Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

[momaka]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

I concur with PeteS - this is a Newton Power PSU made by Delta. Probably late 90's or very early 2000's - think Pentium II and 3 era / 1st "gen" slot A or socket 462 AMD Athlon. So output-wise, it was probably rated for 200W or less, most of which was for the 3.3V and 5V rails... though not too much, because after all, the 20 Amp rectifiers on the 5V and 3.3V rails probably limit(ed) the output current to 15-16 Amps, since this is a forward-converter design. Thus, the combined 3.3V and 5V output was likely rated around 110-120 Watts. The 10 Amp rectifier on the 12V rail probably limited the output to 6-7 Amps... which comes out to another 70-ish Watts... and that's your 200W.

That said, I don't think that primary transformer is ERL38. Measure the top part in mm and see. It's probably 28 mm across (ERL28)... which for 200W is adequate. I've seen early Delta/Newton and Bestec use these smaller transformers back in the day, and it was never an issue.

Regarding the "1004BL" chip on the primary side - that's very likely an equivalent to a UC384x series (e.g. UC3842, 3843, and etc.) current-mode PWM controller and it's *not* for the 5VSB. It's for the main PS and drives the MOSFET closer to the main transformer. The other MOSFET is for the 5VSB circuit, which is a 2-transistor self-oscillating design with feedback. You can actually see some darkening of the PCB near the 5VSB circuit and its "startup" cap, suggesting this cap has started to go (or has gone) bad. However, the actual reason was probably diode D901 behind it. Not sure why, but Delta liked to use standard 1N4002 diodes for the primary-side auxiliary rail (which feeds the 5VSB's driver transistor and also the PWM controller for the main PS) instead of proper fast-recovery diodes. I made a detailed post about it here (a little further down in that post, after the recapping of the PSU):
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=3136

And very likely, the 5VSB circuit on your Newton PSU above probably looks very similar to this:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...4&d=1621301619
In the case of the above schematic, since it's from a newer Delta PSU (made around 2007 or so), the diode in question is D951.

And the -12v rail (which appears to be derived from the 3.3v rail if i'm not mistaken)...

I'm pretty sure that's not it. -12V rail should be generated from it's own tap on the main transformer... and from what I can see from the underside / PCB shot, it is. It appears to be that first pin on the bottom of the transformer, as seen in this picture:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...9&d=1646129626
Then it goes up and through a diode, and into the main output toroid.

I know probably none of this matters to you, since you said you're not going to fix this PSU... and I don't blame you! With a broken PCB like that and a "hottie" 5VSB circuit, it indeed isn't worth fixing, unless you really wanted an era-appropriate PSU for a Pentium II / 3 PC. In fact, I'm glad to hear you're going to salvage it for parts - there should be plenty of useful components from this PSU. If you're going to discard any parts from it, though, let me know - I'm mostly interested in the 5VSB transformer. I have a PSU that needs one. The 2-transistor circuit burned it up pretty good. I was actually going to rewind it (and probably still may do that)... but perhaps as a backup? ... well again, only if you're going to discard it. Otherwise, I probably can salvage one from the 10's of PSUs I already have. I tried one from a 5VSB circuit of a single-transistor PSU without feedback, but the pri. aux. winding voltage is lower. I made it work after some modifications, but the low pri. aux. voltage is inadequate for the PWM controller of the main PS.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but did some PSU manufacturers use overrated diodes because they would dissipate less heat when used at a lower current? (compared to their lower rated counterparts) I feel like i remember hearing that here before.

Yes, this is exactly it.
The PSU was likely rated for either 1 or 1.5 Amps (or maybe 2 Amps if it was a really early 2000's model ). So by using a 5 Amp diode, that makes the diode run much cooler. SB560 is also Schottky type. If they used a regular fast-recovery rectifier, the dissipation would have been a lot worse. I kind of showed what happens when you do that with this PSU's fix here:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...07&postcount=2

Anyway, i have many more PSUs that i plan on posting here someday.

You and me both.

[RukyCon]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

Okay, thanks for letting me know, because I didn't have a case or model number for this PSU, i could only guess what its power rating was (and i do think i was in the ballpark when it came to the wattage, only off by 50w). Not that it really matters too much due to the shape that the PSU is in.

