27 Jun
2013
27 Jun
'13
5:19 p.m.
Jim,
I understand what you are trying to do here.? So far, the most practical suggestion is
Tony's advice to make the power supply the way it's supposed to be made: a
transformer with one secondary 9VAC and another secondary regulated to 5V.? However, there
are downsides for a kit, and you can't sell a fully built device without EMC
compliance testing, and CE marking--that's likely more a concern than liability.
Here are a couple of other options, not as pretty as a dedicated brick, but still safe and
clean:
- make an adapter that takes two standard 2.5mm barrel connectors (for 5V and 9VAC), and
connects the voltages to the right pins on a 7-pin DIN.? There are options for having this
made neatly, and then you could offer vetted 9VAC and 5VDC supplies, or let your customers
buy their own.
- Find a manufacturer of a decent 5VDC brick supply (such as meanwell), and see if they
will fit a commodore power connector on the output, and a barrel jack on the case, to
supply the 9VAC pins.
Good luck,
Dave
________________________________
From: Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com>
To:
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 7:02 PM
Subject: Re: C64 Power Supply Replacement Options
On 6/26/2013 2:53 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
Alas yes... IANAL but I wonder what the position
si if oyu offer a
scheamtic, chassis layout and PCB? Or even a complete kit. Provided the
diesing as shown is safe (tat is, you have included fuses, safety
grounds, yuo can;'t touch live parts when in use, etc). I would hope that
any problems due ot an idiot mis-construction it were nto your fault.
As noted,
while they can sue, if the "safe" notes you post above are
upheld, justice would be incline to assess fault to the kit builder.
That said, there are often technicalities.
? * Was the "warning" language something an 8th grade reader could
? ? digest?? If not, the court may find that the warnings were insufficient
? * Did the hazard icon match a generally accepted standard?
? * What was the typesize of the warning?? Did it meet ADA
? ? requirements?? If not, then it's possible the builder has vision
? ? issues and thus was not aware.
I could go on (I worked in the IT portion of insurance for some time, so
I can think like this), but I won't.? Suffice it to say that unless the
case is entirely obvious (person soldered AC mains plug wires to project
that never asked for any mains wire and did not include one in the kit),
it will likely end up in court to sift through the various components
Which is the scary part.? Knowing the probability that you will end up
in court (or part way there anyway) is a lot to shoulder. Liability
insurance can help, but it won't prevent the suit that might come your way.
It is for these reasons that I would not offer a PSU kit.? My apologies,
but I don't think I'd ever be comfortable in that situation.
Pragmatically, kits do not bring me joy in general.? I spend more time
helping folks debug them, and I charged less to sell them in the first
place.? Ready made units require less support.? I know that's heresy to
the folks on this list, but it is the truth.? For every soldering guru
on here with an armful of databooks and a scope, there's hundreds of
people in this classic machine community who treat a electronics kit
like a "snap-tite" plastic model.
I apologize for getting a bit off topic, though I hope it's somewhat
informative.
Jim