Easy PicoPSU

[leonk]

Have you tried restoring one of these PSUs and had any level of success with it? I have. replaced almost every component (at high cost from digi-key I might add). still failed. Ended being the wire inside the transformer were melted/fused. Put the picoPSU into the XVI.

Modern switching power supplies can be had of higher quality than your Amazon China special with a lot more safety features and better filtering.

In my OG X68k I have a modern 1U server grade PSU. I replaced the caps with Nichicon just as a precaution even though it was a very expensive PSU already (relative to common desktop ATX power supplies). I know this would last longer than anything I could have done with the stock.

[Jehuty]

When my x68000 PSU gone dead i replaced all leaked caps withnew ones and had no luck. Still a failure in another part.
Finaly i replaced it with a new one and been happy.

[aje_fr]

I got 100% success on all PSU I repaired... And trust me, I have done somes...

[TD-Linux]

Have you tried restoring one of these PSUs and had any level of success with it? I have. replaced almost every component (at high cost from digi-key I might add). still failed. Ended being the wire inside the transformer were melted/fused. Put the picoPSU into the XVI.

Mine also has a clearly broken transformer. The way the PSU is designed, when the primary side transistor fails short, it will also cook the transformer winding and possibly some resistors in the same route.

[leonk]

Here’s an example of one that leaked so bad, parts were falling off the PCB. Everything was cooked including the transformer and the fuse exploded and caught on fire at some point.

Note all the wonderful capacitor gunk.

[neko68k]

geez mine didn't look that bad lol... My Pro had an SH5 in it that already had higher rated caps than I've seen listed anywhere, even in guides advising higher ratings and it was still dead. I recapped it myself and it stayed dead so I threw it in the trash. Aint nobody got time for that.

[cauterize]

Matt very kindly sorted me out with an Easy PicoPSU recently (and with a lot of technical assistance too) - despite my limited knowledge working on such fiddly electronics, it really was a straightforward to install in an Ace HD. I feel much safer knowing I've removed the board and those troublesome capacitors, so here's to plenty more gaming on the X68000!

[cometclean]

Greetings,

I have a an Expert X68000 with what I believe to be a broken psu. Are there any more power supplies available? I am assuming the LEGO type will work with Expert?


Cheers!

[mattsoft]

I have a couple of more spare boards if you need one, but I don't know if the Expert uses the same PSU as the ACE or not. Hopefully someone else knows!

Greetings,

I have a an Expert X68000 with what I believe to be a broken psu. Are there any more power supplies available? I am assuming the LEGO type will work with Expert?


Cheers!

[hoshikawa]

all manhattan shape models from ACE to '030 use the same size power supply, the so called tetris block. i'm using a mattsoft board in an EXPERT II.

[3rdman01]

I have a couple of more spare boards if you need one, but I don't know if the Expert uses the same PSU as the ACE or not. Hopefully someone else knows!

Hello! I've recently purchased my first X68K...I don't completely know what I've gotten myself into yet (LOL) but I am certain that the first thing I need to do when my machine arrives is to change the PSU. With that said, I've stumbled onto this thread which lead me to your github page with the BOM. It seems that the PSU you chose is sold out with an LONG lead time...I am think of getting the higher-rated version (120W) as it has the exact same foot print. I don't believe there are downsides to this but I thought I'd ask your opinion. Also, I've never used Gerber or KiCad and not wholly sure how to use these files when ordering. If you have any more spare PCBs, would you sell me one?

Thank you!

[mattsoft]

You should be fine with the higher wattage one. Let me know if you need any help!

[3rdman01]

Excellent! I'll get to buying the pieces.

How about the PCB itself? Any spares on hand that you could sell me? Thanks again!

[mattsoft]

Excellent! I'll get to buying the pieces.

How about the PCB itself? Any spares on hand that you could sell me? Thanks again!

I have 3 boards left and can spare 1. After that, I'll need to keep the remaining 2 for projects. If more people want them, I'll order another batch and make them available.

[ashrion]

Pico psu posibility problems is very high.
For my  x30  bought one psu original in japan 100% new components. All new, not expensive cost, machine is very
expensive and I have not problem in pay it if works  perfectly . I  use my x30 with 12mb ram inside motherbard principal 8 mb ram, midi, original monitor 21" Sharp x68. x68030 is  mod version 100% cpu chip mmu mod socket, power is 30% more of a normal x30. 2year  ago I bought a ac  and it works perfectly.

