Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!aurora!labrea!jade!ucbvax!cbosgd!mandrill!neoucom!wtm From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew) Newsgroups: comp.sys.att Subject: Re: Power supplies & 3B1's Message-ID: <773@neoucom.UUCP> Date: Tue, 24-Nov-87 00:13:13 EST Article-I.D.: neoucom.773 Posted: Tue Nov 24 00:13:13 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 27-Nov-87 22:24:44 EST References: <942@woton.UUCP> <1805@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Lines: 44 Summary: In power prot. you gets what you pays for! <> You get protection comensurate with the bucks you lay out. The $18.95 de-spiker from Radio Shark is probably not worth the bother. Most cheap units are just a couple of MOVs. The power unit in the 3b1 and most other computers has MOVs any way. I guess the Radio Shark would be marginal extra help. About 4 years ago, my house was directly struck by lightning. The guts of the cheapo surge protector I had simply vaporized. Fortunately, the Franklin Ace (gag) computer that was normally plugged in there had the cord out of the wall. The state the surge protector was in, I doubt there was much it could have done to save the computer. I have a UPS on my 3b1. I wouldn't trade it for anything else. I found out this saturday. I was plugging away at about 1:30 AM. Apparently just then the power company decided to play "lets switch about a dozen connections on the Grid". The lights dimmed and brightened about 15 times separated by about 3 seconds. Each time the lights flickered, the UPS came on for about 1 second. The 3b1 was muching on a big make file that had alrady been going for a couple of minutes. I was pretty nervous for a few seconds, but everthing came out just fine. I doubt that a surge protector would have been much good for a power disaster like that. Since the 3b1 is at least a $2500 expense, adding another $300 to $500 is in line with protecting your computer. I just have a modest 200 watt UPS. So far that has gotten me through the junk that Mr. Edison has thrown this way. By the way the Ma Bell model 500 fone survied my bout with the lightning. The japanese everything-in-handset five dollar wonder had essentially everything inside vaporized. It did have a MOV, but all that was left were two little legs that had previously stuck into a blue plastic blob. I suppose a direct hit on a UPS might result in clouds of smoke too. At least you have a fighting chance because the UPS combines MOVs and an isolation transformer (which does double duty as the inverter element in standby mode). Bill (...[cbosgd|mandrill]!neoucom!impulse!wtm)