Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

[eccerr0r]

I have a *working* NPS-200PB-56D ... alas I have no computers that this fits in. I wonder if I should scrap this otherwise good PSU.

Not sure what form factor this is. I'm guessing microatx but I don't have any standard microatx cases (I have a nonstandard full size ATX PSU microatx case and a nonstandard microatx case) and the board is too long to fit in a standard atx PSU case...

Scrapping = parts, or perhaps this still has residual value as a complete PSU somewhere...

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

I'm going to guess it's late 90s or early 00s vintage. Newton was part of Delta Products (may still be, I don't know) and had solid designs. They probably used good parts for that era. Probably the big limitations on usefulness would be the +5VSB current rating and the +12V current rating. I suspect the +5VSB current rating is less than 1A, and may be .1A. In that era the high current outputs were the +5V and +3.3V, so the +12V current will probably be pretty low (in the ballpark of 6A, maybe?).

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

Indeed is is. At best I could use it as a bench supply but I'd have to hack in some current limiting or foldback. Again yeah it's a pity to trash it, but I can't find an ATX PC use for it as it's not standard ATX.

+5SB 0.7A
+5 18A
+12 6A
+3.3 10A
-12, -5: 0.3A

[lti]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

I used to have one of those. I've only seen that form factor in old Gateway (or Gateway 2000) computers. That one was made in late 1998, and the one I had was about a year older.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

So this is really nonstandard and not worth keeping? This is odd that it's very close to standard atx size, and even has a standard atx connector... just that it doesn't physically fit in a standard atx case.

[stj]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

sell it on ebay in the arcade section, i think they are used in some megatouch terminals.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

470uF input lytics for 200W? I'll bet it has great hold-up time. -52 material output inductor, so the switch frequency is probably above 50KHz. Looks like NCC LXJ series output capacitors.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

It's a UC3482 switcher, which would be the second over-100W PSU I've seen with the Unitrode IC (most of the SMPS I've seen with the UC384x are less than 50W).

[Wester547]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

470uF input lytics for 200W? I'll bet it has great hold-up time. -52 material output inductor, so the switch frequency is probably above 50KHz. Looks like NCC LXJ series output capacitors.

Yup, Chemi-con LXJ on the output, a mingling of Taicon VT and Chemi-con KME for the tiny decoupling capacitors, and Rubycon USP in the voltage doubler (it appears). I hope that's not a death ADDA sleeve bearing fan, as it might need lubrication and maintenance.

Amazing, it has a standard ATX connector. Many Newtons of that time period (IE, those built for Dell) had the dreaded proprietary connector. I guess you could keep it as a spare supply with which to test IDE HDDs, floppy drives, and IDE optical drives, et al. Although it may come in handy if you were to discard it for parts too.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

Well, I have a bunch of spare PSUs with standard cases (and even a mini, I think 150W PSU with 330uF x 2 doubler caps that even has a 12V 2x2 connector for ATX2.03) so this PSU is pretty much useless, granted it should be a very good design.

It doesn't even have that many hours on it, though I'm not sure how it got so dusty. The fan is still very quiet (and it has a temperature controller for it...)

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

It's a UC3482 switcher, which would be the second over-100W PSU I've seen with the Unitrode IC (most of the SMPS I've seen with the UC384x are less than 50W).

A lot of Delta Products P/S models of that era used 384x series PWMs, including PC PSUs in the 200W-250W range, which were the most common late 90s and early 00s models that I saw.

[momaka]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

SAVE IT!!!

There's not that many useful parts you can extract out of that PSU to repair a new PSU. Maybe the caps, the 3.3V and 5V rectifiers, and fan at best. The rest is common parts you can find in just about any gutless wonder. No point scrapping such good design when you can scrap a piece of shit $5 no-name PSU, if you really needed the parts.

Also, good-quality 5V-heavy PSUs will only get harder and harder to find. If testing/running an old Pentium 3 or Athlon/Athlon XP PC, this should be the PSU of your choice.

That said, I have the same form factor PSU in a Gateway Select 750 desktop tower (with 750 MHz Slot A Athlon). My PSU is made by Astec and is 100% solid like yours, with nice caps and all. I use that computer as a file backup / occasional movie server. The motherboard doesn't have a single electrolytic cap in sight - it's all MLCC and Tantalum.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

Dang, now I need room for an odd ball power supply now that I'll probably never use

[momaka]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

Dang, now I need room for an odd ball power supply now that I'll probably never use

Well don't say that.
If you have an older 5V heavy board, then build yourself a classic Win 98/2000/XP PC. I think you can fit the PSU in a regular ATX case with a few quick ghetto mods - probably just drill some extra holes in the case that the PSU can mount to.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

That's the problem, I have other standard ATX PSUs that have enough +5/+3.3 and thus not need this PSU... plus already have "XP" and even a machine with an AT PSU (with 6+6, remember those?) when "It's safe to turn off your computer" actually means something other than ACPI/APM stopped working...

