8 ms·
USB-C power for your Amiga 500, 600 and 1200
- snvzz 3y agoThis is going to be a simple yet very convenient piece of hardware.
- bjelkeman-again 3y agoOne of the few computers I regret getting rid of is my Amiga 500. What would I use it for? Not sure. But… Something.
- ElCapitanMarkla 3y agoI saw our old A600 in storage at my parents last weekend. I’ll go get it one day, so many good games on there.
- actionfromafar 3y agoThey are throwing it out next weekend, better hurry.
- snvzz 3y agoCan't stress that enough. Every week in retrocomputing forums there's some such story. Simply cannot expect family to actually value your treasures.
- BallyBrain 3y agoOh man, I did the same thing and very much regret it. It's like I gave away a important part of my childhood. When I have the time I'll buy another one and probably just fiddle around with it. Play all the old games I used to like too I guess.
- finnjohnsen2 3y agoIf you go after it and buy an Amiga, don't forget it is much about preserving a vintage computer at this point. And not just the computing/gaming or whatever you remember doing. I did this, and I'm not sure it was what I wanted.
- mysterydip 3y agoIf you're looking just for the experience and not the burden of caring for vintage equipment, the A500 mini has good reviews (and looks like they're making a large size version later this year).
- snvzz 3y agoSave yourself the money and just use the raspbian they based it on. That works on the Raspberry Pi you probably already have. There's also PiMiga, WinUAE, fs-uae and minimig (miSTer branch).
- bowsamic 3y agoCan you go into more detail? How much effort is it to keep it working?
- finnjohnsen2 3y agoApologies for giving you the boring 'it depends', but it really does depend ALOT where you start off and what you wanna do. I can tell you my experience. If you start off with a stock Amiga finding off the attic you can pretty much expect anything. This is rock bottom. I did this and in hinsight it was a mistake. Decades of sticky filthy dust, bugs, rust, yellowing, bumps, scratches, stickers, missing port pins, screws, ram lid, cracked up soldering, leaky batteties, unresponsive keys. But I had a working floppy, and it actually booted. Lucky me. You should buy a confirmed working Amiga from an enthusiast. These guys usually have a lot of them accumulated over the years and has probably tended to at least basic things. I did this after I gave up my first. You'll find them on Facebook and they are great helpful people in your demography probably. Now you want a screen. Do you really want an old CRT, or do you wanna adapt to a modern (HDMI!) screen? No approach is correct, you just have to pick one Now you want data. The floppys are old and were already a flimsy tech when new. Many don't work anymote. I found I wanna work around this with and download floppy images off the internet instead. There are many ways to do this by fitting something modern on the Amiga. Gotek to name one solution. Sorry for the long answer, but to go back to my original point. This is a huge topic with a large community and many commercial actors who can sell you things to fix old computers.
- andoma 3y agoI don’t miss my old Amiga that much. But I do regret that I didn’t keep copies of source code for various projects I did on the Amiga. Mostly for nostalgic reasons of course.
- stuff4ben 3y agoI threw out my 2 A500's into the electronics recycling when I moved houses 15 years ago. I wish I had kept them now that I have the space. I didn't have a monitor though since my 1084s was busted so I never used the computers.
- gardaani 3y agoAn interesting detail is that it has a physical switch to turn it off. > Utilizing any 12V-capable USB-C power supply Are different kind of USB-C power supplies, some not outputting 12V? Does it mean that normal phone chargers aren't good?
- fragmede 3y agoYes. Your random usb-c phone charger may not do 12 or 20 volts. It only needs to do 5 volts to charge a phone. A usb-c laptop charger will do more volts and amps which means more watts.
- LeoPanthera 3y agoIn fact, most don't do 12v. The common voltages are 5, 9, 15, and 20 volts.
- gbraad 3y agoSome chargers don't do 12V or 15V, but will do 5V, 9V and 20V. This depends a lot on the total wattage. Lower watts, like 20W or 30W can or can not do 15/20V, but 12V@1.5A (18W) and 12V@2.5A (30W). Usually the >65W will do most of them, plus PPS. Always check specs. And what is the input voltage this powerplug expects; 15V or 20V? > Utilizing any 12V-capable If so, this is usually at a VERY low wattage. they usually go to a max of 2.5 or 3A max at 12V. I would expect it would use 20V and step-down as 20V is more generally available at a high Amperage. (Note: 3A is the max possible for cables without an E-marker, os if often regarded as a ceiling). This would have made the device much bigger (and more versatile. a clear trade-off). Actually, I am more concerned about -12V, ... at 0.1A. That seems rather low. Also, the 12V rail itself is only 1.0A. The original supply did 12V@2A and -12V@0.5A if not mistaken, and so does the C64psu.com. Overall, rather low Amp values. This might affect 'stability' if your machine is expanded (although it claims: "of even the most expanded configurations"). Curious if they can share some details. I have a BlizzardPPC in my A1200. > allows users to tap into a vast array of affordable and readily available “power bricks” if DC5521 at >12V to 20V is possible, that would be great, as this allows you to use a Lenovo or generic laptop brick, or a USB-C trigger cable. Perhaps something I should make ...
- jackhalford 3y agoFunny I just replaced the power port on my 2011 thinkpad with a usb c port (https://www.tindie.com/products/mikepdiy/lenovo-charging-port-type-c-pd-x220-x230/ https://www.tindie.com/products/mikepdiy/lenovo-charging-por...). I guess as long as fundamentally the charging standards don’t change we’ll be able to do this with ever increasingly old tech.
