PS2 Slim Ultra USB-C Power Supply: Setup & Use
This is the how-to companion for my CA-DPS2U1 USB-C power supply for the PlayStation 2 Slim. The product listing covers what it is and how it was tested. This page is about getting it running, and about the two things that can go wrong in a way that does not look like a failure.
First, check that your PS2 is one this fits
This matters more here than on any other adapter I make, because Sony shipped two different kinds of Slim.
| Your console | Works? |
|---|---|
| SCPH-70000 / 75000 / 77000 series | Yes. This is the 8.5 V, 5.65 A case the supply is sized for. |
| SCPH-79000 series | Yes. It only asks for 4.5 A, so it has margin to spare. |
| SCPH-90000 series | No. Sony put the power supply back inside the console. It has a mains socket, not a DC jack. |
| Original “fat” PS2 (SCPH-10000 to 50000) | No. Same reason: internal supply, mains cord. |
The model number is printed on the label on the bottom of the console. If the back of your PS2 has a round barrel jack, you are in the first two rows. If it takes a figure-8 mains cord, no external supply of any kind will help you.
What this supply is
- Output: 8.4 V regulated, up to 6 A
- Plug: 4.8 x 1.7 mm barrel (EIAJ-03), center-positive, right-angle
- Input: USB-C Power Delivery, fixed 20 V. A 65 W or larger source is required.
All of that is printed on the back of the case, along with the model number, so you never have to look it up.
On the 8.4 V: your console’s label says 8.5 V, and the half-volt difference is deliberate. Sony’s own supply sags to about 8.2 V by the time it is delivering 5 amps, so 8.4 V under no load and roughly 8.2 V under a real one puts your console on the same load line the factory brick gave it. The listing has the full reasoning if you want it.
What you need
A USB-C PD source rated 65 W or better. That includes wall chargers, GaN bricks, laptop chargers, the USB-C port on many monitors and docks, and power banks. What matters is that it can hold 20 volts at 3 amps on the port you use. 100 W is what I would buy, because it leaves headroom for whatever else you plug in.
Any 60 W or 100 W USB-C cable. The supply draws 2.56 A, so you do not need a 5 A e-marked cable.
Sources that will not work: a laptop’s own USB-C port, a USB-A port with an adapter, a car USB socket, an airline seat power port, a phone charger, and most power banks under 65 W.
How to plug it in
Order matters here, unlike my smaller adapters.
- Plug the barrel plug into the back of the PS2 first.
- Plug a USB-C cable into the supply and into your charger or bank.
- Watch the LED (see below).
- Turn the console on.
Doing it in that order means the barrel contact is made before there are 8.4 volts sitting on it. Making a connection under live power arcs a little at the contact, and at 6 amps that is worth avoiding on a twenty-year-old jack soldered to your console’s mainboard.
To unplug, pull the USB-C end first.
The LED tells you the negotiation worked
This is the useful trick, and it works on any of my adapters built around this trigger board.
Watch the LED as you plug the USB-C cable in. It lights up dim straight away, running on the 5 volts every USB-C port supplies before anything has been negotiated. A moment later, when the supply has asked for 20 V and the charger has agreed, the LED visibly brightens.
- Dim, then bright: the negotiation succeeded. You are getting 20 V.
- Lights and stays dim: the charger did not give it 20 V. The console will not run properly, and the charger is the thing to change.
The catch: what you are reading is the change, not the final state. If you walk away and come back an hour later, a dim LED and a bright one are genuinely hard to tell apart with nothing to compare against. So if you want to check, do it at the moment you plug the cable in. If you missed it, unplug the USB-C end for a few seconds and plug it back in.
The brightening is easiest to see on this 20 V supply, clearly visible on the 15 V PSone Ultra, and subtler on the 9 V adapters.
Running on a battery
This is what the supply exists for.
| Bank | Cell energy | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 mAh | 37 Wh | about 30 minutes |
| 20,000 mAh | 74 Wh | about 1 hour |
| 27,000 mAh | 100 Wh | about 1 hour 20 |
Those are console-only figures, measured from the supply’s real 51 W draw at the bank and allowing for the bank’s own conversion losses.
Two things the capacity number does not tell you:
- Most 10,000 mAh banks cannot do 65 W. Capacity and output rating are independent. Read the bank’s wattage, not its milliamp-hours.
- 27,000 mAh is about 100 Wh, which is the airline carry-on limit. That row is the biggest battery you are allowed to bring on a plane.
If you are running a screen off the same bank
Read this part before you are on a plane with it.
Power banks divide a fixed power budget between their ports, and they renegotiate when you plug something into or unplug something from a second port. The consequence you will actually notice:
Plugging in or unplugging the monitor will reset the console.
Some banks go further and stop offering 20 V at all once a second port is occupied, in which case the console will not run while the screen is connected.
If portable play is the goal, use two banks, one for the console and one for the screen. You get the full budget on the console port, nothing renegotiates when you touch the screen, and you get more total runtime. It is electrically fine: both banks float, and the console’s video cable already connects the two grounds.
If you only have one bank, plug everything in before you power the console on, and leave it alone.
It runs warm, and that is correct
There is a RUNS WARM - DO NOT ENCLOSE line on the back of the case, and it is not boilerplate.
Moving 48 watts means shedding a few of them as heat. Under a full load the outside of the case settles at about 54 °C, which is distinctly warm in your hand. It cannot burn you. Plastic is an insulator, so it moves heat into your skin far too slowly to do harm, which is the same reason you can hold a plastic spoon in hot soup and not a metal one.
What it does need is air. Do not run it inside a closed AV cabinet, under a blanket, or zipped in a bag. It is happy on a desk, on a shelf, on a tray table, or loose in a car.
Troubleshooting
- Console does nothing. Check the LED first, using the dim-then-bright test above. A charger that cannot deliver 20 V is by far the most common cause, and it is not a fault in the supply. Try a bigger charger before concluding anything.
- It works on one charger and not another. That is the charger. See the requirements above.
- The console resets when I touch the screen’s cable. That is the multi-port renegotiation described above. Two banks fixes it.
- It worked and then stopped when the battery got low. Banks reduce or drop their high-voltage options as they discharge. This is normal bank behavior and the console will not brown out gradually, it will just stop.
- Discs are slow to spin up or read. Worth reporting to me. It is the symptom that would show up if the voltage were not right for your particular console, it is harmless, and I would want to know.
- The barrel plug gets hot. Stop and message me. Warm is expected; too hot to hold comfortably means the plug or your console’s jack is not making good contact, and that is worth sorting out before it does any damage.
- Still stuck? Message me. I am glad to help before or after a sale.