I know quite a bit about the PowerCD. I bought one off ebay but they learned that you need a base, and a power cord to actually use the device. I have a working one (At least it should work), but I have no way to test it at all since I do not have the base. The base I think converted the 25 pin SCSI port to a power adapter socket and a space for 6 AA batteries.
Does anyone know how I can hack the PowerCD or rig-something up in order to get the thing to work? I paid $50 a while ago for this and since I have an iPod now I don't really want to buy a PowerCD base off ebay (yeah they are rare too), but it would be cool to use it one day.
I have a few extra SCSI cables I can splice open if need be, any help would be wonderful.
. . . the DB25 connection to a 50 pin Centronics (standard SCSI) connector, which is well documented. Maybe someone can buz the connections for you to see if Philips (the PowerCD OEM) used the Mac's (sub)standard pinout for SCSI as the basis for the unit interconnect. As they developed it on their own, not for Apple, I wouldn't assume anything about the pinout of the interconnect. Power and Ground should be easy to buz from the battery terminals and shell ground.
jt
maybe someone with a working PowerCD can pop their's open and take a look see. I would love for it to work, it would be pretty cool.
I have a spare wire...but how would I go about testing it? I have a Sega 12 volt power adapter, that might work. Or maybe 6 AA batteries...*thinks*
Luckily i found Your post here, LimeiBook86! I've bought ocassionally the PowerCD without base unit, but I also have the original Power Supply (10V 1,2A).
The idea is the same - i just want to power it it without base unit, i know it is surely possible. The only problem is to find the pins which are responsible for the + and - signals
As I suspect they didn't change the order of pins for SCSI, but only used one of the not necessary (so i think - ground) signals to give the 10V power, I noted down the pins which originally are linked to GND in SCSI (these are the pins numbered: 7, 9, 14, 16, 18, 24). But I have problems to find which one can it be, and even I'm not 100% sure if it have to be one of them:( I need some more investigation on the circuit board. But it's really difficult:(
But the best solution would be, when somebody who also had the device with BASE could simply just check the signals inside - which cables go from power-in connector to which pins in the D-Sub25 copnnector. It's simpliest and of course the SAFIEST way… coz I don't want to burn my PowerCD during the danger experiments…
So… I ASK FOR HELP!
Is here anybody with BASE, who can haelp us? Or maybe someone already has found the solution and can share with us?
Thanks in advance!
Mac_Abre
P.S. Sorry for mistakes - still learning…