I received my dream-machine A3000D this morning (only a vanilla machine, but I lusted after one of these in the early 1990s!), which came to me with a dead 110V PSU. My cunning plan (as mentioned elsewhere in the forums) was to rip the guts out of the original PSU and squeeze in the internals of a Micro ATX power supply.
Well, after three hours and a mere $20, I've done it... I'm so chuffed that I've included a few pics of the pre and post-hack product. Not exactly a step-by-step guide, but what the heck...
Here's the dead PSU. I kept the switch, the IEC power socket and of course the case:
I managed to locate a cheap Micro-ATX supply which has the -5V line present. If anyone's interested the exact make/model is: FSP Group Inc, Model No: FSP-160-60SAV. It's a 160W unit, which should be sufficient for all but the most demanding A3000 setups...
First I removed it from its casing (which was exactly the same length, but slightly narrower than the A3000 PSU unit). Then had to desolder the IEC power socket and attach it to the one from the A3000 unit (since they were slightly different) - this was the trickiest part of the operation.
I then attached the A3000 power switch to the PS_ON lines. I also used the fan from the ATX PSU rather than the A3000 one, is it was lower-profile and much quieter.
I tested the unit at each stage to make sure it was still powering-up correctly.
Luckily mounting it to the A3000 PSU case was easy - two of the screw-holes line up perfectly. The other side of the PCB was held in place by a chunk of pool-noodle! Sounds dodgy, but the results are excellent:
Once that was done I taped-up or tied any loose wires and made sure clearances around heat-sinks were okay and closed it up.
The only problem at this stage was the 110V-230V selector switch from the ATX PSU (which I'd left on - not knowing if I could simply bypass it) had to be squeezed up and over a couple of the big capacitors so it was away from the fan. I should've added a bit of wiring so I could've tucked it further away in some of the empty spacing, or perhaps found out if it could be omitted?
Here's the completed unit, connected to the A3000 via an ATX-A3000 power cable adaptor (one of Amigamaniacs units, I think):
Well, it was easier than I expected and I'm no electronics whizz... So if any A3000 users are stuck with a dead PSU, have a go at resurrecting it. It's a relative doddle and cheap as chips... :-)
Cheers,
Mike.
