Blizzard PPC Installation

I've won a BPPC on ebay, and have been soaking up all the info i can find on the internet about these beasts.

One thing I've seen has baffled me though:-

If you have a A1200T, I would also recommend plugging a 5v small power connector into the floppy drive power connector on the motherboard to give the motherboard more power.

Does this mean literally what it says, that i should plug a cable from the PSU that has power flowing out of it into the flopy power connector on the motherboard that also has power flowing out of it?

Surely this would cause an explosion of some kind?

Or am I stupid?

[nex4060]

That depends on how the 1200 motherboard is constructed. There shouldn't be any problem there.. however at first glance I don't see why you would do that, because the motherboard recieves power from the PSU at the normal power input connecter which should do fine. However the more extra equiment you attach to the motherboard the bigger the power load will be on the "power-ralis" on the motherboard, and these will fail if the load is to big (read: burn). So you might want to power the BPPC directly from the powersupply. What you need to do is to take the power input from the "trap-door"-connector and attatch the appropriated power-levels from the PSU, this will reduce the powerdrain from the motherboard, giving it a longer life.

I'm sorry that I can't be more precise, because I don't know the scematics of the A1200-motherboard.

Thanks,  I'm still baffled though! :lol:

[itix]

Does this mean literally what it says, that i should plug a cable from the PSU that has power flowing out of it into the flopy power connector on the motherboard that also has power flowing out of it?

Yup.

Surely this would cause an explosion of some kind?

Not that I know. It worked for me (tm).

itix wrote:

Does this mean literally what it says, that i should plug a cable from the PSU that has power flowing out of it into the flopy power connector on the motherboard that also has power flowing out of it?

Yup.

Surely this would cause an explosion of some kind?

Not that I know. It worked for me (tm).

I'll give it a go then.

[Vincent]

My A1200T motherboard is powered solely through the floppy connector.  Works fine here :-)

Oh, if you're only supplying power through the floppy port you'll need to connect a -5V (usually blue) lead to the center of the original A1200 psu socket aswell - this is to make the sound work.

I don't know how safe it would be to power the A1200 from the original psu socket and the floppy connector at the same time.

[patrik]

@Vincent:

The normal PSU connector and its connected pcb-traces are made to handle substantially more current than the floppy one. The PSU connector and its connected pcb-traces are guaranteed to handle atleast as much juice as the original PSU can supply which is 3A@5V, 0.5A@12V, while the floppy connector plus traces is only supposed to handle as much as a floppy drive needs which is no more than about 300mA@5V, 200mA@12V.. needless to say it obviously can handle more, but you are probably pushing it when powering the whole shebang through it.

If you are using one single powersupply, there should be no problems to power the computer through both the PSU and floppy connector. After all, they are connected to eachother.


/Patrik

patrik wrote:
@Vincent:

The normal PSU connector and its connected pcb-traces are made to handle substantially more current than the floppy one. The PSU connector and its connected pcb-traces are guaranteed to handle atleast as much juice as the original PSU can supply which is 3A@5V, 0.5A@12V, while the floppy connector plus traces is only supposed to handle as much as a floppy drive needs which is no more than about 300mA@5V, 200mA@12V.. needless to say it obviously can handle more, but you are probably pushing it when powering the whole shebang through it.

If you are using one single powersupply, there should be no problems to power the computer through both the PSU and floppy connector. After all, they are connected to eachother.


/Patrik

So it's definately safe to have power coming from a 200W AT PSU into the A1200's PSU connector with the adaptor that came with my Mediator, AND power from the same AT PSU into the floppy drive power OUTLET on the motherboard?

Just want a little more reassurance before i do it!  :nervous:

[patrik]

@mdma:

I have heard of quite some people doing it, but as I haven't done it myself I am not gonna say I know for sure it works even if it should .

Just as I sidenote, I think the mediator powers the accelerator.

Have you checked what the mediator manual says about it?


/Patrik

[doctorq]

There is no reason not to put the power connector into the floppy drive connector, especially when using a Blizzard PPC. At least the 040 models of the Blizzard PPC boards needs a lot of power on startup just to get the board up and running. The more power the better as I see it.

On my A1200 tower I supply power to the motherboard through the normal power connector, through the floppy drive power connector as well as the P8 and P9 connectors on my Mediator board. Furthermore the Blizzrd PPC is powered directly from the PSU as well.

@patrik

My Mediator manual says nothing about the power other than I have to plug the AT PSU wires into the cable they supply that converts it into a 5-pin amiga psu-socket style plug.

Maybe the Blizzard PPC manual has something written in it.  I'll check when it arrives from x56h34 later this week hopefully.

doctorq wrote:
There is no reason not to put the power connector into the floppy drive connector, especially when using a Blizzard PPC. At least the 040 models of the Blizzard PPC boards needs a lot of power on startup just to get the board up and running. The more power the better as I see it.

On my A1200 tower I supply power to the motherboard through the normal power connector, through the floppy drive power connector as well as the P8 and P9 connectors on my Mediator board. Furthermore the Blizzrd PPC is powered directly from the PSU as well.

:-o

I guess 200W from an AT PSU to the floppy connector will be fine then! :-D

The BPPC I bought has an 040 on it, so I think I probably will need to give the mobo a bit of extra juice to the floppy.

[Vincent]

I've got a BPPC and BVision in my tower, all running from the floppy connector :-)

The only thing in the original psu socket is the -5v wire for the sound.

Everything works fine too...

*knocks wood*

Vincent wrote:
I've got a BPPC and BVision in my tower, all running from the floppy connector :-)

The only thing in the original psu socket is the -5v wire for the sound.

Everything works fine too...

*knocks wood*

Call me paranoid, but i'm gonna cross my fingers and toes, whilst holding a rabbits foot and a piece of lucky heather from a gypsy, whilst bangin my knuckes against a piece of 2 by 4 when i attempt this surgery! :-D

[Vincent]

You forgot the four-leaf clover :-P