Build a C64 PSU
Chrom_
I read more and more often that old CBM PSU's can ruin a perfectly
working C64. I think it would be interesting to build a modern PSU to
use in the place of the original (and maybe, why not, sticking it into
the original Commodore PSU case).
Is there anyone that knows how to deal with AC/DC and PSUs that can
point me to a tutorial or a good resource for the purpose?
I'm skilled in soldering, and I have no problems when it's about low
voltage Direct Current. I have no experience in PSUs though...
Thanks a lot.
Mauro
Clocky
I use an ATX power supply for 5V and a supplementary 9VAC @ 2A transformer
housed in a seperate box.
You can see it here http://users.on.net/~clockmeister/other/VIC20C/
There are other ways to do it ofcourse but this works well enough for me and
my VIC's/C64's and drives (which also require 12V).
Hope that helps.
http://users.on.net/~clockmeister
Sam Gillett
"Chrom_" <mauro...@gmail.com> wrote ...
Here is a schematic for a C64 power supply:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/images/c64ps.jpg
Or, you may be interested in a device to protect your C64 from the black
brick power supply:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/saver.txt
--
Best regards,
Sam Gillett
Change is inevitable,
except from vending machines!
John Watson
Charles Richmond
> "Chrom_" <mauro...@gmail.com> wrote ...
>> I read more and more often that old CBM PSU's can ruin a perfectly
>> working C64. I think it would be interesting to build a modern PSU to
>> use in the place of the original (and maybe, why not, sticking it into
>> the original Commodore PSU case).
>>
>> Is there anyone that knows how to deal with AC/DC and PSUs that can
>> point me to a tutorial or a good resource for the purpose?
>>
>> I'm skilled in soldering, and I have no problems when it's about low
>> voltage Direct Current. I have no experience in PSUs though...
>
> Here is a schematic for a C64 power supply:
>
> http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/images/c64ps.jpg
>
I bought my first C64 in 1983. It came with one of the "fixable"
power supplies. That PS got "as hot as a two dollar pistol"! It
was so hot I used to set it on a small piece of plywood, instead
of putting it on the carpet. Finally it burned up the voltage
regulator.
A double-E friend of mine fixed it by replacing the voltage
regulator, with an LM323 I believe. (I am certain that the new
voltage regulator was from the LM group of IC's.) After that, the
power supply was fairly cool when in operation.
> Or, you may be interested in a device to protect your C64 from the black
> brick power supply:
>
> http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/saver.txt
>
--
+----------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond |
| |
| plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com |
+----------------------------------------+
Sam Gillett
"Charles Richmond" <fri...@tx.rr.com> wrote ...
>
> I bought my first C64 in 1983. It came with one of the "fixable" power
> supplies. That PS got "as hot as a two dollar pistol"! It was so hot I used
> to set it on a small piece of plywood, instead of putting it on the carpet.
> Finally it burned up the voltage regulator.
It might have burned up sooner if you had left it on the carpet. Placing it
on wood allows a little air to circulate underneath it keeping the power
supply slightly cooler.
Commodore power supplies got me into the habit of placing a piece of wood
under them. I still do it! And not just with Commodore equipment. I have a
couple of inkjet printers that use a brick style power suppy. The bricks
have a short piece of 1x4 under them.
Chrom_
in my opinion the point here is to build a brand new PSU and get rid
of the old one that is potentially faulty. Even putting the old PSU on
a wooden surface doesn't guarantee a stable and comliant current
output.
M.
On Sep 21, 6:46 am, "Sam Gillett" <sgillettnos...@diespammergte.net>
wrote:
> "Charles Richmond" <friz...@tx.rr.com> wrote ...
mrtin...@gmail.com
My idea was to keep it simple, as I don't do much electrical stuff.
What you need is two PSUs. One for 5VDC and one for 9VAC.
I bought these 3 things from an electronic store:
- HQ Power - USB poweradapter, 5VDC / 2.5A
- Poweradapter - 230V to 9VAC / 1A
- DIN connector - 7 pin male multiconnector 270°, Plasticcover
I cut off the connectors of the two poweradapters, and soldered the
wires to the DIN connector with help from the table on the page below.
Make sure the 5VDC has minimum 1.5A and the 9VAC has minimum 1A.
If you have powerhungry hardware get more than 1.5A on 5VDC. I bought
this, because 1541 Ultimate expansion needed more than a regular
powersupply.
(http://www.hardwarebook.info/C64_Power_Supply)
/mrtinb
Sam Gillett
"Chrom_" <mauro...@gmail.com> wrote ...
>
> in my opinion the point here is to build a brand new PSU and get rid
> of the old one that is potentially faulty. Even putting the old PSU on
> a wooden surface doesn't guarantee a stable and comliant current
> output.
Yes, the thread did drift a little away from the new power supply (but did
stay on power supplies).
