Shock absorbing system needed?

[Bugfinder]

Hi, have any of guys thought of using any shock absorbing system for the hard disk? Have you built one on your own, or bought already made? If so, could you please recommend a solution?

Thank you.

[SirPoonga]

Hi, have any of guys thought of using any shock absorbing system for the hard disk? Have you built one on your own, or bought already made? If so, could you please recommend a solution?

Thank you.

explain what you are doing?  why you need a shock absorber?
Remember in the mid 90s, when cd players needed a car tray so they wouldn't skip....

[kgriffin]

Although I am intrigued as to why...without knowing all the details....I suggest this:

Whoops, tripod blew my picture away...here is the link

http://kaden98.tripod.com/mame/id6.html

[Bugfinder]

explain what you are doing?  why you need a shock absorber?
Remember in the mid 90s, when cd players needed a car tray so they wouldn't skip....

My friends and nephews keep punching hard the cabinet, the games have hung quite a few times. I though there was a commercially available system to protect the disk but the idea present by kgriffin is interesting. I would have to take the hd out of the PC case and have it 'floating' inside the cabinet. Will try, thanks to both for the replies.

[SirPoonga]

if they are hitting it that hard, they better be moving the cabinet.  what games??

[Minwah]

Give 'em a clip round the ear!  

[Analog-X]

From just looking at that bandage illustration in your case, it might actualy be worse with the Hard Drive flying all over the place.

You can start by explaining to the kids not to be so rough with the machine otherwise they are not allowed to use it.

Rather than coming up a with a Shock Absorbing system, kids wont learn anything this way.

[Thenasty]

What about KI hard Drives ? I have not seen one but I assume they are the same HD. Are those drives have built in shock absorbers ? Maybe Laptop Hard drives may do the trick. Those guys who beat up your machine must be very strong. How about letting the PC case sit on a foam type material ?

[hyiu]

sorry... not much of help here... but... what game do they play that would actually shake the machine ?? a normal cab is quite heavy !!!!.... is you cab on wheels ??... does the wheel has lock ?? .... how about put like 50-100 lb weight in the box so that they cannot shake it anymore ??....

I guess the previous guys are right... if they play so hard that actually shakes the machine and causing the pc to hang several times, they're playing wayyyy too rough.... (or your hard drive is almost ready to "rest".....) backup your data.... and you should teach them not to play so rough.....

[OSCAR]

The ace bandage suggestion is actually a good example of a vibration isolator, which would be ideal if you are trying to protect your hard drive from a harmonic, constant vibration, or a certain frequency (if properly tuned).  However, vibration isolators make poor shock isolators, and vice versa.

Suspending a mass by an elastic material and then subjecting it to a shock load will very likely produce a

[kgriffin]

If you guys have ever wrapped your knees with ace bandages (old baseball injuries here) you will know that the ace bandages are not like rubber bands and stretched tightly I think they would make good vibration isolators as well as shock absorbers. I think you would get less than an inch of play in any direction.

Of course it is all in theory as I have never done it, but it would be a cheap experiment.

[OSCAR]

kgriffin... I'm not harshin' on your theory, but in practicality, anything that makes a good vibration isolator does not make a good shock isolator.  The two just don't mix, as they way they respond to forces is completely different.  After a couple of years of actual vibration testing and analysis at one of my previous jobs, this is a hard and fast rule.

Again, just from my own personal experience ( and not with ace bandages ), your idea appears to present a more decoupled system, which would seem to be better suited towards isolating a system from a vibration rather than shock.  Shock isolators are typically coupled to a component via a compressible object, such a pad or some type of damper.

All I'm really saying is that a more conventional method of isolating a component from shock is with a compressible material rather than suspension.  Perhaps in this particular case with the hard drive, the suspension may work to eliminate the skipping problem, or it could possibly go the other way and cause premature failure of the hard drive due to a head crash against the platters if the hard drive is able to move in any direction up to an inch.  The only way to know for sure would be to test it, but to stay on the safe side (and if it were my hard drive), I would opt for a foam pad.

[kgriffin]

Oscar, I found nothing in your statement as harsh. As a matter of fact, since this is all theory anyway, I find it an interesting discussion.

I have no experience in any of the areas you mentioned. I am however a musician. I have recorded 2 CD's with my band (now since defunct). One CD at Sun Studios in Memphis and another at Ardent Studios also in Memphis.

