Dude, I think I gotta stop impulse buying stuff the forum sends me.
That's probably a good idea. I mean, on the one hand, who could resist the idea of doubling their environmental chamber testing capacity for such a low price?
On the other hand, oh my god, it's huge!
Did you guys know it was this big? Roughly. I knew it wouldn't fit under the fume hood we have. We'll see if it fits inside.
Oh, this is gonna go well. That's as close as they can get.
How are we supposed to move it once it's off the... like, can our forklift move it?
No, not even close. I see. How are we moving it?
That's a wonderful question, Linus. We're thinking maybe we drop it in the parking lot and then rent a forklift.
I sincerely hope we didn't just buy someone else's garbage.
It's apparently been stored outside for almost 10 years. The driver thinks it'll work on our little car dollies we have.
They're good for about a ton and a half each. So he's gonna try to kind of back up, wiggle it into the doorway,
and then we'll plant it onto those dollies and kind of hope for the best.
How are we gonna get it off the dollies? That's future problem.
We can probably test our existing environmental chamber inside of this one.
I was thinking it didn't look that big. And I was thinking, hey, I mean, a low ball bid can't hurt, right?
We only paid 1,300 bucks for it, I think? Something like that.
So bottom line, we're paying a tenth of what we paid for our existing environmental chamber,
even including the delivery. But we haven't fixed it up yet. Here's the issue.
While the seller does believe it to be in working order, it certainly isn't in working order right now.
All of the refrigerant was drained years ago and replaced with an inert gas,
and it has been stored idle for almost a decade outside.
We use our current environmental chamber for testing products that are sensitive to changes in temperature
or humidity like power supplies or anything with a battery,
as well as to conduct wacky science fair experiments.
It's been great. The only issue is that sometimes it's a little bit on the small side,
and since we only have one, it can be a bit of a production and testing bottleneck.
I really don't know if that was the solution though. This is the plan.
That's the plan. That's our best plan.
Were we able to find an MSRP on this? Not so far.
The company's been sold two or three times, and so we only have a generic service manual.
Oh, no. Well, really? Yeah. Do we know what year it's from?
2008, I think. Good year.
Solid year. Do we have a plan for when this is up and running,
or are we assuming nothing for now? I was kind of assuming nothing.
I wasn't, like, planning any projects for next month or anything. I think the plan is, the line is, bought this thing now, what?
It's amazing how many things have that plan around here.
Someone work out that TV wall, phenomenal.
Right? Phenomenal. This, maybe.
I'm one for something.
What did we pay for the other one? I think that one was somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000.
Okay. So we would have to spend an awful lot refurbing this thing
before we would be behind the eight ball on it. Do you know how much the gas costs?
No. Oh, is the gas really expensive? One of the gases we have to buy is $4,000.
Shut up. We have to buy a whole cylinder. That's just the gas, not their time to fill it.
Why do we have to buy a whole cylinder? I don't know. That's not Alex's question.
Because that's all, that's the lowest amount they'll sell it in. The techs have the easier to get gas, but they don't have this one.
This one, they have to get from, like, a specialty supplier. And the supplier will only sell it in full tanks.
Oh, okay. But we could sell the partial tank after.
Maybe, unless we use it all. I think the tank's five kilograms.
So we might need more than one tank. We might, hopefully not.
The other one is 15 pounds worth of refrigerant. That one? No, no, no.
Oh. This is two-stage, so it has... It's two-stage?
Yeah, it's got two different refrigerants in it. Okay, I knew absolutely nothing about it other than,
seems like a cheap environmental chamber. So does it go, like, lower in temperature?
I think it's negative 177. So... Shut up.
Really? I think. What?
It's not going to fit under here. No, it really isn't. I mean...
No, it really isn't. Does it do humidity control as well?
Do you know? It must. It takes plumbing as well, so it's water. Okay.
So it must do. Oh yeah, yes, paper and plumber too. Could, like, I get inside it?
Oh, definitely. I imagine, yeah. What about you?
I couldn't stand it, but I could probably fit in there. The size is one standing Linus or one folded Lucas.
Oh my God. So that display interface on the side is cooked, hey?
I haven't really looked. You know, do you really need to stand on a curb next to me?
I'll take a knee. It's bad enough as it is.
