Subject: Re: installed covers help with cooling
To: Ted Havelka <ted@cs.pdx.edu>
From: Bruce O'Neel <edoneel@sdf.lonestar.org>
List: port-sparc
Date: 01/30/2006 12:15:28
Hi,

From ebay, not necessarly the cheapest a search on sun type 5 keyboard 
showed up 1 buy-it-now at $14.99, one with an optical mouse
currently at $5.24, and a few others.

You can also choose a type 6, at least one of which is buy-it-now at $29.99,
brand new.

If you are willing to wait you might be able to find someone giveing them
away.  

cheers

bruce

On Fri, Jan 27, 2006 at 03:28:04PM -0800, Ted Havelka wrote:
> 
> Hello Khaqq,
> 
> I recongnized that having the cover off kept air from rushing over the
> blue Ross heatsinks.  I'd heard similar words of "keep the cover and slot
> covers on your PC..." for the same reason, and it makes good sense.  In
> the case of the stacked Ross processor cards, I also noted how little
> space remains between them when they are installed.  And these card
> necessarily install in the connectors closest to the motherboard CPU,
> which are slightly different than the other (standard?) SBUS connectors.
> 
> On the processor SBUS slots there appear to be five or six additional
> contacts, probably powers and grounds, in between the rows of fine-pitch
> conductors.  So I then knew not to attempt moving one Ross card to an
> alternate stack of connectors.
> 
> I also learned that (at least this Sparc 10) does not put anything out on
> its video card with a bad keyboard attached.  Not sure what's wrong with
> the first keyboard I used -- green LEDs blinked and system beeps, but no
> video from the Sparc 10 and no response to keys pressed.  Tested later on
> an IPX system which does show video despite bad keyboard, it complains "no
> keyboard found, putting console on tty1" or similar.
> 
> As Sun no longer makes the Sparc type keyboards, is it worth trying to fix
> a seemingly dead one?  Back in the late 90's I remember our lead Unix
> admin at Portland State University talk about how the new keyboards for
> Sparcs cost $110 in their day.  Their market value is far less now, but
> I've heard that it's not easy to get a PS/2 keyboard to work with Sparc
> systems.
> 
> 
> - Ted
>                                        -   O
> Portland State Aerospace Society    -   _<_\_         Veris Industries
> http://psas.pdx.edu                    W >\_             www.veris.com
> ted@cs.pdx.edu                        ( ) ( )    ted.havelka@veris.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, 28 Jan 2006, khaqq wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 08:42:17 -0800 (PST)
> > Ted Havelka <ted@cs.pdx.edu> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Hello All,
> > >
> > > Thank you for the warnings about the heat from a four-processor Sparc
> > > system with the "pizza box" form factor.  While I had the hood open to
> > > install a hard drive, I noticed that the dual Ross-processor cards quickly
> > > heat up.  Since I'd like this system to work for a long time to come, I
> > > took the cautious route and removed one of the Ross processor cards.
> >
> > Running without the top cover may actually increase overheating, as
> > those pizzabox chassis are designed to push air from right to left, which
> > does not happen without the cover.
> > If you do not need quad CPUs, removing one of the modules will both save
> > power and should yield better reliability.
> >
> > > Remarkably someone had dumped this Sparc 10 about a year ago by the
> > > dumpster of the apartment complex where I live in Portland, Oregon.  It
> > > had rained all day, and I was literally pouring water out of the chassis
> > > of this computer.  After a week's drying I booted up and watched prom
> > > messages from an instance of hyperterminal running on an old i80386-based
> > > monochrome laptop.  That's how I learned the system was still alive.
> >
> > Lucky...
> >
> > khaqq
> >

-- 
edoneel@sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org