The 5A standby rectifier seems over-rated for the common .5A-1A standby current of that time-frame, though.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but did some PSU manufacturers use overrated diodes because they would dissipate less heat when used at a lower current? (compared to their lower rated counterparts) I feel like i remember hearing that here before.

Anyway, i have many more PSUs that i plan on posting here someday.

[lti]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

That is a Newton Power, and from the board size and shape, I'm guessing that it was one of Gateway's proprietary power supplies (standard ATX connectors, but an unusual small form factor that was mostly used in cases that could have held a full-size ATX power supply). Every one of those I remember seeing was 200W.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

Ruky, my WAG is that that is a ~200W Newton Power (that "N" logo near the toroidal input inductor suggests this) or Delta, possibly mid 1990s vintage. I'm guessing the power based on the 390uF input caps, and the 1002 might be a Delta ASIC supervisor IC (Newton is owned by Delta).

The 10A 12V rectifier and 20A rectifiers for the 5V and 3.3V are consistent with that time frame and power level. Likewise the PJ series output caps. The 5A standby rectifier seems over-rated for the common .5A-1A standby current of that time-frame, though.

[RukyCon]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

So i was cleaning some stuff up, and dug up this busted PC power supply i found in the trash some years ago, and thought i would get some photos of it before i part it out, so here it is, i don't know the brand or wattage, and i'm not really bothered to look it up, due to what i stated above.

Anyway, here is the board overview, and you can probably see i won't be bothering repairing it:

Yep, it's in two halves, i could try to bodge them back together, but it probably wouldn't be very safe. The main transformer is a ERL38 or roughly thereabout.

Onto the bottom side of the board:

The soldering doesn't look bad, though i think that's the least of its concerns given the shape that it's in.

Now let's dive into the primary side of things.

So lest start with the input filtering, which consists of two .22uf X2 capacitors, two 2.2nf Y2 capacitors, a single coil, and a big looking common mode choke. In spite of what it has, it seems a bit minimalistic to me, but who am I to judge. After that, we have a GBU4J 4A amp bridge rectifier, and a pair of Ltek SM 390uf 200v capacitors.

The main switchers are a pair of IRFBC20's, and the 5vsb appears to be switched by a chip marked 1004BL, which i can't seem to find much about, but i assume it's a somewhat standard all-in-one switch mode controller.

Now onto the secondary side of this thing.

So to start off with, the 5vsb is fed into a SB560 diode, before being filtered by a Nichicon PJ 1500uf 10v capacitor, a small pi coil, and a Nichicon PJ 470uf 10v capacitor. The 12v output is fed though a STPR10 diode bridge, and gets the bare minimum when it comes to filtering, since it only has a single Ltek LZG 1000uf 16v capacitor with not further filtering. The 5v output goes through a STPS20 diode bridge, and is filtered through a Ltek LZG 1000uf 10v capacitor, a pi coil, and a 680uf 10v capacitor. The 3.3v output is fed though another STPS20 diode bridge, and is filtered though a 1500uf 10v capacitor, a pi coil, and a 1000uf 10v capacitor (all Ltek of course). And the -12v rail (which appears to be derived from the 3.3v rail if i'm not mistaken), is filtered through a 680uf 25v capacitor, before being fed through a KA7912 negative voltage regulator, before being filtered though a 100uf 25v capacitor.

The 16-pin chip on the output is yet another chip i can not find info about, but its number is 1002DS, and is likely the supervisor/protection IC for this thing. But that's pretty much it in regard to this thing, it looks like it may have been an okay PSU at one point (assuming it was rated for at most 250w), but the physical damage to the PCB makes it nothing more than a donor for other power supplies. Besides, i have many more PC power supplies that i've found in various places (mostly at thrift stores and in the trash), so not really a major loss to me anyway.

[momaka]

FSP Group Inc. AX400-PN – cap diagram, partial recap, & resistor mods

As far as recapping this PSU goes, it’s very simple. Each main rail has just 2 caps, as shown above (except for the -12V rail.) The only difficult part is getting to those caps due to the tan glue and also due to how cramped the secondary side is. (Those output wires really do get in the way!) But in any case, here is the cap diagram… or rather 2 of them, due to the wires blocking view for some of the caps.




