So despite starting several projects, I only got on successful project achieves this past week.
Firstly, I received some ROMs to use with one of my Apple II clones, as it wasn’t received with them installed. Unfortunately the power supply has chosen now to fail so I’ll need to strip it and see what I can work out. Oddly, people on the Apple forums want me to rebuild the power supply rather than just sticking in a suitable Mean Well PSU. Why? It’s not an original power supply anyway. A Mean Well will be cheaper, cleaner, safer and more efficient. I may even just gut the existing PSU and drop the Mean Well directly inside the cage.
EDIT:It’s not the power supply. Every time I install the ROMs, the PSU trips. I’m using 2816s which should work just fine. Clearly there is more to be investigated.
Secondly, after a trip to Jaycar, I had the bits to build a USB to Atari 800xl power adapter. You need a beefy USB Power source, but it works well. I just followed the guide here on Wolfgang Kierdorf’s channel. I made up both ends rather than dissecting an existing USB cable. It came out quite well, and means I don’t need the huge brick on my desk when using the 800 any more.
Finally, I’d found a Geode based single board computer while looking for parts. My housemate had salvaged it and hadn’t found a use for it. I thought it would make for an excellent DOS / Windows 3.1 system. I made up a power connector, but unfortunately it was DOA. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get it to even send out a synch signal.
It’s not a huge loss. My desire for a 486 class PC is not high, and there are some nifty alternatives if I wanted them.
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