Safety for removing an XBOX power supply

As the XBOX power supply has large capacitors and they are dangerous to touch, what safety measures should I take while taking the PSU out?

 

dont touch them them.

shouldnt be too much to worry about in all honesty, wont be enough power in them to kill you just get a quick shock, if you wanted you could wear some rubber gloves / electricians gloves. but i think thats overkill. just make sure its unplugged and discharged (you can short the 2 pins of the caps or ground it to discharge).

 

Usually the main reservoir cap on the mains side of the PSU will hold a charge. There's usually some warning labels on that side. You can measure to see if there is any inside using a Multimeter.
Often it will discharge to around 50v a few seconds after (mains) power-off, but in a fault condition they can hold as much as 400v DC.

The caps on the secondary output are low voltage, so I wouldn't worry too much about those.

 

Never been shocked by one except the 5-6 times I forgot to unplug it from the wall before touching it. Those heatsinks are live and will wake you up.

Truth be told I've never tried to lick the PCB after removal but my hands aren't usually freshly washed by the time I get to the power supply. As such the resistance level of my hand is usually higher than the normal 500ohms human skin has.

 

licking the pcb is a great way to discharge the power caps!... not.

i have done that many times with CRT monitors and projectors forgot they were plugged in and grabbed them to adjust / move them haha will definatly wake you up in the morning

 

If the Xbox PSU is fine, then they self discharge on power down and you have nothing to worry about. If the PSUs have a fault then the caps will hold charge and it is quite easy to touch parts that will give you a nasty shock. It is worse if you prick your finger on the sharp cap ends

 

After you have unplugged it from the wall, hit the power button again to discharge the caps. For example if you do this with a PC the fans will start to spin for a second until all charge is gone.

 

Thanks guys, the PSU is fine. I just want to paint the XBOX case, and clean it out well.

 

I always grab my PSU units by the sides of the PCB since there is hardly ever a trace or solder joint there. Haven't been fried using that methods yet.

 

Its also a great way to raise the Lead concentration in your system!

But the Xbox 360 is now lead free, you can lick the PCB as much as your want without fear of lead poisoning!

 

You won't get a lot of lead that way but chance of getting you tongue seriously burned or (and) half of a mouth paralysed for some time is way higher, there's even a (not so) small chance of instant death.

 

LOL. So good to know

 

I've removed the PSU from the Saturn, Dreamcast and PS2. I just grab it by the edges of the board and lift it up, never really though about electric shocks, though I do discharge them first.

 

This would be a beginner mistake. Seasoned PCB lickers know how to properly discharge the caps before indulging in their hobby. So it would not be a problem for them, lead poisoning however can become a problem after years of regular PCB tasting.

 

Sounds easy enough , how long does a power supply take to discharge?

 

On most systems it takes <1 minute. Worst case just short the big one. Your mileage may vary being in 220V territory, I've never messed with those. If the bleeder resistors are toast it could have a full charge for >1 week. Worth mentioning that I have experience working with Helium Neon Laser power supplies, even those usually drain within a few minutes if working properly in spite of having about half a dozen of these caps running at even higher voltages.

 

I dunno exactly how long. I'd always assumed it was a few seconds, but one time while disassembling a SNES, I dropped it's power switch onto the RF shield, and it created a spark and blew the picofuse.

 

SNES holds charge

 

This is funny!

 

Probably due to the "super power" the advertisements talked about