Using a picoPSU: tired of the problems. Please help. - Page 3

Amiga1992 · 18 December 2011, 17:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stedy

The fact that you mentioned you wired the +5V and +5VSB signals together does worry me, you may have irreprably damaged the picoPSU.

Hmm that was only after it being mentioned here. It was doing the same before, without me wiring anything together.

Is there any other way I can test this without getting a car lightbulb? I have no car. Can I connect a hard drive or something to it? I have a floppy drive to connect to 5V.

The voltages are on the right pins, I have measured them before. I will measure them for the nth time if needs be.
I can try to get an ATX PSU on Gumtree or something. Actually, a whole old PC that i can try the picoPSU with.

What about my readings when I power up the picoPSU and THEN plug it into the AMiga? Why are the values on 12V so off? 5V is fine.
Can yo comment on that please?

This is sooo annoying

Thank yo uall for your help and patience/.

thgill · 18 December 2011, 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akira

Is there any other way I can test this without getting a car lightbulb? I have no car. Can I connect a hard drive or something to it? I have a floppy drive to connect to 5V.

Yeah, a 3.5 inch desktop hard drive would probably work since they use both 5 and 12volts. Listen for it to spin up.

prowler · 18 December 2011, 23:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by thgill

Yeah, a 3.5 inch desktop hard drive would probably work since they use both 5 and 12volts. Listen for it to spin up.

Hi Akira,

thgill's advice is sound, but please make sure there is nothing valuable stored on the drive first.

I once wiped a hard drive by spinning it up without a data cable connected between it and the controller. I couldn't believe it, and I still can't.

Don't ask me how it happened - just don't run the same risk yourself.

roy bates · 19 December 2011, 00:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

Hi Akira,

thgill's advice is sound, but please make sure there is nothing valuable stored on the drive first.

I once wiped a hard drive by spinning it up without a data cable connected between it and the controller. I couldn't believe it, and I still can't.

Don't ask me how it happened - just don't run the same risk yourself.

how on earth did you manage that?.what sort of harddrive was it?

prowler · 19 December 2011, 00:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by roy bates

how on earth did you manage that?

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

Don't ask me how it happened

Quote:

Originally Posted by roy bates

what sort of harddrive was it?

I can't remember exactly now, but it was probably an old Seagate EIDE 1GB or so hard drive I had forgotten to reconnect to my 486 or Pentium PC after removing another I had connected temporarily to test it.

When I eventually switched off the PC, restored the connection and rebooted, the hard drive still worked, but had been wiped clean!

roy bates · 19 December 2011, 01:27

fair enough,never seen this myself just wondered.

roy bates · 19 December 2011, 01:30

you can get a stop light from a garage there very cheap,i suggested that because if anything goes wrong its only a bulb.

Amiga1992 · 19 December 2011, 12:44

How about getting one of these?
http://bit.ly/vK0it6

thgill · 19 December 2011, 15:13

While something like that would certainly work, I don't think it puts any real load on any of the rails. Pretty much just measures voltages across a couple of them and lets you know if they fall within spec or not.

Amiga1992 · 19 December 2011, 15:17

I see, so it would do just what I did with the multimeter, right?

thgill · 19 December 2011, 15:42

Yeah, pretty much. Some of them have resistors inside to put a small load on it, but I am not sure if its enough to make a difference. However if you have one available to you it certainly couldn't hurt.

Amiga1992 · 19 December 2011, 15:46

Nah, I was thinking about buying it. I might as well try to buy a hard drive, because I realized all I have are SATA and CF-IDE devices around here :P I don't think a 2.5" SATA device will put any load on the PSU... Besides they might be 5V only, I am not sure.

thgill · 19 December 2011, 15:51

Yeah, they are 5v only.

Isn't there a second hand store near you that you could pick up a cheap-o PC from to try the pico on?

Amiga1992 · 19 December 2011, 20:04

Life is a strange thing...
I just went to Tesco and while going downstais on my building someone had dumped a PC with monitor at the stairs. I brought it up and I have it here.

I don't really know if it works, I need power and VGA leads, but I will try to buy that tomorrow (gonna set me back 20 damned pounds, damnit) and see if it works for testing all thi sshit out. It has no hard drive though, only CD drives, so I dunno if I can test the picoPSU with a CD drive. What do you think?

The motherboard seems ATX though but without mains leads I can't test it out. I guess I could boot a Linux distro from one of the CD ROM drives IF they still work...

It's funny, when I was needing speakers, someone on the same floor threw out a pair I could repair and am now using.

roy bates · 19 December 2011, 21:39

you should be able to use the lead of your kettle(if your lucky)and use stedys connector to power it up,or short the green wire ps-on to the black one ground,just make sure its not a dell.

voyager · 19 December 2011, 21:50

You are adding a another uncertainty factor to the equation.