Note that I didn’t mark the two 5VSB caps on there, just because of how the images came out. But I think those should be pretty easy to figure out, as there are only 2x 10V, 1000 uF caps in this PSU, and they are right next to the two smaller transformers.

As usual, I was short on capacitors, so I just replaced the “first” cap in each rail (that is, “cap #1” in the diagram above), except the 12V rail, since it had both of its caps failed. I also replaced a lot of the smaller caps that are of importance – namely, the 5VSB start/run cap, the BJT drive circuit caps, and the auxiliary secondary side rail. Here are how the results turned out:






For the 5VSB rail cap #1:
1x Teapo SC, 10V, 1000 uF ---> 1x United Chemicon KZE, 10V, 1000 uF

For the 3.3V rail cap #1:
1x Teapo SEK, 10V, 3300 uF(?) ---> 1x United Chemicon KYB, 6.3V, 3300 uF

For the 5V rail cap #1:
1x Teapo SC, 10V, 3300 uF ---> 1x United Chemicon KYB, 6.3V, 3300 uF

For the 12V rail caps:
2x Teapo SC, 16V, 2200 uF ---> 2x United Chemicon KYB, 16V, 2200 uF

For the -12V rail cap:
1x OST RLP, 16V, 220 uF ---> 1x Rubycon YXJ, 25V, 220 uF

For the 5VSB startup/run cap:
1x Teapo SEK, 50V, 22 uF ---> 1x Nichicon PW, 50V, 22 uF

For the 2x BJT drive circuit caps:
2x Teapo SC 50V, 2.2 uF ---> 2x Panasonic FC, 50V, 2.2 uF

For the auxiliary secondary side cap:
1x Teapo SEK, 50V, 47 uF ---> 1x Nichicon PM, 50V, 47 uF

I also swapped out/around some of the minimum load resistors on the outputs.

3.3V rail minimum load resistor mod:
1x 10 Ohm, 2 Watt ---> 1x 100 Ohm, 0.5 Watt

5V rail minimum load resistor mod:
1x 15 Ohm, 3 Watt ---> 1x 15 Ohm, 3 Watt in series with 1x 10 Ohm, 2 Watt (taken from 3.3V rail)… so total is 25 Ohms, which corresponds to about 1 Watt of power dissipation split between a 3-Watt and a 2-Watt resistor. Needless to say, they both run much cooler now, so this PSU no longer has any hot-running minimum load resistors.

And that’s all for the recapping and modifications I did on this PSU. As mentioned, I’ve had it running this way in my primary “gaming rig” for the last 3 years or so now. When I did the recent check-up, cleaning, and fan lube job a few days ago, all the old Teapo and OST caps I had left from the first time still appeared good. I didn’t pull them to check them, but I didn’t have a reason to either – the PC is still running happy.

Looking at your pix, I was tempted to post, "Where's the beef?!" But for a 250W rating, that actually isn't awful. As long as the input lytics are at least 330uF, it could do 200W reasonably OK-ish.

They are 470 uF, actually... according to the label, anyways. Being JEE brand, who knows. Usually the cheap HV caps regularly show 1 notch lower... but not always.
In any case, I probably won't ever push that PSU past 100W, so even those JEE caps should be good.

[momaka]

FSP Group Inc. AX400-PN

Got this one a while back on eBay with a bunch of other old PC parts. Namely, it was with the ASUS K8V-SE Delux motherboard shown in this build, along with the accompanying HDD and RAM. Everything worked from that parts lot. The PSU was just unstable, because it had bad caps, as you will see a little further below.

Anyways, let's show it… as usual, starting with case shots:




As can seen, pretty standard gray-box PSU with 120 mm overhead fan and non-sleeved wires – simple! (Just the way I like them.)

Label shot next:


The label shows a pretty honestly-rated PSU – 350 Watts continuous and 400W peak, with 300W for the “dual” 12V rails combined (i.e. 25 Amps.)

