On Tue, 26 May 1998, Bryan A. Ignatow wrote:

> I don't know why the VS2000 needs a load on the power supply but it
> does.  I don't remember seeing diskless models appearing on the scene
> until later on in their life (by the time a full load of OpenVMS's size
> outpaced the RD5x family of drives).  I do remember mounting a board
> packed with resistors (big ugly ones) into a trio of VS2000's to
> substitute for the drives (the board had three or four columns of
> resisters and a power jack just like the back of a drive; the board was
> about the size of a half height Q-Bus card, even though there is no
> relation between them... I just remember them being about that size). 

Argh, what a waste of energy.  See if I were one of the engineers for this
I would've designed the resistor pack with a special heat-sink, a
heat-sink which would be perfectly shaped to hold a coffee mug.  That way
you could always enjoy a hot beverage while hacking on your VAX, and never
have to worry about it going cold during those long debugging sessions and
time consuming compiles.

Or if not dedicating the power to keeping your coffee hot, it'd at least
be nice to have it power an array of mulit-colored incandescent lamps
which would of course be digitally controlled by the VAX. 

I see a real need for something like this.

-brian.
---
Brian "JARAI" Chase | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ | VAXZilla LIVES!!!