rbarr110

Has anyone gotten a sproggy to work with EPIA boards?

I can't get my Sproggy 2.8+ to work with my 800mhx ITX board. This is the pre "M" version itx board.

If you have got it to work, how the hell did you do it?!?

rbarr110

I take the lack of replies as a big fat NO.

Ces///M3

i got my sproggy up to 600mhz with just a regular hard drive attached... I think anything more is pushing it beyond its limits

You can always try to use a laptop hd, that might work... I cant guarantee it though

CrazyLittle

I am powering a Via Epia 800, Lappy hard drive, and USB LCD from a sproggy.

You've got about 65-70W of power to work with. Don't go overboard, but don't think it's the end of the world. People were using the sproggy for quite a while with plenty of sucess.

HOWEVER - you'll find that it's much easier and cheaper to probably just daisy-chain two of the mini-ITX power supplies together (one for the mobo components, and one for your additional hardware).

And if you're still exceeding that kind of power, then screw it, go get a OPUS power supply.

rbarr110

All I am trying to run is the 800mhz ITX board, laptop CD-rom, laptop harddrive.

But the thing wont boot up at all. It boots fine with a regular PS.

When I manually ground pin 14 on the sproggy header it powers up and supplies the correct voltages. It just does not power up when connected to the ITX board.

ANy help here?

CrazyLittle

Are you using any PCI cards? Also are you certain that the RAM is seated properly. Check your connections and make sure the mobo and/or sproggy isn't grounding out. Try bootting a different motherboard with only video and ram (no other drives, etc) to see if it's a current problem.

digitallexus

I have the M9000 and Sproggy 2.7.

To test a scenario with completely minimized power usage, I've tried powering up the motherboard with absolutely nothing attached. nothing. no memory, no keyboard, no harddrive, nothing. (even tried unplugging the processor fan). All on-board peripherals are disabled (i.e. lan, audio, etc)

With a desktop ac powersupply it starts up, POSTs and as expected complains loudly about missing memory, etc.

With the sproggy it just spins up the motherboard fan, but never POSTs. With a keyboard attached, you can see the keyboard flash as it gets initial power.

CrazyLittle

EPIA M-series motherboards are already known to need more than 65w of power at startup. This has been posted repeatedly under threads entitled "EPIA M" and various other "OPUS AND EPIA" threads.

If it won't work with an OPUS, it won't work with a sproggy.

digitallexus

Yes I have seen that statement before. The comments I saw were only speculation though and the person didn't really know for sure. Just saying it need > 65Watts is a little vague.

Now, if someone could prove that the 3.3v rail for instance requires X number of amps, but the opus and sproggy only supply < X, then we can attempt to fix the problem.

Supposedly OPUS made a simple? mod to the original version of their power supply to make it work. That seems to imply that it was something besides a redesign to increase in power output on a particular rail. ? No one seems to know what the mod is though.

In any case, it is likely a lack of power, but I would like to establish exactly on which rail(s).

For reference, I was able to make the M9000 work with a small (150w) AC atx power supply with the following specs:

3.3 7A
5 12A
12 5A
-12 300mA

I have a sproggy 2.7, which has the following specs: (approx 85watts)

3.3 5A (peak 6.5)
5 10A (peak 13)
12 1.3A
-12 100mA

em00guy

does your m9000 work properly with the sproggy ?

digitallexus

no I can't get the M9000 to work with the Sproggy 2.7. It powers up the processor fan, but never POST's.

The operation specs document on via's website show that the sproggy is powerful enough to run the motherboard once the machine is on. Unfortunately the document doesn't list the startup power requirements like they have done in guides for some of their other motherboards. maybe they don't want to make it public :-)

Here is the op guide:
http://www.viavpsd.com/product/3/4/EPIA M Operating Guidelines Version 1.10.pdf

As you can see below, the motherboard requires very little power ( only 26 Watts when doing the most intensive operation - playing a DVD ):

EPIA M 9000

Playing DVD
Test Voltage Real Voltage Tested Amp. Watts
+3.3V 3.37V 3.38A 11.3906W
+5V 4.89V 2.52A 12.3228W
5VSB 5.02V 0.14A 0.7028W
+12V 12.51V 0.164A 2.0516W
Total Watts: 26.4678W

Playing MP3
Test Voltage Real Voltage Tested Amp. Watts
+3.3V 3.37V 2.98A 10.0426W
+5V 4.89V 2.05A 10.0245W
5VSB 5.02V 0.14A 0.7028W
+12V 12.51V 0.162A 2.0266W
Total Watts: 22.7965W

Running Network Applications
Test Voltage Real Voltage Tested Amp. Watts
+3.3V 3.37V 2.92A 9.8404W
+5V 4.89V 1.35A 6.6015W
5VSB 5.02V 0.14A 0.7028W
+12V 12.51V 0.161A 2.0141W
Total Watts: 19.1588W

Idle
Test Voltage Real Voltage Tested Amp. Watts
+3.3V 3.37V 2.73A 9.2001W
+5V 4.89V 0.98A 4.7922W
5VSB 5.02V 0.14A 0.7028W
+12V 12.51V 0.161A 2.0141W
Total Watts: 16.7092W

Running Office Applications
Test Voltage Real Voltage Tested Amp. Watts
+3.3V 3.37V 3.12A 10.5144W
+5V 4.89V 2.51A 12.2739W
5VSB 5.02V 0.14A 0.7028W
+12V 12.51V 0.163A 2.0391W
Total Watts: 25.5302W

mikeinsanmarcos

So, 2 amps is more a realistic draw on the 12 volt input right?

digitallexus

by 12v input, do you mean the front side connection from the car battery to the sproggy?

I am not sure how to calculate the input amp requirements.

PTCruiser

You don't have 10A on a the 5V line...(5A max 6.5A)

You have only one max for the +5V....

Are you using low ESR cap?
Put a bigger output ESR CAP on the 5V output (~1000 uf)

digitallexus

No, actually I have version 2.7 of the sproggy. It has an extra 787 for twice the 5v power output. (2 * 5A = 10A and 2*6.5=13A peak)