[weblacky]

Hi All,
The big day is here, I have finished my batch of Indy Nidec 170W PSUs (thoroughly tested and resealed) and am now placing them online for sale!

Here’s the low-down, Each PSU I post is rusty gold, opened by yours truly and carefully blown out and dusted with a soft brush and compressed air, ALL electrolytics removed (even the two large filter caps) then a brush and IPA were used to clean around the open regions and the fan was cleaned by hand.

New United Chemi-Con and Nichicon caps were installed (like or same families of caps that came out of it).  On several units the filter caps are another high-brand due to part shortages, the rest are as stated.

The front panel controls were checked and buttons were replaced if found unresponsive or unreliable, any new buttons will have an orange appearance due to part availability as the unusual shape and plunger depth on these microswitches aren’t readily available in white.

These were first bench-tested (loaded) on a 4 Amp pull on the 3.3v and 5V rails and checked for stability, then placed in an Indy station and Irix was loaded using this PSU and ran for at least 3 hours.

Since most of the old stabilizer had to be removed to access the caps, I have placed new silicon stabilizer on the required areas (sparingly).

Some PSUs had semiconductors replaced and some resistors, but some are just cap replacements and cleaning, whatever it took to get it running.

The units have mild plating corrosion as they were stored in unregulated temperatures in storage areas, none of these are shiny/new.

Any real rust was addressed with a cold Zinc Galvanized spray (currently only on one unit).


To that end I am posting individual units (not a lot/group).  The pictures provided are of the actual unit for sale (no fake-outs), you can decide for yourself if you cannot accept the condition of a specific unit or not.  All are pretty standard for their age.  But please judge each unit for sale by its pictures.

I will be posting different PSUs in multiple places (I will not cross-post), but you’ll see me on eBay, SGUG, and IrixNet to cast the widest net possible with other PSUs.  Obviously, the best deals are here on IrixNet!

PRICE: $250 with free shipping via US Postal Priority within the continental USA.
CORE CHARGE: When you buy an INDY PSU from me, you have the option of me buying back your old PSU and giving you a credit (cash).  I pay a lump $35 for an Indy Nidec PSU, $25 for a Sony.

I will Accept PayPal, Zelle, and US Postal Money Order.  Please note that PayPal requires a fee, please select merchant/goods and services and add $9.55 to the $250 cover the fees (else I do not actually receive $250, I'd receive $240.79.   I need to receive $250 in my account else payment hasn't been received in full.

Standard Warranty is 90 Days from receipt of the PSU, warranty does not cover fan noise, but does cover fan failure (stopped spinning entirely or extremely slow/buzzing).  The warranty functions like this.  Within the warranty period, if you experience a PSU failure NOT related to lighting strike, flood, fire, misuse, acts of gods, damage by pets/people, or other malicious natured acts…I’ll cover it.  Keep your original packaging within the warranty period, use that packaging and send it to me, I’ll reimburse you the paid amount on the receipt/label for your shipping costs!  I’ll also pay to ship it back to you.  That’s my promise on my work and I stand by it.

I’ll inspect and fix or replace your PSU at my cost (assuming I don’t find any evidence the warranty was enacted in bad faith), your old warranty will continue and NOT restart.  You’ll have the remainder of your warranty or 30 days (whichever is longer) with your repaired/replaced PSU.  If you want a longer warranty, you’ll have to pay for the coverage increase.

Each PSU has been sealed with a tamper sticker, should that sticker be removed or otherwise tampered with, your warranty is no more.  I can give special permission to open a PSU under only special agreed circumstance without voiding your warranty.

I stand behind these PSUs as my best effort to rebuild them and replace failing parts and test them in a reasonable manner.  Obviously, things can happen and if they do, please contact me so I can help.


The Skinny:
For just IrixNet, I’ll be real here, this isn’t a money maker, after materials, shipping, packaging, and original costs my margin is less than 35% on these.  I make a little money to cover my research and labor costs.  Due to the low cost of Indy PSUs in general I know the market will not support any more.  So you get a rebuilt supply you can depend on, I get paid about 2 hours’ worth of time for the work.

You can lower your costs slightly by selling back your old PSU to me, I need PSUs to keep fixing to offer to others.  But I only buy PSUs in good outward shape that haven’t been tampered with.

I’m doing this for my own experience and for the community to even offer rebuilds, no one else is offering this and you deserve an option to keep your Indy running smoothly on clean power. 

Consider giving me a chance to prove these rebuilds work. And you can rest easy on PSU mishaps in the near future along with free shipping and a 90 day warranty!


