My Take

Sometimes a piece of hardware does some fun and overtly noticeable thing, like adds new audio capabilities, or new storage abilities or more memory to our Commodore. But other pieces of hardware have a less glorious role to play, but one which is still very important.

Anyone who has been in the Commodore world for more than a short time, and has not been living under a rock for 25 years, knows that Commodore's original brick power supplies, the infamous black brick in particular, are prone to failure. This problem is often exasperated by the modern Commodore user's penchant to add power sucking third-party hardware to the expansion and user ports. And when these power supplies die, they often go out with a bang. As they die, they are prone to voltage spikes. This unfortunately can leave our precious (and sometimes irreplaceable) Commodore ICs at risk of being damaged.

saV64 is one of a few products in the same vein (see the similar products section on the side) which serves the non-glorious but important role in protecting your Commodore from overvoltage produced by misbehaving power supplies.

Its use is pretty straightforward. It is a small box, it has a jack and a plug on the end of a short cable. You plug the plug into the power socket of your C64 (or compatible machine), and you connect your questionable Commodore power supply to the jack on the saV64. Then you use your Commodore as usual, with the peace of mind that the machine is safe from overvoltage.

If you care at all about keeping your Commodore safe and working for a long time, once you know about the problem, and the existence of a solution, you'll probably feel dirty and irresponsible for not buying one.

saV64 comes in a very professional and sleek looking aluminum enclosure.

Want to support my hard work? Here's how!

Follow @gregnacu

Description

Here's the complete list of features:

• Protect your Commodore 64(C/G/GS/Aldi), Commodore MAX, Commodore VIC-20 CR, or Plus/4 (with an adapter) from overvoltage on the 5VDC line.
• 5VDC and 9VAC Barrel connectors to allow easy use of alternative power sources. 5VDC barrel input is also protected from overvoltage.
• Use an external 5VDC power source and continue using your Commodore power supply for 9VAC even when its 5VDC has failed.
• Designed to handle 3 Amps in order to protect and power your system.
• High quality relay that disconnects both DC and AC lines in the case of an overvoltage condition.
• Dual color LED indicating the 5VDC status: Normal (Green) or Tripped (Red)
• Can be reset with the recessed reset button or by unplugging the power source.
• LED indicator shows when voltage is safe or tripped.
• Four possible trip point settings to customize the protection to your system.
• A high quality aluminum enclosure with factory cut openings. The case is quite small at around 2.5 Inches Wide by 2.8 Inches Deep and 1.5 Inches tall.
• 3M Rubber Feet and a professionally printed SaV64 logo are also included to complete the device.