nfg.forums

Hi everyone, came across this forum after winning a x68000 and trying to find out more information. The FAQ has lots of good stuff here as far as pointing you to the right direction. I went straight ahead to open this bad boy to see how bad it was, and the power supply unit has cap leaks all over the board and look like it manage to leak to some of the other boards, mostly like on the connectors. It was also very dirty and dusty all over but have been able to clean it all up and washed the case. The main board looks good for the most part, there may be one area of concern by the 6-pin input. Bottom board may have a minor leak by that blue battery. I have ordered a cap kit from Console5.

My next steps are gonna be to wait for the new capacitors to get here and do a recap. Order a new battery for the bottom board and replace it. I don't think I can save the power supply, probably gonna end up replacing it , so I will need to order a new one. And I also wanna do servicing to the floppy drives.

So my questions are, are there good replacement for the power supply? And for the floppy drives is there anything i need to watch out for? Reading the troubleshooting segment made it seem like it was not a good idea to open them up. But I really want to see how the boards look.  Oh and should I leave the HD alone? what are my options there as far as servicing?

for the powersupply , i'd advice you to check this thread
https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6510.0

Mattsoft designed an internal replacement using modern ac/dc converter

Quote from: kroustibat on March 14, 2021, 08:05:37 PMfor the powersupply , i'd advice you to check this thread
https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6510.0

Mattsoft designed an internal replacement using modern ac/dc converter

Agreed 100%. Use Mattsofts design if u can...go to a modern PSU.

Please stop the PSU bashing....
Once restored theses PSU are really reliable.
If you all go this way, next step is to replace the motherboard by a fpga ?
Care must be taken to keep the computer as original as possible. It's our duty as a collector.

Not my intend to restart a 'debate' on this.

-Not everyone is keen to put their fingers in a psu (hot electronic is dangerous and lethal) , that's why those replacement came in handy.
- For those who got the skills to repair psu , and want to restore it fully , those psu seems worth to be saved.

There's choices for everyone and the most important is to enjoy x68000

A few things to respond to, thanks for those links. The Mattsoft solution looks great and seems easy too. Tho im not sure if Mattsoft still has boards available. Also the pico from aranet seems to be sold out so might have to wait for those to get back on stock.

There was also another solution on youtube from a user name backofficeshow, pretty much took a small PSU and fitted onto the existing bracket with some modification. Looks like he's just going from an old guide on here. Seems pretty straightforward to follow as well and i think i have easier access to.

Both solutions shouldnt be too difficult but I have some questions. Mainly regarding the electronic circuit backofficeshow made relating to the diagram on the nfg site.

As for restoring the original power supply? I really dont know if thats possible. To me, the damage seems pretty spread out. Most of the components look like they got damaged. The bottom side is all gunk and nasty. Even the wires got wet. I will need to clean them up if i am to use again.

Ace HDD is SASI, so it will only be 20 or 40mbs.  Working SASI HDDs are quite rare, so I'd say sell it to an extreme hardware collector and replace with a SCSI compatible solution.

Quote from: aje_fr on March 15, 2021, 04:03:14 PMPlease stop the PSU bashing....
Once restored theses PSU are really reliable.
If you all go this way, next step is to replace the motherboard by a fpga ?
Care must be taken to keep the computer as original as possible. It's our duty as a collector.

I'm going to cheerfully disagree with you on this subject in particular. It's not always practical or even reasonable to restore original components, especially when original parts are scarce. I would be first in line to defend anybody's decision to replace a component in any computing system with a more modern equivalent, especially when it comes to something like a power supply where the result is more important than being authentic. Electrical power is electrical power whether it comes from an integrated PSU or a workbench test inverter.

You are, of course, also free to prioritize original components in the name of preservation, and that's a totally defensible motivation as well. But for me, that's not more or less valid than the other approach.

Quote from: kendrick on March 16, 2021, 12:30:16 AM

Quote from: aje_fr on March 15, 2021, 04:03:14 PMCare must be taken to keep the computer as original as possible. It's our duty as a collector.

You are, of course, also free to prioritize original components in the name of preservation, and that's a totally defensible motivation as well. But for me, that's not more or less valid than the other approach.

I think this can be an official tenet around here.  Sometimes we strive for purity and sometimes we want to have part-swapping fun with our gear.  GameSX supports both.

