At least it is not slow anymore...

2005.03.30

Yesterday there was an electrical problem in the area where I live - We had between 40 and 60V for around four hours (Mexico’s electricity is nominally supplied at 127V). I got home about halfway through this and, of course, switched everything down. We went out, and came back home around 11PM. It seemed everything was normal again, so I turned on my server - yes, the old P120 laptop. This morning, Nadezhda told me she couldn’t see the network. It turns yesterday night out I turned on the laptop, but didn’t turn on the regulator, and the battery died. Ok, turn on the damn regulator… And nothing. :-/ Of course, a regulator can be of great help in case of power fluctuation - But yesterday’s episode was way over what my little and cheap regulator could handle. It seems my trusty laptop’s power supply just went to the electrical heaven. Well… After switching the hard disk to my main laptop and going back to a stock kernel, we have network access at home. Not only that, my blog is finally usable (it is normal to wait over one minute for it to load with my old P120 - It seems that Apache/PHP/jaws and MySQL are too big to fit together in RAM). But I don’t have a laptop for myself… And I don’t want to use a regular (big, noisy, high power consumption, no UPS) machine as a server. I must thank Alex - He offered to give me his old PIII/500 laptop. Yes, I know that machine is in a proverbial bad shape as a laptop… But I am confident it will be a much better server than the old one. Anyway, lets see how this evolves by tomorrow :) vicm3 says that it is usual to have ~80V in Iztapalapa… Say… How do you manage to have your server at home without killing it? Even with a good, sturdy UPS, doesn’t your UPS die too quickly?

Comments

edscott 2005-07-01 06:38:26

RE: At least it is not slow anymore…

"How do you manage to have your server at home without killing it? Even with a good, sturdy UPS, doesn’t your UPS die too quickly?"

The way keep my server up (athlon with 4 ide ports,4 disks with software raid) is by adding extra batteries to the UPS. So far 2 isbmex have burnt out on me, but the batteries are OK. So I hook them up in parallel to the working ups. My firewall is a pIII laptop and has been up for over one year now. My server will withstand 3hr+ black/brownouts and I intend to add a good car battery to the reserve power, but I’m still short 6V for that.

edscott 2005-07-01 06:42:11

RE: At least it is not slow anymore…

"How do you manage to have your server at home without killing it? Even with a good, sturdy UPS, doesn’t your UPS die too quickly?"

vicm3 2005-04-02 04:13:57

RE: At least it is not slow anymore…

Jejeje… so really your machine went down… I was wondering why it wasnt online… well about having a server in house… let me tell far as i know when i took electricity, maybe 15 years ago.. i remeber to have tell in Mexico our courrent nominal voltage was 110v +/- 10%, today i have search the NOM (Mexican Official Norms) about and found is a really mess… the better info I found is from http://www.itlp.edu.mx (Instituto Tecnologico de la Paz) as is statated on normalized currents for low voltage are 120/240volts… well to understand correctly unles you have a biphasic installation (240, better know as for commercial use)… is expected to have 120 +/- 10% of volts say (high limit 132 low limit 108) thats tolerable even without a regulator…

Except on some products non NOM compliant (say the norm really works for something… anything that is certfied with it is expected to support our pretty voltage changes without die)… but as you must be thinking now… how about foreigner products… say a computers -and even NOM approved-… well let me tell you… 80% of the time the fuse… save your back… well for the other 20% i learned the bad way on my student time… friying my power supply and mainboard (on a K5 75mhz time ago).

Since then I buy minimum a regulator for my machine, 22USD for it, worth the 30USD on power supply & 75USD on mainboard… since then i at least use a surge protector! for ANY electronic device, at that time i was living on Iztacalco (parents house ;)… when i came to Iztapalapa and see it was even more common to have a variation from 135v to 45v I go directly to my nearest computer store ,well not near, in fact i have to go to city downton, to the Computer Place "Plaza de la computacion" and buy a bunch of small regulators (102 V~ to 140 V~) 2 for TVs and stereo (think about it every tv cost 300usd to 500usd, the two regulators cost 40usd aprox, and only i have to waste in it two fuses i think 1.5usd, specs http://www.isbmex.com/regulad/micinspec.html) same for Fridge (cost 300USD maybe a little more, a buy a bigger an faster regulator for it maybe 40USD but it does wonderfully get from 80 to 140v specs http://www.isbmex.com/regulad/rcvrspec.html) and for the computer i had one fast regulator for my wife computer, run out of money for an ups (even i been thinking on buy the smaller of the series maybe 5 to 8 minutes to save work)… and for our "server" and my desktop using a small UPS http://www.isbmex.com/ups/usrinetspec.html -i got the 800 model- theorethically it must give me 30min… generally speaking if I been at console when power failure… i save my work on my desktop -a hungry 450wtts power supply for a Athlon at 2ghz- an let the server go -small K62 500mhz 256MB and a power supply of no more of 200watts, well the adsl modem, and office connect switch also… and on his better time his battery as lasted -with strong varyng voltage a good 50 minutes and almost one time 1 hour- if the two machines where on dont expect more than 20 minutes… max… also no monitor is connected to UPS.

So maybe at this time you will be asking why no APC? cheaper or even better UPS?… well ISB Sola had a support center nearest where i live, had 3 year warranty (to this time i have not nedeed to use it!, my first Sola product was buy on 1994) and you can even buy replacements from them… better the build of the units are from metal and had probed to long beyond his warranty time (currently when i do my first selection for regulator it was a little plastic cute device, cheaper and very fancy… let me tell you… the time i come to home to test it, IT FRIED yes as sounds… with white smoke and everything… WITH nothing attached to IT… back to the store and, get back the money… as for why i no longer satisfied with the product the clerk answered, "why you want your money back, don’t better wish a replacement?, -well see this… -white smoke and sparks- and a "no thanks I going for one of these metal case Sola Basic" and next moment i have the money back… learned the bad way.

Well as an afterthought currently on home i had 3 surge protectors, 1 for the kitchen, 1 for the living room, one for my fishing tank -this is very important on winter we have a really big problem with the water temperature, not to say filtration and aeration the tank… i been worried becase… on our machines… I trust on the journaling system (when the ups go offline) but my fish… well had survived wonderfully… but is easier to replace a power supply than a dead golden fish… well let me tell it was a ocupational therapy for stress, well thay way began (See fish swim is very relaxing even hypnotic) and become on a very stimulating hobbie… but im gettin far from point also have the regulators for our 2 TVs, 1 for our other desktop (i forgot to say that i have no complains on ups from my wife as she prefers to use my former laptop and as you suspect had 2 hours of autonomy) and the ups for the "server"… last i heard on the block the neighbors had from TVs to a bigger fridge(from a "carniceria") not working any more with these variations…

Well c’est la vie!