So let's see what the internals hold and if they can support the label's claims.




Well, for a 350W continuous PSU, this looks really good – in fact better than what the pictures show here. In particular, the main transformer is ERL39 size (39 mm wide), which should definitely be enough. Also, the main output toroid is a T130-26 part with plenty of copper on it, so it too should be more than adequate. The design is a half-bridge with BJTs, so the Micrometals -26 core of the main output toroid should be fine here. Both heathsinks are quite hefty too. All in all, I can't think of anything to complain about. Perhaps I can try to pick on the lack of a NTC thermistor on the input? Seems like that might actually be a valid concern… but it may not be, as there is also a large multi-turn single-mode choke on the input. So I imagine that could attenuate inrush currents perhaps. OK, I know what I can complain about – the tan/brown conductive glue. But it hasn't turned brown yet, suggesting the PSU has been running pretty cool.

Anyways, here is a shot of the primary side in more detail:


No complaints here either. Primary caps are Teapo LXK @ 200V and 680 uF – good enough for the 350W continuous rating. Main BJTs are a pair of D209L in TO-3P case. Bridge rectifier is an 8-Amp part (GBU8J.) There's even space behind the primary heatsink for a PPFC coil, which wasn't installed on this unit. On the plus side, this should allow the overhead 120 mm fan to push air easier through the PSU – especially on the primary side.

Moving onto the secondary side…




Ah, now we see what the problem is: bulged caps. In particular, these two are the output caps on the 12V rail – 2x Teapo SC, 16V, 2200 uF. I think that's probably the reason why the seller on eBat decided to “scrap” the system and sell it for parts. Shame, because this is a good PSU and was an easy fix overall. The motherboard is quite nice too and probably getting harder to find now.

Next, here is our “noise killer”:


There is an LM358 dual op-amp IC on the other side of that board, along with the power transistor. The NTC for the fan controller is located next to the secondary heatsink on the main PCB, right below the 3.3V rail's output toroid.

Speaking of the fan, this is it: a Yate Loon D12SH-12, rated for 0.3 Amps @ 12V.


I just opened the PSU for cleaning this week after using it for close to 3-4 years now (mostly in my gaming PC - the Optiplex 790 from the Post Your System thread.) Although I didn't put it through any 24/7 use, I did use it for about 1-2 hours a day on average… and that's doing mostly gaming or CPU-intensive tasks. So after a few years of this, the fan was starting to sound a little dry. For whatever reason, I didn't lube it when I recapped the PSU back then. The factory grease was pretty much completely dry now. After a good cleaning with IPA and a quick resurface of the sleeve bearing, followed by more cleaning and addition of fresh oil, the fan runs like new again.

Lastly, here is a shot of the underside (the solder side):


Overall… pretty good!

That completes the image gallery for this PSU. A more detailed component breakdown can be found below.

Primary Side:
* EMI/RFI filtering: three 472M Y2-class caps; two X2-class caps (1x 0.47 uF? and 1x 0.1-0.22 uF?); two CM chokes and one SM choke
* Protection: F8AL or F10AL fuse; 2x MOVs across each primary cap; NO NTC thermistor
* Other: GBU8J bridge rectifier (not heatsinked)
* Caps:
*** 2x Teapo LXK, 200V, 680 uF, 22x45 mm
*** 1x Teapo SEK, 50V, 22 uF, 5x11 mm (5VSB startup / run cap)
*** 2x Teapo SC 50V, 2.2 uF, 5x11 mm (part of BJT driver circuit)
*** 1x 2.0 uF 250V P.P. for main PS transformer coupling
* Main PS (H-bridge topology): 2x D209L NPN BJTs (TO-3P); 51-Ohm 2-Watt resistor + 102K 1KV ceramic cap for snubber ciruit
* Transformers: ERL39 (39 mm) for main PS; ERL/EE16 (16 mm) for BJT drive; ERL/EE16 (16 mm) for 5VSB

ICs:
* DM311 (P-DIP8) for 5VSB
* FSP3528 (P-DIP20) custom PWM chip with protections from FSP
* LM358 (P-DIP8) for fan controller