Quote from: kendrick on March 16, 2021, 12:30:16 AMI'm going to cheerfully disagree with you on this subject in particular. It's not always practical or even reasonable to restore original components, especially when original parts are scarce. I would be first in line to defend anybody's decision to replace a component in any computing system with a more modern equivalent, especially when it comes to something like a power supply where the result is more important than being authentic. Electrical power is electrical power whether it comes from an integrated PSU or a workbench test inverter.

You are, of course, also free to prioritize original components in the name of preservation, and that's a totally defensible motivation as well. But for me, that's not more or less valid than the other approach.

Well, except the two transformers which are custom component from Sharp, all the other components are available from distributor (RS, farnell, mouser, digikey).
These PSU are fixable with just some time and carefull.
Most of them have worked without problem during like 20 years.
The problem that comes after was the leaking capacitors that put most of them down.
I'm not sure any pico psu will work for 20 years, maybe 5-10 years at most.

What's strange is that most of person are afraid about this psu but didn't care about the CRT monitors while they are most dangerous.

I understand both sides of this argument.

When I purchased my 'junk' Ace HD back in 2012, I wished to keep everything original. I therefore recapped the original PSU, but it still didn't work, so I began rebuilding it.  However, after months of trying (and failing), I decided to throw in the towel.

I just wanted to be able to use my system, and the Pico PSU solution allowed me to do that, reliably. I would have much preferred to have a fully working original PSU, but I simply did not have the skills necessary to repair my badly damaged PSU.

After replacing the internals with a Pico, I have never looked back. My Ace HD is still going strong 9 years later :-)

Update, I am still waiting on the capacitors to get here so I can do the full recapping on most the boards. Feeling optimistic since most the damage looks like it was on the power supply. I have removed all the leaky caps on the power supply and cleaned the board up as best as I could. Gonna do the recap and go from there. But at my skill level, I can only replace faulty parts. Last resort for me will be alternate power supply. The only other board I want to do cap replacement are the ones on the floppy drives. Having trouble reaching the board underneath the spinner. Kinda stripping the screw on the center of the spinner so I will probably give up on that.

@SuperDeadite- Im trying to keep it all OG but will order one of those SCSI solutions just in case I want to use more storage. I been researching a bit, seems like I will only need a sasi to scsi cable in addition to these scsi solutions?

Capacitor replacement is not enough while repairing psu, you also need to replace :
- All the tiny 1/8w resistor
- Optocouplers
- Standby PSU transistor Q31
- Zener diodes
- Tiny transistor (2SC1815,...)
- Voltage control shunt : IC83

Use the X68000 XVI user manual PDF, psu schematic is inside.
There is modern version for all the components.

I have a working original PSU in my Expert, but still want to replace it for 220V compatibility. It is nice to have it running without a external transformer.

Congrats for the effort to keep yours stock. We all have different goals in our hobby

Quote from: aje_fr on March 21, 2021, 07:53:39 PMCapacitor replacement is not enough while repairing psu, you also need to replace :
- All the tiny 1/8w resistor
- Optocouplers
- Standby PSU transistor Q31
- Zener diodes
- Tiny transistor (2SC1815,...)
- Voltage control shunt : IC83

Use the X68000 XVI user manual PDF, psu schematic is inside.
There is modern version for all the components.

Well , that's pretty much everything besides coils... It would be nice if you'd give the references of those modern replacement components in order to help those not too electronics savy

Got my cap kit in the mail this week but it has some missing pieces so it will be a slightly longer wait. As for the power supply? I'm not sure about all those other parts, I'm having trouble looking them up. I saw the PDF but was unable to decipher it. Like I said my knowledge is basic, still I think the power supply does have a chance of repair as it doesn't look that bad after cleaning it. But Im gonna go ahead and look for a an alternate power solution just in case.

So yeah not much to update for now unfortunately.

Sounds like we're on the same journey. I recently got a non working ace HD from yahoo auction. The psu arrived outside of the case so I just assumed it was a lost cause and replaced it with matts v2 board. Found on one ebay prebuilt so the only soldering needed was the replacement power cord and cabling from the switch to the to the ac unit.  Biggest benefit from me here however is the ac unit accepts 240 volts and seeing as I'm in the UK, that really does help.

So built it all in today and it powered up. Now just waiting for the vga cable to arrive from Mexico so I can see what's actually happening.  While I'm waiting for that I'm reading all the conflicting reports on what battery replacement I should use.