, I would guess that you misread your meter and that it is actually .5A (500mA). A whole N64p, even with an extremely inefficient converter for the 3.3v line, should use less than 3A.

[cellogirl]

I put the meter between the screen's +7.5 volt pin and the positive lead from the power supply, so I guess it it just reading the current drawn by the screen, since the N64 is drawing power from the wall. I'll double check the scale on the meter, although I was pretty certain of the reading. I still suspect maybe the problem will go away when the N64 is running off the batteries as well, so I'll check that today.

[timmeh87]

Did you switch the red probe so it was in the "current" hole on the meter?

Im pretty sure there's no way that 5A could be coming out of that power supply that (IIRC) is rated for no more than 2.