The problems originals ac  are that their use was so little. Computers without use makes the ac to die in  10-20-30 years and because of that ac will be destroyed.


My xvi is a secondary computer, mod atx and ac atx out computer, pico psu not is not good  quality ac component, they has bad components and they are not reliables and some pico psu don't work. They are a poor product. . I don't use it in x68 computers.

[3rdman01]

So I just received my X68k (Expert HD) in the mail and I'll be plugging in the PicoPSU tonight to test it out (thanks again, Matt)...I don't have a video out yet though so is there any way of testing it without video?

On another note, it came with an unadvertised 4mb expansion!

[3rdman01]

So I quickly ripped out the old PSU and sure enough, a black scorch mark shows evidence that the PSU was shot. I quickly removed it and wired everything up with the PicoPSU and BOOM it started up right away! It booted to a copy of Gradius that the seller left in the drive and couldn't remove.

So happy! Next thing to do is rip open the base and check/replace the battery and then seriously clean it...It smells awful...The previous owner was serious about smoking and seemed to be dedicated to never cleaning it.

[Jurger]

Excellent! I'll get to buying the pieces.

How about the PCB itself? Any spares on hand that you could sell me? Thanks again!

I have 3 boards left and can spare 1. After that, I'll need to keep the remaining 2 for projects. If more people want them, I'll order another batch and make them available.

Greetings, first post in this forum.

I will be acquiring classic gray CZ-600C X68000 computer soon. I have come to understand, that original PSU is not going to be good solution in a long term even when recapped. So I have been searching high and low for a replacement solution for classic X68000 PSU situation and time and time again the traces lead me here. I know mattsoft has designed a PCB for PicoPSU to make the life easier. I came to understand that the older PCB version ( https://github.com/mattsoft/X68K_EZ_Pico_PSU ) is compatible with CZ-600C, but not the newer one ( https://github.com/mattsoft/X68K_Pico_PSU_v2 ).

I think I need a bit of hand holding with this one as I'm not too familiar with PicoPSU or X68000 yet.

Could someone be willing to build and sell somewhat ready-made X68000 PicoPSU Power Adapter with all the parts soldered? Or could someone point me to the right direction where could this kind of shop/person be found? I have one friend who is good at soldering etc. that I will be going to ask help with recapping the whole X68000 (I have read that it is strongly recommended).

Or is there some other solution I just haven't found yet?

Help would be much appreciated! :-)

[mez]

hi,
why don't you buy an already made PICO PSU (approx 30€) + Arananet adapter :
https://www.arananet.net/pedidos/product/atx-adapter-for-x68000/

[Jurger]

hi,
why don't you buy an already made PICO PSU (approx 30€) + Arananet adapter :
https://www.arananet.net/pedidos/product/atx-adapter-for-x68000/

Thanks for the advice! :-) I didn't know arananet's existence before this. Ordered one X68000 psu adapter from there. Very nice!

[UD2]

Just dropping in to say that I used the V2 PCB to replace the faulty PSU in my XVI and it worked great! Thanks for designing this PCB :-) For anyone considering a recap, don't bother, just build one of these! I recapped my original PSU and it still ended up failing for different reasons about a year later, they're not worth your time.

[famiac]

Does anybody have a spare V2 PCB? the ATX psu I installed in 2013 is stinking up the place

also, can anyone recommend a source for a PicoPSU?

[mattsoft]

Does anybody have a spare V2 PCB? the ATX psu I installed in 2013 is stinking up the place

also, can anyone recommend a source for a PicoPSU?

I have 1 left from my last batch. If you're in the US, shipping is cheap. Just PM me.

[barbeque]

Thanks for making these. It must have taken a dog's age even to just get the PCB aligned and cut properly for the case!

Just ordered a set of five from JLCPCB to Canada. The raw PCB came out to about $7.15 shipped a piece (their shipping costs more than doubled because of the COVID stuff.)

Looking forward to resurrecting my X68000 ACE once this is done and the IO board is fixed!

[barbeque]

I just got finished dismantling the old power supply in order to get the harness ready for the new one. Just wanted to confirm how yours is wired up.

