Be glad you didn't buy this failed power supply

[redrumloa]

The discussion continues on lemon64.

As I posted on lemon64, I don't see ill intentions but it is ill-advised.

[RRunner]

I think this whole thing is a lot of yelling and screaming about nothing and everyone is acting like a bunch of children. So a home made power supply for $35 failed. Bound to happen. All this quibbling about specs and crap is just ego and bolstering. Plug two wall warts for $10.00 each into the wall, hack off the ends and slap on a connector that will fit in the C64. No one would make a big deal about that and in fact I would be quite proud of myself for coming up with such a solution ASSUMING that the wall warts had the juice needed. All this crap about certification this and certification that is all just noise with people trying to come out with a superior ego IMHO. Suck it up, one of the power supplies was faulty and went belly up. Stuff happens.

I can't believe I read the whole thing!  :-o

[Homer]

Hmm, Red,
I think you may have voided the warranty by opening it  :lol:

[Ral-Clan]

Looking at the physical size of these wall warts, there is no way their amperage is rated high enough for the intended application... there is a huge potential of improper voltage levels.

After reading fully through these threads (here, Denial, comp.sys.cbm etc.) it seems that they were rated properly and the voltages were tested, if we are to take Eslapions' word.

Furthermore these wall warts being loose plugged into an generic extension cord inside a plastic closure with no fusing

Were any C64 power supplies fused?  Most that I've seen in North America were sealed shut with epoxy and had no fuses.  The European ones may have, though.

I agree the end product LOOKS crap from an aesthetic standpoint, and I'm not sure I agree with the price charged, but I'm also not convinced it is an inherently faulty design.  After all, essentially what's inside a C64 power supply are a couple of transformers like this, but in a more unified looking case.

Also, what is the point of linking to this discussion on comp.sys.cbm, Lemon64 and elsewhere?  To create a witch-hunt?  Again, I'm not taking sides: I vouched for Dragos' credibility here when you guys were jumping all over him as an Ebay scammer, but now I see the same thing happening again.  I don't know either of the guys very well, but I think we must remain objective. I see a lot of questionable opinions on electronics being bandied about and taken as fact (I'm probably guilty of this).  

If the power supply did fail, maybe this could be worked out more rationally with a refund / replacement, etc.

[orange]

@RRunner

I suggest you use one for your A2000, and expand it with third PSU for -12V..
 :roll:

[Fester]

redrumloa wrote:
There is so much wrong with THIS I don't know where to start :crazy:

Dragos bought this piss poor power supply and it failed after a few hours.

Wow! I feel inspired. I think I'm going to build an efficient engine for my Mercury Sable with a couple chickens and a treadmill strap... :lol:

[redrumloa]

RRunner wrote:
I think this whole thing is a lot of yelling and screaming about nothing and everyone is acting like a bunch of children. So a home made power supply for $35 failed. Bound to happen. All this quibbling about specs and crap is just ego and bolstering. Plug two wall warts for $10.00 each into the wall, hack off the ends and slap on a connector that will fit in the C64. No one would make a big deal about that and in fact I would be quite proud of myself for coming up with such a solution ASSUMING that the wall warts had the juice needed. All this crap about certification this and certification that is all just noise with people trying to come out with a superior ego IMHO. Suck it up, one of the power supplies was faulty and went belly up. Stuff happens.

I can't believe I read the whole thing!  :-o

It was sold as a commercial product and it could have easily burned down the buyers house. You think that is a joke?

[redrumloa]

Homer wrote:
Hmm, Red,
I think you may have voided the warranty by opening it  :lol:

Not mine!!  :-o

[redrumloa]

Also, what is the point of linking to this discussion on comp.sys.cbm, Lemon64 and elsewhere? To create a witch-hunt?

What are you going on about? The only link I have made is to the lemon64 forum, because the maker of this power supply has spoken out and is defending himself, right or wrong. Why are you so defensive? I have stated numerous times I don't think there were ill intentions here, just ill advised.

