Grizaptimus Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 A few years ago my dad came into a large ammount of atari 8-bit stuff from one of his old friends. Knowing that I was into anything atari he gave it all to me. 2 130xe's 800xl bunch of cart's and such. excited it try it all out and much to my dismay none of the systems work. Very disapointedly i put it all into the closet and forget about it. About a week or so ago i decided that I could wait no longer for my 8-bit fix and grabed a 130xe off e-bay. on a lark a tried the other 130xe's and 800xl with the new power supply and low and behold 2 of the three work!! Looking back i have no idea why i dndt even consider that it could be a PSU issue. I was about to give mtself a face-palm, but then i got distracted with "Midnight Magic" and ive basicly been playing that solid all week, current high score: 272290 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Did you get any disks with the collection? Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kogden Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Power supplies are the most common issue with these machines. Some of them fail in such a way the voltage actually INCREASES and they can kill your Atari pretty quick. I don't really use the original power supplies much, I have a couple modern 5V power supplies I stuck DIN connectors on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizaptimus Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 @allen: I want to say yes but i'll need to delve back into the closet, I did get some really good carts though, Mac/65 w/ddt, Action, Basic XE, Microsoft Basic 2, SpartaDOS X, R-Time 8, and a rather interesting cart with a switch and a barley legable home made label called "Cart Clone" @kogden: that sounds unfortunate indeed. Is there anywhere or anyone who sell some of these modded PSU's? I would love to be able to make some myself but im not quite there yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanmercer Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Oh you knew it was just the power supply... you were just hording your treasure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 (edited) This reminds me of an old topic on all the XL power supplies.. but I couldn't find it. I did find this post: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/215107-well-100-bucks-got-me-two-days-of-atari-computer/?do=findComment&comment=2803347 And also this article from Poehland, which I thought was redone in Atari Classics... http://atarionline.pl/biblioteka/materialy_ksiazkowe/Atari%20XL%20&%20XE%20Power%20Supplies%20A%20Hardware%20Mystery%20Solved.pdf Or perhaps it was just Current Notes: http://mcurrent.name/powersupplies/poehland.pdf http://atariage.com/forums/topic/95416-power-supplies/ Edited March 20, 2015 by kheller2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Midnight Magic is awesome! I like the 2600 port from phaeron even better though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Van Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 So related to this topic, what is the current draw of a 800XL, or A800. I know on the XL the din is just carrying +5 and GND but not sure with the A800. With USB wall warts every where, would they be too noisy? yogi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricortes Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I've measured as much as 1.2 amps at 5 V on a stock 800xl. Strangely enough, I have got the same one to run on a 1 amp 5 V Atari power supply from maybe a XEGS. I concluded older xl power supplies were overrated and newer ones underrated. I don't think I have ever had a 9vac power supply go out on an 800 or 1200xl so 31 Watts seems to be q.s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Van Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I've measured as much as 1.2 amps at 5 V on a stock 800xl. Strangely enough, I have got the same one to run on a 1 amp 5 V Atari power supply from maybe a XEGS. I concluded older xl power supplies were overrated and newer ones underrated. I don't think I have ever had a 9vac power supply go out on an 800 or 1200xl so 31 Watts seems to be q.s. OK thanks; that's in line with the replacement PSUs @ Best. A typical switching wall wart for a USB hub is rated for 5V @ 2.1 A. Not entirely sure but I think USB specs requires stability of +-5% but not sure if I'm brave enough to wire one of these WW to my XL, just yet. Yogi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tickled_Pink Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 @allen: I want to say yes but i'll need to delve back into the closet, I did get some really good carts though, Mac/65 w/ddt, Action, Basic XE, Microsoft Basic 2, SpartaDOS X, R-Time 8, and a rather interesting cart with a switch and a barley legable home made label called "Cart Clone" @kogden: that sounds unfortunate indeed. Is there anywhere or anyone who sell some of these modded PSU's? I would love to be able to make some myself but im not quite there yet. I can't see it being all that difficult to make one yourself. A few months ago I was given an old PC by my brother-in-law. In it I found a Hiper Type-R modular power supply. Nice bit of kit for its age. One idea I have is to make my own cables and turn it into an A8 PSU. I could make a simple adapter that connects to the molex plug but I'd like to try and find the actual connectors for this PSU and make a proper cable for it. No idea where to find the connector though. http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cases/Hiper_TypeR_580W_7.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kogden Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 I just used a modern 5V 2A brick that came with an external HDD that died a while back and wired up a DIN connector. The pinout is freely available. Modern 5V 1.5A wall warts should be fine if they are of decent quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 (edited) Do switching supplies cause any issues with the old gear that expected linear produced DC? I would suppose that all the necessary filtering and smoothing out takes place in caps and such inside the switching PSU before it goes out. But... is the old A8 stuff sensitive and are the new supplies "smoothed" enough? Edited March 26, 2015 by fujidude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 The new switching type supplies provide Alternating current to the rectifier and filtering sections (diodes / capacitors) at a much higher frequency which is easier to filter. The switching supplies provide a more consistent and smoother DC 5V to the computer than the heavy transformer types do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Sounds like there is a long term solution for power supply needs for some old gear then. PC supplies output 3.3, 5, and 12V I think. I know some Atari stuff uses 9V if memory serves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 The 9V ones are typically AC, just a transformer. The rectification, regulation and filtering are done in the computer / device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 The 9V ones are typically AC, just a transformer. The rectification, regulation and filtering are done in the computer / device. Right, but unfortunately it means you can't use a modern PC style PSU to supply Atari devices looking for 9VAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey Z Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Right, but unfortunately it means you can't use a modern PC style PSU to supply Atari devices looking for 9VAC. with modifications, you can. all the '9 vac' atari devices internally rectify the voltage anyway, and reduce it to your standard voltages internally. the 400 and 800, for example, have 5v, 12v, and -5v. Admittedly, I think -5V has been dropped from the ATX standard, but there's nothing you're going to do about it, and it's only used for the RAM anyway, so some aftermarket RAM boards don't even use it. Only the early DRAM chips required all the additional voltages. Atari disk drives internally convert the input to 5V and 12V, and the 850 uses 5V, +10 and -8V IIRC (the latter two being used as the driving voltages for the RS232 outputs only, meaning they'd be fine if you replaced them with +/-12V probably) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sup8pdct Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I believe -5v is also used for the power led. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 If a person is handy with a soldering iron, and knows how to bypass the internal conversions, then I agree it would work. Most people don't meet those requirements I imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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