martin@icsl.ucla.edu (Kenneth Martin/) (04/23/91)
Regarding power surges; we had one here about two weeks ago that gave a noticeable glitch in the lighting, and crashed some of our Sun servers, but left the Sun Sparcs and my Next running as if nothing happened. I have also been running a Next at home, for quite a while, where there are terrible surges every time the washer starts up (i.e. 40 year old wiring). I have one of those el-cheapo multi plug-in panels that say they have surge protectors. Despite numerous very-visible surges, I have never had any problems with the next, which I leave on all the time. Thus, from my experience, the Next is very robust with respect to power surges. -Ken Martin (martin@icsl.ucla.edu)
asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) (04/23/91)
In <2481@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> martin@icsl.ucla.edu (Kenneth Martin/) writes: >Regarding power surges; we had one here about two weeks ago that gave >a noticeable glitch in the lighting, and crashed some of our Sun servers, >but left the Sun Sparcs and my Next running as if nothing happened. I >have also been running a Next at home, for quite a while, where there are >terrible surges every time the washer starts up (i.e. 40 year old wiring). >I have one of those el-cheapo multi plug-in panels that say they have surge >protectors. Despite numerous very-visible surges, I have never had any >problems with the next, which I leave on all the time. Thus, from my >experience, the Next is very robust with respect to power surges. Ditto for me! The campus power was flickering around back a month or so ago, and I was sitting at the machine at the time. There was no change in display intensity or anything, and they were enough to make all the lights in the room flash. My thinking was that the power supply NeXT has is more lenient since it can automatically configure for 120/220?/240 voltage. Since then I could swear I've seen my monitor *flash* like it got powered off-on really fast. Very weird. However, I would like to be able to check the 'cleanness' of the power in a old house I'll be living in for the next year or so. Does anyone know of a way to check the power for excessive noise or such? I'm no EE, so if my thinking is all bunk, a kind word would be appreciated! -k
eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (04/25/91)
In article <7304@mace.cc.purdue.edu> asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) writes: >However, I would like to be able to check the 'cleanness' of the power >in a old house I'll be living in for the next year or so. Does anyone >know of a way to check the power for excessive noise or such? I'm no >EE, so if my thinking is all bunk, a kind word would be appreciated! Part of site prep for a commercial "computer room" involves letting a "power monitor" sit there for a few days. It's a small box with a cash register-type tape that records voltage levels and "interesting" events. I assume this is something one can rent? -=EPS=-
tilley@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Richard Tilley) (04/26/91)
A transformer could drop the line voltage down to a few mv that your microphone input could accept. *CAUTION* I am a software person and haven't (yet?) done this.