For less than £25 you may want to just buy one: Ituner PicoPSU-80 PicoPSU-80 at ITX Warehouse : Uk retailer of VIA Mini ITX form factor computers. £ $ ? Delivery World Wide
media centre pc
- Thread starter CrazyFool
- Start date
already checked it out mate.
its 30 quiud delivered lol. fookin rip off and i still have to go out and buy a 12v power supply to power it.
they cost about 20 quid alone.
its 30 quiud delivered lol. fookin rip off and i still have to go out and buy a 12v power supply to power it.
they cost about 20 quid alone.
You could try google. Its been a couple of decades since I passed my electonics A level, but I really think its going to be more hassle then its worth.
Alternative is to try and get a old free PSU from freecycle or scrapyard and put it in a new housing.
Actually one option I was just thinking about is if can hold of an original XBox it has a power board with figure-8 mains connector and standard ATX connector.
wow that would be perfect.
so get an old xbox and rip the power board out?
its funny because i was considering getting the xbox360 power brick to use as the 12v power supply with a picopsu.
does it definately come with a 20pin connector and not 24?
also what would be the physical dimensions of the power board and temperature considerations.
i'm making a custom case and am planning on keeping it as small as possible,
that wont be possible if the power board is too big or gives out allot of heat thereby needing more airflow space.
Cheers
CrazyFool
so get an old xbox and rip the power board out?
its funny because i was considering getting the xbox360 power brick to use as the 12v power supply with a picopsu.
does it definately come with a 20pin connector and not 24?
also what would be the physical dimensions of the power board and temperature considerations.
i'm making a custom case and am planning on keeping it as small as possible,
that wont be possible if the power board is too big or gives out allot of heat thereby needing more airflow space.
Cheers
CrazyFool
Had a quick browse round and found out the following,
First is circuit diagram for a 200w ATX power supply,
200W ATX PC POWER SUPPLY
The power board is around an inch wide and maybe around 5 inches long ? Depending on the power draw of your setup I think a single fan cooling the whole lot should be OK.
The xbox does use a standard atx connector but in the usual microsoft fashion, they have messed with the cabling. Good news is their are quite a few people how made the conversion, so just google 'atx to xbox power supply' and I found quite a few articles on it and there are people selling ready made convertors.
e.g. the following,
Google Image Result for http://brandonw.net/consoles/xbox/schematic.jpg
also noticed that my motherboard has a 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
and the xbox power supply wont give me one of them.
is there a convertor i can use to turn one of the other cables into a 4pin atx conector?
and the xbox power supply wont give me one of them.
is there a convertor i can use to turn one of the other cables into a 4pin atx conector?
lmao.
that blog was brilliant. he made an xbox out of nothing
Which reminds me. i'm not doing this to save a few bucks.
there are psu's that can be had for under a tenner but i want a small fanless one so its super queit and takes little space allowing me to constrict the case even more.
and there is no chance of me paying over 30 quid for the little picopsu and another 30 quid for the 12v dc power supply!
I think i will use this power board. currently scouring alibaba to see if i can get a brand new one delivered.
Anywho. what's this about the cables being muddled up in the ATX connector?
so i cant plug the atx connector from the power board directly into my mobo?
by ATX connector you mean the 20 pin connector right?
And the last link you posted is about going from a pc PSU -> Xbox motherboard.
would it be the same conversion if i want to go from xbox PSU-> pc motherboard?
ie would the capacitors face in the same direction etc?
Thanks for all the help thus far mate,
CrazyFool
that blog was brilliant. he made an xbox out of nothing
Which reminds me. i'm not doing this to save a few bucks.
there are psu's that can be had for under a tenner but i want a small fanless one so its super queit and takes little space allowing me to constrict the case even more.
and there is no chance of me paying over 30 quid for the little picopsu and another 30 quid for the 12v dc power supply!
I think i will use this power board. currently scouring alibaba to see if i can get a brand new one delivered.
Anywho. what's this about the cables being muddled up in the ATX connector?
so i cant plug the atx connector from the power board directly into my mobo?
by ATX connector you mean the 20 pin connector right?
And the last link you posted is about going from a pc PSU -> Xbox motherboard.
would it be the same conversion if i want to go from xbox PSU-> pc motherboard?
ie would the capacitors face in the same direction etc?
Thanks for all the help thus far mate,
CrazyFool
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You have to remember that the xbox is basically a PIII pc with a nvidia gfx card. But for some reason microsoft decided that though the power supply connector (the 20pin one) is physically the same as the one on a normal PC, the voltages at each pin is different to a normal PC.
I was wondering about the direction of the caps and other components as the diagram is from PC PSU to xbox motherboard. You might need to a bit more googling.
Stupid Microsoft.
always ruining things.
you got to understand mate, i'm like a blunt tool, i could solder the above circuit onto a piece of breadboard with my eyes shut but its been a damn long time since i got my GCSE in electronics
tbh i've got a feeling that it wont be a case of just turning the caps around to get the psu working the way i want it.
i think we'll need a whole different mechanism.
and there was me thinking that we could just solder a few resistors together to limit the voltage of the dc psu and provide us with all the rails we need.
is there no way to modify an already functional PSU?
also, are there any other appliances i could take apart and shell the psu out?
always ruining things.
you got to understand mate, i'm like a blunt tool, i could solder the above circuit onto a piece of breadboard with my eyes shut but its been a damn long time since i got my GCSE in electronics
tbh i've got a feeling that it wont be a case of just turning the caps around to get the psu working the way i want it.
i think we'll need a whole different mechanism.
and there was me thinking that we could just solder a few resistors together to limit the voltage of the dc psu and provide us with all the rails we need.
is there no way to modify an already functional PSU?
also, are there any other appliances i could take apart and shell the psu out?
