Imagine getting an automated service call from your server room at midnight. Now imagine driving to work only to discover that a minor software glitch set off the alarm.

After a few nights of this, it's not much fun.

While working toward a permanent solution for the glitch, Senior Research Consultant Larry Campbell created a temporary solution from spare parts. Dubbed the "Solenoid of Convenience,"¹ a remotely triggered relay activates a solenoid that resets the air-handling system in the server room.

It's a short-term solution but works really well and shows the creative problem solving ability of the ASCTech staff," says Andy Greicius, Director of Infrastructure and Operations.

If you've got a computer or hardware problem that needs to be solved, consider contacting the creative minds at ASCTech.

¹"Solenoid of Convenience," replaced the original engineering acronym: PSPMMNLMSSERS, or “Please Stop Paging Me In the Middle of the Night and Let Me Sleep HVAC Spurious Error Remediation System.”