Replacing the DC PSU

No, it's a v1 its just an early model with the metal fan. (Later models got te plastic one)

 

Nicely done.

 

After measuring and discussing with MNEMO (I got ~14.24v with USB-GDROM and ~13 with the stock GDROM drive) it turns out that the problem is the fact that the USB-GDROM does not use the 12v line (I assume this is true for GDEMU as well).
So there is no load on the 12v line on the DC PSU and it outputs 14+ volts. Adding a 12v fan for testing dropped the voltage to ~13v , just like when using a stock GDROM drive.
So basically one can add a fan or something to draw some current from the 12v line and prevent it from reaching 14v.

 

Does anything else use the 12v? Could possible replace the power supply with one that only produces 5v and 3.3v if that's the case.

 

no idea... one can also add a little load to the 12v line and be done with it.
personally I'll just replace the noisy stock fan with a 12v one and take it from there.

if one has a good stock fan maybe a solution could be to disconnect the 5v signal going to it and re-create it with a 7805 from the 12v line , that should create some load and help bring it down

 

If someone can build a 12v fan that is a drop in replacement of the original one, it's an instant buy for me.

 

Ok, I removed the 12v rail & the DC works fine :-/ guess the 12v is for peripherals & addons.

still testing, but no crashes so far.

 

^ interesting...!

 

Yup, been playing for over an hour now & no issues. (I did reconnect the 3rd ground, just in case it's needed)

Ok I took some power reading using 7.5v, 9v & 12v.

[7.5v - sitting at UGC menu]
3.3v = 3.43v
5v = 4.94v
12v = 7.35v


[7.5v - Ready 2 rumble 2 ingame]
3.3v = 3.42v
5v = 4.86v (HDD beeps & gameplay freezes & DC turns off)
12v = 7.24v


[9v - sitting at UGC menu]
3.3v = 3.43v
5v = 5.05v
12v = 9.11v


[9v - Ready 2 rumble 2 ingame]
3.3v = 3.42v
5v = 5.04v
12v = 9.04v


[12v - sitting 2 UGC menu]
3.3v = 3.43v
5v = 5.06v
12v = 11.90v


[12v - Ready to rumble 2 ingame]
3.3v = 3.42v
5v = 5.05v
12v = 11.84v

the DC seems to run off 9v (without the 12v rail connected) perfectly fine.

 

^ it seems that your psu just passes through the 12v it receives from the external brick , possibly filtering it as well. Since 12v is not needed then there is no point in feeding it 12v... we just have to make sure that 12v is indeed unused or some part is receiving less but due to tolerance it works.

 

Im currently running the DC off 9v with zero issues. (Universal plug, let's me control the voltage)

note, im only using 1 pad, so the 12v pin may be used for extra pads. (I reconnected the 12v pin since its only consuming 9.11v)

 

Would be interesting to check temps.

 

I assume temps are low, this time the 240/110v->12v transformation happens outside the DC.
I actually used a watt meter this morning to see how much the DC consumes with the UGC , I got 17W average consumption , I expected more tbh

 

That's very nifty if we can jettison the 12V completely!

 

Yeah lol, I bought a 160w Pico :-/ thinking it would consume more than 60w was I wrong by a large margin.

 

AFAIK, 12v is mainly used for the gd-rom drive normally. Using a ODE, maybe it's way less important. Rocky5, are you saying that you unconnected 12v completely and it worked?

Has anyone measure the current in the 5v and 3.3v lines?

 

Yes I disconnected the 12v & the DC worked as normal.

Running at 12v on the pico & UGC.
On the 3.3v line its 2.38A
On the 5.5v line its 1.70A
On the 12v line its 0.00A

At 9v it's slightly less.

 

I can measure the current draw in all lines tomorrow, it seems a good thing to know... not sure if I'll attach my UGC though or measure with stock drive...

 

What do you mean at 9v? If it's disconnected 12v and 9v shouldn't matter no? Or do you mean it's slightly less when you use 9v to power on the picoPSU instead of 12v?

So it seems that it's drawing slightly more than 16W, which is really low imo. The PSU I posted a link for earlier can output 3A on the 5v and 3A on the 3.3v lines. So it seems it'd actually work well for this purpose! I might just remove the DC psu and replace it with the small and cheap psu board + 120v adapter internally!

Both would be interesting if you feel like doing so.

 

9v to power the Pico, instead of 12v. It drops about 0.08A

So the 160w Pico is way overkill lmao may purchase a smaller one.

what gets me is there is 0 current on the 12v pin, there is no draw at all. So what the hell is it used for if there is nothing drawing current?