VOGONS


First post, by manic232

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I have a 20SC Macintosh Hard drive that I brought from the USA.

I am in the UK and we use 240V over here and they use 110V over in the US. The power supply for this unit states that it supports 100V-240V AC which is great but I can find no switch or button that changes the input voltage. Does this mean that I can just plug it into a 240V supply and it will automatically switch? I don't want to damage my new toy! I do have a step down transformer that will take it to 110V so it's not a problem, I was just curios.

Thank you for any help you may be able to offer, here are images of the label on the PSU.

Macintosh%20HD%20Label%201.jpg
Macintosh%20HD%20Label%202.jpg

My System: SuperMicro P6SBA Motherboard, Win98SE, PIII 600Mhz, 256MB Ram, Voodoo 5 5500, SB AWE 64 Gold Sound Card, Roland LAPC-I

Reply 1 of 5, by obobskivich

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If it has no switch of any kind on the outside it *may* be an auto-sensing unit (they aren't uncommon on newer components). Did a little looking on the on the 20SC itself and couldn't find any indication about whether or not it's meant to be a universal device (and Apple has pulled it off of their support website (apparently anything older than 7 years is "obsolete")).

If all the PSU does is output +5V/12V it shouldn't be hard to replace - an ATX PSU shouldn't have issues providing that (and you might even be able to find a dual voltage stand-alone PSU that can do that too). Alternately, if in doubt, use your step-down transformer.

Reply 2 of 5, by manic232

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Thanks obobskivich, yes I think I agree with you to be on the safe side im going to use my step down transformer.

My System: SuperMicro P6SBA Motherboard, Win98SE, PIII 600Mhz, 256MB Ram, Voodoo 5 5500, SB AWE 64 Gold Sound Card, Roland LAPC-I

Reply 3 of 5, by Gona

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As far I know these are two different ranges.
100-240V - mostly called as "full range" but somewhere as "wide range" voltage imput;
100-140V/220-240V - mostly called as "wide range" voltage imput, this one exist with manual switch and autoswitch.
Most Apple items are 100-240V. My 20SC chassis also 100-240V, I'm using with 230V (actually 242V that I have measured), although it is European version (assembled in Ireland). So if it's PSU is works well, it must support the 240V source.

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Reply 4 of 5, by manic232

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Thanks for that Gona, but I think for my own peace of mind I'm going to use it with the 110V step down transformer.

My System: SuperMicro P6SBA Motherboard, Win98SE, PIII 600Mhz, 256MB Ram, Voodoo 5 5500, SB AWE 64 Gold Sound Card, Roland LAPC-I

Reply 5 of 5, by SquallStrife

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manic232 wrote:

Does this mean that I can just plug it into a 240V supply and it will automatically switch?

If the primary voltage is expressed like that, then it doesn't need to "switch" as such.

In most switchmode power supplies the voltage on the primary side isn't important, because after the AC is rectified it goes into a self-regulating switchmode circuit. The availability of current is more important than the AC voltage in these setups.

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