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DocCynical posted:
As far as power semiconductors go (diodes, SCRs, IGBTs), depending on the semiconductor not only kilovolts, but kiloamps of current. (I worked with SCR pucks that could handle around 1500 amps at several hundred volts.) In fact the new big thing for power transmission is ultra-high voltage DC transmission, only possible with advances in power semiconductors. So you have one power line at +500kV and another at -500kV, and the difference between them is one million volts! Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 23:59 on Jun 28, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 23:56
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. Ponder if the UV burned skin, cataracts, and possible mercury exposure is worth it. I desperately want one of these.
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I think sometime back mechanical computers were mentioned. I found on YouTube a really neat Navy video explaining how the mechanical parts of the computer work. I love these really old films because they do such a good job explaining how these things work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4 The barrel cam at 10:30 is really amazing. 
Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 04:14 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 04:11
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You can get USB to Serial converters. Be careful, because the quality on some is really dodgy and can be a serious PITA to get working. I've used them at work when you have an old protective relay (monitors really big pieces of electrical equipment like transformers and motors) that will only communicate over RS232 or RS485.
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Oct 17, 2013 02:39
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Collateral Damage posted:The supercomputing centre at the local university has a huge HP cluster with an infiniband interconnect. Each machine in the cluster has a blue unit ID LED on the front and rear, which can be turned on/off by software. One of the first programs the cluster ran was a small application that made a waterfall effect across all the nodes using the ID LEDs. One oddity I found: a three-phase, 60 to 400hz motor-generator set. Apparently the old Crays (Cray 1, 2, XMP, YMP, stuff like that) had power supplies that utilized 400hz provided by a motor-generator set. This provided perfect isolation from the electrical system, and also allowed some degree of ride-through if there was a sag or a transient on the power line. Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 05:07 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 05:02
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Platystemon posted:100–200 kW. This is the sort of stuff you'd want to have to accommodate a supercomputer installation:
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Oct 26, 2013 14:45
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Collateral Damage posted:This is pretty much the steps for building any professional data center, not just for supercomputers. You're absolutely right, I should have been more broad. bisticles posted:The current generation of mainframes requires, I believe, a 42" raised floor. This is for airflow, since for every X systems you have, you need a thing called a chiller, a gigantic system that draws in warm air from the top of the room, cools it off, and shoves it under the floor. The mainframe systems themselves draw air up from openings in the floor and blast it out the back. You *can* have systems with a sort of huge radiator attached to the door, which soaks up heat and dumps it elsewhere, but it's usually more cost-effective to cool by forced air. Nice, that's a tiny little chiller. You should see the ones where the compressor motors operate off of 4160V instead of just 480V and require an actual cooling tower to operate. Sort of like that chiller but a whole building instead of a rooftop unit. Do the much larger data centers have something like this, where they just pump chilled water out to areas that need cooling, and warmed water returns? (I think with a massive, central chiller operation you get higher efficiency, but if you have multiple small units it's easier to manage if just one breaks down. I also heard that some of the biggest datacenters are built in areas where the facility can be fed from two different electrical grids/providers for ultra-high reliability as far as power goes. Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 01:12 on Oct 27, 2013 |
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Oct 27, 2013 01:05
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Collateral Damage posted:Funny story about dual power feed datacenters. Our local Silicon Valley wannabe has several large datacenters with dual power feeds. Between the area and the rest of the city is a small mountain range, and there's only one cable tunnel through the mountain. A couple of years ago there was a fire in the tunnel. Cue every datacenter in the area suffering a power loss because the fire cut both feeds running in the same tunnel. Yup, common cause failure. Bad design.
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Oct 27, 2013 02:39
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German Channel 2 Analog Shutdown Fitting music too...
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Dec 8, 2013 02:59
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Woah, is the audio encoded optically somehow? Are those two audio tracks on the left side of the "dual bilateral" one?
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Jan 9, 2014 02:03
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KozmoNaut posted:My rule of thumb is that if someone tosses you a capacitor larger than the last joint of your little finger, you let that sucker drop. If it's the size of a beer can, you duck and cover. If it's a medium voltage power factor correction capacitor... Well you cannot easily toss those.
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Mar 11, 2014 00:32
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25 frames? Not seconds, or minutes, but frames?!
