Re: Use a RAMKeeper to light the fireplace?

[salfter@salfter.ncc74656.dyndns.org (Scott Alfter)]

In article <69BED69130612985.52674B55EC8D18C2.D7086CADAFC7B078@lp.airnews.net>,
David Williams <dlw@trailingedge.com> wrote:
>Several people have emailed me telling me the Applied Engineering RAMKeeper 
>was reportedly the cause of some fires.  Does anyone have any info on this or 
>is it just another UL?  What's the story?

As I recall, it wasn't the RAMKeeper, but it was somebody's memory expansion
card for the IIe.  Come to think of it, I had a RamWorks III and placed a
strip of electrician's tape on the inside of the lid over the auxiliary
slot, so it must've been that.  The problem with the RamWorks III (and maybe
some of their earlier designs as well) was that the +5 and GND rails were
brought to the upper edge of the card.  The plastic parts of the IIe case
are coated with a conductive paint to reduce RF emissions from the computer. 
The lid has a reinforcing rib crossing it from left to right.  If you piled
lots of stuff on top of your computer, it might have been possible for that
rib to come into contact with the RamWorks, where there was a possibility of
shorting the power supply.  Even with the relatively wimpy stock IIe power
supply, this would have been a Bad Thing (TM).  (With the 250W PC-type power
supply that's in my "stealth GS," it'd be a Really Bad Thing (TM).)

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(IIGS(  Scott Alfter (remove Voyager's hull number for email address)
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