My +D Power Pack Is Shagged!

            >>>>> My +D Power Pack Is Shagged! <<<<<            
                                                                
                    -= By L.A. Of Extacy-3 =-                   
                                                                
                                                                
This short article is merely for informational purposes only.   
If you choose to do the same hardware modifications as I have,  
then Extacy-3, as a whole, would like to say that we take no    
responsibility for any damage you may cause to your hardware,   
software, etc.  Please note that I am very experienced in the   
electronics area.                                               
                                                                
Now I have that out of the way let me tell you a small story. A
couple of days ago my +D power pack rather unexpectedly "blew   
up"!!!  Well, when I say "blew up", I mean It died (quite       
quietly too!).  I was then left with a great big shitty thought.
I'd have to buy a new power pack....  Or find a replacement one.
                                                                
I then set about trying to find a power pack that had an output 
of 5 Volts at 500 MilliAmps.  I found many which were around    
4.5v to 6v.  Also I found the Amps ranging from 5OOmA to ЗAmps. 
Nothing was near enough the recommended Volts or Amps.          
                                                                
I decided to give up.  I had to face up to reality.  I had to go
back to SLOW old tape!!!                                        
                                                                
Until one day whilst taking my Amiga 500 apart (to give it an   
internal clean) when I had a very stupid idea.  I could try and 
use my +D drive as the internal of my amiga.  All the plugs and 
sockets where exactly the same.  Wow! I hooked it all up as     
quick as I could.  SHIT!  The Amiga wouldn't work with the      
drive.  It made the +D drive light come on, it span the disk and
made the Amiga think it was permanently loading!  The main thing
which stuck in my head was the fact that the Amiga had powered  
my +D drive....                                                 
                                                                
I then got out my Digital VoltMeter (DVM for short) and started 
checking voltages, etc.  I found out that the amiga has 2 pins  
on the power supply unit which supply 5 volts at 3 Amps.  Shit! 
This was almost what I wanted!!!  The only problem was the      
amount of Amps was 6 times greater than that suppled by the     
original +D power pack.  I thought that it would be worth the   
risk of trying it!!  Remember, the +D drive was powered okay by 
the Amiga.                                                      
                                                                
I set to work on a lead that would fit in the back of the +D    
drive and one that would connect to the correct pins of Amiga   
power pack. Below is a diagram of the Amiga power pack with     
relevant notes.                                                 
                                                                
                           _____  _____                              
1 - +5v at 3.0 Amps       /     /                             
2 - Shield Ground        |   3      4  |                        
3 - +12v at 1.0 Amp      |             |                        
4 - Signal Ground        |      5      |                        
5 - -12v at 0.1 amps     |             |                        
                         |   2      1  |                        
                          ____________/                        
                                                                
Okay, what I did was connected Pin 4 to the negative lead of my 
+D cable (the one which has 2 wires and is simular to a head    
phone jack) and pin 1 to the positive lead.                     
                                                                
I had some special metal female socket things which I soldered  
the ends of the wires to.  I then pushed them onto the correct  
pins.  Et voila!  I powered everything up and it worked first   
time.  I have been using this power pack ever since I found out 
I could use it.  I spend long hours on my Speccy and I have had 
no problems (yet! Touch wood!).                                 
                                                                
I hope this has been of some value to somebody out there.       
Otherwise I've just wasted the past 20 odd minutes typing this  
out!!!

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