Switching PS for S-100 Computer?

From: Rich Beaudry <r_beaudry_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Wed Aug 22 10:13:03 2001

Hello all,

I have a few S-100 motherboards that I'd like to make use of, but I have no
decent linear power supply for them. I have little experience designing
power supplies, so I hesitate to try to build a linear supply. Also, the
cost of the transformer alone would most likely be prohibitive. Then
there's the heat issues, big caps that go boom when my design fails, etc.

I would like to ask if any of you know of an existing, available, commercial
switching power supply that could be used to power an S-100 computer?

Here's the wrinkle: S-100 requires around +8V and around +/- 16V. The
"around" is because traditionally S-100 computers were supplied by
unregulated linear supplies of these voltages, and the S-100 cards
themselves carried the voltage regulators necessary to regulate the supply
voltages to +5V and +/- 12V. Also, the current must be high on the +8V side
(say 20+ amps, especially for a 20-slot motherboard), and about 5+ amps on
+/- 16V.

I realize I could get a +5V and +/- 12V supply, and just remove the
regulation circuitry on the cards, but given the amount of them that I have,
that gets very labor-intensive, and I'd rather not have to hack out parts of
these cards...

Thanks for any pointers...

Rich B.
Received on Wed Aug 22 2001 - 10:13:03 BST