Thursday, November 8, 2012

Sheevaplug computer power supply failed



I have a SheevaPlug computer.  I have been using it as a DHCP and DNS server in my home network. But recently, it just stopped working.

I unplugged it and plugged it back in, but it was completely dead.  No LED activity, nothing.

I did some research and discovered that they are prone to power supply failures.  That seemed to be my case.  So I opened it up (the screws are hidden under the little rubber feet).  I opened up the power supply box and discovered this:

Sheevaplugg burned power supply

It doesn't show up all that well in this picture, but almost ALL of the capacitors are burned.  You can see the large one in the center has a raised and bubbled black area on it.

The power supply is just a 5V 3A supply.  I looked through my power supplies I have that I'm not using and found a D-Link supply that was 5V and 2.5A.  Good enough.  I cut off the plug and wired it up.  By the way, the positive output from the power supply goes to the red wires on the Sheeva.  It even says +5V on the board.  It may seem obvious, but I don't recommend hooking it up backwards.

After a little bit of solder and electrical tape, I plugged it in and voila:

sheevaplug computer with new power supply

It's not as pretty as it was, but I booted it up and logged in and everything seemed to be working.

I'm going to re-configure it as a web server since I don't really need it to be a DHCP or DNS server.  It was more of an experiment and learning process for myself.


Check out my YouTube channel:  www.youtube.com/KedarWarriner

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