multiple vax 6000's free to a good home
Lord Isildur
a contact at the pittsburgh supercomputing center passed word to me that
they are about to junk several vax6000's. They were recently running,
but have apparently something funny with the main power supplies. This
part comes to me secondhand so i dont know if the 'something funny' is
that they take 3-phase ;)
i just asked to get some more details about them, ill post more when i
learn. The machines are located in pittsburgh, pa, and i would assume
that there is a loading dock and moving the machines out of the building
should be pretty easy.
anyone interested, please get in touch with me!
happy hacking,
isildur
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Robert Schaefer
>
> a contact at the pittsburgh supercomputing center passed word to me that
> they are about to junk several vax6000's. They were recently running,
> but have apparently something funny with the main power supplies. This
> part comes to me secondhand so i dont know if the 'something funny' is
> that they take 3-phase ;)
BTW, it is a simple task to convert one of these to run on standard (US)
220v single phase. Google it, or email me for a more personalized
discussion.
--
Bob
Isildur
Indeed, didn't gunther schadow have an 'anatomy of a vax' page some
years ago with a very detailed account of his disassembly (and
3phase-singlephase conversion) of a vax6k?
isildur
Isildur
So, some more information about the machines. There are two of them, one
is a 6620, one is a 6530. The 6530 has a vector unit. Both have 128MB.
the 'funny condition' on a power supply is that one half of the BI
cardcage on one of them has a failed power supply. They're not in
any really great hurry to get rid of them, but i dont know if that
means weeks, or months. I'd suppose at least a month though.
happy hacking to all,
isildur
On Sun, 20 Mar 2011, Isildur wrote:
> Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 18:16:34 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Isildur <mrfu...@vaxpower.org>
> To: Robert Schaefer <rsch...@gcfn.org>
> Cc: port...@NetBSD.org
> Subject: RE: multiple vax 6000's free to a good home
Isildur
hey,
so, one guy alreacy claimed them both, but he might share :), maybe
you could work it out with him.. regarding a url or anything, sorry,
i dont know of such a url. i remember that gunther schadow once gave a
pretty good description of it (along with his vax 11/780 anatomy), check
the archives of the list, would have been at least 6 or 7 years ago. he
might be the guy youre thinking of. It should be _reasonably_ simple
by what anecdotes i have heard, if you have 220v single phase, to connect
it to one set of poles on the big 3phase xformer.
the primary power bus is 300VDC (yes, 300!)..
anyhow, as i mentioned the machines are currently spoken for, but if
that changes ill let you know. (yes, someone else from port-vax beat you
to it :-)
isildur
>
> Hi,
> My take would be a maximum of One, however
> I'm not an EE. Can you reccomend a URL to instructions
> to convert the power supply? I've heard of at least one person
> who has done such a conversion, possibly to their 240/normal
> phase circuit.
> John Allain
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lord Isildur" <mrfu...@vaxpower.org>
> To: <port...@netbsd.org>
> Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 6:30 PM
> Subject: multiple vax 6000's free to a good home
Robert Schaefer
240-volt single phase, and tape off/insulate the third. This does work,
first-hand experience. I actually did it in the plug itself (replaced it
with the proper one at the same time) to make it even simpler to undo if I
ever happen to get a three-phase service into my basement. ^_^
--
Bob
Dave McGuire
> so, one guy alreacy claimed them both, but he might share :), maybe you
> could work it out with him.. regarding a url or anything, sorry,
> i dont know of such a url. i remember that gunther schadow once gave a
> pretty good description of it (along with his vax 11/780 anatomy), check
> the archives of the list, would have been at least 6 or 7 years ago. he
> might be the guy youre thinking of. It should be _reasonably_ simple
> by what anecdotes i have heard, if you have 220v single phase, to connect
> it to one set of poles on the big 3phase xformer.
> the primary power bus is 300VDC (yes, 300!)..
>
> anyhow, as i mentioned the machines are currently spoken for, but if
> that changes ill let you know. (yes, someone else from port-vax beat you
> to it :-)
I've been agonizing over this since I saw this post, and I find that
I really do want both of the machines. :-( I'm sorry about that.
I have some specific stuff in mind for them.
I will be moving to Pennsylvania soon, and I'll be building a small
public "living" museum for my collection of antique big iron. ("living"
because the machines will be periodically running and usable on a set
schedule) John, let's keep in touch after my move and we'll talk about
one of the 6000s. Perhaps some swappage can happen.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL