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Converting the Cat to run on 240V mains voltage

Instructions on how to convert a Cat to run on 240VAC mains voltage.

The Cat was mainly sold in the USA, thus it operates with 110V 60Hz mains power. I'm personally using my Cat with a external 230-110V voltage converter. The 50/60Hz difference doesn't seem to matter too much for short usage periods.

Here are Mark's instructions on how to convert the Cat for 240V operation. As usual with such modifications, be careful and your mileage may vary!

The modification to 240Vac was straightforward - although I was somewhat paranoid in double checking everything I did; the spare parts for a Cat are probably nonexistent.

  1. power off, plug disconnected (so don't sue me)
  2. Remove the rear plastic cover (4 screws)
  3. Remove the metal cover that wraps around the rear of the CRT (6 screws)
  4. Remove the metal cover that sits at the top of the CRT. (4 screws)
  5. Remove the floppy (you can leave the ribbon attached) (3 screws)
  6. Remove the power supply box (left hand side of CRT looking from rear). Be careful not to damage the wiring loom that sits underneath it.
  7. Remove the two rear connections. Open the power supply (three screws)
  8. Inside is a wire with a label "115V". One end of this wire is soldered to the board. The other end is attached to a post labelled 115V.
  9. Detach the wire from the 115V post and attach to another post labelled 230V. This post is further away from the mains input end. Change the label if you like.
  10. Put everything back together in the opposite order. Put a sticker over the label on the case, so that someone (one day) will know that it has changed. That someone might be you.

The output from the power supply is +5 0 +12 -12V. All three connectors on the supply have the same pinout so you can't get it wrong, but left to right it goes [orange black red pink] [light-blue black red n/c] [n/c n/c n/c n/c]

There is no AC signalling out of the power supply, so the 50Hz/60Hz thing can't be affecting any timing signals. The CRT controller board makes its own high voltage.

The only other maintenance I did was to add some dry lube to the floppy disk drive to help the tired old eject spring. I wiped some dry lube onto the side edges of a disk, and went through the insert/eject cycle about 30 times. I also put some dry lube on the lower left face of the disk (as it sits in the drive) up to about 7mm from the edge. This puts some lubricant on some mechanical sensing levers.

If you open the drive, there is a raised section of plate that supports a swinging lever that hold the eject spring. Use a match stick or similar to put some dry lubricant on that surface.

Thanks to "Mark" in Australia.

 

Updated 7.6.2004. 1261 hits. Since 2001. Hosted by ihaa.com