12 volt power source?

On 12/21/2007 2:55 PM Klaus D. Mikkelsen spake thus:
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I still think the Z80 is one of the most underutilized and underappreciated machines ever built in the late 20th century. All that power and speed in such an unassuming package. Like those totally kewl alternate register sets and the instructions that swap them with the regular set, for high-speed interrupt processing ...

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Seconded. Zilog is still out there, pushing souped-up Z80s as embedded controllers. *

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:55:37 +0100, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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Most here seem to be hunting the cheapest of the cheap and probably buy the wall wart type. More than half of those are only partially regulated relying on the equipment on the load side to finish the regulation. Awful practice, that, but it does make for cheap power supplies when you need them.
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I nearly used an 8080A but the Z80 came available and I switched. All wire-wrapped. What a headache that was. Tedious but fun.
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I had a Sinclair ZX80, the membrane keyboard type. Designed a 64k memory expansion for it and published the design in the old Popular Electronics magazine sometime in the '80s. I forgot which name I published under for that one. I use pen names mostly to avoid flame wars here on USENET over something I publish.
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I picked up a dead, second-hand, rack mounted P4 Quad Core PC used for 6 months as a server before it failed. It was failing big time according to the seller and I verified that. But, his company had replaced it with a bigger and better server with 4 terabytes of hard drive. This one had 4 320GByte ATA/IDE drives, 2 500GByte SCSI drives, 2 SCSI controllers and a 4 port RAID controller. On inspection, I found a lightning damaged burned trace at the DMA controller chip and fixed the unit. It's a screamer with more hard drive space than I can use in a lifetime. It cost me a whopping $10.00 yesterday. I wiped all the drives clean as promised.
Now, what shall I do with it? I think I'll sleep on it. It has sharp pointy corners but with a thick enough blanket I can at least have a nap on it.
Oh, rats. I meant to send this by e-mail but it's too much bother to retype it or cut and paste it. So, it goes on the newsgroup with a copy by e-mail. Sorry it's so horribly off topic, guys.
Well, I can make it on topic easy enough. I believe I'll use that new PC to automate my trains. There. On topic now. -- Ray

Ray Haddad wrote: [snip prior chit chat]
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LOL
PS: I "built" me a new PC with an MSI board (1000MHz FSB) and a 2.4GHz Intel Dual Core, 2GB 800MHz DDR, two 250GB SATA, 256MB PCI-X video card, and a floppy drive. Still feel uneasy without a floppy drive. Had to put it in a tall tower, else the CPU fan wouldn't fit under the PSU. Just plugged all the bits and pieces together, turned it on, installed a brand new copy of XP Pro/SP2, copied a pile of zips and install packages from a CD, and starting playing with it. Erm, I meant _working_ with it. ;-)
Fastest machine Ive ever used.

On 12/21/2007 3:37 PM Ray Haddad spake thus:
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I've taken apart lots of wall warts (to cannibalize the parts within) and don't remember ever seeing any with a regulator. Just a transformer, a bridge rectifier (or two diodes) and filter capacitor(s).

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:05:21 -0800, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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Your point? -- Ray

On 12/21/2007 4:15 PM Ray Haddad spake thus:
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They're *all* unregulated, contrary to your observation about how "more than half of those are only partly regulated". No regulation at all.

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:28:07 -0800, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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Then you're wrong. They are mostly regulated. If they aren't, you aren't opening the right ones. -- Ray

On 12/21/2007 7:03 PM Ray Haddad spake thus:
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And how do you know that? Have you cracked any open yourself?
I mean, I've opened literally *dozens* of the little buggers, and never saw a single regulator--78xx or anything similar--in any of them.

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:20:39 -0800, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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And you think that's the only kind of regulator out there? Oh, dear. -- Ray

On 12/21/2007 8:52 PM Ray Haddad spake thus:
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No, they can also be made of discrete (i.e., non-IC) components (like transistors). But there has to be *something* there besides a transformer, rectifier and filter capacitors. So what kind of regulators do you think is in those wall warts, eh, Ray?

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:03:46 -0800, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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Even a zener diode is a regulator. Play puffery all you want, David. I do know what I am discussing here while you are just guessing after opening a few wall cubes. Enjoy the game. -- Ray

Ray Haddad wrote:
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Ray you are wrong. Very few wallwarts in the US have any kind of regulation.

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:48:00 -0600, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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So they put out 110AC? If not, you have no idea of what a regulator is. How do they get it do 12 volts DC from 110? -- Ray

Ray Haddad skriver:
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Transformer, rectifier and perhaps a capacitor.
But no regulator.
Klaus

"Klaus D. Mikkelsen" wrote:
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Sounds like you're describing the average wall-wart! I've yet to find a decent sized capacitor intended for smoothing in the few wws I've dismantled but I have found small value capacitors which I assume were there for suppressing radio interference. That might of course just be that I haven't dismantled enough wws.
Regards, Greg.P.

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:24:54 +0100, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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By definition, those are parts of a regulator and what you describe is a rudimentary one. What these yokels are describing is an IC regulator. The wall cubes often contain far less than an IC. -- Ray

On 12/22/2007 1:59 PM Ray Haddad spake thus:
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You're just plain wrong. An xfmr, rectifier (and optionally a capacitor) make up an UNREGULATED power supply. Any 15-year-old kid who's studied electronics knows that.
You're just being annoying. And of course, you'll never admit you're wrong.

Ray Haddad wrote:
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What you are describing is known as a *filtered* power supply, not a *regulated* power supply. A regulated power supply requires the use of some active components such as transistors or ICs. Power supplies using only passive components such as transformers, resistors, capacitors and diodes (including Zener diodes) do not constitute regulated power supplies.

On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 03:32:42 GMT, I said, "Pick a card, any card"
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Those wall warts are not ALWAYS regulated. Show me where I ever stated that ALL of them were? Just because you cut a few open and found something else doesn't make you correct in this thread. You have all diverged away into areas where you can be right and strayed away from my original statement.
Very childish. But I expect no less from some of the morons here. -- Ray