Getting rid of the powder printer and blade servers

Space and infrastructure
21

I will be picking up the 120 to 220 transformer box (the really heavy, transparent enclosure with switches and transformers in it) tomorrow, it was sitting on top of the blade server last time I saw it.

SDY

22

Yes. Few bites so far because the people that want a rig like this don’t look for them on Craigslist.

Don’t e-waste this yet, the components individually are literally worth ~$6k. It’s all about how much time we’re willing to spend selling it.

I will lower the asking price and flesh out the ad.

Members: if you know film/animator students that need a renderfarm, this is what it was originally used for.
If you know people that are really into Bitcoin or other crypto-currency, then this is just a huge computation cluster.

23

If it doesn’t get sold I will find a home for that blade server rack. I’ve been hoping we’d have one when the gf gets around to needing a render farm for her animation

24

Works for me, but I will attempt to get some mad cash for VHS for as long as possible before then.

It is 220VAC, though, are you still interested?

25

Oh, and is it possible for you to grab the powder printer soon?

It’s getting to the point where the printer is one of the last things left in the workshop

26

I’m confused. Is 220 volt that hard to come by? Just grab two legs of a home power setup. Hell, most of the time with a really sketchy home wired extension cord will do the trick.

In the bunker, it might ave been 120/208, which might have been troublesome I guess.

27

Lots of unseen stupid lease restrictions at the bucker.

28

Yeah I’m aware of the 220 requirements.

I talked to Funville about the powder printer. He offered to move the printer the same day as we move to the new place as we’ll have a cube van with a lift. Which is perfect for me. I can also move the server that day as well if it comes to that.

Dan

1 Like
29

Thanks

30

Sorry, I must have missed something. What is this in reference to?

31

I was wondering the same - what Rob’s proposing is illegal (and somewhat dangerous these servers are 220V because they consume a bunch of power). You’d be fine doing this at home where you’re only voiding your insurance but if you want to do this at vhs you’re putting the directors at risk.

One of the reasons the electricals went nowhere at the bunker was that I was very conscious of my personal liability as a director and careful to block many of the suggestions because they were dangerous and illegal. I hope, for their own sake, the current directors feel the same. We seem to be doing an electrical plan for the proposed new space which is an awesome idea.

32

Good point, do we have a wiring plan for the new space

Perhaps once we know that we will be moving to that space we should vote, select a floor plan. Then put together wiring drawings. These drawings can be checked against standards.

33

I said IF we had time, I don’t want to make it any harder on you or VHS than it has to be.
Right now I have it estimated at ~11 hrs of moving. We are going to have to rent the truck for two days at this point. We should still be able to take a trip to drop off the powder printer at your house but I make NO promises!

Could you please PM me with your address?
(/me hopes its not too far away from the new space or truck rental place)

34

This is correct.

I was thinking at least to power them up to test them. I wouldn’t really want to leave something like that when I wasn’t nearby. I don’t know what the limitations on this kind of thing are at the space. I was always under the impression we played the lines with regards to safe and legal. I’ll have to clarify this.

I am really happy to hear that the new space has discussion with regards to electrical. I’d love to be involved if anyone from that committee is listening. During packing I was surprised at just how shitty the old space actually was, and I’m a bit surprised we weren’t popping breakers already.

35

Sure - I don’t expect anything to happen nor even be planned until we sign the lease and get access to the building though.

Be glad you never saw our old space at 45W then! Oh boy…

2 Likes
36

At this point it is incredibly likely we’ll be getting the keys and moving in the same weekend. There is a very good chance we won’t have time for a proper build-out phase, unfortunately.

37

Let’s assume that’s the worst case scenario. What problems will that create and how will we work around them?

38

Problems:

No interior walls,

  • lack of wall space for shelving

  • noise,

  • no access control to equipment, can we live without it for a while?

No wiring

No fixed layout

  • moving nokia benches and heavy equipment until then

  • very limited work space until then

I don’t think there is a single perfect layout. Instead each layout has strengths and weakness.

I would like to see wiring on existing walls and ceiling, with minimal wiring planned for new walls.The hope is this will allow us to put wiring in place without locking ourselves into a fixed layout.And we can move things around until we find something that works well.

For this to work do need to approximately locate the heaver “power consuming” equipment.

-----I as much as I would like to see cooking hacking. I don’t think it can happen, simply because clean up is a shared activity which people may find uncomfortable doing in the building washrooms.

If cooking hacking does take place, I know my wife would consider joining.

39

Thanks Tim, adding emphasis on ceiling, outlets on ceiling rarely get in the way.

42

@Daniel_DeGagne are you able to grab the powder printer and blades?

I have been unable to sell the blades.

We will also be unable to deliver them to whereever you would like them to go, sorry. It is looking that will be too much of a time (and therefore financial) burden to handle.

If you can not move them, then I will handle calling the Hackery to pick them up. That will make me sad.