Developing a new A500/1200/600 power supply. -12V needed?

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by john1979

Both old and new need 9V AC.

You are right, I am an idiot, I always forget the propping up to 12V is done inside the machine.

[Mounty]

Originally Posted by john1979

They get hot and slowly cook themselves. To make it worse some are filled with epoxy trapping the heat in even more. When they fail they usually send around 12v down the 5v rail and kill the C64. To make it even worse again, people tend to assume the C64 is broken and not think about the PSU, so they plug it into a another C64 and kill that one as well.

They are ticking time bombs.

Wow that doesn't sound good. How much would you expect to pay for a decent replacement?

The answer you give will probably determine whether it is worth doing or not.

[BarryB]

Have a look at Ray Carlsens C64 Saver: http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/c64/SAVER/

[Mounty]

Originally Posted by BarryB

Have a look at Ray Carlsens C64 Saver: http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/c64/SAVER/

Thanks. That obviously confirms there is a common fault with these power supplies.

Hard to believe that Commodore would make such a bad job of them.

[Nibbler]

Please dont leave the AMIGA CD32 Community behind.

[Mounty]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

Please dont leave the AMIGA CD32 Community behind.

Don't tell me, the CD32 power supplies were badly designed as well!!

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Mounty

Don't tell me, the CD32 power supplies were badly designed as well!!

CD32 PSUs are basically 1581 PSUs, so same shit.

[john1979]

Originally Posted by Mounty

Wow that doesn't sound good. How much would you expect to pay for a decent replacement?

The answer you give will probably determine whether it is worth doing or not.

That's hard to know exactly. For a high quality replacement I would play £20 to £25 I think.

[Retrofan]

I agree with John for a C64 psu. For an Amiga one with a sensor to deliver 5v and to feed my power hungry Amiga I can't say how much, all depends 50€-80€-100€?)

I'm surely willing to pay more than others as I need this PSU to get perfectly powering my fully-fully loaded A1200 as I'm planning to sell it and I don't want to be trying the Pico-Psu way if possible, I want it simple if it can be.

Of course I could use one of my ATX Psu's shortening the cable and avoid resistance, but I don't like the idea.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by john1979

That's hard to know exactly. For a high quality replacement I would play £20 to £25 I think.

I payed £30 + £25postage from UK to Sweden to get a replacement CD32 PSU.
Yesterday one CD32 PSU went on "Tradera" (Swedish ebay for about ~€50)

Id's say, there's some demand for decent replacements for both c64 and various Amigas.

[Predseda]

Thats correct. The ammount of good C64 / Amiga PSUs is decreasing and the demand is rising. A lot of people dedicate their effort to accelerators / accessories etc., but the basic thing is to get the computer a power. I think it is a good opportunity to you, Mounty and I am really interested at your work.

[cpiac64]

for cd32 i have buy a similar of this for 5€ and changed plug for 1€

http://www.ebay.it/itm/Cargador-Corr...item3cca64b9d7

[BarryB]

My CD32 PSU also powers my 1541-II disk drive

[Retrofan]

Well, let's be clear. You'll find demand for all of them. I also want/need a C64 one, but you better design/develope one at a time, so I think it's nice and good if you take as much info about the market as possible (I would guess minimum two hundred buyers for the Amiga and surely more/double for the Commodore one) and info about what we need/what has been done/what can/should be improved/added, but then you first start with the Amiga one.

Also, it won't be easy, fast or cheap to get the parts I believe. And no, I don't mind to use one of my Psu connectors, in fact I have an unfinished ATX project with it (I've got three working ones). BTW yes, I know I told it took only 2 seconds to find a replacement, but it gets about 14€ to get one delivered (!!).

I must say that the only PSU that actually can power on my fully loaded A1200 is Amigakit's psu, but it can't always boot it and when it boots it isn't delivering 5 volts to the Amiga psu socket, that's why a sensor is needed as Jens has planned.

I know about nothing of electricity. Does the voltage at the connector also drops because of the draw of the things connected or it shoudn't? I guess it shoudn't and the lack of volts there only depends in the lenght and thick of the cable (this part for sure).

And a last thought: Jens has a lot of work for the next 6 months with a lot of things in development, and Amigakit also has it with his Prisma soundcard, Ian doesn't produce the ATX adaptors anymore and Kipper is too busy with his boards and with the Fpga accelerator with Majsta. Also, look at Ebay, there is almost nothing new about Amiga/C64 psu's.

You've got the chance now to be selling what people has been asking for a while.

[Retrofan]

BTW I use to read a lot and remember interesting things, and this is the most insteresting reading about Amiga's PSU:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...ope#post837066

[Mounty]

Originally Posted by john1979

That's hard to know exactly. For a high quality replacement I would play £20 to £25 I think.

Well that's killed the idea stone dead, and this highlights the retro accessory developer's biggest problem.

Everyone wants to pay "mass-produced" prices. A Chinese factory could make a million power supplies for a couple of quid each.

I would be lucky to sell 100 units over a year. At those quantities it costs me more to make than people will pay so looks like the idea is a no-go I'm afraid.

[john1979]

Has it really?? How can my one extremely rough guess be the voice of everyone? To go off one persons opinion and call it everyones seems a bit, err, crazy.

If the PSU was very good quality and I was expecting it to last many years I'd probably pay more. How can I say what it's worth, I haven't even seen it yet? Don't put the blame on me for not going anywhere with this idea.

[Arnie]

+1

[Vot]

I'd suggest why nobody has made one is because unlike low voltage dc stuff any main power supply needs to obtain certification before its sold or its illegal. Dodgy mains power supply design can kill people

[Vot]

Originally Posted by Mounty

Well that's killed the idea stone dead, and this highlights the retro accessory developer's biggest problem.



Everyone wants to pay "mass-produced" prices. A Chinese factory could make a million power supplies for a couple of quid each.



I would be lucky to sell 100 units over a year. At those quantities it costs me more to make than people will pay so looks like the idea is a no-go I'm afraid.

Half of the Chinese ones very dodgy too. Inadequate air gaps between primary and secondary, insufficient creepage distances, non mains rated caps (not x class etc).