Individual Computer's new PSU

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by wiz12

I'm open to correction on this but I believe the reason the cord is so short from Amiga->CA-PSU is to reduce any possible voltage drop, the longer the cord the more the drop I think. The PSU is probably technically the best overall option available but it just comes across as a rather clumsy looking design.

Part of the design philosophy here was to bring the part with the On/Off switch closer to the computer so shorter cord makes sense. Not sure how much of it because of voltage drop.
The wiki doesn't mention cable length in that context, specifically.
http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/CA-PSU
Anyhoo, Its technically probably right up there at the top but the 2 part design really is hit or miss. For me it sounded like a good idea, but I wish they found a softer more flexible cord on the short end.

[eXeler0]

Noticed that iComp added "200-240V" to the PSU name..
https://icomp.de/shop-icomp/en/shop/...mpact_200-240V

Also.. I'm running out of new PSUs to test ;-)
Here's a test of the C64 version of the Keelog PSU which looks very much like the Amiga version. With the adapter cable it works both with C64 and C128.
[ Show youtube player ]

[AJCopland]

I use one of these without any issues
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-PSU...UAAOSw9WBek3WQ

[Lord Aga]

^ Same here
I really like this one so far. We'll see how it fares when I add some more hardware to a basic A500+.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by AJCopland

I use one of these without any issues
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-PSU...UAAOSw9WBek3WQ

Yea that's the Electroware PSU,
https://www.c64psu.com/c64psu/56-140...dule-no_thanks
I've bought and tested it already, works fine.

[Methanoid]

Makes me think Pico PSU FTW

[wiz12]

Well according to Jens, we shouldn't use any of these third party PSUs but I've had no problems with my meanwell PSU.

[Xebec]

Originally Posted by AJCopland

I use one of these without any issues
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-PSU...UAAOSw9WBek3WQ

Just curious - what Amiga specifically are you using this with?

I have one of these PSUs and it'll power my A1200 w/ACA1221 and Indivision video just fine.. However on the A500 it's only good for a "stock" config (Indivision ECS, Trapdoor 512KB). When I add an accelerator such as the ACA500+ I get permanent graphics artifacts that get slowly worse over time, and if I add on the ACA1221 for additional acceleration the A500 won't even power on.

From what I know the A500 is a lot more hungry than the A1200..

Thanks!

P.S. For those thinking of the iComp CA-PSU I ordered one to make sure it's the power supply causing the issue - if you have any questions, ask. Since I'm in the US I'm going to either use a 240V step up transformer, or (after messaging with Jens) get a laptop 12V/5A PSU and hard wire that into the DC to DC convertor instead. The dream would be to have an Amiga PSU like this that accepts USB-C input..

[laubzega]

Originally Posted by Xebec

P.S. For those thinking of the iComp CA-PSU I ordered one to make sure it's the power supply causing the issue - if you have any questions, ask. Since I'm in the US I'm going to either use a 240V step up transformer, or (after messaging with Jens) get a laptop 12V/5A PSU and hard wire that into the DC to DC convertor instead. The dream would be to have an Amiga PSU like this that accepts USB-C input..

Looks like your dream is about to come true: https://retrousbpower.com/

[Xebec]

Originally Posted by laubzega

Looks like your dream is about to come true: https://retrousbpower.com/

That's awesome - thank you!

(It's nice having a USB psu for an Atari 800XL already)

[eXeler0]

Just a note about the icomp PSU. On paper, its supposed to be amazing, IRL its the only one of my new PSUs that has stopped working properly. Its works sometimes but its really dodgy. Replaced it with a Electroware PSU.

[wiz12]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Just a note about the icomp PSU. On paper, its supposed to be amazing, IRL its the only one of my new PSUs that has stopped working properly. Its works sometimes but its really dodgy. Replaced it with a Electroware PSU.

I had to return my CA-PSU to Jens for repair after it developed a fault similar to yours. It turned out the DC-output cable had become heavily twisted which caused contact on the 5V rail burning in a tiny spot, this led to voltage drops on the 5V rail and thus caused instability like you describe.

IMO, I think this could be a common problem due to it's design as a C64 cartridge, there can be a lot of strain on the cables the fact they both come out on the Amiga end and as I said to Jens if the power brick cable could be on the oither end of the cartridge it would help alleviate this.

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by wiz12

I had to return my CA-PSU to Jens for repair after it developed a fault similar to yours. It turned out the DC-output cable had become heavily twisted which caused contact on the 5V rail burning in a tiny spot, this led to voltage drops on the 5V rail and thus caused instability like you describe.

IMO, I think this could be a common problem due to it's design as a C64 cartridge, there can be a lot of strain on the cables the fact they both come out on the Amiga end and as I said to Jens if the power brick cable could be on the oither end of the cartridge it would help alleviate this.

That's ironic considering the sale pitch for this thing:

" It is the first power supply on the market that fully complies with the original Commodore specifications, introducing cable drop compensation for best regulation that even settles the voltage drop in the input filter of the target computers. This means that the voltage on the main 5V rail will never deviate more then 0.9%, measured inside the computer - no matter if the computer is in vanilla configuration or heavily expanded. Conventional power supplies will either supply too-high voltage to a vanilla machine, or too-low voltage to an expanded machine, causing malfunction or even defects. This cannot happen with our cable drop compensation technology."

[SPOD]

Originally Posted by laubzega

Looks like your dream is about to come true: https://retrousbpower.com/

Wow, hope it makes it to market, my 1200 is pretty power hungry with all the upgrades and it's causing some weird screen issues at times.

[kriz]

Oh wow that reotrusbpower im getting on release

[eXeler0]

Looks nice but no updates on X/Twitter since July 10th

[Jope]

Seems Claude has a prototype, so it somewhat exists. :-) Hope they manage to get it produced, this is something I'm interested in trying.

[wiz12]

PowerShark is now available however the first batch has already been sold out and it's not cheap at 70 euro plus you would also require a USB-C charger.

https://retrousbpower.com/

[alexh]

Originally Posted by wiz12

PowerShark is now available it's not cheap at 70 euro

I was looking forward to it but €70 is too much for a PSU. I wonder if they set their price based on the price of Icomp's CA-PSU? (Which at €79)

I'll keep using my (recapped) Amiga 1200 PSU unless I get serious stability issues.

[derSammler]

Originally Posted by alexh

I was looking forward to it but €70 is too much for a PSU.

True, especially considering that it's not actually a full PSU, but just the voltage regulators. You still need to buy the actual USB PSU with PD that delivers the 12 volts needed for it to work. With that and shipping, you end up spending at least 100€.

Also funny: on A1k they are sorry that the first batch was sold so quickly, but refuse to tell how many units the first batch actually had. Claiming high demand is very unprofessional when not giving figures. In reality, the first batch was probably only 50 units or so, of which maybe 5 to 10 were given out early to testers.

But well, I don't care. I'm not spending my money on this, nor on the one from icomp.