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Aug 22, 2014 02:27
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Mr.Radar posted:This printer talk reminded me of The Secret Life of Machines episode on copiers. About a third of the way into the episode they give a demonstration of the world's first commercial xerographic copier: I love this show so much. I remember watching it on the Learning Channel back in the mid-90s when it actually showed really cool science and history stuff. And the charming cartoon bits that they animated. "Eyyyy you breaka' my plates, I smasha' you face!"
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Feb 18, 2015 01:48
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Humphreys posted:Nice project on dumb terminals: Core memory is pretty wild in that it's not really random-access, you have a bunch of cores arranged together, and one way to read them is to basically cycle through them. Also, reading bits can cause the bit to change state.
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Sep 14, 2015 01:14
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https://youtu.be/Sx_qTIhtLj8 8-Bit Guy does the Telstar answering system.
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Mar 26, 2017 04:36
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:Also check out his other channel, 8-bit Keys. I have a knowledge of music through 20 years of clarinet playing, and I thought this other channel about keyboards etc would be boring. However, it's just as much about the technology as his main channel, and most videos are definitely worth a watch. TechMoan also has some amazing obsolete tech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=user?Techmoan Any other similar YouTube channels? I love watching these at the gym.
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Mar 28, 2017 04:04
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I've worked around some ancient electrical equipment like electromechanical protective "relays" - clockwork mechanisms that measure current and power and switch electrical equipment off if there's a problem. A lot of that has been replaced with solid-state relays that have microprocessors. But some of the old ones are pretty wild. Also you and I are friends now Mr. Radar.
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Mar 28, 2017 18:07
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mobby_6kl posted:These cars will soon become obsolete technology themselves since you won't be able to replace the one component most likely to become quickly outdated. Like the built in early 2000s navigation systems. "Hey Beavis, let's go to Wien uh Huh huh uh uh"
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Apr 4, 2017 22:46
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chitoryu12 posted:In highly obsolete technology news, I rode in a 1914 Ford Model T today. The safety changes even over a decade are amazing, let alone a century. There are accidents you could get into riding a car from the 70s or 80s that would easily kill or maim you that in a modern car with the improved unibody frame, crumple zones, and front and side-curtain airbags you could probably walk away from with non-debilitating injuries. Or with some of the newer electronic safety systems like lane guidance, blind spot monitoring, and radar might be outright prevented. I had a near-miss when an idiot in front of me slammed their brakes and made a hard right turn but my car detected that and warned me. Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 04:43 on Jun 11, 2017 |
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Jun 11, 2017 04:41
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Also this is the most important video on the Neo Geo: https://youtu.be/Q_kGJBv6Wr4
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Jun 11, 2017 04:49
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Obsolete, but still absolutely amazing: The CM-1 Connection Machine supercomputer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjmostrFetg The CM-5 Connection Machine supercomputer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blvC0DA96dI They're so... blinky... Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 00:59 on Jul 5, 2017 |
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Jul 5, 2017 00:54
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When I was a kid I wondered if Cray would ever make desktop systems... sadly the closest thing they ever made the was CX1 "desk side supercomputer" but that would have been amazing.
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Jul 5, 2017 02:30
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How about some 3D graphics from a product called Wavefront? https://youtu.be/dolXi-3BcuA
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Jul 5, 2017 21:17
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I kinda miss plug in plug out PSUs. Of course back then a computer with multiple monitors was a crazy fever dream.
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Jul 6, 2017 03:29
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Gromit posted:My friend got a local universities old $4m SGI Origin 3000 supercomputer when they wanted to throw it away. Not really a home-use machine with it using 7kW of power or something stupid like that. Got a photo of the power distribution equipment? (It's 240/400V right?)
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Jul 11, 2017 03:39
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legooolas posted:In the UK it tends to be against the health and safety rules at most companies to have multiple phases in the same rack, since you can do yourself more damage with 440V potential between different phases... In the right places in the US it can be 600/347V.  I want to see a power supply that works on 347V.