- iknowstuff 3y ago$23 plus shipping? Fuck that haha
- kramerger 3y agoDidn't know this was possible! I have a bunch of old thinkpads and need to keep around 3 different chargers (round, rectangular and usb-c). Could be great to go all in USB-C at some point.
- NullPrefix 3y agoLenovo chargers are 20V. USB-C PD supports that and there are "Type C to Lenovo" cables with integrated circuit to negotiate the voltage. You need to have the correct wattage of the USB-C charger though.
- sorenjan 3y agoThere are adapters available for USB C cables if you don't want to modify your computer but want to use the same charger. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005233750368.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005233750368.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005703577535.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005703577535.html
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hbossy 3y agoWhy on Earth would you want to replace the robust, round connector with fragile USB-C?
- MenhirMike 3y agoThis is awesome, especially since Commodore power supplies do have a reputation for not being the best quality ones. This is more of an issue on the Commodore 64 where you should NEVER use the original power supply anymore because it's playing russian roulette. I'm not sure if the Amiga 500 power supplies were equally prone to frying your system and I'm hoping that by 1992 they got it sorted out, but still, better be safe than sorry and not risk anything.
- danby 3y agoAs I understand it the issue is that when the old c64 power supplies failed the 12v line would go overvoltage and fry your computer. The amiga power supplies are designed differently and don't have this "feature". Though it is often worth replacing the original amiga power supplies as the capacitors are often shot by this point
- laubzega 3y agoThere is no 12V input to C64, just 5VDC and 9VAC. You are thinking about 5V supply, which indeed fried many computers when the PSU failed and ramped the voltage up.
- Keyframe 3y agoQuestion is whether it will be able to run Amigas with accelerators inside? That usually required beefier 6A PSU
- dark-star 3y agoApparently they demoed it on Amiga38, powering an A1200 with a '040 accelerator and/or PiStorm card, card and that was no problem. I have not seen nor done the actual maths, but since it's done by actual Amiga community people and not some shady Chinese company, I would say it's safe to assume they considered these use cases.
- Keyframe 3y agoHopefully, Blizzard 1260 has ability to turn itself into an oven real fast.
- amiga386 3y agoWhen I used to power my Amiga 1200 with an ATX power supply, you could power it "in reverse" by _supplying_ +12V and +5V to the floppy disk power connector on the motherboard. But for proper operation, you also needed -12V, and that had to come from the ATX motherboard plug and go into middle hole of the Amiga's power socket. Could any electrical engineers here explain how one gets both +12V and -12V output from a +12V input?
- speed_spread 3y ago-12V is to make the strong zeroes. Hardened voids are a forgotten art in this age of USB-positive softness.
- actionfromafar 3y agoI think you may have a strong future in the audiophile selling business. :) Without the -12V, the silent sections in the music just isn't as airy.
- amiga386 3y agoBelieve it or not, the -12V is used for the audio! Maybe not the GP's technobabble. http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/amiga-power-supply-guide/ http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/amiga-power-supply-guide/ > What is the -12V supply on the Amiga used for? > It is used for the RS232 transceiver chips and to power the Op-Amps in the audio circuits. So the Amiga's audio just won't have that oomph without that -12V power.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- NullPrefix 3y agoBlue pin on the ATX motherboard plug is -12V. I assume the PSU isn't making -12V from +12V. It's making both of them from whatever the AC is
- 3y ago
- jjice 3y agoThe move to USB C as a generic DC power standard is fantastic, at least as a consumer. I'm 100% on the USB C bandwagon. Even my coffee scale and room temperature gauge charge through USB C. Going from the days of eight different poorly designed AC->DC adapters with barrel jacks, this is heaven. USB PD has it's quirks, that's definitely true, but I'll take it over the alternatives any day if I can use it on all my devices.
- linsomniac 3y agoI am generally in the same boat, but I'll admit that I love my Macbook which can charge over either USB-C or the Magsafe (with USB-C at the other end), because I basically never worry about breaking the power connector when I'm using the Magsafe, but can still charge over USB-C as well.
- Brananarchy 3y agoIs magsafe 3 actually anything more than the VBUS and CC pins for usb-c in a custom form factor? Apple od course doesn't document it, and I can't find any solid reverse engineering blogs about magsafe 3 (just magsafe 1 & 2). I assume apple still has parents here (magsafe is less than twenty years old), but I can't wait for a standardized USB-M magnetic charging connector.
- rpaddock 3y agoInvest in a STM32G0 Discovery Kit for about $60. It tells you exactly what your USB-C power cube is capable of putting out. So far I've only found one 35W Samsung cube that meet the spec of putting out 3.1V to 21V. Most only put out one or two of the voltages of 9V, 12V, 15V or 21V. The 15W and under are usual 9V or 12V, with one being 15V. All will always default to 5V. https://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/data_brief/group2/f0/ee/9a/20/d3/49/48/9b/DM00542703/files/DM00542703.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.DM00542703.pdf https://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/d...
- mbirth 3y agoAnd watch out for weird pseudo-USB-C chargers. I’ve read about some cheap power tools being sold with “USB-C charging”. But they merely used the plug as a selling point. The AC adapter was a bog standard one and always sent 12V to the USB-C plug. So you’d fry any normal USB-C device you plug this into.
- laubzega 3y agoUSB devices built according to the spec must have overvoltage protection, but yeah, I'd be surprised if all of them actually implemented it.