On my ACE's power supply (UADP-0058CEZZ SH2) PCB, after scraping away as much silastic as I could from the cap nearby, there are two lines that appear to be labelled "CH 2" (orange) and "+5V P.C." (yellow). Picture:




Since I only have two lines left to account for on the new PCB, I'm guessing one of these is "5V stand-by" and the other is "Power On," but I don't know which. My best guess is that "PC" is "Power Control" or something similar and would be the power-on line, but I'm flummoxed what "CH 2" could stand for, and of course there's that "+5V," so it could go either way ("Power, Continuous?").

It looks like in one of your earlier pictures the yellow wire is going to Power On, but I can't make out where the orange wire is going, and the layout has changed since then.

Edit: This nfggames page says that orange is 5VSB and yellow is Power On on an ACE, so I feel good about going forward with that now: https://nfggames.com/nfg/x68repair/ I think I missed the diagrams on the sidebar because my browser window was too small or something... can't believe I kept skipping right over it.

[Fularu]

Hello, I recently recieved an x68030 with a busted PSU (black scorches all around the Zener 31).

Instead of trying to trouble shoot it I'D like to know if some v2 boards are still available so that I Can do a Pico PSU mod? I'm in Canada if that matters

[mattsoft]

Hello, I recently recieved an x68030 with a busted PSU (black scorches all around the Zener 31).

Instead of trying to trouble shoot it I'D like to know if some v2 boards are still available so that I Can do a Pico PSU mod? I'm in Canada if that matters

yeah, I have 1 board left you can have for shipping. Probably around $20 to Canada, maybe less. PM me if interested. There's also someone on eBay selling these boards now, partially populated. Forget how much.

[Fularu]

Hello, I recently recieved an x68030 with a busted PSU (black scorches all around the Zener 31).

Instead of trying to trouble shoot it I'D like to know if some v2 boards are still available so that I Can do a Pico PSU mod? I'm in Canada if that matters

yeah, I have 1 board left you can have for shipping. Probably around $20 to Canada, maybe less. PM me if interested. There's also someone on eBay selling these boards now, partially populated. Forget how much.

I sent you a private message.

Cheers

[barbeque]

I got the power supply working today on my ACE. Thank you mattsoft for the great board.

There are some other issues that I will have to work out - soft power-on works great, but soft power-off doesn't fade out the raster or even blink the LED, and I get a "an error has occurred, please reset" message that won't go away on reset or holding OPT1. It wouldn't be an X68000 if it were easy, right? Those problems are likely to be related to my I/O-board repair, and not the power supply, so I'm very happy with it.

I used a legit (as much as they can be) PicoPSU. My only recommendation for improvement would be to mark the pins of the fan connector on the top silk-screen because the new header isn't keyed; I ended up having to buzz it out to remember which side was +12V and which side was ground.

All the rails were nice and solid when I powered it up on the bench disconnected from the X68000 (didn't expect it to power on right away!). I spliced the floppy power cable into the original JST connector for "drive power" on the PicoPSU, but it produced quite a bit of additional length that I ended up looping behind the SASI breakout rather than cut and splice again.

I also used a really thick electrical cord meant for a garburetor; I should have cut up a computer power cord instead as that would have been easier to route on my desk.

Thanks again!

[FluffyRedLobster]

Sorry for the thread necro but it looks like this is where all the PicoPSU discussion happens...

The recommended 120w official PicoPSU is discontinued: https://www.mini-itx.com/~picoPSU-120

There is a wide input 120w version that takes 12v-25v input but it's a fair bit more expensive and although I assume it should work the same as the 12v version, I'm guessing it's untested in an X68000, and it bothers me that I don't need the wide input.

So I looked at the 150w 12v version: https://www.mini-itx.com/~picoPSU-150-XT.  Looks ideal, and cheaper than the 120w wide input version!  However it's 24-pin, rather than 20-pin.  Sigh.  I realise that strictly you can jam a 24-pin ATX Pico into a 20-pin socket but..... no.

So I've re-worked the board in KiCad to handle a 24-pin PicoPSU.  Screenshot attached.  I shoved the whole ATX connector up a bit to be closer to the resistor so there is still clearance for the cables going into the Pico.