PSUs posting for #1 & #2 have been sold. PSU #3 is now for sale!
************************* PSU #3 *********************** Certified on Jan 15, 2022:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

[Raion]

Very nice! I will be interested in purchasing a Sony one IF you can modify the thermistor circuit to blow at a lower threshold -- currently the Nidec has worse power values and cleanliness AFAIK (Unless you can show measurements of how clean it is now?) but the Sony's issue is because it doesn't engage until the system is already overheating.

I understand you wouldn't be able to "Warranty" this work, but I'm too much of a coward to try and fry a PSU.

Let me know if you can negotiate such a thing in the near future. As you plan on fixed pricing/charges across the board, I have no personal issue with your crossposting policy. Proceed!

[weblacky]

Very nice! I will be interested in purchasing a Sony one IF you can modify the thermistor circuit to blow at a lower threshold -- currently the Nidec has worse power values and cleanliness AFAIK (Unless you can show measurements of how clean it is now?) but the Sony's issue is because it doesn't engage until the system is already overheating.

I understand you wouldn't be able to "Warranty" this work, but I'm too much of a coward to try and fry a PSU.

Let me know if you can negotiate such a thing in the near future. As you plan on fixed pricing/charges across the board, I have no personal issue with your crossposting policy. Proceed!

I understand the basic findings in this area, but this Nidec PSU (as designed, new) meets SGI/Indy specifications and was sold with the systems by SGI.  I think the power it produces (when it has fresh components) works just fine and doesn't pose anymore risk to the Indy than the Sony PSUs do.  Also do please note that the experiment carried out on the cleanliness of the power done on old used power supplies, with old capacitors).  So we don't really know what a rebuilt one would produce.

That said, I understand your request and I understand your comfortable with the Sonys (it's your preference).  I have two Sony's now and I will be getting a third shortly.  When I crack them open to look and put together a build list I'll see if there is an obvious chip or circuit that controls the fan and by how much is spins, the best I could hope for is likely "shifting" the current sliding scale.  So I may not be able to change the slope of the cooling curve, but I may be able to shift it to the left (closer to cold) so it turns on earlier.  That's barely within my current abilities.

My prized Indy in my collection runs a Nidec PSU, always has.  I've never had any system issue with it and I completely trust them as they are the dominant Indy PSU out there.  But again, if there is a market for it, I will see about looking into the Sonys.

[CB_HK]

PM sent!

[weblacky]

PM sent!

Responded to PM.

[callahan]

Very nice! I will be interested in purchasing a Sony one IF you can modify the thermistor circuit to blow at a lower threshold -- currently the Nidec has worse power values and cleanliness AFAIK (Unless you can show measurements of how clean it is now?) but the Sony's issue is because it doesn't engage until the system is already overheating.

I understand you wouldn't be able to "Warranty" this work, but I'm too much of a coward to try and fry a PSU.

Let me know if you can negotiate such a thing in the near future. As you plan on fixed pricing/charges across the board, I have no personal issue with your crossposting policy. Proceed!

I think the thermistor only controls the fan curve? In my Sony I just hardwired the fan to the 12v rail, with a Noctua noise reducer (I believe this is just a resistor) in series.

Still basically silent, but no more overheating worries.

[robespierre]

I believe this issue was discussed at some length on Nekochan, but I can't find it in the archives. Is the fan simply powered through a NTC resistor?

My impression is that the Indy suffered from conflicting requirements. One was to have an effectively silent computer on the desktop, for videoconferencing or audio production work (the Indigo2 was proving to be annoyingly loud for these things). Another requirement was to have sufficient cooling ability for internal HDDs, powerful processors, and option cards, since a machine with an SGI price tag needs to be upgradable. A third requirement is to control costs, both design NRE and production cost. Putting a NTC in series with a regular computer fan is a compromise, because it adds minimal part cost, requires very little additional engineering, and sort-of satisfies the first two requirements. But they are not properly satisfied, because such a primitive control mechanism cannot truly set the airflow to the needed value: it's more like a gesture than a real solution.

A real solution would maintain sufficient minimum airflow to prevent hot spots from developing as the machine warms up in a cold ambient environment, and track temperature rise by increasing heat ejection to maintain a safe operating level, without overcompensating by creating annoying fan speed surges. This may require a servo programmed to respond to tachometer feedback from the fan, zoned temperature monitors, and power supply voltage and current monitoring. Pretty soon you arrive at something looking more like a Fuel than an Indy.

[weblacky]

The posted PSU has been sold along with an additional PSU to CB_HK. PSU #3 is now up for sale!

[CB_HK]

PSUs received! I’ll check them out and will get feedback posted shortly! Any issues and I’ll hit you up first.

Thanks, weblacky!

[weblacky]

PSUs received! I’ll check them out and will get feedback posted shortly! Any issues and I’ll hit you up first.

Thanks, weblacky!

CB_HK has confirmed receipt of package intact, we'll follow-up with feedback after a successful testing period on CB_HK's end.