European emac in the US.... how to get it to work?

[Hoef]

Hi, A friend from Europe just arrived here in the States. He brought his emac and is looking for ways to get it to work without blowing it up. Any of you have some suggestions (besides opening up the box and replace the transformer)? Maybe a radio shack thingy that might work? Thanks for your help......

 

[CanadaRAM]

First, look on the back of the eMac and read the specification tag.

Does it say "220-240 VAC" or does it say "100-240 VAC"? If it says 100-240V then you're fine because the powersupply will auto-range. BUT

The specifications for the European model say "Line voltage: 100V AC or 220V AC, depending on country of use" -- the critical word being "OR"

If it says 220-240 VAC then there's not much you can do except investigate convertors. More difficult coming this direction because you have to boost, rather than halve, the voltage.

250W Step-up transformer $120
However -- 250W is really on the bottom edge of capability, it may not have enough juice to run the machine.

 

[iMeowbot]

Apple claim that 50-60Hz won't matter in the eMac spec sheet, so a simple transformer would work. Mcmaster.com catalog 70285K72 would be about the right size, but it's ugly so you may want to buy some sort of electrical box to hide it in. [ed: and looking at that particular one, you'd want to put it in a box to add some grounding leads.]

 

[Hoef]

Yeah it is 220-240V so have to convert it. I'll check into the mcmaster.com or radioshack converter

 

[RevB]

Hi, A friend from Europe just arrived here in the States. He brought his emac and is looking for ways to get it to work without blowing it up. Any of you have some suggestions (besides opening up the box and replace the transformer)? Maybe a radio shack thingy that might work? Thanks for your help......

I'd like to revive this thread as I am in the exact same situation.
(maybe too late for your friend though!)

It seems the voltage is preset to 220V (on EU models) but the setting may be changed using a voltage jumper and (possibly) a LHR (?) jumper.
Don't know if this has been discussed, but it is in the eMac "Service Source" manual, around p.100. This manual is available various places, eg http://www.applerepairmanuals.com/eMac_ati_graphics.pdf

Has anybody tried this at home ?

 

[generik]

If you have moved to the US for good and your power supply is only for the voltage of the previous region, I'd recommend you switch to a new PC

I have some old appliances that I got from the US running off a transformer here with me in australia, and all I can say is the humming from the transformer really drives me nuts

Then again this transformer is really heavy duty and is rated for 1000W, but either way these aren't very efficient things, and considering electricity pricing these days is sky high, it might be worth your while to just sell the old mac and take the opportunity to buy a new one.

 

[RevB]

Finally had the conversion done today at a local Mac shop.

They charged about $75 (Canadian) for about 45min. of work.

Well worth it in my opinion and much better than using a transformer for the reasons you mention. And still quite a bit cheaper that tossing a well-functioning eMac to buy something new.

Bottomline: it _is_ possible to convert a European eMac to north american voltage. No transformer necessary, only a competent Mac tech.