Before I send this off to a boardhouse does anyone (especially @mattsoft if you're still around!) have any thoughts on this?  If it works I'll share the updated design of course - but I don't want to do that until I'm satisfied it isn't going to blow up

[hiker]

I recently built a variant of this PSU for the XVI. I found that that the PicoPSU-120 (from https://www.mini-box.com/PicoPSU-120) had problems when powering on from standby. This was also described in https://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6947.msg47486#msg47486.
The PicoPSU-120WI-25V did not power on at all. The M3-ATX, PicoPSU-90 and RGeek 120W all worked fine.
The behavior was the same with two different XVIs and two different PicoPSU-120.

[FluffyRedLobster]

Interesting, thanks hiker.

Until now I was thinking the official PicoPSU-120 would be the most likely success given it's mattsoft's recommended route, albeit its discontinued at mini-itx.com.

So it's looking like either the (still available) PicoPSU-90 using mattsoft's original board or the PicoPSU-150 with my modified 24-pin board.

Any other feedback gratefully received, otherwise I'll toss a coin

[FluffyRedLobster]

Hmm, looking at mattsoft's repo, the BOM lists a 74HC04 inverter.  The silkscreen in the KiCad however indicates a 74LS04, and the original design matt used for inspiration looks like it had an LS.  Given the inverter is the bit that handles power on from standby I wonder if this might explain some of the differing results some people have had.  From limited research the 74HCT04 more closely replicates the LS behaviour so maybe that's a third option.

More reading required...

[hiker]

With the PicoPSU-120W I tested also without the inverter IC by manually grounding the Pico's /PS_ON pin and I got the same result.

[FluffyRedLobster]

Interesting.  Looking back at mattsoft's posts in this thread, it looks like he was actually using a PicoPSU-80.  The 120 recommendation came in when a PR was merged and updated the readme.  I'm leaning toward the 90 at this point.  It would be nice to have some idea of the actual power draw if anyone has a kill a watt or similar.

I've also found, thanks to a blog by leadedsolder and confirmed by the datasheets, the inverter should have its unused inputs tied to ground or vcc "to ensure proper device operation".  https://www.leadedsolder.com/2022/02/22/x68000-dirty-pro-part-2-power-supply-pcb.html (He's working on a different design for the pro here but it's the same inverter).

My current thinking is to hook those pins up, fit a socket and get one of each variety of inverter for testing.  Plus a Pico-90.

[hiker]

The service manual for the XVI says 46W for the model with HDD.

[FluffyRedLobster]

So I've updated the board design to ground the unused inputs on the inverter, and while I was there I took a leaf out of leadedsolder's design and replaced the fan header with a regular 3-pin fan header.  Board order has been placed - should get in ahead of Chinese New Year if I'm lucky

I've also got the other components on the way including a LS, HC and HCT inverter so I can try each, and I'll be ordering a Pico-90 shortly.

Once I get it all assembled and tested (assuming it works!) I'll raise a PR to mattsoft's repo with the updated design and inverter clarification.

Now I just need my x68000 to turn up!

...Edit....except I've grounded the outputs /facepalm.  Oh well, bodge wires for v1 it is....

[FluffyRedLobster]

Success!

Great service from PCBWay - I contacted them with updated Gerbers to fix my stupid error with the inverter grouding, fully expecting them to say there was nothing they could do and I should submit a new order, but instead they accepted my updated Gerbers and manufactured from them. So no need for a v2

I've built this using a Meanwell 120w and Pico-90 and have found it to work perfectly with all three types of inverter.  I've gone with the HCT as this seems the best "fit" given the original design was based on the LS.  The extra 4 pins on the ATX connector are unused with the 90, but at least it is future proofed.  Thank you again @hiker for all the feedback, much appreciated.  And thank you @mattsoft for the original design.

I've raised a PR against mattsoft's original repo but I'm not sure how actively he's checking it these days given there's another PR there from September.  So if anyone wants to use the updated design, here's the PR: https://github.com/mattsoft/X68K_Pico_PSU_v2/pull/5

One note that might help others - if (like me) you do a test power on of the new PSU before you plug it into the x68000, don't be spooked when it spins up as soon as you provide AC.  Without the x68000's soft power button to hold the PwrON signal low (or is it high?), the PSU will always be on if it is receiving AC.  Which is actually helpful to measure the outputs before connecting it to The Precious.

I have 3 spare boards - if anyone in the UK wants one DM me, I'm happy to ship one for the price of postage and a coffee