SGI Fuel ATX Adapters - alternatives not made by me spotted on the market

[kubatyszko]

All, It has come to my attention that there are alternative SGI Fuel ATX adapters on the market, I've discovered a sale that happened on eBay, shipped from Czech Republic.
The adapters I've seen are VERY basic, basically a bundle of wires made using 24 pin and 8 pin ATX extenders, including Fan signal generator.
This is a very similar design to my first prototype from year 2011 or so.
I haven't had them in hand, so I cannot confirm whether the seller designed their own, or used my design in any way (not an accusation).

There was a time when I would have sworn it didn't make sense to evolve my design further, but ultimately, in the light of easier assembly and other features, I have designed PCB that would serve the purpose.
The design has come a very long way, my first PCB were two-piece, with nasty blobs of solder adedd on for greater current capacity.
Today's design (version 4), is a single-PCB design that snaps in, with several additional features that tens of users have found helpul, such as:

*) kickstart button - helps you force the Fuel to start even if the motherboard won't
*) status LED's (standby and power), help you see what's actually happening before you even power the machine up
*) additonal fan signal carried out, in case you needed to use it and feed it in place of another fan

There are more features I'm planning as well, currently finalizing the redesign, stay tuned.

Buying adapters from me, you have guarantee of the highest quality product (and if not, I always make the buyer whole, and I have to admit, I've done it a handful of times). Product backed by over 10 years of my work, hundreds of hours of engineering and research.
Not to mention, *YOUR* help, with feedback and questions.
Virtually all the features of my adapters resulted from customer feedback and suggestions.
I've sold well over a hundred units, many of which went to professionals, made it to hospitals, CT/MRI machines etc.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming these other adapters are copycats or accusing anyone.
I see a seller on eBay from the same country refurbishing a lot of SGI machines and it's entirely possible they decided to make their own.
I respect anyone who puts their time into keeping the SGI dream alive, even if it's stepping on my toes. I'd just prefer if they spent their time on other "undiscovered" topics.


Remember, if you *found* me, this usually means that your Fuel is broken, with bad Power Supply, or other problems that are commen (such as monitoring chips). My adapters are a solution that will help you diagnose whatever it is.
You're dealing with a computer that costs thousands of dollars these days, would you prefer to bet on a bundle of wires, or a professionally designed circuit boards that just belongs there together with 10 years of my expertise ?


Thank you all for supporting my product.

P.S. I have a few units in stock today.


Cheers

 

[isoriano]

I don't know if it is allowed but maybe you could post a link to your shop or how to procure them. Btw I bought one of those Fuel's from CZ with the ATX adapters. And the other colleague from CZ is a member in this forum as well.

Cheers

Iggi

 

[onre]

Sure it is allowed.

 

[flexion]

Got my Fuel also from "that other forum member" but I'm using kubatyszko's ATX adapter and am very happy with this purchase ..as well as the Fuel

 

[kubatyszko]

I don't know if it is allowed but maybe you could post a link to your shop or how to procure them. Btw I bought one of those Fuel's from CZ with the ATX adapters. And the other colleague from CZ is a member in this forum as well.

Cheers

Iggi

My adapters are available over eBay, Tindie and directly, usually buyers would contact me via PM and then we take it from there…

 

[cz7asm]

Hey, I'm that other forum member. That was exactly my goal - to build a VERY BASIC adapter that would do a VERY BASIC thing - rewire voltage rails. I was in a situation where I had to replace about 15 PSU's and I saw no point in putting so much money into something that does so little. At the time I started building them, your unit sold on ebay for 155$ with shipping to EU (from muratatechnology user, it might not be directly you) . If I'm not counting hours of crimping, that I grew to enjoy, I easily built all 15 adapters for this money.

I never had any of your adapters. I simply took both WTX and ATX pinout standards and crisscrossed the wires. To manage the fan signal I took little 555 breakout board, hooked a transistor on it to get an open collector output and that was it. Hardly any IP there to copycat. Of course if I based it on your PCB idea then it would be a different story, a bit naughty at least. However, I still prefer wires, they have this advantage that one can more easily rely on current rating than with PCB traces (AWG vs both math and trial and error).

