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Atari 1050 power supply question


anny84

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Hi,

I beg your pardon if my question was already sent to this forum...

 

since I like to play with old electronic stuff in my (few) free time, my uncle gives me an Atari 800 with a 1050 disk drive, and their external power supply he had when was a real collector.

 

Let's talk about the drive power supply.

 

I read the power supply needed is an AC 9V-3A power supply but the power supply he always used in the past was:

 

model: Ingersoil Type 633498

240V (we're in Europe)

Output 1: 9V - 15.3VA AC

Output 2: 6V - 1.8VA DC

 

of course I'm watching the "AC" parameter.

 

The drive works goooood, but I am afraid it can damage if I will use a lot since the Ampere setting is lower than required.

 

Is there someone can give me some tip? I asked for a new power supply in a good electronic shop near home but is hard to find unless I buy an AC transformer and mount by myself. Impossible for me unless I will disturb some elec-friend.

 

Thanks

Cheers

 

Anny

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Hello.

 

The 9VAC 15VA supply should work with the 800, but the 1050 should have 25VA or greater for reliable operation. The supply that came with it was rated for 31VA.

 

Thanks Bryan I know it

but my question is just due to my doubts - my uncle still says he bought it with that psu and never had troubles

but I'm more doubtful than him :)

 

I found a shop in the US selling the original Atari supplies at a good price, but postal expenses for Italy are awful then I should also buy a 110/220V converter...

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Well, use it with that supply and if it works then I wouldn't worry too much about it. You won't damage it using a weaker supply.

 

Thanks for help Bryan. But what do you mean, in the previous message, with "unreliable" operation? What odd unreliabilities can I notice?

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Well, use it with that supply and if it works then I wouldn't worry too much about it. You won't damage it using a weaker supply.

 

Thanks for help Bryan. But what do you mean, in the previous message, with "unreliable" operation? What odd unreliabilities can I notice?

 

Well, when people would use Atari's smaller supply for the drive sometimes it wouldn't read or write properly. It was a known problem with the 810 drive, but they also shipped the larger supply with the 1050. If your uncle never had any problems then I would try it. The ratings on supplies aren't always 100% accurate anyway.

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Hello,

 

I do have an some original 1050 PSUs which say 9V - 27VA. If you want one, I can send one to you. I live in Germany, so the postage should not be too expensive. Should have known that earlier, I´ve been in Naples in June (Bagnoli). ;-)

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Conosci il mio sito in italiano dedicato ai computer Atari 8-bit?

Do you know my website in Italian dedicated to 8-bit Atari computer?

www.santellocco.com/atari

 

Penso che B & C Computervision abbia trasformatori europei. Io ne ho acquistato uno circa un anno fa.

I think B & C Computervision has European power supply. I have bought one one year ago.

 

Forse già sai che come memoria di massa

Perhaps you already know that as storage device

 

se hai e vuoi avere un PC vicino al tuo Atari puoi acquistare SIO2PC:

if you have and want a PC near to your Atari you can buy SIO2PC (I prefer USB version, AtariAge user classics $60):

http://www.atarimax..../documentation/

Altrimenti puoi acquistare periferiche indipendenti autoalimentate come SIO2SD:

Otherwise you can buy independent self-powered devices like SIO2SD:

http://marcinprusisz.pl/ (AtariAge user Pigula, $50)

http://www.mmj.pl/~lotharek/atari/ (AtariAge user lotharek, €90 with case)

http://mega-hz.no-ip...SD%20rev.2.html (€80 with case)

oppure SDrive:

or Sdrive:

http://nuxx.net/wiki/SDrive_NUXX (AtariAge user c0nsumer, $150 with case)

http://morethangames.../adv-ek0130.htm

 

Se hai le capacità e la voglia puoi costruirti da sola queste periferiche.

If you are able you can build yourself these devices.

Edited by Philsan
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Hello,

 

I do have an some original 1050 PSUs which say 9V - 27VA. If you want one, I can send one to you. I live in Germany, so the postage should not be too expensive. Should have known that earlier, I´ve been in Naples in June (Bagnoli). ;-)

 

I e-mailed to you... thanks :)

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If I'm not wrong, 1050 and XF551 can also use Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) power supply.

 

completely right ! I use it all the time since I have more nes/snes PSU's. Ampere is only the indication on a device of how many energy it will consume.

 

But, if I was not wrong, the italian NES has a DC power supply, not AC. I should check for a friend, she should still own one NES.

 

Anny

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If I'm not wrong, 1050 and XF551 can also use Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) power supply.

 

completely right ! I use it all the time since I have more nes/snes PSU's. Ampere is only the indication on a device of how many energy it will consume.

 

But, if I was not wrong, the italian NES has a DC power supply, not AC. I should check for a friend, she should still own one NES.

 

Anny

 

I am not an hardware guy but I think that doesn't matter.

Wait till someone will confirm my opinion.

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Hello.

 

The 9VAC 15VA supply should work with the 800, but the 1050 should have 25VA or greater for reliable operation. The supply that came with it was rated for 31VA.

