Voltage Regulator and switching power Pboxes.

[+dhe]

A long time ago, I had one of my pboxe's switched to a switching power supply.

 

At the time, the voltage regulators where jumper-ed, like the picture below.

 

InsaneMultitasker told me that wasn't the best way to do it. I believe he said the best way was to leave the vreg in place, snip one or two of the legs and jumper.

 

Does anyone have a photo of what that looks like? And does that solution work with both 5V and 12V regulators?

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

A long time ago, I had one of my pboxe's switched to a switching power supply.
 
At the time, the voltage regulators where jumper-ed, like the picture below.
 
Tim Tesch told me that wasn't the best way to do it. I believe he said the best way was to leave the vreg in place, snip one or two of the legs and jumper.
 
Does anyone have a photo of what that looks like? And does that solution work with both 5V and 12V regulators?
 
 

Actually this way is really dangerous for future owners of your equipment... I have a big stack of blown up boards from people who did this in the past and then plugged them into regular p box

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[+InsaneMultitasker]

2 hours ago, dhe said:

told me that wasn't the best way to do it. I believe he said the best way was to leave the vreg in place, snip one or two of the legs and jumper.

If he did tell you this, it would have been in the very early 90s when folks were hopping on that early bandwagon, placing their systems into mid-to-full tower cases so the system and power hungry drives were all in the same case.  It was seen as easier to leave the regulators in place and jumper them but that idea was problematic, for multiple reasons especially for what @arcadeshopper cited.  Cards do not react well to being placed in a standard PEB after such a mod.

 

Every card that I repaired at Cecure and afterwards did not leave the bench without proper regulators in place and any jumper wires removed;  jumpered regulators were removed and replaced, whether the customer wanted them or not. 

Plenty of posts here and elsewhere cover leaving the regs and heat sinks in place and powering the system with a PC power supply, if that's the route you want to take. 

[GDMike]

I always leave notes in my PEB explaining what is what. Sometimes Even I need to reread what I did. Lol

[Sinphaltimus]

I went PC power supply and never touched the vregs. My concern was cooling. I put temp sensors to watch and recently added a second PC fan. That's the abridged version. If interested, here is the rest of the story...  The reason for the switch in PSU was due to how many cards and Disk drives. One is a GoTek, another is a 3.5" and the external is a 5 1/4". So there were concerns about the original PSU not being sufficient.

 

 

[+dhe]

Sinphaltimus... Thank's for the feedback. I already have one pbox modified with a atx power supply and a few cards that work in.

So I was looking make the who setup 'safer'.

 

If I get this thread, you can just use regular voltage regulator and they will work fine, if they have heat sinks?

 

 

 

[+dhe]

>I have a big stack of blown up boards from people who did this in the past and then plugged them into regular p box.

You have a big pile of opportunity to resurrect cards, that would love to be united with loving new / old owners ?

Maybe we could have a repair party at ArcadeShoppers Shop!  ?

[Sinphaltimus]

On 12/5/2021 at 8:34 AM, dhe said:

If I get this thread, you can just use regular voltage regulator and they will work fine, if they have heat sinks?

I don't know. I was told that the clam shell case itself is the heat sink and i don't know that there is much room left to use an additional one. I just installed a couple of fans to draw the heat out ASAP and the operating temps are very good. 

[atrax27407]

If you are installing additional fans in the P-Box, you need to have them on a separate circuit so they continue to run after the P-Box is turned off. I found, after installing a temp gauge, that the internal P-Box temp spikes when the P-Box is initially turned off and remains up to 10 degrees hotter for several minutes.

[GDMike]

56 minutes ago, atrax27407 said:

If you are installing additional fans in the P-Box, you need to have them on a separate circuit so they continue to run after the P-Box is turned off. I found, after installing a temp gauge, that the internal P-Box temp spikes when the P-Box is initially turned off and remains up to 10 degrees hotter for several minutes.

My fans have their own PS. Simple nuff to do