Picked up this old toy synth that was made in the 80s with the intention of teaching myself some stuff, but it came with no power cable. While I'm thinking of picking up an 8V adapter and Jerry-rigging the wires through the holes, I'd prefer to get something that doesn't require me to strip the wires, but if necessary I'll go ahead and snag an adapter and do that. Any help would be fantastic!

    • MarxGuns [comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Yeah, actually looks like 9v goes to 9B+ and GND to 9B-, according to this. External speaker on pins 1 and 2 of вн.ус. Also looks like it steps it down to 5v inside using a resistor and zener diode of some sort (КС147А). If you had a benchtop power supply that you could really limit the current on to something tiny (10mA), then you could put 9v on the 9B pins and dial up the current until it starts working (but slowly and probably don't let it go over an amp or so in case 9B isn't the right place to put the supply on). Not really sure what the supply should be but it might need more than an amp, I suppose.

    • ComradeBeefheart [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I think it would be useful, but I haven't been able to read a circuit since a course I took in physics where we worked with circuits, and its been some years since then, the schematic is Russian, and I didn't do well in that course lol. My PIF synth actually came in its original box with a little instruction manual (all in russian, and from where that schematic pic seems to have been taken from), so I'm just trying to figure out how to power it without blowing a capacitor or something. I think I'm gonna go ahead and pick up a standard 9V adapter, strip the wire, check the polarity, cram them in their respective holes, and then maybe duct tape it. I've found only one post online about powering the PIF synth, and that seemed to be their solution. Thanks for the help anyhow!

    • Puggo [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Can confirm that the Cyrillic on top spells "PIF"

  • wrecker_vs_dracula [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The one on the left looks like a speaker wire connector, and the one on the right looks like an octal tube socket. So I have no idea.

    • Neckbeard_Prime [they/them,he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      The "B" socket on the left is short for вольт, which is "volts" -- that's a 9V DC power connector. The other one is a DIN socket (think MIDI plug) with some kind of headphone/external speaker output on pins 2 and 3.

      Edit: confirmed via Google Translate, the "BH. YC." is an abbreviation for "внешний усилитель" -- External Amplifier.

      • wrecker_vs_dracula [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Wild. So it looks like the power connector is just two screws recessed in that plastic bit. Are you really supposed to just pinch two naked wire ends with a 9v DC potential between them under those screws?