However, in an earlier post I did provide a link to a schematic for a new
power supply. A power supply that should suit your requirements. The link
is reproduced below.
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/images/c64ps.jpg
Chrom_
mrtinb: to get 2 modern compatible PSUs and merge them into 1 with
proper I/O cabling (by the way, yes I have a 1541U).
What PSUs are adviced? Anything on ebay? Brands, models? Can you
provide apicture of your homebrew PSU?
Thanks a lot guys, the ideas are all very appreciated, and I think
this thread can be kept as a useful record for future reference for
many people.
Mauro
mrtin...@gmail.com
Hi Mauro!
I've simply found an Internet shop here in Denmark, which had plenty
of different power supplies, and I picked the ones which matched the
C64 power supply the most.
E.g. (http://elextra.dk/main.aspx?
page=articlelist&gid=2608&gidlevel=0). I suggest you find a similar
Internet shop in your country. If it's US, Radio Shack might be a good
guess.
I didn't look at brands. I looked at cheapest and highest ampere (A).
/mrtinb
Clocky
> The easiest and most feasible solution to me seems the one proposed by
> mrtinb: to get 2 modern compatible PSUs and merge them into 1 with
> proper I/O cabling (by the way, yes I have a 1541U).
>
> What PSUs are adviced? Anything on ebay? Brands, models? Can you
> provide apicture of your homebrew PSU?
I did, and it's essentially the same as what mrtinb proposed later. With an
AT(X ) supply (+5V, +12V) + supplementary 9VAC supply you have enough power
to run virtually any C= hardware of the one power supply. I use the ATX
supply for my drives as well. I bought my 240-9VAC transformer from my local
electronics store for about $12 AUD (www.jaycar.com.au) but they are fairly
generic so a suitable transformer should be available from any electronics
store that sells components.
If you ever plan to use the supply with a VIC-20, you will need to get a
9VAC transformer with a 2A rating as the VIC-20 draws more current and 1A
isn't enough.
> Thanks a lot guys, the ideas are all very appreciated, and I think
> this thread can be kept as a useful record for future reference for
> many people.
>
> Mauro
>
>> I bought these 3 things from an electronic store:
>>
>> - HQ Power - USB poweradapter, 5VDC / 2.5A
>> - Poweradapter - 230V to 9VAC / 1A
>> - DIN connector - 7 pin male multiconnector 270�, Plasticcover
>>
>> I cut off the connectors of the two poweradapters, and soldered the
>> wires to the DIN connector with help from the table on the page
>> below.
I just used an old C64 brick power cable as that is what I had handy, and
who doesn't have a dead C= power brick laying around somewhere ;-)
http://www.users.on.net/~clockmeister
Paul Förster
> (http://www.hardwarebook.info/C64_Power_Supply)
... the pin description on that page says pin 6 is "9VAC" and pin 7 is
"9Vac". This may be a dumb question but is there any difference between
them other than the case of the case?
--
cul8er
Clocky
> Hi Martin,
>
>> (http://www.hardwarebook.info/C64_Power_Supply)
>
> ... the pin description on that page says pin 6 is "9VAC" and pin 7 is
> "9Vac". This may be a dumb question but is there any difference
> between them other than the case of the case?
No, there is no difference since AC voltage isn't polarised and is
alternating.
mrtin...@gmail.com
Hi!
If I remember correctly, the two wires from the 9VAC power supply is
connected to 9VAC and 9Vac. Ground is not used in AC power supply.
BTW now I've uploaded a picture of my simple construction.
(http://gallery.me.com/mrtinb/100090/IMG_0001/web.jpg)
The 5VDC power supply had two USB charging connectors. One was cut off
for the C64 connector and the other one was left untouched. The one
left untouched on the power supply can be used to supply power to USB
devices. E.g. 1541U in stand-alone mode.
/mrtinb
Clocky
>>> Hi Martin,
>>
>>>> (http://www.hardwarebook.info/C64_Power_Supply)
>>
>>> ... the pin description on that page says pin 6 is "9VAC" and pin 7
>>> is "9Vac". This may be a dumb question but is there any difference
>>> between them other than the case of the case?
>>
>> No, there is no difference since AC voltage isn't polarised and is
>> alternating.
>
> Hi!
>
> If I remember correctly, the two wires from the 9VAC power supply is
> connected to 9VAC and 9Vac. Ground is not used in AC power supply.
You remember correctly ;-)
> BTW now I've uploaded a picture of my simple construction.
>
> (http://gallery.me.com/mrtinb/100090/IMG_0001/web.jpg)
>
> The 5VDC power supply had two USB charging connectors. One was cut off
> for the C64 connector and the other one was left untouched. The one
> left untouched on the power supply can be used to supply power to USB
> devices. E.g. 1541U in stand-alone mode.