The whole concept of my idea comes from the shockmounts that both of these professional studios use. They are for shock AND vibration (mostly for shock - mic stands don't usually vibrate - which is why they are called shockmounts)and are mounted to the mic stand which is suseptible to shock (accidentally kicking the mic stand, hitting the mic with your mouth while singing, etc...).

Below is a link to an example. There are many makes and models but they all work on the same principle. My theory is really based on those items (which I have spent many hours in front of) and seems very plausible to me.

Since MusiciansFriend uses url driven session id's, I don't think I can link directly but, if you go to http://www.musiciansfriend.com and do a search for shockmount (one word) you will see many examples of what I am talking about and where my idea came from.

[Howard_Casto]

I love the shock absorber debate...but getting back to the orignal poster... as the others have stated your kids could not be doing tha much damage unless.....

#1 Your hd is ready to die anyway.

#2 Your hd is rigidly bolted to the very bottom of the cab which is a big-nono...

#3 With all due respect your cab is home built and very wobblie and ready to fall apart.  

#4 There is another problem with your pc (like a VERY loose wire) which seems like a hd failure whent he cab is shook.

So long story short.... check out your pc... check out it's mounting.  If your cab is shabby re-enforce the thing... makeing a shock absorber is skirting around the true problem that is something is badly wrong with your setup in either the mounthing, the pc or the construction.  

Sorry didn't want to be mean, it just ended up sounding that way.  It's much quicker than skirting around the real problem.  

Anyway I hope that helps.  

[Lilwolf]

Best solution:

Set your drive to shutdown after 10seconds of non-use.  Or maybe 30seconds.  But make it so it's not turning when your playing a game.  That will solve the problem.

it will slow things when starting (since it will have to turn o nthe drive every time.

Next... you can get sold state drives... but the price will make you cringe.

[Bugfinder]

#4 There is another problem with your pc (like a VERY loose wire) which seems like a hd failure whent he cab is shook.

Sorry didn't want to be mean, it just ended up sounding that way.  It's much quicker than skirting around the real problem.  

Anyway I hope that helps.

It turns out that you hit the point on #4! It was the power connector that was loose on one end.

I want to thank everyone who posted and debated about shock/vibration, that was pretty interesting! I ended up learning more than I expected :-)

[OSCAR]

Bugfinder, I

[SirPoonga]

Kelsey, gstop writing these novels, go make some spinenrs:)

Hey, you said a couple weeks ago that there was going to be a suprise .  Did you post that yet?

[OSCAR]

Actually, I called on the prototype today because I was supposed to get it back by the end of last week.  Apparently the vendor had to move into a larger building and that caused a backup in his shop.  He told me today that I would have it this coming week, but we'll see.

[kgriffin]

Hey Oscar, I will geek out with you anytime. Now how about cold fusion. Theory or reality?

[SirPoonga]

Sounds like my latest motorcycle repair problem.  I took my bike in for its 8000 mile service.
I was a bad boy, I didn't keep up on maintanence of my bike.  I had a few broken spokes on the rear tire.
WEll, the place I go to take care of my bike, they don't handle respoking a tire, they have to send the wheel out.  When the wheel came back something was off center and they had to send it again!!!

[kgriffin]

Ok, I was on the way to bed but could not resist. One more thing to think about Oscar. I will use an analogy.

If you go to Six Flags, you can pay to jump off a crane with elastic attached to your feet, but there is no "jump into a foam pad" ride. Is that because elastic is safer and less likely to break your....body?

Wow. I can't believe I am trying to keep this thread open with crap like that.

Good night all.

[SirPoonga]

you realize at the those heights the foam would have to be very squishy foam wish would then be very light and brittle.  Not a good solution.....

[OSCAR]

Well, the elastic keeps you from actually hitting the ground, and that's a good thing.  In addition, I was just referring to the issues of a rubber-banding effect with regard to a hard drive with the platters spinning and the head trying to access data.  Per your example, the human body is much more tolerant of this than I would suspect a hard drive would be.

But when you see movies where the stunt men jump 10 stories off a building, what do they land on?  A big air mattress, if I'm not mistaken.

Go to bed already.  

[SirPoonga]

Right, AIR matress, not FOAM matress:)