 

I used to run 4 1050s off a single 1050 PSU, with a 4-way adapter cable I made.. Used it that way for at least 2 years pretty regularly.. never had a problem..

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But, if I was not wrong, the italian NES has a DC power supply, not AC. I should check for a friend, she should still own one NES.

 

Anny

 

I am not an hardware guy but I think that doesn't matter.

Wait till someone will confirm my opinion.

It matters very much as the 1050 MUST have AC for it's power supply. It won't work with DC power at all. I don't know what NES has or doesn't have at all so I still can't answer THAT question.

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I am not an hardware guy but I think that doesn't matter.

Wait till someone will confirm my opinion.

It matters very much as the 1050 MUST have AC for it's power supply. It won't work with DC power at all. I don't know what NES has or doesn't have at all so I still can't answer THAT question.

 

Take it from one who has seen this, yes, it DOES matter. The power light will come on, but the drive won't spin. I have a 9VDC adapter around that is similar looking to the 9VAC adapters, and it gives me a scare that one of my drives died every once in a while :D

 

The adapter will run a 1200xl just fine (even though it is spec'd for AC). I've also been tricked by this with my 800 (it needs the 9VAC).

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There is a very good reason that a 9volt DC power supply won't work.

 

The 1050 requires two DC operating voltages inside it. 5VDC, and 12VDC.

 

To produce the 5v circuit, the 9vac goes through a bridge rectifier(to convert it to DC), across a series of capacitors (to dampen out what is left of the 50/60hz "hum" in the DC waveform) and then through a 7805 (5VDC voltage regulator) which produces a stable 5volt supply with up to 1amp current capacity.

 

To produce the 12vdc circuit, the 9vac goes through an AC voltage doubler circuit which consists of 2 capacitors and two diodes. This doubles the AC voltage to 18vac. This 18vac then goes through its own rectifier, dampning, and (this time a 7812)voltage regulator circuits to produce 12VDC in much the same way as the 5VDC is produced.

 

You cannot "regulate" 9VDC UP to 12VDC with a standard voltage regulator, so you HAVE to have over 12VDC supplying the regulator.. And an ac voltage doubler circuit does not work with DC.. It has to have an AC supply in order to double the voltage..

 

So, if you hook 9VDC up to the 1050, you get 5VDC to run the digital electronics (DC will pass trough a bridge rectifier circuit, no problem) but you have no 12VDC to run the drive's motors...

 

This is why a 9VDC "power brick" or "wall wart" will not work on a 1050, and a 9VAC supply will..

 

The reason a 1200XL will run off a 9VDC supply is because the entire machine runs off 5VDC internally, and thus is not dependant on AC voltage doubling...

Edited by MEtalGuy66
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It'll work just fine.. 1.3A is plenty of current capacity for a single 1050 drive..

 

Well that's my doubt, I wonder why the original PSU comes with 3.4A ....

 

Havent a clue.. But you have to remember that that PSU was not specific to the 1050.. It was used on a wide variety of hardware. My guess is that they purposely "overkilled" it so that they could potentially save development/production costs on PSUs for future hardware.. If you buy half a million transformers for example, rather than 100,000, you get them at a substantial price break per unit.. If you plan to use the PSU(of which the transformer is the main component and determing factor for current capacity) in a wide range of currently produced hardware, and also include extra capacity, it increases the potential for use of the same PSU unit in the future for other applications. So if you are atari, maybe you don't mind stockpiling them at a lower per-unit cost and higher volume to save money in the long-run... This is total speculation, but it could very well explain it..

 

I have a fluke 88 meter here.. As well as several 1050 drives.. If you want, I can measure the current draw during various scenarios (eg reading/writing large files, formatting, and homing the head carriage)..

Edited by MEtalGuy66
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You also need to cater for:

- those floppies that get tight and "drag" against the motor, although I don't imagine it'd impact hugely on power draw.

 

- shitty supply conditions. Some places have constant drops and brownouts, so maybe having a beefier supply can help if your mains suddenly decides to dip voltage.

 

I've had my gear on during thunderstorms and crappy conditions where the power has dipped, spiked and even blacked out for a couple of seconds. My main Core2Duo machine will often power off when the going gets tough, but I've had the 130XE on and it wasn't affected.

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It'll work just fine.. 1.3A is plenty of current capacity for a single 1050 drive..

 

Well that's my doubt, I wonder why the original PSU comes with 3.4A ....

 

 

That PSU was used on other hardware. Atari most likely designed it so it had enough amps so they didn't have to re-invent the wheel each time they made a new peripheral. 1.3A should be plenty to run a 1050. Most of the power is lost in heat anyway as the 1050 internal power circuit is VERY wasteful.

 

 

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As written by Ken (he REALLY has the eight XF551 of his avatar), Gary and puppetmark, this PSU was not specific to the 1050.

If you check B & C ComputerVisions website (www.myatari.com), you'll see that they sell only one European PSU model for Atari 800/1200XL/810/1050/XF551 (and obviously only one American PSU model for Atari 800/1200XL/810/1050/XF551).

Edited by Philsan
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