Secondary Side:
*Output Inductors: T130-26 common-mode toroid for 5V/12/-12V; T106-26 (25 mm dia.) for 3.3V rail mag-amp filter

* 5VSB
*** 2x Teapo SC, 10V, 1000 uF, 8x20 mm caps with PI coil between
*** 3Amp or 5Amp diode rectifier
*** PI coil: 32-turn, 22 AWG, 3.5x25 mm rod core

* 3.3V Rail
*** 1x Teapo SEK, 10V, 3300 uF(?), 10x30 mm cap before PI coil
*** 1x OST RLP, 10V, 4700 uF, 10x30 mm cap after PI coil
*** 1x 30 Amp or 40 Amp (TO-247) Schottky rectifier
*** PI coil: 5.5-turn(?), 14-16 AWG, 5x15 mm rod core
*** Load Resistor: 10-Ohm, 2 Watt

* 5V Rail
*** 2x Teapo SC, 10V, 3300 uF, 10x30 mm caps with PI coil between
*** 1x 30 Amp or 40 Amp (TO-247) Schottky rectifier
*** PI coil: 5.5-turn(?), 14-16 AWG, 5x15 mm rod core
*** Load Resistor: 15-Ohm, 3 Watt

* 12V Rail
*** 2x Teapo SC, 16V, 2200 uF, 10x30 mm caps with PI coil between
*** 2x SF1603g (16 Amp, 150V, TO-220) ultra-fast rectifiers in parallel
*** PI coil: 10-12-turn(?), 14-16 AWG, 5x30 mm rod core
*** Load Resistor: 1-KOhm, 0.5 Watt

* -12V Rail
*** 1x OST RLP, 16V, 220 uF, 6.3x11 mm cap after PI coil
*** 2x 2-3 Amp (?) diodes
*** Load Resistor: 1-KOhm, 0.5 Watt

* Auxiliary Sec. Side
*** 1x Teapo SEK, 50V, 47 uF, 6.3x11 mm cap

*Other caps:
*** 1x Teapo SEK, 50V, 4.7 uF, 5x11 mm
*** 5-6 mm height: 1x 16V 16 uF; 1x 35V 10 uF; 1x 16V 47 uF; 1x 50V 1 uF

* output wires: 20+4 pin ATX, 1x 4-pin 12V CPU, 1x 6-pin PCI-E, 6x Molex, 1x floppy, 2x SATA… all rated for 300V and 18 AWG, except floppy wires.

And that's pretty much it. Up next follows a cap diagram and my partial recap. Stay tuned!

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

Looking at your pix, I was tempted to post, "Where's the beef?!" But for a 250W rating, that actually isn't awful. As long as the input lytics are at least 330uF, it could do 200W reasonably OK-ish.

[momaka]

Deer DR-250ATX - revisited 2021

OK, time to re-visit an old PSU of mine… it's the Deer DR-250ATX PSU that's still installed in this Pentium 3 PC. I use this PC very infrequently when visiting family overseas. It's stashed away and disconnected from power for the majority of the time. It gets used maybe 2-3 weeks in a year or less (pretty much only when I visit) to store pictures from my camera on it or to set it up for my nephews to play old games.

Anyways, last summer when I went to visit, it was no different. However, after about a week of use, the computer became unstable – would sometimes boot and work OK, and other times not. After some troubleshooting, I found that if I removed one of the RAM sticks, I could get the machine to boot. Being a Pentium 3 PC with SDRAM, I started suspecting either capacitors on the motherboard (still original OST and Chhsi, IIRC) and the PSU. I didn't have caps for the motherboard, but I did take with me *one* Rubycon YXJ 10V, 2200 uF cap (don't ask why) among some others (but nothing compatible with the motherboard ones.)

Anyways, long story short, I decided to replace one of the caps on the 3.3V rail of the above DR-250ATX PSU – the 2nd one after the 3.3V rail's output toroidal inductor, as it looked slightly raised on the bottom.


