ACA1232 - Power consumption.

[paul1981]

I've got an individual computers 1232 030/33 hopefully coming my way in a few days.  I know there may be issues with the card - the timing probs - but I'm mostly concerned that I don't have a heavy duty enough PSU to use it reliably.

All I presently have are the original puny A1200 brick, and one I bought off an internet seller which I'd hoped would be a more powerful A500 brick but turned out to be an equally puny A600 supply.

To be fair, the A600 says 60 watts on the case (and was advertised as such) but apparently according to Ian Stedmans site neither brick can output more than 3 amps on the 5v.

Fully configured the 1200 will be basically stock with CF hard drive and the accellerator.

So does anyone use these weak PSU's with a similar configuration? Am I worrying too much about it - I guess there's an unlikely chance its 'just enough', or should i hack the end of the a600 psu onto an ATX PSU, or is there another option?

Thanks.

My ACA1232 along with a real 40GB 2.5" internal HDD is powered from a standard "slimline" amiga 600/1200 powerbrick. The powerbrick hardly gets warm, even after hours of use. If the power supply works and it doesn't get hot, then I don't see a problem. However, I have tried powering that same expanded Amiga with the heavy A600/1200 issue PSU (filled with epoxy like the C64 ones) and the 1200 doesn't even turn on.
Just try it with the PSU you have. If your Amiga works, then great. But, keep your eye on the PSU and make sure it doesn't get hot. If it gets hot then you should find another solution, or get a slimline one like mine (it's the smallest powerbrick that was supplied by Commodore, airey should have one in stock on ebay). All I can tell you is that that particular PSU works like a charm for me.

[paul1981]

Paul, did you have to make any timing fixes? I suppose I won't know until I actually start using it, but the 1232s sound like they're a bit more robust in that regard than the earlier ACA's.

Anyway, if the standard PSU works fine for you, again thats re-assuring to know... I doubt my CF needs much power, I have no plans to run any other hardware on there.

I think i have a slimline powerbrick, I'm pretty sure thats the one i had with my 1200, at least its a lot smaller than the A600 one i bought last year... the 1200 was bought in '93.  I stopped using it in favour of the A600, thinking it was superior :whack:

both psu's seem to work perfectly, maybe i'll test them out with the multimeter before installing the ACA... Even if its actually no more powerful its nice to have a backup.

I'm wondering though, how come it says 60 watt on the back of the A600 PSU when according to stedmans site its only 22.2W? is that because its actually drawing 60 but wasting 37.8W?

Yes, mine was a revision 2B A1200 motherboard, so it needed fixes (very simple to do mind).
I have the chunkier Amiga PSU's as well, but the ones I have run too warm for my liking, so I stick with my slimlines.

I have a very very beefed up A1200 that's also running off of a standard PSU!

As for the 60 watts rating, for a guess that'll be the overall power consumption of the PSU when driving it's maximum rated loads. Remember, PSU's aren't 100% efficient... far from it. Some are very bad.

[paul1981]

is that 60 watts from the wall? according to stedman the max is 22.5... I'm thinking it can supply 22.5 max to the computer as various DC voltages, but needs 60 watts to make that DC power from the mains!

Also a lot of waste heat to dump out at full tilt, never noticed a large amount of heat coming from either brick so far.

2B, Thats the same revision as mine... sorry for all the q's but did you have to do the whole works on it http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=753433#post753433 or just remove the couple of caps on the back? maybe i should order some components and warm up the soldering iron... guess I need to replace the caps too, what have I got myself into?:roflmao:

Yes, that particular PSU must be very inefficient.

As for the fixes, I just pulled off (they disintegrated) the two tiny capacitors with needle-nose pliers. Soldering iron not needed! I tell ya...it was the best de-soldering job I had ever done... you wouldn't even know that those components were ever there, as it just looks so bloody neat.