[SPARCbook] Error Codes Sparcbook 3xs

[christer at a-son.net]

On Mon, Apr 11, 2005 at 05:56:13PM +0100, Ian Spray wrote:
> Well, the last version Hugo did still appears to be up:
> 
>   http://hvdkooij.xs4all.nl/docs/SparcBook-FAQ.html
> 
> but it just has a very short line about it (item 1.25).  No, this 
> wasn't an official Tadpole option :)
> 
Ooops, I mixed most things up, I'm afraid :)

I looked at:
http://www.tadpolecomputer.co.uk/~iws/s3tech.html#FAQ

I also got the impression you had used the external battery connector,
not the charger inlet. I think it is the voltage regulator that is fried
already om my S3, so I was hoping to be able to supply a regulated
voltage to the external battery connector, but it has 4 terminals and
I have no idea whether they are different voltages or som kind of sense
for charging or what. Maybe it can't be run with a faulty voltage
regulator at all, I don't know. Well, I have another one in better
condition, so this one can serve as spares, but it is always fun to see
them running. I have managed to see that the screen works and obviously
the boot process starts as the screen lights up. Unfortunately the
battery from the somewhat better S3 can't hold the charge for more than
a couple of seconds, and since this particular S3 doesn't take any charge
from the AC/DC convertor, it just dies after showing the intitial screen.

> Basically, you need to use a DC jack of the correct diameter (sorry, I 
> don't know what mm size it is off-hand: I just took a PSU plug from a 
> pile of broken bits) and then put two spade terminals on it and made 
> sure I triple-checked that the wire to the centre of the plug went to 
> the + on the battery.  Any voltage source that is a stable 12v and 
> centre positive ought to work just fine.
> 
> I used an old Yeasu (sp ?) 12v 7.2Ah sealed gel lead acid and it worked 
> fine for the amount I time I wanted it for (around 5 hours in 3 runs, 
> charging in between each run from mains).  Note that I did *not* charge 
> the unit whilst running from the battery: this would mean that at least 
> 13.8v was going into the unit and I am unsure what the spec on the 
> voltage regulator is.  I also did not do any runtime testing, or 
> investigation of what happens as the voltage drops off.
> 
> So if you have the desire to run the unit for a few hours away from 
> mains and weight isn't a problem, then this is fine.  If you want to 
> turn the machine into a server with a whopping battery backup system, 
> then you will need to add a voltage regulator between the battery and 
> laptop so the trickle charge voltage doesn't fry anything.
> 
> Does that help ?

Well, not much, but it was a very good description, and might very well
help somebody else with a working voltage regulator but without a charger.

Thanks,
Christer

> 
> -- 
> Ian Spray             | Software Engineer     | Tadpole Computer Ltd.
> ian_spray at tadpole.com | http://hw.tadpole.com | +44 (0) 870 432 4161
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-- 
Christer O. Andersson
Odensbacken