Posted By
George
on 2018-12-19
15:17:00
 |  Electrolyte smell from Plus/4 power supply
After many years i hooked up my real Plus/4, because i wanted to try out my lightpen CAD programm .
After a few minutes a realized a distintive smell of heated electrolytes (!?) from the power supply (round connector), from which i became headache.
Any suggestions? Are there modern replacements? Or will the smell go away after some time?
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Posted By
MIK
on 2018-12-20
00:18:33
 | Re: Electrolyte smell from Plus/4 power supply
I've never had one open but sounds as if one of the large capacitors has leaked. If you don't know what your doing with electronics then my advice is to bin the thing and get another off ebay or something.
A quick search on ebay UK, some one has one for 18 pounds including postage which I guess is a fair price considering how heavy the thing is to post. 100% feedback any way.
Link: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMMODORE-PLUS-4-POWER-PACK-BRICK-POWER-SUPPLY/392185878295?
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Posted By
George
on 2018-12-20
05:34:42
| Re: Electrolyte smell from Plus/4 power supply
I also posted my question into two Facebook groups (one plus/4, the other Vintage computers related).
The most gave me advice to buy a new modern one, because the old commodore PSUs can output more Voltage then 5V or 9 V over time. They are also not well designed. But they can be rapaired.
This can also be the reason, why the chips get overheated and don't work anymore. So only put some coolers on the chips might not be enough. Its also useful to measure the Voltage outputs of the PSU. The can go up to 12 V.
Well since i don't use my plus/4 mine on a daily basis, it will go to sleep again into his box to be preserved as fresh as possible for the next generations. I also have a c16.
My light-pen and my 1551 do not work, too..Well thats the issues you have to face when you handle with this old stuff..
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Posted By
MIK
on 2018-12-20
09:50:55
| Re: Electrolyte smell from Plus/4 power supply
I'd still be tempted to pop heat sinks on the C16 TED & CPU chips as a just in case. I did mine long ago and she's still running fine.
There is always Yape of course which is the preferred alternative to the real thing, and a good way to make your real machines last a bit longer especially if all you want to do is have a quick mess about.
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Posted By
George
on 2018-12-20
15:01:00
| Re: Electrolyte smell from Plus/4 power supply
MIK I agree with you. The heat sinks optimizes the system and give them extra life-time.
I use Yape a lot for my silly picture conversions, but from time to time i want to see them on the real machine. And i am blown away how different and much better they look on a real tube.
Here a link from Poland one gave me as PSU alternative
c64 PSU
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