PicoPSU 120W internal in A1200D

[Fingerlickin_B]

Originally Posted by bippym

Well unless it is being powered by a laptop battery I don't see the point in making it internal.

If it is being powered by a laptop battery then it should all fit inside and be fastened in somehow.. with a charging point at the back...

The Pico exteral "brick" is not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes, and considerably lighter than any external Amiga PSU. Plus, much more wattage available. Less space, less weight, more power...great!

PZ.

[keropi]

reason to make it internal:

- no more lame-ancient-huge psu brick that has the power on/off on it, with last century thick cabling that is really an overkill.

the end

[keropi]

Originally Posted by Fingerlickin_B

The Pico exteral "brick" is not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes, and considerably lighter than any external Amiga PSU. Plus, much more wattage available. Less space, less weight, more power...great!

PZ.

exactly

[TheCorfiot]

Originally Posted by keropi

reason to make it internal:

- no more lame-ancient-huge psu brick that has the power on/off on it, with last century thick cabling that is really an overkill.

the end

Internal or external,, Is personal preference,

Keropi, you have done a fantastic mod and I agree Power switch on the side is way cool.
I'm impressed it all got in there considering all the extras...

Seriously well done mate,,,, A proud achievement

[Eclipse]

Awesome,
I'd be interested in an ATX board sometime as well.
My understanding is that a pico lets you convert 12v into the various voltages required for an ATX motherboard.
This is good for an amiga as you don't need a hefty PC PSU, you just need a small 12v brick.
Zetro, do you press n peel or use the old laser printer hack for your boards?

[Zetr0]

@Keropi

Its great to see it up and running my friend! clearly class work, I love the back plane, its a shame we couldnt get our initial idea for the power button, but the one fitted looks great!

@Eclipse

Indeed, press and peel was used, alas i think there was grease on the board that didnt get cleaned properly as there was a need to fix it a little

@All

for those wanting a board, I have consulted with futurlec (www.futurlec.com) and they can manufacture the PCB for under $50 (including postage) for 10 of them.

this doesn't include the ATX connector nor any wire or soldering... as it is just the pcb with a silk screen but still quite cheap...

you can approach them to make it for you including assembly

you will need the following though )

download the eagle file here

dimensions are

• 45.80mm length
• 52.70mm width

goto futurlec pcb making service

personally i wouldn't bother with a solder mask as its that small, and the other thing you will need is the installation pdf wich is a guide to modifying the Amiga to work with the board

[cv643d]

Nice mod.

However the standard external C= PSU is still an elegant solution IMHO. It has the same color as the A1200, has an on/off switch so the computer does not consume energy when turned off and has thick and reliable cables. It also runs very cool, at least mine does. I do not trust modern 12volt adapters from China.

Besides, the standard PSU is usually enough to power an A1200 with accelerator and scandoubler. My A1200 with DCE internal scandoubler, CF-card and Apollo 1260 runs at about 25-30 Watt IIRC.

But I agree the classic PSU takes up some space, but so does the PSU for the XBOX360

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by cv643d

Nice mod.

However the standard external C= PSU is still an elegant solution IMHO. It has the same color as the A1200, has an on/off switch so the computer does not consume energy when turned off and has thick and reliable cables. It also runs very cool, at least mine does. I do not trust modern 12volt adapters from China.

Besides, the standard PSU is usually enough to power an A1200 with accelerator and scandoubler. My A1200 with DCE internal scandoubler, CF-card and Apollo 1260 runs at about 25-30 Watt IIRC.

But I agree the classic PSU takes up some space, but so does the PSU for the XBOX360

So why not the best of two worlds? Open the "classic brick", take out the innards and toss a 120W/12V supply and a Pico-PSU on it.

Lightweight, plenty of juice (even to operate a medium-expanded 1200/MediTator - I know it not connect that way...) and much more reliable.

[Amiga1992]

I hate the brick.
I travel with my Amiga around and it takes too much space.

Besides, these 12VDC adapters can be found everywhere. fuck ancient proprietary technology.

PLEASE post how to make the MOD to make the picoPSU and 12VDC adapter run. Make it easy for stupids like me :P

[thinlega]

Originally Posted by Akira

PLEASE post how to make the MOD to make the picoPSU and 12VDC adapter run. Make it easy for stupids like me :P

And stupids like me

[Shoonay]

Wow!
That's the coolest Amiga mod I've seen in a while!

