Picking up my working 6128 tomorrow

[MugUK]

With all my Amstradian hassles over the last 2-3 months, I'm going to the Retro Computer Museum tomorrow to pick up my repaired 6128.

Although I'll still need to get a 12v PSU for the drive as that might still be a problem on my monitor but I'm sure Maplins will be able to help. What type of connector will I need *or* will one of those unbranded multi-volt PSUs work as I've got one with all kinds of adapters on the end?

Then I can finally CAT all of the disks I've got plus play all those original games ;-)

Happy times ahead.  Then it's the MegaFlash and the SD card add-on :-)

[Bryce]

The most important thing is the polarity. The 5V on the CPC has its Ground on the outside and +5V on the inside. The 12V is the other way around- +12V outside, GND inside! So no matter where you get the supply from, make sure this is correct, otherwise you'll be back at the museum quicker than you know it, and this time the news won't be that good.

Bryce.

[HAL6128]

...oh, this remembers me of a repair request ...an external device harmed by a wrong polarisation, ...beng!

[MugUK]

I'm hoping that my monitor will power it long enough until I can get one of those external SCART kits and use it with an external TV at a bigget resolution (helps the already knackered eyesight!) ;-)

[Bryce]

I (and many others) use a PC PSU to power the CPC. You can also use a Spectrum +3 power supply using a simple adapter cable. All the info is on the wiki.

Bryce.

[MugUK]

Cheers Bryce - will look once back home as this forum is blocked in work.

[Bryce]

Here's the link for later....

Powering a CPC 6128 from a Sinclar Spectrum +3 PSU - CPCWiki - The Ultimate

Bryce.

[Badstarr]

I have successfully used an adaptor made from a cheap hard disk enclosure PSU with the connections corrected as per Bryce's info on polarity. It states that it puts out 1.5 Amp on the +5v rail and the CPC label says it needs 1.7 Amp but it seemed to handle it ok, I doubt the CPC really ever uses that much anyway. However now that I have an HxC I only need the +5v to power the drive also I have a few 3.5" floppy drives that only require the +5v to be connected. Once you have the entire ADATE and NVG archives on an SD card unless you are a purist you will probably never need to use an actual floppy disk again!   

[Bryce]

The CPC was rated at 1.7Amps, but the CPC alone only uses about 1.1A, the rest was meant to power expansions. There were a few older expansions (eg: large, fully loaded  ROMBoxes) that needed quite a bit of that power, but most modern Hardware only needs a few milliamps and should all work from a single 1.7A supply. As well as that, a supply that claims 1.5A can probably supply close to 2A, just it will get hotter than normal and at about 3A it would probably start failing.

Bryce.

[Badstarr]

Ah its funny I never considered the expansion bus as a power drain. I suppose thats because I rarely used any until the megaflash as my 6128 had most things covered except for the ROMs but that was a rare event for most of my cpc activities. As for the power supply I had hoped that both the PSU and the CPC tolerances would meet somewhere in the middle so its good to know that Im not taking any risks :-)

[Bryce]

Well there's no "real" risk anyway. Even if something failed, it would be the powersupply that would go, the CPC wouldn't be damaged in any way.

Bryce.

[Badstarr]

I can live with that, PSU=cheap and plentiful. CPC=Increasingly rare and getting rather expensive these days!

[MugUK]

Back from the RCM and the machine is working sweet. 

But the 12V problem is still there with regards to the monitor so I'm (yet again) left hanging off a cliff with one arm ... and an itchy arse


I *will* get this system working at some point, some how.  But it looks like, for a few weeks more, no Amstrad until Retroshack on eBay get their 6128 SCART kits back on sale.  I'll just use the monitor on other systems via one of the other cables they sell.

Ho hum ...