Turns out, that cap wasn't bulging on the bottom or anything weird. It was just mounted slightly higher. However, once I got back home and tested the original CS-logo 10V, 2200 uF cap that I pulled from the 3.3V rail, this is what I found:


Ooof!
Sure ESR and Vloss seem “good”… but capacitance is 60% above nominal value! Yeah, it's definitely breaking down, just like the CS-logo caps shown here from the Casing Power MPT-301 I rebuilt not too long ago.

After replacing that one CS-logo cap, the PC ran stable afterwards, but I still couldn't use all 3 RAM sticks. Not sure if this one particular 256 MB stick got zapped by ripple from the PSU or if it's extra sensitive to noise/ripple (it's the only 256 MB module), but I can't run the PC with it for the time being. I suppose next time I go visit, I'll just prepare some caps to take with me and recap the rest of that PSU. I'm pretty sure the other CS-logo cap on the 3.3V rail is bad too. The 1st cap after the toroidal inductor always seems to be under more stress and more likely to fail.

Apart from the failed caps on the 3.3V rail, this Deer PSU is still doing OK in the PC with my partial (actually, nearly full) recap, which I did back in 2010… which now that I think about, is close to 12 years ago. Heck, the PSU itself is over 20 years old now!
Not bad for a Deer. Granted it doesn't see much use… but I don't know if that helps it much or not. After all, caps sitting unused and disconnected from power for extended periods also degrade over time.

So this one is to be continued, once I get to it. As posted back in 2012, I do have the 5V rail and 5VSB rail recapped with good Chemicon caps, along with the “critical” 5VSB cap and many of the other small caps. So I don't expect this PSU to really fail on me any time soon. The whole PC uses maybe 60 Watts of power under load - tops. So the PSU isn't under too much stress, really.

[momaka]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

I haven't seen those 5.25" bay power supplies in at least 15 years. They were made for people who didn't want to upgrade their power supply for some reason when they got a new high-end graphics card.

Yeah, I think mid-2000's is when they first started popping up - around the time of Athlon 64 X2/FX, Pentium D, and SLI. Not a coincidence, for sure.

[lti]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

I haven't seen those 5.25" bay power supplies in at least 15 years. They were made for people who didn't want to upgrade their power supply for some reason when they got a new high-end graphics card.

[kaboom]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

With a solo 400V 220 uF primary cap? (And Fuhjyyu at that :\ ) - Probably not. I give it 300 Watts max and maybe 350W peak for very short periods of time. The output toroid also looks a little too small for more than that. But at least it uses Micrometals -52 mix core, so it should be a little less lossy. My guess is it's a T106-52 part.

Anyways... even 300 Watts would still be impressive for such a compact form factor. But again, it's the primary cap that worries me a little, it being Fuhjyyu and rated for only 400V. I imagine with high load and extended use, it would likely bite the dust in a few years. Other than that, the rest of the PSU's build quality looks good. BTW, are those original Panasonic caps on the modular board? That would be interesting if they are.

It's only made to "feed" the frenzy: "mining" for suckers.

Bah, don't waste your time (or GPUs) with that crap. The world would be a better place if people stopped buying into this "distributed computing" crap. A good chunk of crypto currencies are used for illicit uses anyways.

The whole thing was a stepping stone to tenderize the masses into "accepting" bitscam and others with similar "flavor."

Deliberate sarcasm is deliberate.

Or crank up the output to 14.x Volts (if it let's you) and charge lead-acid batteries?

If it doesn't let me, I'll force it to! Where's that feedback resistor?

I hate when that happens too.
Sure wish there was a cheap source of generic modular cables that I could rewire and make the PSU useful. Unfortunately, even the "cheap" garbage 6-pin / 8-pin PCI-E "splitter" cables on eBay and AliExpress regularly cost as much as a junk PSU (from which I can scavenge such cables and other useful parts), so I haven't bothered to buy any. Otherwise I also need quite a few myself. I've even considered unsoldering the modular connectors and just soldering PSU connectors directly to the modular board. TBH, that's what I'll probably end up doing at some point. It sure would make the PSU harder to take apart if needed to be taken apart again... but I suppose that's not too important if nothing fails. Otherwise, I build my PCs to be functional and not necessarily pretty... so if it looks ugly or "ghetto", I could care less.

