Dreamcast PSU Stress Test.

Hey everyone,

I'm in the latter part of designing a new power supply for the Dreamcast, and i want to stress test the PSU, i.e generate as much heat and current usage as possible, is there any particular games that can be used for this purpose,
I have Crazy Taxi running on the attract mode for the time being buts its only pulling about 1-1.5 amp combined on all three 12v - 5v - 3v3 lines.

Thanks
Chris.

 

Maybe a Shenmue II level with lot of slow downs ideally with disc seems too.

For the heat part I understand you want to test it in the dc shell, but fit the electrical part you could simply apply a load in order to check its limits.

 

Hey FamilyGuy.

Yeah, i was thinking of shenmue, but i'm using my gdrom drive and i sold my copy a while ago , i could try it with the GDEmu, but there is no 12v load IIRC.

And yeah, i would like a bench electronic load, but far to expensive and i wouldn't use it often enough, Ill have a look around and see if there is any simple DIY electronic loads i can knock up.

Thank you

 

You could use a CDR, the power usage should be similar.
As for the load, a simple bunch of resistor in parallel should allow you to test any current, just gotta take care not to fry them.

 

I've been thinking about designing a psu, but making the psu dc to dc. So heat wouldn't be an issue at all. Maybe some day.

 

I completely forgot about CDR's lol, ill give that a shot whilst i do the resistor load
Thank you once again dude.

The one i have made is a DC-DC PSU, but i'm considering an AC-DC PSU as well, although i have never worked with AC before so im a little dubious about that.

 

Skies of Arcadia is also a nice alternative to check power usage...

 

im probably missing something here, but isn't a picoPSU a suitable replacement?

 

Ne

Never tried...
Could be... I think I have an extra sc200 somewhere... I bought one more for a future neo MVS consolization...

Great idea.. Ima gonna try this haha

 

theres a big thread about it further down, go have a look lol

 

OK...

I've been playing around with my DC.

I disconnected pads 2-4
= less 0.7v current ( no game on drive of course )

The GD-Drive on power up puts some stress on PSU, since there's an obvious current draw on power up .

Will be doing some.more tests.
I think with some work, we can make the stock PSU better power efficient.

Those caps... Ug aren't the best ones
(They where good in that time ye, we have better options these days )

Bb