Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

These 5' power strips are 3 wire (w/ground) which is not usually used here, are not marketable here in the Philippines.

Have seen a few used ones over at HMR but now, they don't usually sell these because they use them. I got mine here a long time ago and I had to really convince them to sell it to me.

Good luck in Raon, if it is still there. Why don't you try to make one yourself out of Al box sections and using the right size 'Greenlee' metal punch, make the holes or drill a whole lot of holes and then file to the right shape/size, phew !!

In Deeco, I used to buy 2 wire chassis AC sockets that need a very small rectangular hole. Check out Deeco, they might even have this item you need.

Cheers 🙂

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

We use those power strips in standard equipment racks in the TV networks. Communications companies like PLDT, Bayantel, Smart also use them. These are industrial units. There are locally made ones by a company that sell the racks and accessories called FVT.

The ones from the states are usually 120 volts and have voltage suppressors that blow the fuse so beware of the imported ones. If you do come across one and want to use it for 220 volts, open it and remove the component that looks like a line capacitor.

This component is called a metal oxide varistor and is a single use component. Once it senses over-voltage it will short circuit itself and trip the breaker or blow the fuse thereby protecting the appliance it powers.
Medyo OT na ako.

Boyd

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Hmmm ... I thought I replied to this ...guess it got lost.

I've used FVT products in our office. If you need robustness then they could be worth the money. If it is just for home use, you might consider just making your own. Think aluminum channel or maybe purlins. If made well I'd think they'd be good enough for industrial use too.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Thanks for the pointers, including the one about cutting out any MOVs. I found the FVT website and will inquire --
http://fvtcorporation.com.ph/

Hopefully, their prices for racks/accessories would be reasonable, being locally manufactured, as compared to imported ones. If not, then I guess we will look at the DIY option for the power strips.

The power strips would be for computer 'racks' and for workbenches. (We don't have 'serious' racks now, just the chrome 'wire mesh' type shelves.) It's getting to be an eyesore looking at the short plastic power strips all over the place.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Hey guad. I've been down this path before so I hope you won't mind my 5 cents on the matter.

First of all, FVT is A-OK, moeny-for-value-wise as far as racks go. They will also do custom jobs.

However, rack mounting equipment is to put it bluntly a waste of money nowadays, IMHO. Why buy rack mounted equipment in the first place? We've 3 racks in our network/server rooms. We used to have 5 but since a few years ago we've not been buying rack mounted equipment anymore. Bang-for-buck the desktops are better IHMO. Now our small server farm of about 30 CPUs are mostly in regular desktop PC casings on metal shelves similar to what you have. If you're interested in how we get the reliability we need just ask.

To make the selves equipment friendly, we have cable trunking along the edges and posts of the shelves. Bugee cords secure the CPUs.

The only racks we have left are those that house SUN servers most of which we no longer use but still keep for backups. I expect them to be gone in a few years. The one rack we will keep is for the patch panel but I have to admit that the cost does not seems to have been justified in the first place.

Hope it helps.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

However, rack mounting equipment is to put it bluntly a waste of money nowadays, IMHO. Why buy rack mounted equipment in the first place? We've 3 racks in our network/server rooms. We used to have 5 but since a few years ago we've not been buying rack mounted equipment anymore. Bang-for-buck the desktops are better IHMO. Now our small server farm of about 30 CPUs are mostly in regular desktop PC casings on metal shelves similar to what you have. If you're interested in how we get the reliability we need just ask.

It has not been clear to me what racks buy you, so out of ignorance or suspicion about racks, we've continued to have a motley collection of PCs, UPSes, and assorted networking equipment on shelves; we don't even have Cat5 patch panels; the PBXes and their patch panels are screwed to the wall; but the whole thing seems to have done its job over the last decade+, though it doesn't look 'professional'. Nice to know that maybe we have not missed out too much on not-sure-what.

How do you get the 'reliability you need'? (I am not sure what racks have to do with reliability.)

To make the selves equipment friendly, we have cable trunking along the edges and posts of the shelves. Bugee cords secure the CPUs.

The only racks we have left are those that house SUN servers most of which we no longer use but still keep for backups. I expect them to be gone in a few years. The one rack we will keep is for the patch panel but I have to admit that the cost does not seems to have been justified in the first place.

What are the bungee cords for -- to keep them in place during an earthquake?

We have also put cables in those square cross-section plastic channels (the ones with lots of slats/slits on the sides and removable though hard-to-remove front cover) mounted on the posts and edges of the shelves. However, I am having second thoughts on continuing to use them when we transfer to a new building. It looks neat, but it is hard to trace, add, remove, reposition, and clean cables. The whole thing is a dust trap. Maybe we should use channels more judiciously, with better labeling, separate channels for different cable types, higher air-to-cable ratio in the channels, instead of cramming everything into the same channels.

I'm wondering whether a rats' nest of exposed, unchanneled cables wouldn't be better, or maybe a 'modified rats' nest with selective bundling'. Why limit yourself to the congested edges and posts when you could have the whole vertical plane to use as your canvas? I like those Velcro 'One-Wrap' straps; six 15 inch straps per pack; they tend to sell out quickly when they appear at Ace. We usually cut them into 5 inch pieces.

