[SPARCbook] RDI Powerlites and Tadpole...(long)

[Mike Hebel]

Howdy all!  I'm on some other lists of Sunhelp but this is the first time
on this one.


I've recently been gifted with pieces parts the make up a Powerlite PL1024
and PL640 respectively thanks to a good friend.


I got the PL640 working except that it doesn't like the 1gig Apple drive
I put in it.  It keeps telling me to check the SCSI fuse.  Oddly it
doesn't do that in the PL1024 and the 510M that goes in the PL640 doesn't
give the error so maybe I'm just looking at an incompatibility for that
model.


Bought a "brick" of sorts to use with it.  There is a simple 12VDC 6A car
outlet brick for using car items in your home.  It cost $20 at WallMart.
That and a converted cord of the right style gives me a simple set up
forrunningthese either in the home or car.  (Hmm...long trip Solaris
geeking...)  Anyway the power didn't fluctuate on a meter - don't have a
scope to test with - so it seems stable enough.  Works just fine but a
little bulky.  But then the RDIs are a little bulky.  ;-)


I got more info from Kristina Campbell at Tadpole support.  Turns out that
they still sell parts and stuff for the Powerlites and such.  It's $150 if
I want a whole upper assembly - still waiting on the cost of just an
inverter.


She did tell me something interesting though.  They have _some_ of the
manuals available and they have the ftp site working again at
ftp.tadpole.com and are adding all the old software back supposedly.  I
mentioned that there are volunteers who would convert their paper
documents to bits just so they would be out there.  She told me that if I
buy something from them she'll send the Powerlite system references
including a hardware reference guide for me to convert and upload to their
incoming directories.  (Not a bad project to devote time to.)  They
currently just put a piece of software up there for the Powerlite -
vwa131_251.tar (20Meg) - turns out it's the power
management software for Solaris 2.5.1


Interesting stuff.  I get the impression that they are receptive enough to
talk to other people about Britelite/Powerlite/Sparcbook stuff and help
get the data to the people that need it.  So maybe if I dig around and
post on the Sparcbook we could get the data consolidated in one place.


She also mentioned that the person who had worked there for a long time
that knew Powerlites/Britelites is now gone so maybe there was a removal
of an asshat on the line somewhere.


Of course my tinfoil circuit is also telling me that they're obviously
trying to get peoples business to buy new units as well. ;-)


Mike Hebel
----
"I think we used too much!" - Chris Knight