Depending on location of drive bays (yes, drive bays), I'm known to make custom extensions from cables of gutted PSUs or systems.
The connectors end up where I want them, and decent cable management is possible.
Bonus: I can have "flying plugs" on short cables for temporarily powering backup or otherwise "rotatable" hard drives.

[momaka]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

A non-ATX PSU that still a PC PSU....
This apepars to be an ePower EP-450CD UNI, a "450W" PSU.
This is an auxiliary PSU that fits in a drive bay to power your mining cards when your main PSU won't cut it.
...
So...450W? eh... possible.

With a solo 400V 220 uF primary cap? (And Fuhjyyu at that :\ ) - Probably not. I give it 300 Watts max and maybe 350W peak for very short periods of time. The output toroid also looks a little too small for more than that. But at least it uses Micrometals -52 mix core, so it should be a little less lossy. My guess is it's a T106-52 part.

Anyways... even 300 Watts would still be impressive for such a compact form factor. But again, it's the primary cap that worries me a little, it being Fuhjyyu and rated for only 400V. I imagine with high load and extended use, it would likely bite the dust in a few years. Other than that, the rest of the PSU's build quality looks good. BTW, are those original Panasonic caps on the modular board? That would be interesting if they are.

Though I'm not sure what I can do with it until somehow a bunch of gpus drop on my desk so I could start mining or whatnot...

Bah, don't waste your time (or GPUs) with that crap. The world would be a better place if people stopped buying into this "distributed computing" crap. A good chunk of crypto currencies are used for illicit uses anyways.

It'd be nice to at least power hard drives with it, but the lack of 5V might be a problem (I do have a 50W 12V to 5V step down that i could use...)

Or crank up the output to 14.x Volts (if it let's you) and charge lead-acid batteries?

Unfortunately it's modular and I hate modular... since I have no cables.

I hate when that happens too.
Sure wish there was a cheap source of generic modular cables that I could rewire and make the PSU useful. Unfortunately, even the "cheap" garbage 6-pin / 8-pin PCI-E "splitter" cables on eBay and AliExpress regularly cost as much as a junk PSU (from which I can scavenge such cables and other useful parts), so I haven't bothered to buy any. Otherwise I also need quite a few myself. I've even considered unsoldering the modular connectors and just soldering PSU connectors directly to the modular board. TBH, that's what I'll probably end up doing at some point. It sure would make the PSU harder to take apart if needed to be taken apart again... but I suppose that's not too important if nothing fails. Otherwise, I build my PCs to be functional and not necessarily pretty... so if it looks ugly or "ghetto", I could care less.

[Pentium4]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

Interesting, I've had one of these before but the design was quite different. Mine had a switch on the back. As long as it was plugged into the wall, the switch would always turn it on.

How many A are the parallel diodes rated for? Looks a little sketchy for 450W but all 12V would help with efficiency and the output starting at such a high voltage is a promising sign. I bet the fans would be annoying as hell if it could do 450W lol. Then it would turn the glue conductive and it would explode anyways!

[eccerr0r]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

A non-ATX PSU that still a PC PSU....
This apepars to be an ePower EP-450CD UNI, a "450W" PSU.
This is an auxiliary PSU that fits in a drive bay to power your mining cards when your main PSU won't cut it. Unfortunately it's modular and I hate modular... since I have no cables.

Well I was able to find some way to hook up power with a piece of the monitor I dropped, I believe. With it and an old AT PSU it seems to power up and i got 12.66V unloaded on one of the outputs. Anyway, sly thing, says 20A per 12V rail but it appears to be the same paralleled TO247 diodes and another diode that "isolates" the two rails.
This supply does not supply +5v or +3V3, it's purely 12v.

It appears to be a APFC cm6800 based PSU with a 7510 monitor. I didn't check to see how it dealt with missing 5v but it must someway. To turn this supply on, a 4 pin molex drive cable is plugged into the back though I don't think it back feeds it.

Power was the annoying thing as it had one of those "square and D' type 3-prong plugs. Not sure what the proper name of it is.

Did not carefully check all the caps but they do not look like they've leaked despite the fuhjyyu's. Also did not load test due to lack of connectors.

