<html class="apple-mail-supports-explicit-dark-mode"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Walter,<div><br></div><div>I apologize for asking, but why are you holding on to all this stuff?</div><div><br></div><div>Hear me out.</div><div><br></div><div>You are making a significant investment ("I've bought a garage"), to what end?</div><div><br></div><div>I've been to Dave McGuire's LSSM in PA, and I can understand what he's doing, but are your systems actually interesting enough to justify warehousing them? The devices you listed so far seem pretty common, and in need of repair/part replacement.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Ideally, the equipment should be stored in an environment as close to a traditional office environment, and maybe left plugged in to to perhaps extend the life of NVRAM parts (assuming the PS never really turns off).</b></div><div><br></div><div>I ask about your intentions because that will shape the responses.</div><div><br></div><div>A few years ago I significantly reduced my Sun collection, realizing that I could logically keep myself entertained/happy with one, high-spec U60 system, that various old SS/5, SS20, and Ultra 2 systems were just redundant and taking up too much space.</div><div><br></div><div>You don't have to justify your collection to me, but if we know your plans, we can make better suggestions.</div><div><br></div><div>Hope I didn't offend,</div><div><br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Ken</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Apr 8, 2026, at 14:07, Walter Belgers via rescue <rescue@sunhelp.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">\ufeff<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">Hi,<div><br></div><div>Either my collection is too big, or my house is too small. I've thought about giving (most of) my collection to a museum, but this has been unsuccessful.</div><div><br></div><div>I've now bought a garage as storage. It's part of an appartment complex, so the temperature/moisture levels should be better than in a garage that has no heating/conditioning whatsoever. Of course, it will be much worse than in my home.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Any tips on storing stuff? </b>Sparcstations and other Sun boxed, spare cards (sbus, VME), boxed with OSes on tape/CD, documentation, etc.</div><div><br></div><div>I was thinking about keeping the documentation and books at home. I want to put in (heavy duty) shelves for the systems, use big plastic boxes for parts. Maybe put some bags around the systems. A dehumidifier is not really an option I think, there is mains power, but I cannot go there very regularly to check on it.</div><div><br></div><div>I've just started to make an inventory of my stuff, seeing if the systems will still run after having been shelved so long. The first four systems: SPARCstation 20: still working! SPARCsystem Netra i4: one DIMM dead, disk dead, NVRAM empty (was fixed but battery empty again). SPARC Xterminal1, dead. SPARCstation 4: I had to hit the disk because of stiction but then it booted although NVRAM empty. I've built a whole bunch of GW-48T02-1 repair boards but I don't think I'll put them in at this time.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div>Walter.</div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>rescue list - http://sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue_sunhelp.org</span><br></div></blockquote></div></body></html>