A friend thinks I'm nuts using a TI, but two interesting topics came up.

[Omega-TI]

I was talking with a friend who said, and I'll quote, "Your freaking nuts sinking so much money into that old Dinosaur." But after I politely reminded him of his hobby, in which he's outspent be by at least factor of 100, did the topic get interesting.

 

What came out of it:

 

1) Is there an external power brick available that could replace the aging power supply in the TI-PEB?

 

2) Would the lack of a power supply in the P-Box eliminate the need for active cooling (the fan)?

(I thought legacy cards would still develop enough heat to require a fan and possibly even new cards

might because of the power regulators.)

 

I decided to bring the discussion here, because SOMEDAY many of us might be forced to replace the aging power supplies in our P-Boxes. Having an EASY SOLUTION for a replacement might be a nice option to have available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AMenard]

1- I don't think so but it should be doable if you accept another "box" laying around.

2- You'll still need it as the voltage regulators are on the individual cards and they do generate heat.

[RickyDean]

I believe, and I still have them after all these years, that the PEB with an at, atx, or other switching power supply, internal is the way to go. Then you will eliminate the need for regulators on the card (must not ever be plugged into a regular, unregulated PEB, or the magic smoke leaves the wires , unless you replace them beforehand, been there done that. ) Then you don't need that external, and in the way, power brick, and no fan, if you don't want one, depending on the supply. I have had a switcher in mine for all these years and never had an issue with it. Just my two cents.

[+Ksarul]

ISTR that Schmitzi did an interesting power supply replacement a couple of years ago as well. . .

[Tursi]

Second the ATX power supply in the PEB - it runs cooler and delivers more current for running drives, as well. However, I don't recommend the bypassing of regulators on the cards. While this works and is technically the correct way to go, the cards may never be plugged into a normal PEB again without likelihood of damaging them (just repeating what RickyDean already said). I actually did mine that way at first (and you also have to mod the flex cable interface!)

 

I switched to the alternate hacky approach of running the +12VDC down the +5V line instead. This is in spec for most regulators but it DOES push them harder than the +8V which is standard, so cooling is important. The high voltage line getting +12V isn't quite correct either (I forget what the PEB puts out, +18V?), but it works on the cards I have, including the RS232.

 

It might be possible to retune some ATX supplies to output the "correct" voltages for a PEB - it seems to me I've seen projects to turn ATX supplies into configurable bench power supplies?

[AMenard]

Second the ATX power supply in the PEB - it runs cooler and delivers more current for running drives, as well. However, I don't recommend the bypassing of regulators on the cards. While this works and is technically the correct way to go, the cards may never be plugged into a normal PEB again without likelihood of damaging them (just repeating what RickyDean already said). I actually did mine that way at first (and you also have to mod the flex cable interface!)I switched to the alternate hacky approach of running the +12VDC down the +5V line instead. This is in spec for most regulators but it DOES push them harder than the +8V which is standard, so cooling is important. The high voltage line getting +12V isn't quite correct either (I forget what the PEB puts out, +18V?), but it works on the cards I have, including the RS232.It might be possible to retune some ATX supplies to output the "correct" voltages for a PEB - it seems to me I've seen projects to turn ATX supplies into configurable bench power supplies?

Wouldn't be a good idea to drop that +12V to 9 or 8V by adding a small circuit on the 12V of the PSU?

Edited June 29, 2018 by AMenard

[+arcadeshopper]

what tursi said, it's a curse that i have to open every card i purchase to make sure someone didn't remove the voltage regulators..

[Omega-TI]

Seems like a neat little project for someone to make onto a circuit board to sell to the community...

...with documentation for hookup of course.

[+Schmitzi]

ISTR that Schmitzi did an interesting power supply replacement a couple of years ago as well. . .

 

I wanted to.....

 

But the small one PowerSupply I found arrived damaged, twice.

The idea was to have a PSU that fits into the PEBs housing (fully dismounting the original power)

I´ll try to remember what it was.

 

 

But what about the EOS VLT150?

 

http://www.eospower.com/onlineproduct.aspx?MODEL_NUMBER=LFVLT150-4102&PROD_ID=407

 

 

QuickSpecs from the website:

 

Other_PSU-EOS-VLT150-datasheet-vlt150ind.pdf

 

 

[iKarith]

Definitely the issue with the console is the internal power supply. The transformer is pretty robust. I'm interested in a power supply to replace the one in the PEB,. Ideally I'd like it to be a DC-DC power supply, but I haven't really found a +5v +12v -5v supply. The PicoPSU things exist—you could use a 7905 to get -5v and the regulator board could provide power switch and mounting inside the console. If I were doing that, I'd probably have additional space on the PCB. I've got a few ideas about things you might want to transplant inside the console if you had the option.