26 Sep
2015
26 Sep
'15
12:45 p.m.
On 09/26/2015 11:25 AM, tony duell wrote:
I'll tell you one that you can't get -- the fan in the PDP11/44.
That one is a standard outer dimension alright, but electrically
it's plain odd. 35V 70Hz AC or something. It runs from a full-H
circuit from the (possibly battery packed) 36V supply. There have
been suggestions to kludge in 12V DC fans, but I would not do
that, the fan circuit _is_ part of the design of the PDP11/44 and
should be preserved. Oh, wow! We had a 44 a LONG time ago, I never knew about
that!
There is also the issue of keeping the machine as original as possible.
And the fact that a lot of the cheaper (i.e. $15) modern fans are very
poorly made. I think a rebuilt oriignal DEC fan would easily outlast one
of those.
Well, fans come in many varieties. There are Chinese
knockoffs, and name-brand fans. You can get plain sleeve
bearings, "hydro-wave" bearings and ball bearings. Good
ball-bearing fans have a very long life, but may get a bit
noisy near the end of their life. These can also be
re-bearing-ed quite easily, and it essentially makes them
brand-new. I've done this on my Dell desktop machines a few
times. Yes, maybe the best fans do run over $15.
Jon