🚀 go-pugleaf

   Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 03:53:00 GMT
   From: silbar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov (Dick Silbar)

   QUESTION: is there any good reason why we _shouldn't_ leave Rachel's
   slab standing in its upright position? 

How about:
 o - Dust in the floppy drive?
 o - It might tip over?
 o - You'll deprive NeXT of the revenue from selling you a longer cable?

In article <9APR199221530916@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov> silbar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov  
(Dick Silbar) writes:
> QUESTION: is there any good reason why we _shouldn't_ leave Rachel's
> slab standing in its upright position? 

Well, back in my PC days (Yes, it was a sad time indeed :-) I wondered the same  
thing about my AT.  I was told that as long as the hard drive was formatted  
while it was vertical, everything would be fine.  Had something to do with  
gravity's effect on the drive heads.  I don't know if this is still true...

Todd
PS  Does the extra 2.5 inches make that much difference?  What about a higher  
chair or lower desk?
--
!  "Finally, some good  ! Todd M. Swan (ADP-2 - MS P910)!
!  software for a PC."  ! tms@lanl.gov  (NeXTMail)      !
!  -- Steve Jobs on     ! Los Alamos National Laboratory!
!     NeXTstep '486     ! Los Alamos, NM  87545         !

In article <9APR199221530916@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov> silbar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov  
(Dick Silbar) writes:
> ...
> Then my friend Paul wandered by and he said, "Gee, I'm not sure I'd leave
> that thing standing up that way..."  He didn't explain why.
> 
> QUESTION: is there any good reason why we _shouldn't_ leave Rachel's
> slab standing in its upright position? 
> 
>    Dick Silbar

Well, keep in mind the design of the NeXTstation for cooling.  The bottom  
mounted fan is designed to force air over the motherboard.  Make sure not to  
restrict the airflow into the machine.  Another consideration is the hard  
drive.  Although it runs fine in the vertical orientation, you should strongly  
consider reformatting the drive and reinstalling the OS with it vertical.  The  
drive does operate differently sideways (albeit a minute difference) and in my  
experience with other PCs (Mac and DOS) the hard drive is prone to failure.

I distinctly remember a host of technical reasons why, at its introduction, it  
was not recommended to orient the station on its side.  If anyone has more  
specifics, please post 'em.  An easier solution, and the one I would choose,  
is to simple order the longer monitor cable that ships with the cube ($60 I  
think) and put the station on a shelf somewhere with good ventilation.

Ric Mommer
Multimedia Computing Studio
University of Iowa

DISCLAIMER:  These opinions are mine and not those of the University because  
the University can't afford any opinions at this time.  I do believe the Union  
is negotiating for an increase in opinions.  If an agreement is reached  
regarding the  increase in opinioins, I would have to recommend to furlough  
the opinions until such time the University is more sound.  Remember, the  
University that opinions the least, educates the most.

In article <9APR199221530916@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov> silbar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov  
(Dick Silbar) writes:
> 
> Then my friend Paul wandered by and he said, "Gee, I'm not sure I'd leave
> that thing standing up that way..."  He didn't explain why.

Perhaps you could order the NeXTcube cable, which is much longer then
the short NeXTstation cable, and store the station nearby.

--
Nathan Janette		"I'm a NeXTstep man,
Dept MB&B, Yale Univ	 I'm a NeXTcube guy"
New Haven, CT
nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu (NeXT)

In article <1992Apr10.153133.24410@newshost.lanl.gov>, tms@twins.lanl.gov writes...
>In article <9APR199221530916@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov> silbar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov  
>(Dick Silbar) writes:
>> QUESTION: is there any good reason why we _shouldn't_ leave Rachel's
>> slab standing in its upright position? 
> 
>Well, back in my PC days (Yes, it was a sad time indeed :-) I wondered the same  
>thing about my AT.  I was told that as long as the hard drive was formatted  
>while it was vertical, everything would be fine.  Had something to do with  
>gravity's effect on the drive heads.  I don't know if this is still true...
> 
>Todd
>PS  Does the extra 2.5 inches make that much difference?  What about a higher  
>chair or lower desk?
>--
From:	DAC::ZOELLER      "CHRIS ZOELLER * ZOELLER@LAMPF.LANL.GOV" 10-APR-1992 10:20:13.19
To:	SMTP%"tms@twins.lanl.gov"
CC:	ZOELLER     
Subj:	Re: Is the NeXTStation Turbo vertically disadvantaged?

