DreamPSU

DreamPSU

http://dreampsu.com/
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dreampsu-making-your-dreamcast-cool-again-power#/

Ted.

 

I was actually working on this same thing.

Does annoy me that people decide to kickstart everything. He could get these made and not cost much at all, just use your own money instead of other people's for your business.

But it's not a bad price, another project I can take off my to do list

 

Hope you can find the money for your project, but you have already the pico psu for replacing the original one...
But it's a good project I think.

 

Seems nice. A dedicated solution that's cheaper than the picoPSU! The only reason I won't get it is that I already replaced my PSU with a pico.

About kickstarting everything: it annoys me too, especially when it's stupid gimmicky products. But I think it's the new way to get exposure for you product. It's good, cheap publicity, and people somehow trust Kickstarter/Indiegogo more than some homemade website as far as CC details go.

 

I'm a little concerned about the quality - you don't want to screw up the electrical side of your DC, basically. There's the risk of gradual component wear as well as video/audio interferance.

The chap developing it mentioned on Facebook that he's just an enthusiastic amateur rather than having an electrical engineering background or qualification. I hope he replies to this tweet from Rene at db_electronics with some reassurances around testing. https://twitter.com/db_electronics/status/887001128822591488

Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea, but caution and investigation is definitely worth practicing here IMO.

 

$40 (plus shipping) ain't bad, but seeing how it's a layman's design I feel like comparing it to a Chinese clone PicoPSU would be fairer. So... make that, like, $35 shipped and I'll bite.
But I have little doubt it'll probably sell very well even at the current pricing nevertheless, because convenience.

I own two Saturns, but just one PSU that works on 220V. Just putting that out there

 

I did a Picopsu mod while the site was down, so it's not really something I need to get, but it's refreshing to see work being done that will help people bring back dead systems. It bugs me when someone tells you to cannibalize another system to replace a bad power supply, or to get a power supply to use in an import system.

In case anyone is interested I posted all the files and links to the parts needed to build the 3d printed mount I made for q PicoPSU https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2308511

 

How hard would it be to adapt this to the europeean saturn? With 3.3v 5v and 9v.

 

I think it's a cool initiative, but also kind of sceptical on how well this is built. Maybe it's better to just use a picoPSU which is proven to be a good PSU, it takes a bit of tweaking and modding, but it's not too difficult.

 

I guess it mostly depends on how much power gets drawn from the 9V rail (which is the only "nonstandard" voltage supplied). If you can get by with sth like a small voltage regulator for that, it'd be pretty simple.

 

The pico psu comes with no credentials either though, its only tested good as people have used it and its "worked OK". I dont think anyone has done any proper noise evaluation of it.

 

It's certified by the FCC, the genuine ones anyway: http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f

Idk what this certification entails though.

 

Most of the people I have seen using them, are using the cheap chinese ones.

But even if its certified, its certified for that use. Not hacking it up and putting in a console with potentially different design characteristics . ATX will have a spec, that power supply should meet it. But theres no spec published to meet with the dreamcast PSU.

I am not saying the PicoPSU or this product are bad. But assuming the PicoPSU is better/more certified than this seems wrong.

 

I think it's no a certification question, but rather a knowledge/good-practices question. The guy making them sated he's not an electrical engineer, the people making the picoPSU certainly are. While we both know hobbyists can make wonderful stuff with self-taught knowledge, their (our) practices aren't always exactly the best one. The point it that you can't be sure beforehand it will be properly designed/made.

I'm not saying it looks badly designed though, just that *know-how* seems like the debate to me, not certifications.

 

You dont know this about the chinese ones - which are mostly what I see people using.

 

Yeah, not denying that. Fishy quality is implied when you buy a Chinese knockoff though. I use the real one myself.

 

Make one for Saturn. Or perhaps two or three since they have so many different internal PSU pinouts.

I have some units that go completely crazy (ie. hang) if the PSU used is a substitute, so it would be interesting to test on those. I tried an ATX and a separate power brick so far, none of them worked...

 

For what it's worth, I believe the 12v on the picoPSU isn't regulated, it's coming straight from the brick used to power it. So until @Bad_Ad84 makes his PSU, using a picoPSU and feeding it 9V might be a suitable replacement for you.

[EDIT] I just reread and you clearly stated ATX didn't work, I misunderstood at first. So picoPSU is of no help. That's still weird though.

 

That is odd, as I have used my triple output bench PSU to power saturn motherboards (so you can fault find them easier) with no issues. I will try and look into it at some point

 

It's one of those buggy VA9 units I mentioned in the past (I have/had several of them...). They need to "warm up" before they work fine, as in they need to be turned on for an arbitrary amount of time and until then they randomly freeze up. The longer you leave the unit unused, the longer they need to warm up.

Using an alternate power supply did not help those, in fact it even made them freeze faster.

Regardless of that, an alternative DC only mini psu for the Saturn would be great. But you'd need to key the PCB in some way, so people don't put model 2 keyed power to model 1 units and fry the 3.3V line with 5V.