Ill advised is a kind way of saying WARNING!! THIS CAN BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE AND KILL THE OCCUPANTS

-edit-
For the record I had no idea who made this power supply when I first posted the picture here. Now that the builder is known I want to be clear I think this gentleman did not have bad intentions, is that clear? I have personally bought custom roms from him and found him to be a nice guy. I would probably buy from him again, just not a custom power supply.

[RRunner]

redrumloa wrote:
It was sold as a commercial product and it could have easily burned down the buyers house. You think that is a joke?

Nope. I missed the part where anyone ever said it was sold as a commercial product. I got the impression from the thread that the buyer was well aware that this something created by the seller and that they were only paying $35. I guess if I was lead to believe I was buying a professionally built commercial product, I'd be a little miffed.

As for burning down the house. I don't believe that for a minute. Right now I have several of those wall warts plugged into a power bar under my desk powering two routers, a cordless phone, a desk light and a scanner. I've had those things go bad in the past and all they do is stop working. Just because the extension cord was stuck in a case and the warts plugged in there instead of into a power bar or the wall didn't make it any more risky in my opinion. Now if the jury rigged plug for the C64 was messed up, that's a different story.

Anyways, just my $0.02 worth... and definitely not worth all the heated debate this topic is getting. But it has been entertaining reading.   :popcorn:

Now returning to my regularly scheduled program...   :-D

[Xamiche]

If said 'Wall Warts' were trying to supply more power than they were rated for, you'd have a serious fire hazard. Having read over the thread both here and on Lemon, it sounds like that's exactly what happened. Wall warts are just fine when they're being used for the device they were rated for.

[baxyp]

I've done exactly the same thing with my C128 power supply when it died. I replaced the internals with a switching 5V wall-wart and 9V transformer (both giving out more currency than the original was, and much lighter in weight). I arranged mine in V fashion so when you close the case everything fits tightly and do not rattle. I do not think that such PSU is more dangerous than the individual wall-wart itself and in my case it was the only solution since the switching chip in original PSU was dead and I could not find a replacement. I think the wall-warts have internal fuses and one could add additional fuses for output lines which would protect the wall-warts. I would not sell one commercially, but mine does its job well and has been in use for over a year.

redrumloa wrote:

It was sold as a commercial product and it could have easily burned down the buyers house. You think that is a joke?

...LIAR... this is no joke...

RRunner wrote:

Nope. I missed the part where anyone ever said it was sold as a commercial product. I got the impression from the thread that the buyer was well aware that this something created by the seller and that they were only paying $35.

Your impression was in fact perfectly correct. This is the only power supply I ever made like that for somebody else.

As for burning down the house. I don't believe that for a minute. Right now I have several of those wall warts plugged into a power bar under my desk powering two routers, a cordless phone, a desk light and a scanner. I've had those things go bad in the past and all they do is stop working. Just because the extension cord was stuck in a case and the warts plugged in there instead of into a power bar or the wall didn't make it any more risky in my opinion. Now if the jury rigged plug for the C64 was messed up, that's a different story.

Anyways, just my $0.02 worth... and definitely not worth all the heated debate this topic is getting. But it has been entertaining reading.   :popcorn:

Now returning to my regularly scheduled program...   :-D

The voice of reason...

Xamiche wrote:
If said 'Wall Warts' were trying to supply more power than they were rated for, you'd have a serious fire hazard. Having read over the thread both here and on Lemon, it sounds like that's exactly what happened. Wall warts are just fine when they're being used for the device they were rated for.

Negative. The 5Vdc switching supply is rated for 2.4A. A commodore 64 with nothing attached normally consumes around 1A...

Wallwarts ALL have internal fuses. Some are self resetting, some are one time only. Using a safety certified wallwart beyond its rating will only blow the fuse. It should never cause a fire hazard.

[tokyoracer]

A ghetto C64 PSU then. =/