29 May
2006
29 May
'06
12:01 p.m.
On 5/29/06, Gerhard Lenerz <mail at g-lenerz.de> wrote:
thanks for the fire extinguishing spinoff in the
thread. I never
really did care too much about that topic but after 2-3 severe smell
incidents I'm now off to purchase a CO2 extinguisher for use in worst
case scenarios.
One of my 11/750s (S/N BT000354) was nearly the cause of a Halon dump
when it was in a commercial data center, c. 1985. It seems that the
Unibus cable between the CPU bay and the BA-11 we used for testing
COMBOARDs had gotten pinched between the BA-11 and the RK07 rack it
was mounted in. The consequence of the cable damage was to cause a
short to ground through the COMBOARD's 7812 and 7912 regulators.
Moments after power-on, huge quantities of thick, black smoke poured
forth from the regulators. My supervisor had the presence of mind to
hit the Halon override as he powered off the machine (fortunately, the
relevant switches were an arm-span apart, not on opposite sides of the
room). The 11/750 survived, and the COMBOARD was working after I
replaced the regulators. The only casualty (besides our wits!) was
the Unibus cable.
It was impressive how much smoke can come out of a chicklet-sized package.
-ethan