Re: Ramkeeper

[Wayne Stewart <waynes@intergate.bc.ca>]

"Michael J. Mahon" wrote:

> Does anyone know the actual _cause_ of the fires (or even if they
> are more than urban legend)?  There are millions of NiCad batteries
> and recharging circuits in use with little problem.  Was there a
> design flaw in this one?  Or were the small number of "fires"
> actually the result of not properly using the insulating sheet
> described above?  (NiCads can deliver significant power into
> a short--plenty to "smoke" a PC board.)
>

I know of a couple of cases here in Vancouver. In both cases the
people were home and the fire was restricted to the IIgs itself.
One of the people is an overly cautious fellow and if the manual
said use an insulator, then he would have used one. The other
fellow I've been out of touch with for a while so I can't ask.
Unfortunately at the time I was pretty much of a newby and
never thought to ask to see the remains. Nowadays if I saw the
remains I'd likely be able to get a good idea what went wrong.
After those episodes no one around here would consider using
the power supply but not overly long after several hundred
Rev C SCSI cards were available for $25 ( about $17US)each.
I was able to talk the seller down to $10 each. Once you have a
hard drive RAM or ROM drives lose some of their appeal

    Wayne