There is no intention of competition with your thing. It all came from a certain need and since I grew to like crimping wires during long winter evenings I though I might offer them to others. So again - no intention to undermine "your business"

 

[kubatyszko]

Hey, I'm that other forum member. That was exactly my goal - to build a VERY BASIC adapter that would do a VERY BASIC thing - rewire voltage rails. I was in a situation where I had to replace about 15 PSU's and I saw no point in putting so much money into something that does so little. At the time I started building them, your unit sold on ebay for 155$ with shipping to EU (from muratatechnology user, it might not be directly you) . If I'm not counting hours of crimping, that I grew to enjoy, I easily built all 15 adapters for this money.

I never had any of your adapters. I simply took both WTX and ATX pinout standards and crisscrossed the wires. To manage the fan signal I took little 555 breakout board, hooked a transistor on it to get an open collector output and that was it. Hardly any IP there to copycat. Of course if I based it on your PCB idea then it would be a different story, a bit naughty at least. However, I still prefer wires, they have this advantage that one can more easily rely on current rating than with PCB traces (AWG vs both math and trial and error).

There is no intention of competition with your thing. It all came from a certain need and since I grew to like crimping wires during long winter evenings I though I might offer them to others. So again - no intention to undermine "your business"

Cool, I'm glad we agree
Yes, muratechnology is selling his adapter (to this day), currently going for $75. I contacted him yesterday and he had one adapter that he has no need for (maybe because he got an original PSU, or the Fuel is dead). I haven't seen it going for $155 (but I wouldn't see the total price with EU shipping costs).
I asked him to modify his description (which he copied from my action) to ensure nobody gets confused.

In the past I've sold my adapters in Bulk to professional SGI refurbishes with modest discounts (below what I'm asking on eBay), If my memory serves I sold as many as 30 adapters at a time to them, some of them ended up in Xray/MRI/CT machines.
My offer stands if you'd prefer to save your time and spend it on actual refurbishing work or simply enjoying your long winter night with a beer and a SGI .

I think I only made 3 of the "original 2011" wire-based prototypes using ATX extenders, but I found it was too much labor, it was also unreliable since it's too easy to make a mistake. Hence I designed a PCB that would reduce risk of mistakes to nearly zero. Later I kept redesigning the PCB to improve the assembly process and make them even more reliable.

As for current capacity, I do agree that the proper AWG wires are a good idea, but my PCB's are special order with VERY thick copper to guarantee equal or greater current capacity (assuming 9A per junction). This thick copper has its consequences - each PCB costs a lot of money, it's hard to solder components to it (heat escapes) and due to etching the distance between traces and components has to be pretty big. So, no risk there, I've spend months designing and redesigning the PCB's to ensure they're safe and will handle any load thrown (incl 800Mhz CPU and a V12 Fuels).
As for signal generation, I did try using 555's in 2010 but I found it unreliable, especially in terms of achieving perfect 50/50 duty cycle, hence my design being different (but 100% reliable, with perfect 50/50 duty cycle).

I'm not against folks making their own adapters, and I know a few who did. I even helped them with some tips.

Anyway, good to hear from you and I glad we're in agreement.

 

[Elf]

Nothing wrong with there being two good products on the market, and thank you to both who have produced them.

I'm glad at least someone enjoys crimping, I can't say I do

 

[cz7asm]

It's all a matter of preference. You say you spent years polishing your design to be able to provide 9 Amps on terminals. This is instant if one uses wires with 9A terminals. Both solutions do the same very basic thing - rewiring of voltage rails. Comparing "bundle of wires" vs PCB is just esthetics - I really see no difference in the final result.

Also one note to the fan signal duty cycle. This is handled by DS1780 (I wrote a post about it here). In its datasheet there is a description of measuring fan pulses. It measures only a period, not a duty cycle. I also tested this with a signal generator - it doesn't care if the duty cycle is 50 or 90%. You can even try duty cycle sweep from 10 to 90 % and the result still will be the same. What is also nice about simple 555 circuits in this case - as the temperature starts rising the frequency does too - just like a fan might do. So I cannot agree here that this is unreliable solution.