[XCSSA] Generator powered laptops?

[X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio]

What area of town do you live in?  The new estimates came in saying
that if you don't have power by now, its likely you won't get it until
sometime after this coming Monday - which is a painfully long time.
Although not having power does stink - its nothing like the
devastation that occurred along the coast (ie, Galveston, Kemah, Texas
City, Beaumont, etc...)  So I think we should consider ourselves
pretty lucky that our only complaint is the lack of power or some roof
damage.

I had a whole-house generator put in 6-months ago, which seemed
overkill until Ike.  I ended up getting a portable generator for my
parents just like you have on Monday.

I would also agree with Tom that the power is definitely clean enough.
 Over at my parents,they have their entire datacom stack (phones, DSL,
etc) plugged into the genset along with their TV and everything has
been running fine since Monday.

If you need a break you're welcome to stop by the Hush Labs office
where there's power and net - we've had a few people stop by and chill
for awhile all week.

-Richard

Visit my blog at http://www.richardyoo.com
Share your photos at http://www.natuba.com




On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 12:11 AM, X-otic Computer Systems of San
Antonio <xcssa at xcssa.org> wrote:
> Well, as many of you know, Houston got it's posterior handed to it by
> Ike.  Unfortunately, I am (along with most of Houston and surrounding
> areas) without power.  We are fortunate to have running water and
> natural gas.  Recently we bought a generator and have been surviving
> quite well.
>
> The question I have for SATLUG and XCSSA is concerning the 110VAC
> output coming from the generator. I took a meter to the power output
> and found that the power fluctuates almost constantly between 116VAC
> and 118VAC after getting the engine calibrated correctly.  (Before it
> was surging wildly from 105VAC to 130VAC.  It's amazing what a quarter
> turn on the idler adjustment does. :P)
>
> The questions are:
> 1:  Would you consider this clean enough to run a laptop or other
> computer fed by the brick-style switching power supplies?
> 2: If it's not clean enough, would adding an UPS clean it up without
> resulting in a blown UPS?
>
> The idea behind this is that DSL and cable are both out in my
> neighborhood and there are a few people in my neighborhood that are
> needing to apply for FEMA assistance.  I am thinking of using my VIA
> Artigo with it's miniscule 12watt power supply to NAT the cellular
> modem connection I'm currently on (at the office) to retransmit via an
> accesspoint locally so that others nearby can contact FEMA, their work
> or loved ones and let everyone know they're OK.   It's nothing fancy
> like satellite uplinks or anything the Red Cross has, but it's way
> better than nothing at all.  On a side note, Sprint came up on Monday
> night, while AT&T and Tmobile are still down for the count in my
> subdivision.
>
> Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
>
>
> Thank you.
> FIRESTORM_v1
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