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Jul 16, 2017 03:58
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Fo3 posted:Yeah, that's how large single phase inverter air cons and motors work. Single phase ac in and 3 phase dc out. Existence of these things these days is why the power company probably don't want to reftrofit 3 phase mains supplies to current single phase houses. they'll just tell you to buy inverters and deal with it. Was gonna say that the "two-phase" system used in homes is called an "Edison" system, two 120V lines 180° out of phase. You can also use a specially wound transformer called a "Scott-T" to get three phases out with two phases in. However the two phases in have to be 90° apart. That's not really normal unless you say only have two wires and put a Scott-T at each end. Some of the super old electrical stuff is wild. Some early ships had generators that ran at 25Hz - the crew areas illuminated by this system were referred to as "the flicker" because the low frequency caused the lights to... well... flicker. Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 03:28 on Jul 23, 2017 |
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Jul 23, 2017 03:13
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This was one of the most powerful supercomputers in the early 90s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aDh8zg50uI Skip to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aDh8zg50uI&t=1237s - Explanation of the 3D torus architecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aDh8zg50uI&t=3163s - Sweet, sweet hardware https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aDh8zg50uI&t=3237s - That PE removal shim  The power supplies themselves are liquid-cooled and can provide up to 1800 amps each. Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 01:43 on Aug 10, 2017 |
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Aug 10, 2017 01:40
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjMZ5qtyCUc Mercury arc rectifier - this was used until 2013. This takes AC and turns it into DC. (The two sets of three connections to the side are for the AC side connections. Nowadays you'd just have package of six rectifier diodes that would transform AC into DC. This would be pretty monolithic, no moving parts, and some heatsinks and fans. Maybe water cooling depending on the size. But nowhere near as fancy.
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Aug 19, 2017 03:48
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Horace posted:And they deserved it. Those earbuds were terrible. "Driver complained that the car's iPhone dock isn't working and was scratching his phone" https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/iphone-cassette-player?utm_term=.pjyJv4YEJ#.pr8wOV6ow
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Sep 2, 2017 02:57
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OLD synchronous motor starting up. The stator actually spins and is manually braked during startup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNuI6keQXYA quote:I get how it works - it's like the predecessor to modern soft start technology using mechanical means, letting the motor housing to rotate initially then gradual braking to get the housing to slow down, the magnetic field counter force starts the rotor spinning the opposite direction and the slow braking effect brings the load on gradually reducing inrush current, clever and simple, I love it And another: old 1600A DC circuit breaker teardown by Photonic Induction! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAhq_A4EbkE Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 02:14 on Sep 17, 2017 |
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Sep 17, 2017 02:11
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This rules. Old barrel organ playing "Smooth Criminal" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ6aDLpWON8
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Sep 17, 2017 02:31
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https://youtu.be/xmWg7CtN0Ac The NIMO tube - the Nixie’s prettier, 1.7kVDC cousin.  (Data sheet at 5:29) Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 23:58 on Oct 23, 2017 |
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Oct 23, 2017 23:53
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Horace posted:They still sell these, at least it looks outwardly identical except it isn't a music box anymore. The discs are smooth: Well that’s kinda lame. At least with the other one there was a clever mechanism involved.
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Nov 15, 2017 03:35
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GRINDCORE MEGGIDO posted:It is lame. I learned a ton of mechanical principles from old toys like that. Yeah! I was at a flea market a few years ago and found this neat little cube. Some kind of fancy old toy. I think there’s some way to open it up but there’s a ton of mechanical contraptions inside it. I need to spend a little more time to see if I can figure it out.
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Nov 15, 2017 23:11
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Hey I love the sound of a motor starting. https://youtu.be/pdSKT_8OfKg (I am a little concerned about the current imbalance they might want to do some additional tests in case there is a problem with the windings...  )
Three-Phase has a new favorite as of 00:53 on Nov 18, 2017 |
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Nov 18, 2017 00:50
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It’s dat WOOO WHOOOOO https://youtu.be/JZD-ADArwXo
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Nov 18, 2017 04:56
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Not having an RS232 port is a PITA talking to tons of industrial equipment. I have used USB-R232 converters but the quality runs from “OK” to “complete garbage”.
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Feb 3, 2018 23:18
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Negrostrike posted:I remember Enigma's Return to Innocence was playing pretty much everywhere back in 94. My old folks used to listen the poo poo out of Deep Forest's Boheme as well, and so do I sometimes nowadays. I liked the music they picked for the “90s Man” exhibit in South Park. https://youtu.be/-dJTT3o81fw
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Jul 24, 2018 02:33
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