Emax

Hey Ted 
great job, where do I advertise? 
Can you tell me what your power supply is rated @? 
Mike G 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ted Summers" <djtbs1@...> 
To: emax@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 10:42:03 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central 
Subject: [emax] Emax Drive power readings 

So I have heard it many times that internal Zip drives take too much 
power and will cause the Power Supply to fail. 

I am thinking this is bollocks. 
So it was time to do my own little episode of Myth-Busters. 

Well- I have in my possession: 

Internal Zip 100MB Drive 
Miniscribe 8425 20MB Drive 
Conner CP3040A 
PCD-50 and MicroTech DPAI-SCSI PCMCIA drives 

So, to put this to rest once and for all I rigged up: 
Ampmeter on 5v and 12v power rails and I measured the drives several 
times to come up with some average numbers. 
Peak is highest value hit ever, and occurs on first power on. 

Here is the comparison..... 


12v Amps 
12v Amps 
12v Amps 
12v Amps 

5v Amps 
5v Amps 
5v Amps 
5v Amps 
Drive Description 
Peak 
Load (r/w) 
Idle 
Label Rating 

Peak 
Load (r/w) 
Idle 
Label Rating 
Miniscrbe 8425SA � Full Height 
1.12 
0.86 
0.86 
0.9 

0.6 
0.58 
0.56 
0.9 
OEM equipment for Emax 









If I am incorrect, someone let me know 



















Conner CP3040A � Half Height 
0.56 
0.52 
0.12 
0.25 

0.51 
0.5 
0.4 
0.28 










Zip 100MB -Internal 
0 
0 
0 
None 

0.58 
0.43 
0.41 
0.8 










SCM PCD-50B PCMCIA / CF adapter 
0 
0 
0 
None 

0.58 
0.54 
0.21 
1.5 


As we can see from my readings, the Label Rating may or may not be 
accurate - look at the Conner.... 
Is that an average of the load and idle numbers on the label for the 
12V??? 
:-) 

But we can see from my tests that the Miniscribe would be hardest on 
the power supply and has the highest power consumption..... 

We can see that from my tests the 5v power distribution is no harder 
hit by a Zip or PC Card drive than the original Miniscribe, and once 
into idle mode after data read, is lower by an obvious margin. 
Additionally, they completely remove any load that occurs on the 12V 
power rail. 

Your Mileage May Vary, but from what I can see, neither internal Zip 
or PC Card drive is a bad option. 

Regards, 
Ted 




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