This may be the point where I start questioning the choice. I mean, at the price, it seems so obvious,
but clearly nobody else bit above this. Yeah.
I said don't fit more than it's worth in scrap metal, so...
Okay, nobody told me that. They weren't kidding.
That was the plan.
How much you want to bet that display doesn't work? Oh yeah, there's no way.
How are we going to get replacement parts? That's a you problem, isn't it?
No. Damn. I think he's going to lift this just the end up and scoot it in.
Oh, we've got a forklift here now. Those, the pallets, like, 2x6s is I think.
I just noticed the pallets made of 2x6s, I think.
They're just shredding. Just...
This is ridiculous. So it seems what they're trying to do is
lift her up a little bit with the forklift to take enough strain off of those little rollers
that we can get it over the lip. I don't know if it's going to work.
There we go. Oh. It worked.
Oh, okay. Putting the cables up against the thing in front of the bay door was a strategic choice.
I thought it was an accident before. I feel like we may have been better off with the rollers in the middle to 4x4s.
Maybe I should say something before we completely unstrap it.
Right now, the pallet is bowing in the middle.
Would we be better off taking the rollers and putting them on the middle 4x4s?
Uh, I mean, maybe. Well, I just mean if the whole idea is that these rollers are going to lift the thing,
then we might as well put them in a position where they're not going to...
Yeah, because we're going to have to run to forklift to get this thing off anyway.
Because I just think it might roll a lot easier because we'll have the mass over the rollers.
Yeah, no, I think you're right. Okay, cool. As long as the pallet survives being lifted one more time.
Wait, wait, wait. It's not in the right spot over there. That way.
It turns out supervising is a job. Yeah, I think now the pallet is more off the...
It's off the ground now because it was getting hung up in the middle there.
And that's it. We're kind of dragging.
Oh, Alex. I think this bent.
Like, I just don't think it has the weight anymore. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, the car dolly totally just bent. Yeah, that's why. I mean, should we...
Should we look at it? That's a satisfying handle, hey?
What the... It's like a baseball.
I like the two-man lift logo. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, two-man lift. This panel. Yeah.
So here's our fans that blow through the evap.
And then it comes out like this. This seems to be humidity control.
They kind of look like sprinkler heads or something.
Well, time for us to do some learning. I like that you cut reusable straps.
Oh, what? Okay. So she's a little beefier than the old one.
Oh my God, this is going to be a hell of a project. Like, all that plumbing for sure has to come out.
Look at it. Look at the color of it, Lucas.
You know, all things considered though, it's not that rusty.
Oh, gross. Yeah, the plumbing has to come out for sure.
Oh, here's another access panel. Pressure gauge.
I know what that is. Moisture release thing.
Those are, I can't remember the name, but they are magnetic
and they start and stop flow. Ah, I appear to be tethered.
No one leaped to my aid at once. You didn't ask for help.
Okay, cool. Ah, you have got to be kidding me.
Are these the compressors? Holy crap.
The compressors themselves have cooling fans that ask
for freaking 208 volt, 1.3 amp.
The compressors have 250 watt cooling fans.
Freakin' what? Okay, there's got to be a heat exchanger in here somewhere.
Oh, fiberglass, yuck. Okay, a little rusty, a little dusty.
Condenser water inlet. Oh, the whole thing is liquid cooled.
There's no, there's no like air cooled fan condenser.
Like, I don't, I don't see one. So there's, there's the water inlet. So the plumbing is not necessarily just
for humidity control, it's for cooling. So we are going to have to have like a cooling tower
or something. Wait, do we still have a bunch of those big radiators
and those like server rack things? Yeah, we do, yeah. I mean, we're going to have to figure out what kind
of capacity we need, but oh boy. This right here is my condenser for which one?
Oh, maybe it's both. Broad strokes, I think I figured out the flow path.
That back there is our first stage compressor. It's cooled by this liquid cooled condenser
that we're going to have to have water hookups to this chamber in order to operate.
That cools through this heat exchanger right here,
the hot side of my second stage compressor,
which is over there. That guy uses this giant effectively reservoir
to store the gaseous refrigerant when the system isn't running. Wait, huh, it's also when it is running.
