8 Oct
2011
8 Oct
'11
5:22 p.m.
On 8 Oct 2011 at 18:33, Jules Richardson wrote:
If you have fans, they eventually break, and to do
things 'properly'
they also have to be monitored and the OS/firmware written to safely
handle a failure condition.
That's mostly because almost nobody makes good fans any more. I have
some metal-frame Rotron "Sprite" fans that have passed their 40th
year in operation. I also don't hear about too many of the original
AC powered fans in old IBM 5150s packing up.
Essentially, the problem is that purchasing managers don't want to
pay for good fans. Anything than can turn in 18 months of operation
without locking up must be good enough.
On one of the other electronics-related forums some time ago, I
mentioned using an AC-powered fan as a reasonable alternative to
cheap plastic Chinese DC fans. One of the forum members took
exception to my suggestion and said an AC (shaded pole) fan would
kick up enough RF energy to destroy all the ICs in the box. When I
pointed out that AC fans have been used on solid-state electronics
since the 1950s, he was unmoved and resorted to ad hominem attacks.
Where the hell do these ideas get started?
--Chuck