So...450W? eh... possible. Though I'm not sure what I can do with it until somehow a bunch of gpus drop on my desk so I could start mining or whatnot... It'd be nice to at least power hard drives with it, but the lack of 5V might be a problem (I do have a 50W 12V to 5V step down that i could use...)

[TechGeek]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

They can go bad even in storage if they have been manufactured previously

ftfy

[goodpsusearch]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

Recently took a Fuhjyyu cap to reuse it on an old TFT LCD monitor that I didn't care too much about.

The Fuhjyyu cap have been removed from Antec power supply 10 years or more ago.

Even though the cap tested fine on micro esr meter and chinese transistor meter that shows also V leakage as soon as it was soldered and power was applied on monitor, the cap failed without venting after this.

It had no capacitance and only showed some quite high resistance. Out of curiosity, tested more Fuhjyyu caps and found at least 1 more sitting in storage that had gone too high V leakage and capacitance also appeared higher that the nominal.

They can go bad even in storage if they have been abused previously

[momaka]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

A saved an old ATX power supply from recycling last week.
...
EverPower brand with a 235W Channel Well Tech guts from 1997.

WOW!
This must have been one of their earliest ATX-compliant designs.
I mean, it has a regular transformer for the 5VSB instead of a switching circuit - that just says A LOT about this PSU's age.

And yet even this early design seems to have OPP (over-power protection) on the primary side, as is evident by that small toroid between the main transformer and the BJT driver transformer.

The 3.3V rail is also unusual. No mag amp circuit.
A UTC34063 is set up in step down configuration to make the 3.3V work.

Interesting.
But I only see one MOSFET and no free-wheeling diode(s)... though it is a bit hard to see. So perhaps this is done in a linear fashion. Kind of strange why there would be a separate toroid for the 3.3V rail then. Seems the 3.3V rail is generated by the rectified and filtered 5V rail output (two two red wires going from in front of the main output toroid, under the heatsink, and out in front of the 3.3V rail's MOSFET.)

It is a L7805C positive voltage regulator. It is visable on the pictures. The ic has that simple piece of metal screwed on for heatsinking. The pcb silkscreening suggests a TO-92 device instead of TO220 that is crammed in there.

CWT probably figured at some point that the TO-92 regulator would not do too well. If the 5VSB transformer is outputting 9-10V (or possibly even higher when unloaded), then at 100 mA of power draw, the dissipation of the regulator would be P_d = (9 - 5) x 0.1 = 0.4 Watts. For a small TO-92 device, that's probably pushing it really close to the max allowable P_d (at least as far as internal junction temperature of the silicone is concerned.)

I've cleaned and tested the psu. Turns on, voltages are a bit low-ish and fluctuating, ripple is probaly high also. Kind of unusual early ATX unit.

Cool!
Yeah, this is definitely worth saving, even if just as a "museum" piece if nothing else. Though I suspect some new caps (that PeteS suggested) would certainly bring it back to a fully serviceable ATX PSU.

The reason those caps failed a lot in Antec psus has to do with how hot they got due to the design of the parts location inside and also the fact that the fan controller was configured very aggressively to be silent. And the fact that their efficiency was nowhere close to what we have today didn't help either (~74%)

Yup, I think that's pretty much it.
Well, either that or CWT designs just pushed Fuhjyyu caps harder somehow?
IDK, but I've seen early Fuhjyyu caps last for years and still read in spec - but never in a CWT build. Could be just what I happened to encounter, though. I am by no means suggesting Fuhjyyu caps should be trusted, of course. I'd say the are on par with CapXon... or maybe worse. Depends which series of CapXon we look at. Generally, they are all not good, but some are more "not good" than others if that makes sense.

[Pentium4]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

That's a very interesting unit. The longer you look at it, the more odd it is. Never seen anything like it. Thanks for sharing. What brand was the fan that failed? What are you going to do with it?

[eccerr0r]

Re: Power supply build quality pictorial. part 2

I'd imagine back when these Fuhjyyus were installed it was before the Antec era and efficiencies were even lower...

We'll see I suppose, so far they're surviving the time.