It's kind of complicated. The accumulator also plays a crucial role
in preventing liquid from entering the compressor in the first place. You should just check out our recent video
about the three stage children if you want to learn more. All right.
The cold side of that boy comes right up here
and goes, there we go, into the evaporator
inside the chamber. So the operating range was what, negative 77 to 170?
She's not as fast as our existing chamber, but a big part of the reason for that
is the internal volume has got to be six-tip 8x,
the other one, so we could easily test like a large system in here.
If we can get it working, boy, are there ever a lot of little parts
that are looking rusted shut. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong about any of this, you guys.
I know just enough about the refrigeration cycle to be dangerous. You'll have to get a little taller.
Wolf? Come on, there we go.
Oh, well, that was anticlimactic. Are these the motors for the internal fans?
575 volts, two amps.
These are 1,000-watt fan motors. About a horsepower and a half.
Each! Z-Arc. Oh, look at the size of those guys.
Oh, there's a PC in here. There sure is.
What are the flipping odds that that works?
Windows Vista Business Edition. Found the keys to the city.
You got a Dell. Dude! Same thing as the bottom, though.
There's far less corrosion in here than I expected. It must have been at least under cover outside.
This seems like probably the way to do things.
Oh, my God, there's a lot of time back here. Wait, is that a RAM stick?
Old-timey automation? The f**k is this?
Oh, Jesus. Okay, this is another computer. What about second computer?
Why, you're in the schematic here. I'm what?
You're in the schematic. Oh, stop it. L-S, small.
Wait a second. Jordan, you hooked up the Dell? I did.
I mean, dude, if you're going to get a Dell, you got to know if your Dell works, right?
Exactly. So this looks like an old Celeron. Vista Business.
And most of the interaction with the computer stuff here is all serial.
Okay. Dan by LED is on.
Yeah. That's a good sign. Well, that's not a good sign. Well, let's solve it now.
Oh, was it flashing before? I don't know. Who makes an orange power LED, though?
There's no way. Oh, this is BTX. Okay, stupid question.
Is that power button even hooked up? If it's meant to be turned on somehow, else here.
That is a not stupid question. For future us, very cool piece of equipment.
I'm glad we didn't pay full price for it in its current condition, though, because there's no way that this is alive.
I mean, wait, does it have a power plug?
Sorry. Sorry. It's still good. Ah, it's this.
Okay, here, let's power it. Oh, dude.
No way. Dude. No way. The display works.
Are you kidding me right now? Dude, she works.
To be clear, I'm not worried that we would be able to find, you know,
another display with similar inputs. I'm just worried that using something
that's not part of the expected equipment for this thing
could have unforeseen consequences. This is a relief for me,
because this is the interface. When you don't have an interface, you got nothing.
At least we got a big nothing. Yeah. Oh, what's this?
Documentation, apparently. I think I found that it uses two different refrigerants,
so that checks out. Okay, that makes it definitely a two-stage.
It's got, you know, up-to-date calibration or maintenance records from 2014.
She seems like a pretty good manual. Ellen, two cooling. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
It's saying if you want to additionally use liquid nitrogen cooling, there's a vent.
So you should vent. We can get the quantum computing in there.
Yeah. There's a lot to learn, but this does not look like a generic manual.
This looks like the proper manual for this chamber. For this one, yeah. That's actually very promising, then, I guess.
And it has some, like, schematics on the back for some electrical and stuff you can see.
Dude, without this, we'd probably be S.O.I. That would be so lost, yeah. We might still be lost, but...
Cool. Got a lot to learn. And this is going to be a huge project.
In short, that we know of so far, we need to get some kind of external cooling tower.
We need to charge the refrigerant in both of the stages.
We need to go through and inspect for any failed valves
or sensors or other components. We need to replace the PC and also figure out
what kind of control software they were using. And we need to find a place to put it and a way to move it.
Whew. And we also have to tell you about our sponsor.
If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe for the rest of our adventure.
Hopefully getting this thing into service. And if you want to check out another refrigeration video,
why not check out the time that I bought the world's greatest CPU cooler?
It's not just two-stage, but it's a three-stage cascade
chiller that goes directly onto a CPU and brings it down to negative 100 Celsius.
It's pretty cool. What do you think was the worst in scrap? Hopefully more than $1,300.