The pc is sitting on the stairs with a reason I think, you can plug the pico cpu in but you don’t know if the mainboard is working so you end up were you started.

However if you want to test it you can always try but if it’s doing noting it can be you psu OR the mainboard.

What you need from that old pc is the mainboard and the pc speaker. Sometimes one sits on the mainboard itself, older ones have a speaker in de pc case.

Plug your pico psu into the atx connector on the mainboard, if you can connect a old harddisk and turn it on. On the mainboard you will see a pin header for hdd led power led etc and a pwr sw just short the 2 pins the mainboard should turn on.

If the drive spin’s you have +12 +5v The main board will give you 3 short beeps or something like that depends on the bios, it will probably trying to tell you there is no ram of video card.

Stedy · 19 December 2011, 23:47

Akira,

Lucky find with the PC. If you plug the picoPSU into the PC mainboard without mouse or keyboard attached, it should power up the motherboard and possibly beep at you.

Using the hard drive connector, measure the +12V and +5V supplies under load.

Unless the PC is a 1998-2002 vintage Dell system, ignore the advice about the Dell specific ATX PSUs, all newer machines, mine included use normal ATX power supplies.

Got to ask this question, what monitor/TV do you use to try and display the Amiga video output?

A similar thread to this was you posting back in 2008, 'DESPERATE! Help with PicoPSU

'
has it really been that long?

Ian

Amiga1992 · 20 December 2011, 00:00

Yes my friend, it's been that long. I acquired the picoPSU in December or November 2008. I didn't get it to work and people suggested a picoPSU fault so I wrote to the people that make it and complained and they sent me ANOTHER one free of charge and the same happened. This is why I seriously doubt both units are broken, can I be that unlucky? Back then I had no connection to +5VSB, by the way, just from one +5V.

I will try plugging the picoPSU to this motherboard, it is a regular ATX PSU, no brand stuff, just a barebones PC. I will measure the +5v and +12 when I connect it then. but I noticed the weirdest when connected is the -12V. Could this be the faulty bit?

About the screen: I am connecting it with compositevidoe to a video capture card. As soon as I get a VGA cable, I can try the A1200 which has a scandoubler. But I feel a bit uneasy breaking the A100 case anything goes wrong with the PSU, I rather sacrifice my good ole and trusty A600, which has defied death many times (did I ever tell you about the time, when I was a kid, that I connected it to a C128 power supply? and it worked. Sort of :P)

I am glad you brought up that old thread Steady, I will quote myself:

Quote:

Conencted them directly to the Amiga's PSU port.
Nothing happens when I flick the power switch.

Again, if the picopsu detects that I conencted something to its other conenctors, like the diskdrive or a fan, it starts up, but the amiga gets nothing, IDE port locked (CF-IDE light constantly on), and screen turns with black signal and an interference line in the middle.

Quote:

picopsu powers on with switch if not connected to amiga but a device is attaches to the other plugs.

This is the EXACT same problem I have now. So nothing changed since then. I had no faulty wiring and even less now. I am leaning a lot towards a faulty AC/DC adapter, is it possible? It was the same one back then, too.

Amiga1992 · 20 December 2011, 19:01

Well, I am getting a bit tired about spending money on this issue since I have no friends here in London that could give me a hand.

Connected my A1200 to the VGA monitor through the scandoubler port and everything seems to be working great. I can't test the 600 because it has no scandoubler but a friend will lend me a video monitor to iron out these problems. I bet it has no problems.
So, I can rule out my Amigas being broken *phew*

Now, picoPSU, what is your problem? :P
I will connect it to the motherboard but I think that motherboard is fucked, I notice some rusting on some caps. Worst case scenario I'll try with the CD ROM drives.

[edit]
FINDINGS
I connected the picoPSU to a CD ROM drive and a disk drive.
When I connect JUSt the CD-ROM drive, it powers up.
When I conect JUST the disk drive, it powers up.

When I connect BOTH, it doens't.

Both picoPSUs act the same way.

MORE FINDINGS

If I hardwire the power witch connector to on an i plug the power into the picopsu, it powers up when connected to the amiga and seems to run normally.

roy bates · 20 December 2011, 20:42

did the pc you found have a psu inside?

can you take a reading from the mains adaptor for the picu?and say what the voltage is under load?
(from the 12 volt end that goes to the picu's input stage)

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19 December 2011, 01:27	#46
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	fair enough,never seen this myself just wondered.

19 December 2011, 01:30	#47
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	you can get a stop light from a garage there very cheap,i suggested that because if anything goes wrong its only a bulb.

