darkSpyro

Hello everyone. I was wanting to create a nightlight for my daughter's room using the portal of power and lightcore figurines. I was curious if anyone had hooked up a wired portal of power to a usb power adapter and got it working? If you did, what wattage and amperage did you use? Is there an alternate way of doing this without a computer or a game console? Thank you!

Ive wondered that a few times myself. But then I wondered what happens if the bulb wears out? Can I replace it if at all?

any usb power adapter is only going to push 5v the same as any USB port so its fine to use as a night light,I say go for it.

Quote: MegaDozer

any usb power adapter is only going to push 5v the same as any USB port so its fine to use as a night light,I say go for it.

This is true but the lightcore lights only light up if data is being transferred to of from the skylander, so you would have to have the game running to make the skylander light up. You could make the portal light up this way tho.

Wouldn't the light wear out, otherwise I might run mine with prism break because of how boss he looks

LEDs...they have a pretty long life.

"A decent LED is expected to last at least 50,000 hours. If you left it on all day everyday it yould last for a little over 2000 days, or something like 5 and a half years. "

Like darkrai said....the lightcore's need the game to work(light up)....also theres a timer on the game(well on my Wii)...if you are not playing the game the protal go's into standby mode...turning all the lights off in the portal...(but...the lightcore stays lit)

Quote: darkrai848

Quote: MegaDozer

any usb power adapter is only going to push 5v the same as any USB port so its fine to use as a night light,I say go for it.

This is true but the lightcore lights only light up if data is being transferred to of from the skylander, so you would have to have the game running to make the skylander light up. You could make the portal light up this way tho.

o.o my lightcores (And the giants that light up) always seem to light up as long as they are on an active portal (Active as in plugged in but giants/etc doesnt need to be the active game. It just lights up as long as plugged into my wii)

idk may be different with other systems

Well, it differs, sometimes lightcores will light up, sometimes not - it all depends if the induction field is charged. When plugged to a system, the system tells the portal to not have it on if it isn't needed (most of the time), even though the portal still lights up (indicating the power is on). The portal lights and induction field are apparently completely independent internally. Plugged up to a "dumb" outlet might work, I have had lightcores light up without being attached to a game (notably on the 3DS and iOS wireless ones, but they won't work since the turn off after a few seconds). Easy to test.

I find this idea fantastic though, gonna give it a shot for my son. A cheap lightcore (maybe Prism Break) on a light up platform would make a great night light, it is visible, but not overwhelming. I have an extra 360 portal and can test it with one of our figures, as well as a USB adapter, although if I were to do it long term I would probably just buy a dedicated figure for it on clearance somewhere.

When I turn off my Wii, the Portal stops glowing, but Lightcores and Giants still light up.

I have multiple wall adapters that the portal fits into but it does not light them. I think it is due to the adapter having the wrong amperage. I was wanting to know if anyone has done this and found the correct wattage/amperage adapter. My lightcore figures all light up as soon as the xbox is turned on, thus telling me that it is not a game that is telling the portal to light the lightcores. The wireless adapter requires a specific frequency that the game system sends to the wireless portal in order to save battery life. This is not the condition for a wired portal and thus the reason why I am asking.

I just turned the portal over to see if activision had put a voltage recommendation and it sure does! It shows 5V DC and 200mA. Now with my weak knowledge of electronics, the voltage is all that matters on an adapter. If something is needing 5v and 200ma, an adapter of 5v 700mA would work since the amperage is only given if the equipment pulls that much. In this case, since none of my USB wall adapters are working on the portal, does it require the exact amount of amperage to work?

All USB plugs use 5V (so your wall adapter is not the problem) it has to be plugged in to some thing that tells it to activate the field.

I keep my XBox on 24/7, and the portal is always plugged in. If there's no Skylander game running, it's not there to tell the portal to turn off the lights, so essentially I have my portal as a night light (this is all in my bedroom), LOL! So yes, you can do that. I'm sure any USB plug will do.

Quote: darkrai848

This is true but the lightcore lights only light up if data is being transferred to of from the skylander, so you would have to have the game running to make the skylander light up. You could make the portal light up this way tho.

Quote: Phoenix_Lord

Like darkrai said....the lightcore's need the game to work(light up)....also theres a timer on the game(well on my Wii)...if you are not playing the game the protal go's into standby mode...turning all the lights off in the portal...(but...the lightcore stays lit)

This is absolutely, completely NOT true. If the XBox portal is on, it will light the lightcores and Giants. And as I've said, if the game isn't running, the portal is always on. I think when a Skylanders game tells the portal to turn off, it also stops transmitting whatever triggers the figures' lights, but without the Skylander game to tell the portal to turn off, it continues broadcasting whatever the figures need.

