Hello.
I have a CPC 464, a DDI-1, a FD-1 and a CPC 6128.
The FD-1 is damaged though it could be recovered (unsure) -- perhaps more damage that broken belt and lost write pin.
Perhaps it's dead but the power supply is perfectly fine.
Trying to repair disc drives I saw the 4-wire power connector at the back of the 3" drive inside the FD-1 box.
Such connectors look like PC-style floppy drive power supply.
I checked the voltage on these pins: 5, 0, 0 12 (in CPC 6128 actually).
Voltages are unsurprising, but ... in the case of a FD-1 those voltages come from the FD-1 power supply.
So, the FD-1 can provide +5V and +12V.
This yielded an idea: could the power supply inside the FD-1 case power a whole CPC ?
I can see two options!
(1) Power a CPC-464. With the hack (extra wire) described in http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/ddi-1-conversion-for-use-without-an-fd-1/msg22724/#msg22724. Pro: solder one wire. Simple, clean. Con: modified DDI-1 cannot/should not (or can it safely?) work on an already regularly powered CPC-464, as already discussed there.
(2) Power a CPC-6128 or a 464. Make an adapter cable from the 4-wire power inside the FD-1 case to provide two external plugs that plug on the regular CPC-6128 power.
One question remain: CPC sucks extra power, can the FD-1 power supply handle that ?
Comment welcome. Thanks.
Hey, it was my 129th post. I should have made a party for the 128th :picard: :laugh:
According to the DDI1, the power supplies are regulated by one L78N12 and two L78N05 (one for the drive, one for the interface), all able to provide 500mA
A 464 with 40007 GA consume about 900mA on the 5V rail when idling and in the range of 1.1A while reading a tape.
Even having both 5V in parallel (not recommended), it won't be enough.
Thanks @gerald (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=250) for the informative answer.
This is confirmed and even worsened by Power Supply for CPC and CPC plus - CPCWiki (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Power_Supply_for_CPC_and_CPC_plus): 2A for CPC464, 1.7A for CPC664 and CPC6128.
They might have kept some safety margin, anyway it's much more than 0.5A that L78N* can provide.
Topic solved.