19 December 2011, 12:44	#48
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,644	How about getting one of these? http://bit.ly/vK0it6

19 December 2011, 15:13	#49
thgill Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Location: Mason, Ohio / USA Age: 48 Posts: 391	While something like that would certainly work, I don't think it puts any real load on any of the rails. Pretty much just measures voltages across a couple of them and lets you know if they fall within spec or not.

19 December 2011, 15:17	#50
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,644	I see, so it would do just what I did with the multimeter, right?

19 December 2011, 15:42	#51
thgill Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Location: Mason, Ohio / USA Age: 48 Posts: 391	Yeah, pretty much. Some of them have resistors inside to put a small load on it, but I am not sure if its enough to make a difference. However if you have one available to you it certainly couldn't hurt.

19 December 2011, 15:46	#52
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,644	Nah, I was thinking about buying it. I might as well try to buy a hard drive, because I realized all I have are SATA and CF-IDE devices around here :P I don't think a 2.5" SATA device will put any load on the PSU... Besides they might be 5V only, I am not sure.

19 December 2011, 15:51	#53
thgill Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Location: Mason, Ohio / USA Age: 48 Posts: 391	Yeah, they are 5v only. Isn't there a second hand store near you that you could pick up a cheap-o PC from to try the pico on?

19 December 2011, 20:04	#54
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,644	Life is a strange thing... I just went to Tesco and while going downstais on my building someone had dumped a PC with monitor at the stairs. I brought it up and I have it here. I don't really know if it works, I need power and VGA leads, but I will try to buy that tomorrow (gonna set me back 20 damned pounds, damnit) and see if it works for testing all thi sshit out. It has no hard drive though, only CD drives, so I dunno if I can test the picoPSU with a CD drive. What do you think? The motherboard seems ATX though but without mains leads I can't test it out. I guess I could boot a Linux distro from one of the CD ROM drives IF they still work... It's funny, when I was needing speakers, someone on the same floor threw out a pair I could repair and am now using.

19 December 2011, 21:39	#55
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	you should be able to use the lead of your kettle(if your lucky)and use stedys connector to power it up,or short the green wire ps-on to the black one ground,just make sure its not a dell.

19 December 2011, 21:50	#56
voyager The show must go on. Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Alkmaar Nederland Posts: 269	You are adding a another uncertainty factor to the equation. The pc is sitting on the stairs with a reason I think, you can plug the pico cpu in but you don’t know if the mainboard is working so you end up were you started. However if you want to test it you can always try but if it’s doing noting it can be you psu OR the mainboard. What you need from that old pc is the mainboard and the pc speaker. Sometimes one sits on the mainboard itself, older ones have a speaker in de pc case. Plug your pico psu into the atx connector on the mainboard, if you can connect a old harddisk and turn it on. On the mainboard you will see a pin header for hdd led power led etc and a pwr sw just short the 2 pins the mainboard should turn on. If the drive spin’s you have +12 +5v The main board will give you 3 short beeps or something like that depends on the bios, it will probably trying to tell you there is no ram of video card.

19 December 2011, 23:47	#57
Stedy Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: United Kingdom Age: 46 Posts: 733	Akira, Lucky find with the PC. If you plug the picoPSU into the PC mainboard without mouse or keyboard attached, it should power up the motherboard and possibly beep at you. Using the hard drive connector, measure the +12V and +5V supplies under load. Unless the PC is a 1998-2002 vintage Dell system, ignore the advice about the Dell specific ATX PSUs, all newer machines, mine included use normal ATX power supplies. Got to ask this question, what monitor/TV do you use to try and display the Amiga video output? A similar thread to this was you posting back in 2008, 'DESPERATE! Help with PicoPSU ' has it really been that long? Ian

20 December 2011, 19:01	#59
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,644	Well, I am getting a bit tired about spending money on this issue since I have no friends here in London that could give me a hand. Connected my A1200 to the VGA monitor through the scandoubler port and everything seems to be working great. I can't test the 600 because it has no scandoubler but a friend will lend me a video monitor to iron out these problems. I bet it has no problems. So, I can rule out my Amigas being broken phew Now, picoPSU, what is your problem? :P I will connect it to the motherboard but I think that motherboard is fucked, I notice some rusting on some caps. Worst case scenario I'll try with the CD ROM drives. [edit] FINDINGS I connected the picoPSU to a CD ROM drive and a disk drive. When I connect JUSt the CD-ROM drive, it powers up. When I conect JUST the disk drive, it powers up. *When I connect BOTH, it doens't.* Both picoPSUs act the same way. MORE FINDINGS If I hardwire the power witch connector to on an i plug the power into the picopsu, it powers up when connected to the amiga and seems to run normally.

20 December 2011, 20:42	#60
roy bates Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: birmingham Age: 55 Posts: 2,827	did the pc you found have a psu inside? can you take a reading from the mains adaptor for the picu?and say what the voltage is under load? (from the 12 volt end that goes to the picu's input stage)

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