20 Dec
2001
20 Dec
'01
1:51 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Netdiablo [mailto:root@diablonet.net]
Thats pretty cool.. I've got a bunch of smaller
SGI machines including
Indigo,
Indigo2, and Indy, but nothing larger. I have an entire Crimson
boardset, but
no chassis for it, alas.
I also have an Indigo2 which I use on a regular basis.
I've got a NeXT Cube and a Slab, but the Cube is
the original 68030
model
and doesn't have the NeXTDimension board. If you're ever
interested in a
road trip, though, noticing that you're in
Illinois, the University of
Michigan
Property Disposition warehouse had a NeXTDimension Cube laying around
about a month ago; $50, I think. I would've picked it up myself, but I
was
totally out of money at the time. I'd imagine it's stilll
there, though.
I'd be interested in a road trip, but unfortunately not capable of a road
trip. (no road-worthy vehicle...)
That's a relatively higher-end one, then...
4D/340, perhaps? There's a
neat
site called This Old SGI that talks a lot about getting these
old Power
Series
machines running. You can find it pretty quickly with Google.
I've been reading it. Mine is actually a 4D/440, I think. (Even better. :)
I checked a couple of days ago and there is an
original SGI
4D keyboard
and mouse set on eBay for not too much... less than $10, I think. I'm
not
sure how much longer it'll be there, though.
If that's the going price, though, it isn't bad.
I'd probably give up on finding the skins for the
machine - I've never
really seen them turn up by themselves, and usually, MACHINES that
turn up are missing pieces of them. The power cable's probably going
to have to be a homemade job, too, as I don't see them turn up very
often, but from what I gather, they shouldn't be too hard to assemble.
Three (very thick) wires. :)
I've heard that you can find the connectors for
the power cord at
hardware
stores, but I can't confirm that myself.
That will be the first place I look, if I can't find the original.
I'd DEFINITELY suggest taking a look at the power
supply (and fuse)
before
you begin. Make sure the power transistors and caps are in
good order. I
say
this because the power supplies on these machines are getting a little
old and
they are known for being somewhat iffy. I've had a similar
supply (on a
SGI
Crimson machine) flame out on me before - it makes a very spectacular
noise!
Ouch.
Care to help me figure out how? I do have a multimeter (should be all I
need for that part, right?) or two, but haven't done much work with it, and
not for a while. :)
That, incidentally, is where the Crimson boardset came
from... I wish I
would
have saved the chassis from the Dumpster, too (this was at
work when we
had
picked up an old Crimson from a customer as scrap once and
were messing
around with it). Ah, well. I'm still trying to find another SGI VME
machine to
this day. Maybe an Onyx or something :)
Deskside Onyx 1s are relatively reasonable in price now. Same chassis.
Regards,
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl
Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'