Got a nice little VIC in the mail today.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 6:06 pm

Here's the pic of my Vic20 transformer...

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:57 am

Thanks! That is quite different (the way the wire connects to the case & the fact it is grounded are unusual for 2 prong power supplies.

dave01253 · Post by **dave01253** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:49 am

Is it grounded??

All our mains plugs have 3 pins whether the earth pin is used or not.

shem · Post by **shem** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:31 am

dave01253 wrote:Is it grounded??

All our mains plugs have 3 pins whether the earth pin is used or not.

if you look close at the mains cable you will notice that it is only 2 core Live and Neutral so i dont think it is grounded..

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:25 pm

shem wrote:
dave01253 wrote:Is it grounded??

All our mains plugs have 3 pins whether the earth pin is used or not.
if you look close at the mains cable you will notice that it is only 2 core Live and Neutral so i dont think it is grounded..

Ah, interesting. I did not know all UK plugs were 3-prong regardless of whether the ground is used or not. Good info.

I wonder if the actual male plug has been replaced here by a former user. It looks unusually "hardware store" for a CBM factory made item. However, I could see that perhaps early VICs used Japanese made power supplies that were factory modded once they reached the UK.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:23 pm

Indeed, just to confirm I opened the plug up and yes, there's only two wires inside. No earth.

I should point out however that certainly back in the early 80s, the Commodore power supplies here in the UK were not supplied with plugs. You had to buy and fit one yourself. Which explains the "non Commodore" look to it.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:45 pm

Mayhem wrote:Indeed, just to confirm I opened the plug up and yes, there's only two wires inside. No earth.

I should point out however that certainly back in the early 80s, the Commodore power supplies here in the UK were not supplied with plugs. You had to buy and fit one yourself. Which explains the "non Commodore" look to it.

Wow! That's quite an amazing bit of information that C= power supplies did not come with plugs! Almost sounds like a joke if I didn't know you were serious.

Oh, here's your new car: you just have to supply your own steering wheel.

If you don't mind, I think this is important info for the WIKI.

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:27 pm

dave01253 wrote:I have some pictures of power supply units ( and other stuff )

I wonder if you'd give me some info about the black transformer

http://www.dchester.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

follow the links

The black one is probably for a Plus/4.

dave01253 · Post by **dave01253** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:51 pm

I didn't realise they were the same

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:16 pm

ral-clan wrote: Wow! That's quite an amazing bit of information that C= power supplies did not come with plugs!

A lot of electrical equipment in the UK came without a plug - it wasn't just Commodore being cheap. I think it was partially because the plugs are big and bulky.
All plugs in the UK need a ground pin. It's slightly longer than the other two pins, and pushes aside a plastic guard that sits over the lower holes.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:39 pm

Indeed, I was just about to add that. It wasn't uncommon for people to have to manually fit plugs to equipment in this country. A vital "skill" back when you were younger heh...

Nowadays you get a plastic moulded plug automatically attached and a little cover on the base to flip open and replace the fuse if it blows.

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:39 pm

dave01253 wrote:I didn't realise they were the same

There were two different power plugs for the Plus/4. A round one as the vic/c64 DIN power plug, and a square one. I have two square plug PSUs for the Plus/4, one that came with a NTSC machine and looks exactly like your black PSU and one that came with a Swedish keyboard Plus/4 that looks like the cheese wedge PSU, but black.