[rescue] For Free: Challenge XL chassis (Southeastern Va)

[Sheldon T. Hall]

 Peter Corlett wrote ...

> I get electricity included in my rent, which is nice. My rack of
> servers is currently drawing about 1.1A currently (groan) with a
> suspiciously low power factor of 0.65. What's that, 260W and 440VA?

Heh.  I have no ideas what the computers here draw, but it's not the draw
that's the problem so much as lack of outlets and generally clueless circuit
design.

One house we rented, though, had things like added-in floor outlets wired
with lamp cord.  It also had a 50-volt difference between "ground" at one
end of the house and "ground" at the other.  Since we were using 10base2
thinnet network wiring at the time, this made things interesting.

> The power distribution in my village is a bit ropey ...

Ours, too.  I live on a small island, and we have occasional, short power
interruptions.  Had one Monday night at 23:45, in fact.  I was sitting in my
office, and it all went dark.  The UPS on the pile-o-stuff in the corner is
purely ornamental, so that server, a couple of switches, and the 'net router
went off.  Across the hall, the UPS on the Challenge lasted about 20
seconds, then it spun down, too.  I was left looking at a LCD screen on a
laptop connected to ... nothing.

About 30 seconds later, everything came on, including the coffee grinder.
Helluva racket.

> ... but I bought a
> UPS which mitigates the effects a bit. It's a 750VA unit but it still
> starts complaining about a low battery after only a few minutes.
> Perhaps the power factor's making it unhappy.

I think UPSes are all related to Marvin, the Paranoid Android.  I've never
had one that was worth a damn.  Even if they work fine when new (like the
one on the Challenge), they soon fade to the point that they are just power
filters, if even that.

-Shel