Mean Well RD-50A

[stween]

I gather a bunch of people have used Mean Well RD-50A power supplies in their STs over the years.

I've got an STE and a Falcon in the US (but both with UK/EU 230V PSUs, so I need to replace those). I'm considering picking up 2 of these Mean Well PSUs for those machines, because they're cheap and easy to get here.

I'll throw one into the STE without any problem. This isn't my primary STE, it's a stock unit, I think it'll be fine.

The Falcon of course is more expensive. Is anybody running one of these PSUs in a Falcon and/or has anybody had any bad experiences with these PSUs? Anything I should watch out for?

[Steve]

I wouldn't put a Meanwell in a Falcon @stween - although I have used one for my A1200 and think the quality is fine. It's just that they have a bit of a 'bad rep' among the Amiga crowd from what I've read, stability issues etc - but it may just be gossip. Maybe mine was just a good one (I used an RT-65). For a Falcon I would use one of three options: A re-capped original PSU / an Exxos PSU . Exxos tells me he's repaired Falcons in the past where using a PicoPSU blew the Videl chip (maybe bad regulation)

[stween]

Interesting; thanks.

I do have a recapped PSU in there, but it's for 230V so I have to source something new anyway! Maybe an exxos PSU is the way to go, next time I'm in the UK.

[exxos]

There are mains voltage converters as an alternative ?

EG
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRAVEL-US-TO ... ect=mobile

[stween]

That might be a good shout. I'm sure I've read, years ago, about how these can be unreliable, but perhaps I was reading about high power devices. Is there much of a risk here?

Maybe these are okay for the workload that an Atari will require. Presumably if it can feed around 230V and sufficient amps to the PSU, and the PSU is good, then the Falcon itself is good to go?

[exxos]

if its rated for the PSU then it should be fine. How long it will last is anyone's guess, but its better than nothing. It was just an example of a cheap solution. No doubt there are more pro-versions, but depends on how much your willing to spend on one.

[stween]

Yeah that's fair. I'll take a look. (I don't mind a little cash to safeguard an expensive machine, of course!)

[tzok]

My RD-50A has the 12V line off tolerance (way too high), but in STf it really doesn't matter. I think a good alternative would be also PD-45A or PD-65A.

[stween]

I'll measure my outputs when I get around to it; I've ordered one RD-50A to drop into this STE for now. Falcon PSU replacement or step-up transformer TBD!