Replacing the DC PSU

Ah ok, good idea

 

Just like to update, I purchased a 12v 6A Plug & its a load of crap (link) the DC will work 98% of the time (boot) & then randomly the picture disappears & TV ends up with no signal :-/

So I reverted back to my small plug that is 12v 1.5A & the DC works fine again.

so be careful of what plugs you buy as some are just plain shit.

 

sadly eBay is full of crappy psu's and cheap clones...

 

Got GDemu a few months back but just got to try it now. My DC gets a lot hotter, no doubt and it comes from the left side (PSU). I wish you guys luck with this project and I hope I can get someone to make me one custom PSU too.

 

one question is all the grounds on psu the same i want to add a 12v fan on the Dreamcast obviously i will use the 12v pin but witch ground???
Sorry for the noob question


3.3v - 5v - GROUND - GROUND - GROUND - 12v

 

choose whatever ground you need, all are the same

 

I just had an idea, with that heatsink, why don't you trim a small circle out of the find and install a small blower fan. Like what's used on some GPU's? Them just make a shroud to cover it to get some air flow. Or find a small blower fan and attach to one end of the heatsink (like on a ps3 slim, you can get small 5v blowers used on laptops)


http://ebay.to/1tatPhc

http://ebay.to/1wyayF6

 

^ I have something similar in mind, I do have a couple of shelled fans that you install horizontally and they target an area to cool.
I believe there is a chance that the DC might run fanless with this heatsink and the picopsu. There won't be much heat built-up , I believe most heat came from the original PSU. Only testing will tell though...
I spent today fixing the shims and the heatsink, I used Arctic Silver Alumina Thermal Adhesive and now everything is rock solid and hopefully heat will transfer nicely to the heatsink.
I am not proud of the heatpipe bending though, I did use a torch to soften it so it can bend better but it didn't help much, I assume the copper is too thin or something.
I also put some adhesive on the ram chips, not to cool them but to help share the heatsink stress so that the bga connections of the cpu/gpu don't absorb it alone.

Here are some quick pics, the case closes and you can install/remove the USB controller easily:

 

awesome good job

 

Cool, another fan to use couls be a PS2 slim fan...


IMHO the extra heatsink won't do much in this set up, 1: because to cool it will mess up airflow to the main HS and 2: that heat pipe isn't going to be very thermally effective (even at all) with it bent like that, there seems to be a kink in it which will probably reduce the the conductivity quite a bit (because you now have a bit more thermal mass where the sides of the pipe are closed in, heat pipes work on the principle that they have very little mass, allowing for heat to travel quickly though them)

If you have a braising torch, some solder, small piece of copper pipe (same size as the original), you can just make a new pipe.. the original will be soldered onto both HS just use the torch to pull them out using some pliers and a bench vice.

 

wait, there is nothing inside the heatpipe? it's just a copper tube sealed one on both ends with nothing but air inside?
I got tons of copper tubing like this that I can bend to whatever shape I want with tools, I assumed the heatsink heatpipes have some liquid inside to help... even as-is the copper on the heatpipe should transfer some heat to the small heatpipe...

I'll just test it for now and see how hot things get , I believe there is a good chance that even as-is the heatsink is enough

 

allright, finished testing

first of all I stripped the picopsu from the connector and soldered wires directly (also all 3 common grounds LOL)





and just left it running Daytona demo for ~1 hour:



The small heatpipe heatsink works very well, it's at least 1.5 more hot than the main heatsink. The picopsu doesn't get hot at all.
The dc reaches a temperature and stabilizes there, it's not very hot but it's not as cool as to leave it as-is. Next is adding some active cooling to help , will update once I think it over.

 

Good stuff, have you got a link to the picopsu you used so I can buy one

Once you've added a fan or two it will run quite a bit cooler than it already does.

 

here is a link with a nice 80W picopsu and a 60w brick: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/picoPSU-8...-/171517503358?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item27ef3d677e
or this 90w set, I've gotten many stuff from this seller: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/90W-PicoP...-/110341484141?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item19b0dd6e6d
btw , even the small 60W picopsu is enough for the DC, just get the cheapest deal IMHO

I did some testing , if I add a small 40x40x10mm fan between the heatsinks (fits perfectly!) then no other fan is needed , hot air gets pushed to the lid and I believe it escapes from the cracks.
From my tests I found that the lid gets hot but the heatsinks are fine, just a little warm to the touch.
If I can come up with an exhaust fan then the whole machine will be very cool - but I can't find a good place for one without butchering the shell more... I don't really like pushing the air on the top of the console but there is nothing there so maybe it's a viable solution with only 1 quiet fan (using a scythe mini kaze).

 

you should remove the usb connector and solder wires to a usb to sata board out of an external 2.5" hdd case so you can have an internal 2.5" hdd since you have the space, it would be so cool having everything internal

 

No need to remove the connector. He is already hacking up the case, let the USB port sit properly in the back of the case and just solder 4 wires to the solderpoints of the USB connector and add a Internal connector - if he gets tired of it all he has to do is CLip or desolder 4 wires and the board is unmodifed.

 

Ordered this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200477696340
&
Thinking for this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221317552930

any suggestions on the psu?

 

^ it will be fine , 5A is what I use also

also not a fan of an internal hdd, there is no way to easily remove/insert it once inside the dc and it will just add to the heat built-up... personally I only want a cool and quiet DC, don't really care if I have a 2.5" hdd externally

 

How does the odde handle a usb hub?? I wonder why it's not usb 3.0? Maybe the extra bandwidth isn't needed..

and yeah heat pipes have nothing inside (more than likely air but you could also fill it with an inert gass).. liquid will add thermal mass thus the heat will travel very slow to the second heatsink. Soldering the ends is just to keep it clean inside..

 

Haven't tested with a usb hub, I don't see what it could offer tbh
Did some more work today on the dc, made an inox piece and mounted the picopsu power-in , re-soldered the power inputs on the mobo, made the power on/off switch, used adhesive thermal tape to fix the picopsu on top of the usb-gdrom shell so it doubles as a heatsink and finally placed the rpm-circuit in it's place.
I still need to add the fan (or fans) , atm I have the dc running SEGA GT in attract mode