RE: PC power supply conversion question

At 16:57 04/15/1999 -0700, you wrote:
>I tend to leave them in the enclosure. The fan's already there, and you
>can drill a couple holes through the case to mount it with brackets or a
>couple screws into the cabinet easily...

Being the consummate pack rat, I wanted to reuse some old AT style supplies
(the big, ugly ones) but, I can't quite bring myself to put one in a game.
Guess I'll stay with the mini-tower ones that at least somewhat resemble a
real power supply.

>As a general rule I like switchers for regulation and high-current in a
>small space. I have run across some boards that don't like the
>switchers start-up characteristics. (I think some switchers faster
>start-up ramp causes latch-up on some boards. Sky Shark and Choplifter
>have given me problems in particular...) The lack of a 5.0V adjust on
>most switchers can be annoying, but by and large the benefits outweigh
>the problems in my book.

Sounds like a definite "your mileage may vary". :-)

I wonder if a healthy sized cap on the output of the switcher would slow
down the up ramp sufficiently for the boards that latch up.

>Vector games can be a little trickier because they tend to have "odd"
>voltages present. I use surplus switchers with "big" outputs (like
>+/-36V) and then use a little home-made linear regulator to get the
>desired voltages. Most of my Vector stuff runs on original power still
>though. (Easy to have a stack of ARII's around. ;-)

Somebody mentioned using a switcher for the common voltages and leaving the
rest of the supply intact on Sega vectors a while back. I'm thinking about
giving this a try (sorry Mark :-)

Thanks Clay.

Mike Benedict
Received on Fri Apr 16 09:31:04 1999