>PS  Does the extra 2.5 inches make that much difference?  What about a higher  
>chair or lower desk?

It's not the magnitude of the gravitational force vector, but the
direction it points in that makes the difference. The HD heads are moved
in and out radially on a straight line, When you mount the HD vertically,
the gravitational force acts in a direction that may bend this straight
line movement - the further "out" (towards the center of the disk) the
heads are, the more torque is acting on the head guiding mechanism.
Seagate specifically says in its HD installation manual not to mount
HDs  with their front or rear panel pointing up. A side panel pointing
up is ok (Why this difference - I don't know, maybe because of some head 
mechanism details), but as you already said, they ought to be formatted 
in the position they will be used in. 

Another problem I can see: There are air guiding/cooling fins under-
neath the power supply (at least in the "old" station I have) that
channel air towards the fan and also seem to cool the power supply.
With the slab not sitting on a flat surface, air flow along those
fins will be impaired - may potentially overheat the power supply.

Chris

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In article <9APR199221530916@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov> silbar@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov (Dick Silbar) writes:
[munch munch]
>OK, we decided, easy to fix by moving the slab out from under the 
>monitor.  But, the connector between the two is so short that we ended
>up putting the slab on its right-hand side, standing up, with the
>slot for the disk drive at the top.  Standing right behind the monitor
[munch munch]
>QUESTION: is there any good reason why we _shouldn't_ leave Rachel's
>slab standing in its upright position? 
>
>   Dick Silbar
The only real concern is head alignment on the internal drive - but
I've been running my slab vertial for 5 months now with no problems.
Do make sure that the cooling fins on the bottom are against a 
flat surface.  The air drawn by the fan should flow along the full
length of the heat sink (fins).

Ronald (vertical slabbin' dude) Pomeroy
Senior - Electrical Engineering
Texas A&M University (I are an AGGIE)
n189ds@tamuts.tamu.edu

Dick Silbar writes
> Yesterday our group secretary received her new NeXTStation Turbo

dang, and us CC's are still running '030's!! WHIIIIINNNNNE!!

> (monochrome)

oh, well .. ok then :-)

[...]
> Rachel is one of those vertically challenged people (she's even shorter
> than I am) and after an hour or so of playing with the machine, her neck
> started getting tired with all that looking upward.  We had mounted
> the monitor on top of the horizontal slab.

Gee, I heard the TURBO's all come with a guarantee of weekly back-rubs  
from Jeff Martin in Developer Support! Have you filed with bug_next to get  
Rachel signed up?

> putting the slab on its right-hand side, standing up,
[...]
> QUESTION: is there any good reason why we _shouldn't_ leave Rachel's
> slab standing in its upright position? 

I've read in several places that hard drives need to remain in the same  
orientation in which they were formatted.

NeXT?

	chuck

Dick Silbar writes
> Yesterday our group secretary received her new NeXTStation Turbo
> (monochrome), and I am the designated setter-upper.  We got the Turbo
> running fine as a standalone machine (after moving out the old PC-AT 
> and a few shelves and re-arranging some cords and cables).  However, 
> Rachel is one of those vertically challenged people (she's even shorter
> than I am) and after an hour or so of playing with the machine, her neck
> started getting tired with all that looking upward.  We had mounted
> the monitor on top of the horizontal slab.
> 
Perhaps a better solution would be to:

1. Get a longer monitor cable - ask NeXT.
2. Rachel's table/desk is too high.
3. Rachel is sitting too low - forearms should be parallel with floor


...Brad



-- 
Bradley Head, bhead@hfs.questor.wimsey.bc.ca (NeXTmail :-)
InStep Mobile Communications, Inc., Headfirst Software Ltd. 
Executive of Vancouver NeXT User's Society, Vancouver, BC.