>
Simple and effective. Now to hope they are more rugged than the C= bricks
;-)
Chrom_
> Simple and effective. Now to hope they are more rugged than the C= bricks
Good point indeed! Will this really be more reliable? Which are the
involved variables to determine the reliability of the PSU?
Chorm_
Charles Richmond
One plus of the PSU that you build: If it breaks, you can *fix*
it. The bricks do *not* support repair in any practical way. The
PSU you build can be more reliable, if you use components with
generous specifications. If you only think one amp will flow
through the part, use a part that will handle 2 amps.
Clocky
> Chrom_ wrote:
>> On Sep 23, 2:02 am, "Clocky" <nice...@migo.com> wrote:
>>> Simple and effective. Now to hope they are more rugged than the C=
>>> bricks
>>
>> Good point indeed! Will this really be more reliable? Which are the
>> involved variables to determine the reliability of the PSU?
>>
>
> One plus of the PSU that you build: If it breaks, you can *fix*
> it. The bricks do *not* support repair in any practical way. The
> PSU you build can be more reliable, if you use components with
> generous specifications. If you only think one amp will flow
> through the part, use a part that will handle 2 amps.
That's not the problem, the problem has always been that the failing bricks
don't just stop working but also take out the C64 attached to them due the
way the supplies fail. We don't know if these replacements supplies will be
any more reliable and will not take the C64 out with them like the originals
so often do.
I guess time will tell.
Charles Richmond
Sam Gillett posted earlier in this thread, a link to a design of a
board that would protect the C64 against the "black brick" failure:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/saver.txt
Groepaz
> That's not the problem, the problem has always been that the failing
> bricks don't just stop working but also take out the C64 attached to them
> due the way the supplies fail. We don't know if these replacements
> supplies will be any more reliable and will not take the C64 out with them
> like the originals so often do.
>
> I guess time will tell.
even a half decent PSU should have protection against overvoltage on failure
these days :)
--
http://www.hitmen-console.org http://magicdisk.untergrund.net
http://www.pokefinder.org http://ftp.pokefinder.org
Fï¿œr das groï¿œe Chaos haben wir Computer. Die ï¿œbrigen Fehler machen wir von
Hand.
Chrom_
> even a half decent PSU should have protection against overvoltage on failure
> these days :)
I tend to agree with your remark, Groepaz. Can someone confirm this
speculation?
Chrom_
Clocky
> Clocky wrote:
>
>> That's not the problem, the problem has always been that the failing
>> bricks don't just stop working but also take out the C64 attached to
>> them due the way the supplies fail. We don't know if these
>> replacements supplies will be any more reliable and will not take
>> the C64 out with them like the originals so often do.
>>
>> I guess time will tell.
>
> even a half decent PSU should have protection against overvoltage on
> failure these days :)
Should yes, but there is no guarantee of this feature being present
especially if it saves a few cents in production.
winstonsmith
Depends on what is important to you. TI shut down production in early
'83 on the 99/4A because they found such a problem with their
transformer. There was a "possibility" of electric shock due to an
internal short. And they sent out these in-line fuse devices to plug
between the transformer and the wall. It did not affect the wall warts
that plugged directly into the wall, but those with cords running from
the transformer to the wall socket.
Personally, I think their decision to shutdown and fix the problem
probably cost them their current lead in shipping equipment at the
time - note "shipping equipment" does not equate sales. But they lost
a lot of money during this time...
Strange thing is I've never had one fail, nor heard of anyone who had
one fail in that manner.
Linards Ticmanis
Another schematic, should be quite secure:
http://freenet-homepage.de/electronic-man/hardware/imag_h/netzteil.gif
"fl." stands for "flink" which is German for "fast acting", the rest is
pretty obvious.
--
Linards Ticmanis
Groepaz
thats why "half decent" :) that rules out most cheap china wallplugs and
similar junk ofcourse.
--
http://www.hitmen-console.org http://magicdisk.untergrund.net
http://www.pokefinder.org http://ftp.pokefinder.org
Information's pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.
<Clarence Day>
Clocky
> Clocky wrote:
>
>> Groepaz wrote:
>>> Clocky wrote:
>>>
>>>> That's not the problem, the problem has always been that the
>>>> failing bricks don't just stop working but also take out the C64
>>>> attached to them due the way the supplies fail. We don't know if
>>>> these replacements supplies will be any more reliable and will not
>>>> take the C64 out with them like the originals so often do.
>>>>
>>>> I guess time will tell.
>>>
>>> even a half decent PSU should have protection against overvoltage on
>>> failure these days :)
>>
>> Should yes, but there is no guarantee of this feature being present
>> especially if it saves a few cents in production.
>
> thats why "half decent" :) that rules out most cheap china wallplugs
> and similar junk ofcourse.
Indeed ;-)