7 Oct
2013
7 Oct
'13
12:16 a.m.
On Oct 6, 2013, at 7:02 PM, "Mark J. Blair" <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
On Oct 6, 2013, at 14:29 , William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
There's been some discussion of what it takes to run an 11/750 here in the
past year or so. A lot of them run on 240v single-circuit, my recollection
is that you could also run it on multiple circuits of 110, depending on
your configuration. A lot of 3-phase machines aren't "true" 3-phase (in
that
they just split the power supplies across the phases, they don't actually
have anything that requires 3 phases). An 11-750 is not impossible to run
in a house or a small office.
It's a shame you're not on the East coast; the MARCH computer club in NJ
has an 11/750 that'll be up on our restoration queue once we get some of
our other machines presentable (including a pretty complete 11/44 setup
with a lot of drives and other goodies). If you know any nearby retro
computing organizations, that might be a good chance to work with some of the
bigger iron without having to commit the space or the money yourself.
- Dave
I am, however, still willing to give up my VAX-11/751 for the right price.
--
Will, in NY
Both "the right price" and it being on the opposite corner of the country from
me mean that I probably won't be the one to buy it, but your mention of it does make
me curious: What does it take to power an 11/750 or 11/751? I don't think I could
practically power an 11/780 at my home, but I'm wondering what the upper limit of
bigness is for DEC machines that I might procure. I presently have a VT-241 and a modest
pile of RL02 cartridges, and I would like to connect them together someday. So, any DEC
machine that would reasonably use RL02 drives is a possible future acquisition target, but
only if I can manage to house, power and cool it. I have a 200A 240V single phase panel in
my workshop, and I could make up to 10kW of 3-phase power with a military surplus
generator set that I have. For anything that might go inside my house, I think the upper
power limit would be either the 240V 20A circuit or the 120V 30A circuit that I plumbed
into my radio room to run transmitters.