One can just never have too much disk storage. So, in an effort to really crank up the total storage on Frankie, we thought it would be fun to build something which the AS/400 Model 170 never had -- an expansion tower.
Using a Migration Tower I chassis (an old 620), Dr. Franken set out to create this very unique item. The experience gained from pulling apart what will be Herman's tower. The idea here is that we would replace all of Frankie's current 30 "external disks" with this 35 unit tower.
Here are some of Dr. Franken's comments on the completion of the project:
The tower looks strangely like an old 1/2 wide S20 but not so fast. Really it's a 5034 tower split in half with the front of the left half replacing the back of the right half.
Additional work was done to the top and bottom of the front to yield room for 5 cans up front and two in the back. This thing holds 35 drives. It contains dual power supplies (1300 watts total) so we should be way good on power. Original design had but a single fan up top for the drives and I've doubled that.
Since there is no SPCN on the 170 I had to sleuth my way to how to light off those power supplies. Turns out you need 5v from someplace to excite the things. Once up they can power themselves so three 1.5v batteries are behind the 'control panel' just to boot strap the power supplies.
The top and front are from a model 600 (same width and depth as 1/2 the 620) but the bottom skirt had to be cut and re-welded to remove the extra 11.5". I had to purchase exactly one tool a 4mm x.70 tap.
Except for the power on, and power enable buttons and the three batteries the entire cage is IBM components. The tower has been connected to Frankie for a few years now and continues to operate perfectly. Through 2009 and 2010 the disks have all been replaced with 17.5GB units expanding his disk to a total of 682.5GB! And IBM said 175 was the limit.... :-)
If 30 is good 45 is better!!
