[Coco] HD power supply

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 01 March 2009, Bill wrote:
>Is a power supply for a FD-501 or FD-502 sufficient to power an IDE hard
>drive (or two?)

That might be a little borderline, Bill.  I'd hook the drive up and see if it 
spins up, if not shut 'er down quick, if it does spin up, immediately check 
the transistors for rapid heat rise, and it that doesn't burn your fingers in 
the first minute, let it be for 20 minutes and recheck the transistors and the 
transformer too this time.  If that seems reasonable, drop the cover back on 
it & let it run for an hour.

Most IDE drives take less than an amp on the 5 volt line, and usually under 
half an amp on the 12 volt line after about a 2 amp startup surge, but its 
continuous load conditions for both, where the floppy's don't use any motor 
power unless spinning, so the average drain is quite a bit less over an hours 
use.

It might be worth raiding an old std computer psu for its fan & rig it to pull 
a little air through the box as the drive may need some cooling if its in side 
a warm box.  I try to keep my drives under 40C here.  The 12 volt line, if 
cooling air is used, won't notice the < 175 ma the fan will draw as the 
cooling will readily offset that extra heat so you can power the fan from the 
12 volt line.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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