Atari STFM power cable

[sidney]

I used to own an ST back in the early 90's and have decided I needed to get one again now as I'm getting nostalgic for the system!

 

The one I'm getting is too good to turn down for the price but the downside is it comes on its own with no cables.

 

My questions to you chaps are these- Could I use a standard desktop PC cable to power the ST or would this blow the system?

Is it easy to replace the disk drive if the drive should prove to be less than reliable?

Thanks in advance!

[ijor]

The cable for a STFM model with integrated PSU (the ST and STm models have an external brick), is standard. Yes, any PC cable should be fine.

 

There are different solutions to replace the floppy drive, including a so called floppy drive emulator that works with a SD card or an USB Pendrive.

Edited August 19, 2018 by ijor

[tjlazer]

Replacing the drive is easy but modding it to fit the case can be tricky. Depending on what type of drive it has you can trim the case to make it fit well. Won’t be perfect but works.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Actually, replacing floppy drive is easy only if you can get Atari ST compatible drive. Newer ones are not exactly that. It's not only eject button shape and pos. , but some lines need to be swapped - because Atari will activate A select line, pin 12 normally. But newer PC drives are preselected as drive B (because swap on cable), so need to swap lines 12 and 14 . And on top of problems, disk change detection will not work without mod: http://atari.8bitchip.info/flomodam.html

[sidney]

Thanks guys, that answers those questions. Thanks for taking the time.

[sidney]

Is there a particular amp the fuse in the plug must be, I don't want to fry my ST, I got two kettle style cables from work but now I'm terrified I will fry it!

[Ayreon]

If the label under your ST is still there it should have the specs for the power (voltage, amps, etc.) As far I know you don't need a cable with a fuse, but maybe the regulations in you area are different or you want extra protection?

[256 colors]

Any three pin kettle lead will do just make sure to change the fuse

[sidney]

Cheers guys, the plug I have has a 10amp fuse in it. Would that be suitable for an STFM?

[MarkC]

On 8/24/2018 at 1:01 AM, sidney said:

Is there a particular amp the fuse in the plug must be, I don't want to fry my ST, I got two kettle style cables from work but now I'm terrified I will fry it!

Much like the above, I don't want to risk damaging a 30+ year old computer, with the wrong fuse.

On 8/24/2018 at 1:50 PM, 256 colors said:

Any three pin kettle lead will do just make sure to change the fuse

Change it to what...?

 

I got a lead with my Atari 520 STFM, but not convinced it's the original, it has a 13a fuse.

 

This is the power spec from the bottom.

 

edit: My manual is US version, so didn't have this (UK) page (from AtariMania).

Edited November 17, 2022 by MarkC

[bfollowell]

Odd, initially, I would've said that there is no fuse in the plug/cable. It's just a standard PC style PSU cable. Any fuse would be in the PSU inside the computer. Obviously the UK model is much different than the US model.

 

[MarkC]

Was all working fine with the 13A, but swapped it to 3A (as the manual) just to be safe.....😁

[Zogging Hell]

Just as a note, the fuse in a UK plug will not really there to protect the device itself, it is there to protect the ring main in a UK house from a defective device, rather than the other way round, and any protection for the device is secondary. So if the power supply in the ST or any other electrical device for that matter fails and draws shed loads of current, it won't damage the mains and will blow (by this point the ST could be smoked, however).

For American users who are confused, all plugs in the UK have to have the fuse in, as it is part of the electrical standards. As the UK uses a ring main system for electricity (basically all the sockets on a floor or room can be on the same circuit and therefore the breaker won't necessarily trip if something starts pulling lots of power) a failing device can overload the circuit, hence the fuse to protect it (probably not the most accurate description...).

 

The only computer I have that uses a 13amp fuse is some behemouth socket 939 'dream' retro PC I built some years ago, and that has a 1000watt power supply which runs two NVIDIA 8800GTX in it in crossfire, both of which pull three hundred watts or so at full tilt.