I wouldn't recommend it, night lights are proven to cause near-sightedness in people.

Quote: niceguy1

This is absolutely, completely NOT true. If the XBox portal is on, it will light the lightcores and Giants.

Ahh niceguy, as i stated i was talking about my Wii...i don't have a Xbox...so i don't know what there settings are. The Wii go's on standby...and turns all the lights off and the TV screen darkens....only the Lightcore/Giants lights stay on. But when i turn my Wii off, the lights in the Lightcore/Giant go's out....i don't leave my Wii on over night. Like i said...Lightcore/Giants need the console to stay powered up, for the LED's to stay lit.

ACTUALLY, LightCores do not require a game or even a Portal to light up. AFAIK- if their RFID-powered LEDS are receiving any form of RFID communication, they will be lit.

This is why when the Portal is in standby LightCores are still lit. The game still reads the RFID tags so that it can keep the Skylander on the screen and is able to tell when you take it off.

If you use the wireless Portal and turn off the console, the wireless Portal will continue to read chips for a short time. You can see LightCores on it during this time.
3DS Portal won't read until the game scans it, which is why LightCores don't light up on it before then.

Even if your Portal has a power source and is plugged in, it won't nessicarily equal LightCore features working because it is not nessicarily being told to communicate with the RFID-powered LEDs.

Well the OP specified XBox, soooo...

Yes, the wireless portals for SSA for the Wii and PS3 turn off when not in use, all on their own without the game telling them to, in order to conserve battery power (even maintaining the wireless connection uses power). But the XBox portal was always wired, no need to conserve power. Now that the Giants' portals for the Wii and PS3 are wired, I'm not sure if they changed this behaviour, or if they now mimic the XBox portals, in that they only turn off when the games tell them to.

Arc of Archives: Well, other things being able to light up the figures is an entirely different conversation, LOL! One I've participated in, especially in two threads discussing the possibility of creating a display area to light them up without a portal (which we seemed to have come to a solution, I just have to DO it). But the question at hand here is using the XBox portal as a nightlight, keeping it on all night. And a secondary question of lighting up the figures at the same time. Considering mine has effectively been a nightlight for the past month (Skylanders isn't running, Duke Nukem Forever is, so Skylanders can't tell the portal to turn off, and the console has been on 24/7, something Duke handles MUCH better than Skylanders, BTW, LOL!), I can indeed confirm the original question. And last I tried, I recall that I found that as long as my portal light was on, the lightcores would be on. Once the portal is turned off by the game (after who knows how long), the lightcores would stay on for another who-knows-how-long.

There is a whole thread (TWO in fact) on here dedicated to lighting up lightcore figures without the game.
I provided circuit diagrams and information on how to do it. Not sure anybody bothered, but it's all there if you search.

I have tried getting the portal to light up, myself. I thought I had read about people doing it or wanting to do it, before, but when I tried, it didn't work. I know that it will come on when the Xbox is turned on, even if you aren't playing Skylanders, but I wonder if it's more of a driver thing than just receiving power. We have 3 portals, now (Our original from Giants, one from SSA, and one when we picked up an extra copy of Giants when the other one got scratched up), so finding another use for them like this would be cool. But I've yet to figure out how to make it work.

Yes, it requires something to activate it via USB. To be honest if you just want the portal to light up your best bet would be to buy an LED night light, take it out of the plastic case, take the portal apart and take the electronics out and put the nightlight back inside it.

You could still use the "naked" portal then and would have a pretty nightlight.

That obviously wouldn't activate Lightcore figures.

Spare portals to play with can be pretty cheap on Ebay.

Well, it does require a USB but all X360 USB devices were designed specifically to work with X360s as a form of console protection by Microsoft... That may have something to do with it.

It is not so much that the game has to be on but the driver that runs the portal has to be on. On some systems that driver is only on when the game is on, but on some it is on as long as the system is on. The problem is that a usb adapter does not have a driver in it to tell the portal to read the NFC chips.

Ah, well thank you everyone! I'll try to find the threads that show the blueprint of lighting up lightcores without a portal. Thank you!

Quote: Pyrofer

There is a whole thread (TWO in fact) on here dedicated to lighting up lightcore figures without the game.
I provided circuit diagrams and information on how to do it. Not sure anybody bothered, but it's all there if you search.

HA! I beat you to it, I mentioned it before you! LOL!

Quote: magicalt

Ah, well thank you everyone! I'll try to find the threads that show the blueprint of lighting up lightcores without a portal. Thank you!

Here's the one with real information (the other was a bunch of discussion with no final results):
//forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/viewposts.php?topic=73090