[keropi]

thank you all for yer kind words
in reality, I followed Zetr0's instructions for the PSU pinout, his atx-adapter really made that mod simple , clean and SAFE

[rkauer]

The "project" is not very hard.

Buy a 12V DC adapter, route the 2 wires from it to the "in" of the pico (observe the polarity!) and take the right voltages (with the original cable with the square power connector) to your Amiga.

Just a bit of solder, nothing more.

But since I don't have a pico in home, I can't take a photo, but the explanation is simple enough.

[EDIT]: From our professor, Zetr0:

[Amiga1992]

Well, here we go.

I found this thing:

picoPSU-120-WI-25V + MOREX 80W

would this model of picoPSU work?
It's not the same one shown here, it's this one:



I suppose this is an older model with less wattage or something? But who cares? It's fine for an Amiga.
Unless it has any strangeness that doesn't allow it to work.

What do you experts think? This deal is nice because they already give me the external PSU...

[Amiga1992]

Uhuhuhu, I have an idea for the cabling and everything already. i'll be excited to try this mod.
Will have a go at the internal version. it will have a small "twist" on Keroppi's take, and hopefully will make it more comfortable for me.

Muhuhuhuhaha!
looking forward to your help guys

[Amiga1992]

Well I just read this about this picoPSU model:

NOTE : This PSU cannot power 3.5" drives and 5.25" CDROMS, please use 2.5" drives or SlimCds or FlashDisk for your systems due to limited 12V rail output capabilities.

This is for the 60W version, the 80W version seems to be fine, because this is not mentioned, and the one I found is 120W

What do you reckon? Specs for the 80W version:

Power Output Ratings:

* 5V - 6A (8A Peak)
* 5VSB - 1.5A (2A Peak)
* 3.3V - 6A (8A Peak)
* -12V - 0.1A (0.1A Peak)
* 12V - 6A (8A Peak)



One last question for today: To where do you connect the EARTH cable of the Amiga power cable? I do NOT have an RF shield in my computer.

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Akira

Well I just read this about this picoPSU model:


This is for the 60W version, the 80W version seems to be fine, because this is not mentioned, and the one I found is 120W

What do you reckon? Specs for the 80W version:

Power Output Ratings:

* 5V - 6A (8A Peak)
* 5VSB - 1.5A (2A Peak)
* 3.3V - 6A (8A Peak)
* -12V - 0.1A (0.1A Peak)
* 12V - 6A (8A Peak)



One last question for today: To where do you connect the EARTH cable of the Amiga power cable? I do NOT have an RF shield in my computer.

That 80W is excellent for any medium-expanded Amiga in the original case!

For the hearth wire: simply don't plug it!

[Amiga1992]

So , in teh diagram, "Shield(earth)" goes nowhere?
wouldn't this be needed??

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Akira

So , in teh diagram, "Shield(earth)" goes nowhere?
wouldn't this be needed??

Nope.

[Zetr0]

Now lets talke PICO psu

a PICO PSU consists of two parts, the main part is basically an ATX psu that is very small indeed.



and



Thes are in a range of falvours (from 60watt upwards)

you can get them from ebay, heres some linkies
90 watt unit

120watt unit

Okay the second part of the PICO solution is a PLUG PACK, or LAPTOP DC transformer, you could mount this inside the unit as well, should that you want to, but these are small and unobtrusive enough to hang out by the power point.

this is a plug-pack / AC to DC transformer



depending on your flavour of PICOPSU (i.e. 60w/90w/or 120watts) will determine the needed plug-pack you need... sticking with the 12volts DC source, it now is a matter of Amps... if you remember back from skool, its amps * volts = watts.... sooo volts / watts = amps ... 120watts / 12 volts = 10 amps... so you would need a 10 amp 12 volt plug-pack for a 90watt solution that would be.... 90 watts / 12 volts = 7.5amps

okay thats the boring bit outa the way....

heres some plug-packs

60watt output (12v*5a)

80watt (12*6.6a)

A complete Kit (PicoPSU 120watt)+(12volt 8.5a DC plugpack) for $78

Now with all things Shop around on ebay, and locally as you may pick it up a lot cheaper, I got mine for around $60 A 120 Watt Pico PSU AND 12volt * 10amp DC plug pack

okay..... so this is only half the journey my friend, we need to now interface the A1000 with the ATX power supply.... in the next post

[edit]

Anyone got the power port pinouts on the A1000 handy?!