D&C GLug - Home Page

[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]

Re: [LUG] (Non-Linux Topic) Daisy chaining power-supplies?

 

I once had 14 or so scsi disks, CD, cd burner, floppy, full height tape
in a big box which once had a minicomputer in it but into which I bodged
an AMD chipped mobo of some description. All working off one psu. All
worked OK, mid to late 90s/early 2000s, anyway that stonking big box
retired about the time my daughter was toddling when larger capacity ide
disks became cost effective to give disk space.

I just soldered on the looms hacked off from a couple of defunct psu's
to make a total rats nest of molex connectors and ran two wires outside
of the box to the external units to save them having to use their power
supplies too, so everything turned on and off from a single switch on a
timeclock.

As I said, all worked, nothing got hot, stable as all heck for 5 or 6
years over a progressive series of second hand motherboards, with
steadily increasing scsi disk sizes as second hand drives got bigger and
cheaper.

As someone in China once put it, rules are for the obedience of fools
and the guidance of the wise...

Was a good quality PSU though! Still in use on my file server, though
now in a mini tower case with a PII chip and a raided 250gb sata pair on
a pci card adaptor. Once that old AT board expires I think it will
finally end its days, and it must have been purchased ca 1988 for use on
a 386/16 SX system bodged into an IBM XT box. Wonderful what one can do
with an angle grinder, eh?

Malcolm




On Fri, 2006-08-18 at 12:12 +0100, Grant Sewell wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am looking to install several hard-drives, maybe a removable-hdd tray, 
> and a CD/DVD Reader/Burner into a system I'm (re)building.  Ideally, I 
> would also like to *not* spend a fortune on this as I am kinda recycling 
> bits and bobs into this machine as it is.  So, to my question: I am 
> likely to need a few extra Molex connectors for all the drives, 
> unfortunately it would seem that the vast majority of PSUs I have (or 
> are available at a sensible price) are limited to having 4 Molex 
> connectors.  Is it possible to daisy-chain two PSUs so I have the extra 
> power I need?  I know that the ATX PSUs don't work unless connected to a 
> motherboard and the power-switch was pressed... I'm guessing a couple of 
> pins on the mobo connector would need shorting?
> 
> Just thinking around the problem... I could spend some more money and 
> get a higher rated PSU and add a few Moles splitters... but is that wise?
> 
> Please bear in mind that I'm not particularly electrically minded or 
> inclined...
> 
> Cheers.
> Grant.
> 


-- 
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list
FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html