jja@gismo.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Jack.Angelo) (06/03/88)
Help, I'm geting ready to move to Europe and I want to take my A500 along. I called CBS and asked what I have to do in Europe to keep my 500 from exploding and they said "Sorry we won't tell you, your warranty will be voided, and please don't bother us anymore,..." . Nice response huh. Well to get to the bottom line. I would think that all I need to do is get an official Amiga 500 power supply built for the European market and after that everything else would be O.K.. Is this right? Does anyone know where I could get such a thing? In Europe the only way to get a power suplly seems to be to buy a complete system and this sort of defeats the whole idea of bringing my U.S. 500. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Please use simple mono-sylabic words since I'm a software type and anything you say about cycles and Hertz mean Schwinn and rental cars to me. Where in Europe you ask? Milan, Italy. Do they have a good BBS there?
glarson@srcsip.UUCP (Greg Larson) (06/05/88)
I would first try out the power supply using a commonly available European-to-American AC voltage transformer. If you have a volt meter, you might want to check the levels on the output of the supply (refer to your user's manual). (Note: there are two major differences between European household AC power and the US variety: The Europeans have double the voltage, which would probably destroy any US products pugged directly in, although I suspect the connectors are incompatible. The other difference is that the European AC (Alternating current) power oscillates at a rate of 50 times per second, while our oscillates at 60 (I wasn't sure just how knowledgeable you are). The Amiga 500 power supply *probably doesn't care too much whether the oscillation is at 50 or 60, but it *definitely doesn't like 220 Volts going into it. If you can't find anyone smarter than me, then buy yourself an ultra-cheap volt meter, and plug the supply (with converter) into the European socket. If your voltage levels are within 0.5 Volts of the required levels, then it's probably save to plug your computer in. (I've notice that some +- 12V supplies don't give a good reading unless they are actually supplying current.). Try plugging it in for a second or two at first, and measure the output again. If you smell smoke, then you can at least salvage the most important part of the supply -- the output cable. You should then purchase a European version of a IBM PC power supply (with nice box and fan). Remove that cable from your Amiga supply and discard the rest. Attach cable (with good solder joints) to your IBM supply. Test outputs with meter to make sure you've got it right (again, refer to your user's manual). Now you're set (hopefully). The other problem you might have is your monitor. I have no idea as to whether a US model will operate in Europe. If the monitor makes use of the AC oscillation frequency, then you may be out of luck unless you get one of those fancy thingamajigs that converts 60Hz to 50Hz. If you can get one that handles enough current (at a decent price), then I'd suggest plugging your whole setup into a surge-protected power strip, and plug the power strip into the thingamajig, which is then plugged into the European receptacle. Even if this works, I'd still suggest doing the IBM PC supply conversion because it costs half as much as the Commodore Amiga one, and should be a lot more reliable (especially if you have 2 disk drives and expansion RAM). Good luck!