SC DSP Musicolour

I just got my notification that my SC subscription's expired ... I kinda doubt that I'll be renewing it. Nothing it it has grabbed my attention (in a good way) for a very long time. This thread confirms what I've been thinking. :-(

Bob

Reply to
Bob Parker
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I know the feeling. :-( Wow - audio tapes takes me back to the DSE VZ200. Even if you did save it to tape, it was often hit & miss getting it back into the computer. All that fiddling with volume settings and tearing out of hair...

Did they fail due to physical accidents, or just fail by themselves? A lot of user reviews of big external 3.5" drives mention the USB -> SATA interface board in the box dying, sometimes with considerable amounts of smoke involved.

These days, once a week I save a compressed full image of my main drive to the new 500GB internal drive + the 80GB external which is stored in a safe place. Crucial day-to-day stuff gets backed up on DVD-RW. So far I haven't needed it ... fingers crossed.

Apparently LaCie just installs whatever drives they can get, into their own packages. I read that they often use Samsungs.

Reply to
Bob Parker

As well as multiple hard drives and CD archives etc, I automatically back up important folders (photos, documents, project files etc) to my FTP server in the US that has unlimited space. Nice'n'easy with the incremental backup feature, only files that have changed are copied. I use the free Cobian Backup 8 software

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Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

:-)

I ripped the roms out of the VZ200 and decoded them. Almost an excact copy of the TRS-80 with the obvious alterations to suit the hardware. I then re-wrote them a little to suit a few mods I did.

failed by themselves. Sometimes drives, sometimes electronics. I think I only found one that was nicely vented and with a fan. Was an ATA/SATA i/f. That one is still going.

OK, thanks Bob. After the mention of the LACIE, (Yes LaCie) I just tried the single cable on powered and un-powered hubs to remind me. Un-powered, software recognizes new hardware, but doesn't specify device, and it can't be found. Powered, it flies right into it, and announces itself, no drama.

On my baby EEE PC's, it needs two ports to power it up.

Don...

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Don McKenzie

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Reply to
Don McKenzie

Both good ideas. Diverify, little like the old super fund. A few bob each way. My two backup drives, one lives in a fireproof safe, the other next to the PC, and they change over daily.

I always have a drive with files about 3 months old, off site, and as most of my files these days are in web based shopping carts, they live on line, and auto backed up every 4 hours to another server by my US host.

I use Acronis for local backup software, and always travel with a full disk image of my main PC and notebook, in the notebook bag.

Don...

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Reply to
Don McKenzie

The transistor to hold off the FET seems a about to me. Rheilly P

Reply to
Rheilly Phoull

For those without easy usenet binary access:

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Come on, step right up, spot the mistake in the circuit!

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

can I have another go Dave? Please can I, can I? Pretty please :-)

Strangely, it is obvious when you stop looking too hard.

Don...

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Don McKenzie

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Reply to
Don McKenzie

In fact, there is a wee bit of a mess, and I think it all came about because of what I said in my first guess.

You need to read the text of the article to knit it together.

Don...

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Don McKenzie

access:

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6V in - .7V across the diode = not enough headroom for the regulator?

Cheers,

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

Oops, it's a Schottky. So @ 1A, the LDO needs 5.5V, but the specified diode will typically drop .6V - which means out of 6V, the regulator gets 5.4V (slightly less, given the FET drop). Still not the greatest design for 1A. How much current is this thing supposed to supply?

I get the feeling I'm missing something obvious.

Cheers,

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

I would suggest there is nothing wrong with the mechanics Al, even though it may appear marginal. I went down the same path initially.

I doubt that the drive would draw an amp.

But the original design problem was excessing heat, so changes were made.

A clue: I'm putting my money on the result of those changes not being completed correctly. :-)

Don...

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Reply to
Don McKenzie

OK, please keep in mind I have only seen the scan, so I have no idea what this thing is supposed to do. But here's my guess:

It used to use a higher voltage power supply and a 7805. The '05 got too hot, so they changed to an LDO and a 5V supply. But they forgot to read the datasheet correctly. It states

"The minimum output capacitance required to maintain stability is 22 =B5F (this value may be increased without limit)"

And we have a .1uF cap on the output, so the whole thing may oscillate.

Do I win a prize?

Cheers,

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

Does Al win a prize Dave?

Don...

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Don McKenzie

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It's a schottky. 1N5817 would be better though.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

I didn't get a prize on a.b.s.e for saying that ! :-(

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Al does indeed win the prize! But I suspect Don knew all along...

Classic mistake with LDO's, and this one in particular is notorious for it. Yes, 22uF minium is required, so there is a very high likelihood this sucker is going to oscillate. So not only did the previous design have an error (overheating), the new one has a nasty one too. All on the simplist of circuits, unbelievable. The text even says the 0.1uF is there to ensure stability!

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

It's a classic error wihen people drop in LDO regulators because it's a slowish pnp collector output instead of an npn emitter output. For similar reasons note that 79xx's also require more local decoupling than 78xx's.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

On Sat, 31 May 2008 03:08:08 -0700 (PDT), Al Borowski put finger to keyboard and composed:

Spot on! The original design required 9V AC/DC and used a 7805.

USB Power Injector (Issue 193, Published: 18 October, 2004):

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- Franc Zabkar

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Reply to
Franc Zabkar

I don't know about you guys, but I haven't seen too many PC motherboards with USB type B outputs.

Type A, yes, but not Type B.

dmm

Reply to
dmm

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