Two machines in one day? You're pulling the stops out now, Ian!
Had a Master do that to me the other day .. first time I've had one happen and startled me more than a little until I realised. and yep, that's very descriptive of the sound it made, iomanoid, maybe with a few extra clicks thrown in.
Yes, the popping sound as well, but I couldn't capture that as it had already happened!
The second Beeb was today, the first one was Friday I think. I'm currently working through the pile of 8 Beebs which have been in my room since about 2003 ready for going into storage, and it didn't happen till the fifth & sixth Beebs, which I thought was pretty good going.
It's happened to me many times, of course, but this is the first time the lids were off and the camera on hand at the exact moment.
I took a couple of videos as well, but they are just of the smoke clearing and they're a bit big to upload here (25MB and 80MB).
Is it something to do with a Beeb having been out of use for a long time? I've never had it happen on any of my regularly-used machines (fingers crossed).
I've also never had it happen to me with a Master, that is, apart from the time I was cleaning the case of one with hot soapy water and I obviously hadn't quite dried it fully before switching on....
Can somebody remind me of the benefit of changing whatever it is that has popped inside the PSU, since they still work afterwards. In fact, I don't even turn them off any more, just carry on!
Yes, I've always wondered that, but I think it is the caps exploding rather than some little hibernating insect being fried alive!
Having said that, I did observe something crawling out from under the PSU when I was photographing the second one, but it just turned out to be a speck of dust inside the viewfinder of my camera happening to move about a bit at the same moment!
These Beebs have been neglected for such a long time, though, that I have found a dead wasp and flying beetle inside them so far!
BeebMaster wrote:
Can somebody remind me of the benefit of changing whatever it is that has popped inside the PSU, since they still work afterwards. In fact, I don't even turn them off any more, just carry on!
Not having a room that smells like smoke perhaps
That second one does have that nice ground fog effect you only get from expensive smoke machines though.
That one is a suspected A-to-B upgrade, because all the upgrade chips (ICs 61 to 77) are socketed, and the two 6522s are different types. Apart from wild guessing, is there any real way to tell?
I had this happen last night to my BBC B+ 128K. The original PSU that was in it started smoking after I bought it on ebay about 5 years ago, so I got my carer back then to swap out the PSU from my BBC B+ 64K and it has been working until 2007.
Last night my Brother got my B+ 128K out of the attiic and plugged it, after about an hour of using it smoke started pouring out of the keyboard and underneath the PSU. So my Brother immediately switched it off at the mains, unplugged it and put it outside in a dry place since the smoke was a strong smell.
I have bought a PSU like this one here http://www.giz10p.co.uk/Electronic-Part ... rod_3.html off ebay, I'm just wondering if 15 Amps on the +5v line would be too much amperage for the BBC's motherboard. Would it be safe to use it? I will be adding 2 disk drives to the PSU as well, so I'm assuming it would be ok to test it first before adding disk drives?
Steve
My current setup...
BBC B+ 128k with external DataCentre with 2GB CF Card, 64MB ARM7TDMI Co-Processor and BeebOPL.
That PSU will work fine, but why not have the original ones refurbished? I do them, as do several other people. It's only one or both of the X2 caps that split and start smoking, and at the same time, it's good practice to replace the startup cap, and any others that look overheated or bulged.
retroclinic wrote:That PSU will work fine, but why not have the original ones refurbished? I do them, as do several other people. It's only one or both of the X2 caps that split and start smoking, and at the same time, it's good practice to replace the startup cap, and any others that look overheated or bulged.
Mark.
I can recommend this service, Mark turned it around in good time for me (even over xmas).
retroclinic wrote:That PSU will work fine, but why not have the original ones refurbished? I do them, as do several other people. It's only one or both of the X2 caps that split and start smoking, and at the same time, it's good practice to replace the startup cap, and any others that look overheated or bulged.
Mark.
Hi Mark,
I do have several BBC PSU's that are in need of repair, and I wasn't sure how much it'd cost to have them all refurbished in one lot. I have 7 BBC B'S (including the B+'s) and 4 or 5 Master 128's. I will have to ask my Brother or Uncle to take out the PSU's when they have some spare time and send them to you to be refurbished.
Cheers,
Steve
My current setup...
BBC B+ 128k with external DataCentre with 2GB CF Card, 64MB ARM7TDMI Co-Processor and BeebOPL.
This happened to a machine that me and Jon W were looking at yesterday, it went with a very loud pop (louder than normal) , then the usual magic smoke.
Capkit soon then I guess (have whipped the PSU out for the moment and set it aside for further examination over the weekend to check nothing else is amiss)
It's been a while since I've had one do it though in front of me.
I can now join this club too
My lounge currently stinks of caps that've gone bad. There was some smoke out of the back, but that smell lingers for quite a while.
It's odd how the BBC carries on as normal yet there's smoke coming out of it
This was a BSR manufactured power supply. My other (newly acquired) BBC is an Astec PSU. Is there a league of least-likely-to-pop BBC B power supplies?
A few later Beeb, and some Master PSUs had different X2 caps from the regular Rifa ones - I've not seen these type explode, but I do replace them anyway when doing a service.
What did make me concerned is having done a few Arc A4x0 refurbs now, the PSUs in those also had the Rifa X2s, exactly the same as the Model B ones. Yes, the PSUs are younger, but it's only going to be a matter of time before they start going poppie bang bang too.