You saw the circuit diagram for the PSU, not so straight forward.
You could take apart a standard PSU circuit, with the low power draw you are looking at then I think you will be OK with just a single fan in the case as long as some air is directed over the PSU circuit board. Without the case on the CPU, the internals should not be that big.
Of course you have the issue about having an open power board in the case.
yeah and i'm not too big on the incredibly low efficiency i will be getting because psu's are incredibly shitty when they are working at like 5% load which would be the case if i was to power my small 40w pc with a big f-off 350w psu.
anywho, i found something on my travels that might be useful:
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?t=24663
according to this.
all we are missing is a -12v and a -5v rail.
if we can reconstruct one somehow then that should be our problem solved.
we can duplicate some of the other rails right?
for example. we need 3x3.3v rails but we only have 2 of them with the xbox power board.
it is as simple as just running another cable in parallel right?
anywho, i found something on my travels that might be useful:
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?t=24663
according to this.
all we are missing is a -12v and a -5v rail.
if we can reconstruct one somehow then that should be our problem solved.
we can duplicate some of the other rails right?
for example. we need 3x3.3v rails but we only have 2 of them with the xbox power board.
it is as simple as just running another cable in parallel right?
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Yes I think you would be alright running two cables in parallel. I've had a look inside a PSU before that it appears that multiple pins using the same voltage orginate from the same place on the circuit board.
One other option is to try and find an old PSU for a dell or shuttle PC which then to be smaller in size.
One other option is to try and find an old PSU for a dell or shuttle PC which then to be smaller in size.
yeah im always going to be on the lookout for psu's now. lol
but i dont see why we cant use the xbox psu in the meantime. is my understanding correct, that all we need is a couple of negative rails?
How to Build a Robot Tutorial - Society of Robots
this link shows you how to make negative currents by feeding your starting voltage into a max232 at pin 16 but all you get is a measly 10ma
this thread discusses using a LM7915 but i dont seem to understand what's going on:
How do I get -15V ?
is this a feasable way of creating a negative rail?
with reference to the first diagram comparing the xbox and the pc atx connectors.
are we missing any more rails?
but i dont see why we cant use the xbox psu in the meantime. is my understanding correct, that all we need is a couple of negative rails?
How to Build a Robot Tutorial - Society of Robots
this link shows you how to make negative currents by feeding your starting voltage into a max232 at pin 16 but all you get is a measly 10ma
this thread discusses using a LM7915 but i dont seem to understand what's going on:
How do I get -15V ?
is this a feasable way of creating a negative rail?
with reference to the first diagram comparing the xbox and the pc atx connectors.
are we missing any more rails?
The first diagram looks OK.
As for creating extra rails, no idea. I know a guy who designe PSU for missiles, I am pretty sure he would know but its going to be a while before I can hold of him.
In the meantime I suggest you have a trawl through google.
As for creating extra rails, no idea. I know a guy who designe PSU for missiles, I am pretty sure he would know but its going to be a while before I can hold of him.
In the meantime I suggest you have a trawl through google.
yup.
doing that right now.
appreciate the input oneman.
what are the safety considerations for dealing with PSU's?
obviously only a crazy fool would go around fingering one while it is powered on but is it true they hold back some of the charge they were accustomed to even after they get powered down?
might have a go at opening one up and having a gander.
doing that right now.
appreciate the input oneman.
what are the safety considerations for dealing with PSU's?
obviously only a crazy fool would go around fingering one while it is powered on but is it true they hold back some of the charge they were accustomed to even after they get powered down?
might have a go at opening one up and having a gander.
I have open them up and power them up for testing in the past. I am not encouraging you to do this as it absolutely has enough juice in the there to kill you. But saying that the first thing the it does is step down the voltage from 240 / 110 to 12v so most of the inside is not at lethal levels.
They do have caps in there to help convert to DC and smooth out the power, but I can't imagine them holding carge for more then a few seconds.
Inside of a sealed case I would would not have too much of an issue without the cover but obviously use common sense and make sure nothing can short it like a loose wire if you move the case around with the PC power up.
They do have caps in there to help convert to DC and smooth out the power, but I can't imagine them holding carge for more then a few seconds.
Inside of a sealed case I would would not have too much of an issue without the cover but obviously use common sense and make sure nothing can short it like a loose wire if you move the case around with the PC power up.
right ok, cheers for that pal.
lemme know if you find anything about negative rails.
Regards,
CrazyFool
lemme know if you find anything about negative rails.
Regards,
CrazyFool
i think we've got another problem.
the xbox power supply provides +3V Standby whereas the ATX connector provides +5v standby.
would i be able to step up the voltage without hindering the 'standby' signal?
would you happen to know what +5v standby does?
also in the forum where i knicked that image from it says:
Power OK needs to be converter to 3.3V
Power On needs to be inverted
are they talking about going from xbox to pc or pc to xbox?
EDIT: according to the following link, it says that the latest xbox 1 psu's (v1.6) have got 5v standby:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=122224
the xbox power supply provides +3V Standby whereas the ATX connector provides +5v standby.
would i be able to step up the voltage without hindering the 'standby' signal?
would you happen to know what +5v standby does?
also in the forum where i knicked that image from it says:
Power OK needs to be converter to 3.3V
Power On needs to be inverted
are they talking about going from xbox to pc or pc to xbox?
EDIT: according to the following link, it says that the latest xbox 1 psu's (v1.6) have got 5v standby:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=122224
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