Recently I've gotten my hands on a Meridian G68J for cheap from a thrift store. It powered up fine there, but was completely dead when i got home.
What i found was what many others online also found out(many years ago), that G68 was using a cheap industrial open frame power supply from UMEC. The power supply appears to have been designed by a intern, as the main power transistors(+12VDC) is squeezed up against the power output connector, with no room for any cooling or possibility of adding a heatsink. The nylon plastic of the DC plug, and socket have been baked black from the heat, while the solder and traces turned crispy as they oxidized and glue fail from the constant heat.
It looked like a simple fix, just solder and bodge it up will get it running. Then it would fail again.
Fortunately, i still have contact at Skynet power supply, and a business account there to order directly from them. They are one of the much better(best?) switching power supply manufacturer around, and i trust the durability and the quality of DC output from their products. So... Well... They don't have a good replacement... (Their product catalog is one thing, but sometimes it is just not feasible to get them to build one for me if they don't already have stock)
Then I looked at Meanwell's medical grade open frame power supply... Damn, they have gotten a lot better since i last checked Luke 10 years ago. The quality of their DC output is really good, easily blows away UMEC that Meridian uses, and better than the replacement part supply that they later used for warranty repair.
I bought mine from Mouser (not Newark as I previously mentioned), part number RPT-75B. They are NOT pin compatible, but the same 3.96mm spacing. And uses JST connectors instead of whatever that's on the old one.
To make the upgrade simple, I desoldered the JST connectors and installed the same style of connector as on UMEC, so that I wouldn't need to recrimp all the wires. I'll just need to pop it out of the old 6pin housing, and put them in the new 8 pin housing in the right order... I'll be testing it later today.
Wish me luck....
What i found was what many others online also found out(many years ago), that G68 was using a cheap industrial open frame power supply from UMEC. The power supply appears to have been designed by a intern, as the main power transistors(+12VDC) is squeezed up against the power output connector, with no room for any cooling or possibility of adding a heatsink. The nylon plastic of the DC plug, and socket have been baked black from the heat, while the solder and traces turned crispy as they oxidized and glue fail from the constant heat.
It looked like a simple fix, just solder and bodge it up will get it running. Then it would fail again.
Fortunately, i still have contact at Skynet power supply, and a business account there to order directly from them. They are one of the much better(best?) switching power supply manufacturer around, and i trust the durability and the quality of DC output from their products. So... Well... They don't have a good replacement... (Their product catalog is one thing, but sometimes it is just not feasible to get them to build one for me if they don't already have stock)
Then I looked at Meanwell's medical grade open frame power supply... Damn, they have gotten a lot better since i last checked Luke 10 years ago. The quality of their DC output is really good, easily blows away UMEC that Meridian uses, and better than the replacement part supply that they later used for warranty repair.
I bought mine from Mouser (not Newark as I previously mentioned), part number RPT-75B. They are NOT pin compatible, but the same 3.96mm spacing. And uses JST connectors instead of whatever that's on the old one.
To make the upgrade simple, I desoldered the JST connectors and installed the same style of connector as on UMEC, so that I wouldn't need to recrimp all the wires. I'll just need to pop it out of the old 6pin housing, and put them in the new 8 pin housing in the right order... I'll be testing it later today.
Wish me luck....
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