The (chrome-plated?) wire-mesh type shelves look nice but don't like moisture. We had no choice but to put one (though not for electronics) in front of an air-conditioner, and the condensation on its surfaces caused it to rust in a short time.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Thanks for the FVT website. From another Building Materials thread, am looking for what is known as "Pegboard" (perforated 'lawanit' type board).

I saw it being used in the FVT 'shelf gondola.' Have emailed them, hopefully they sell the
pegboard only.

Cheers 🙂

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Thanks for the FVT website. From another Building Materials thread, am looking for what is known as "Pegboard" (perforated 'lawanit' type board).
I saw it being used in the FVT 'shelf gondola.' Have emailed them, hopefully they sell the
pegboard only.

It might be metal. Let us know what you find out. Also, where to get the 'hangers' or whatever it is that you put into the holes.

Speaking of which, anyone know where to get hardwood dowels of various sizes?

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

What are the bungee cords for -- to keep them in place during an earthquake?

Yup. The racks and shelves are also bolted to the floor.

Why limit yourself to the congested edges and posts when you could have the whole vertical plane to use as your canvas?

You also need to get to the back of most equipment. I also like neat. Oh and yes, labeling and even color coding stuff is a good idea, I consider it essential though.

I like those Velcro 'One-Wrap' straps; six 15 inch straps per pack; they tend to sell out quickly when they appear at Ace. We usually cut them into 5 inch pieces.

Yeah good idea.

How do you get the 'reliability you need'? (I am not sure what racks have to do with reliability.)

Actually, what I was referring to was the reliability of the equipment. For example, we no longer prefer those SUN "server" machines. Heck I don't even specify SCSI anymore. Nowadays we just use mainstream PC hardware with LINUX. All of it is protected electrically by an online UPS. Now granted these mainstream PC machines will not be as predictable as those SUN machines, we achieve the reliability by making the services are all redundant DHCP, DNS, LDAP, SMB, SQL, etc. We also keep clones and backups using the now inexpensive HDDs.

Oh yeah, halon fire extinguishers are a good investment too IMHO.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Hi Quad,

Pegboard hardware, I have a load of them given by a friend.

On eBay, you can get them no problem, the freight cost will be high though.

Don't know if places like FVT or any of the other 'sales merchandising equipment' firms
sell them.

Actually, you can make/bend your own, specially the simple hooks. Anybody with a basic wire (3/16") bender can do it. The more complex shapes/brackets/tool holders will need welding though.

Cheers 🙂

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Yup.The racks and shelves are also bolted to the floor.

We might tie the rack tops to the ceiling (giving the 'suspension bridge' look) for ease in future repositioning. I wonder when the next big earthquake is due.

Actually, what I was referring to was the reliability of the equipment. For example, we no longer prefer those SUN "server" machines. Heck I don't even specify SCSI anymore. Nowadays we just use mainstream PC hardware with LINUX. All of it is protected electrically by an online UPS. Now granted these mainstream PC machines will not be as predictable as those SUN machines, we achieve the reliability by making the services are all redundant DHCP, DNS, LDAP, SMB, SQL, etc. We also keep clones and backups using the now inexpensive HDDs.

Oh yeah, halon fire extinguishers are a good investment too IMHO.

It sounds like we have similar setup (except that we use FreeBSD). Managing all the 'replicas' for whatever capability that is replicated is the challenge. For NFS, we still prefer (and are actually in process of switching to) SCSI. SCSI seems to have a noticeable speedup on NFS for the diskless clients.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Diskless - why? I've not looked at the economics for sometime now but I'm pretty sure the situation has just improved in favor of having disks.

I actually like NFS however since all our workstations are MS Windows and it is too much trouble to have maintain two network file systems I just decided to dump it in favor of SMB. When it comes to software so for replicas and backups we just use ghost4u, rsync, and bacula. Keeping to the KISS principle is essential I think.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Diskless - why? I've not looked at the economics for sometime now but I'm pretty sure the situation has just improved in favor of having disks.

I actually like NFS however since all our workstations are MS Windows and it is too much trouble to have maintain two network file systems I just decided to dump it in favor of SMB. When it comes to software so for replicas and backups we just use ghost4u, rsync, and bacula. Keeping to the KISS principle is essential I think.

Most of the workstations are FreeBSD and diskless. Diskless to avoid having to install and maintain software on each workstation. The laptops can boot standalone or as diskless client. It is too much trouble to maintain two OSes, so we dumped Windows long ago, except for a few (<5%) machines. 🙂 For synchronization at the file system level, rsync is great for one-way; unison seems to work OK for two-way; we still have to find a good one for multi-way.

Re: Really long power strips with many outlets

Unfortunately, our primary application, ECAD, is not available for Linux, not to mention all the support aps. Good for you bro.

"Unison" ... I'll have to check that out, thanks.