... except it's running Linux right now because it has badram and I found a way to disable those few MB of bad ram on that 256M PC133.

If only I had/could fit 256MB worth of 72-pin SIMMs on that board as it only has 4 SIMM slots. Free 64M 72-pin SIMMs anywhere?

(BTW, it's a Socket 7 "baby" AT board, 2 168-pin SDRAM slots, 4 72-pin SIMMs, with a k6-233 IIRC. No real need for this machine so it got the bad ram)

(P.S. #2: Notice there's an extra hole in the back of the case with some penciled in alignment lines. I wonder why that hole was drilled there, maybe to somewhat jury rig into a standard ATX case? )

[momaka]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

That's the problem, I have other standard ATX PSUs that have enough +5/+3.3 and thus not need this PSU...

Sure. But the question is, do those come fully equipped with Japanese caps from top to bottom? Because this one does. It's essentially a PSU that you won't have to recap for a long time and it likely won't give you problems for a long time.

plus already have "XP" and even a machine with an AT PSU (with 6+6, remember those?)

Yup, I still have a Socket 7 motherboard with its Mitac PSU around here. I believe I posted about it in the PSU pictorial thread (look up Mitac SPU-75). I never found a use for the mobo (other than wall decoration) - too old and slow for anything except Windows 95 maybe. Most of my XP machines are on last gen single-core CPUs and first gen dual-cores. I find those are the best for XP. Pentium 3/4 and Athlon/XP are also good for that. Anything older deserves Windows 98/SE. Or ME if you are the "adventurous" type.

If only I had/could fit 256MB worth of 72-pin SIMMs on that board as it only has 4 SIMM slots. Free 64M 72-pin SIMMs anywhere?

Look for "scrap RAM" or "scrap memory" on eBay. Sometimes you can get a great deal on RAM like that. Most modules are tend to be fine too. Many recyclers just don't care enough to look up the info on each RAM module.

(P.S. #2: Notice there's an extra hole in the back of the case with some penciled in alignment lines. I wonder why that hole was drilled there, maybe to somewhat jury rig into a standard ATX case? )

Ha! Funny!
-Yup, probably.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

Yeah, I drilled and actually went through with a 6-32 tap to make a standard ATX mount hole (using 2 of 4 screw holes) for it at one point - it was very weak but held there enough so that I could at least plug in the power cable without it flopping around. But now I've gotten enough regular ATX PSUs now to not need it. That's why I figure I should swipe good parts from it and put it on a standard PSU and toss this one

---

Since the max the board can take is 256MB (max cacheable is 64M I think) having a 256MB SDRAM module is probably the fastest as if I plugged in 72-pin EDO/FPM it would not cache. So the intended RAM for it is a good PC66 256MB SDRAM. Of course they don't make those, so I stuck in that PC133.

The thing I wonder is that this board is an Intel chipset, which I though had problems with "high density" SDRAM modules which this module indeed is... but it's just a few problem locations in this known module that fail (bad in other machines too), everything else seems to work fine.

Then again I might actually have 128MB SDRAMs lying around now that I can plug into this thing. Unfortunately this machine does not like 384MB RAM.

[lti]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

I saw a Gateway that had a standard ATX power supply opening and an adapter to hold this weird form factor.

Along with the normal rear mounting holes, there was an L-shaped bracket that screwed into the two holes next to the label.

[momaka]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

That's why I figure I should swipe good parts from it and put it on a standard PSU and toss this one

You can swap the parts, but you can't swap a solid Delta design with good protections.

Then again I might actually have 128MB SDRAMs lying around now that I can plug into this thing. Unfortunately this machine does not like 384MB RAM.

What about two sticks of 128 MB of SDRAM - that should give you 256 MB and no complaints.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Newton Power NPS-200PB-56D - scrap or save?

I saw a Gateway that had a standard ATX power supply opening and an adapter to hold this weird form factor.

Along with the normal rear mounting holes, there was an L-shaped bracket that screwed into the two holes next to the label.

Another reason to not keep this silly PSU

You can swap the parts, but you can't swap a solid Delta design with good protections.

Can't do anything about it, if only they had designed this PSU in the standard ATX format...

What about two sticks of 128 MB of SDRAM - that should give you 256 MB and no complaints.

Except I may need the "good" 128M's in a machine that actually can cache more than 64MB, unlike this way too slow 233MHz...