This is a summary of the power supply conversion issue for the VAX 6000 and how it was solved. I remove all personal history fun and leave it down to the plain facts. This is the power supply schema of the power & logic box: +-------+-------+------------- | | | . --- --- --- | A\ A\ A\ | | | | | L1------|-------|-------+ | L2------|-------+ | = 300 V L3------+ | | | | | | | --- --- --- | A A A | | | | . +-------+-------+------------- L1, L2 and L3 are the 3-phase 208 V input lines that come from the first power entry relay and filter box. Bob found that the neutral wire is not lead to the power & logic box at all. You can well and safely run the VAX off a 220 V power hookup. In 220 V countries this is traight forward (but beware of the transformer that your machine might have!!!) In the US you have 220 V at your washer/dryer hookup. A US model has no transformer to circumvent. So, all we need to do is wire as follows: 220V hookup VAX P1 (red) -------------- Lx (brown) P2 (black) ------------ Ly (black, it does matter which one!) (nothing) ------------- Lz (black, it does matter which one!) N (white) ------------- N (blue) GND (blank) ----------- GND (green/yellow stripes) So that's simple. But be sure to read to the end in order to understand the Ly and Lz story! PLUG AND RECEPTACLE The easiest way is to buy a NEMA L21-R20 type receptacle to plug in the original plug. This receptacle can be expensive (like $50) but Eagle electric company as sold by Lowes home improvement store has them too and Lowes might get them cheaper, about $28. If they have it on hand, that is. Turns out that it probably always needs special ordering, in which case they charge you extra. This brings the price up close to $40. Nah! to hell with this funny twist plug. I bought a cheaper 4-pole plug and receptacle for your typical new-style laundry dryer hookup for about $18 total. You do need a 4 pole receptacle as you need P1, P2, N, and GND (separate from N!) The typical washer dryer plug has 3 prongs which is not sufficient for safety. Install the new plug onto that monstrous cable is a bit of a challenge, but any handy person can do it eventually. Read on about important information just how exactly to connect things. WIRING DETAIL Now which of the two black wires should you connect? There are three ways for you to find out: (1) If you pick the wrong one the machine will not power up. In that case you do not even hear a relay click when you turn the key. (2) If you have a phase testing screwdriver or a voltmeter, you should find 110V AC power in the upper power outlet (FL3) but *not* in the lower outlet (FL4). If you have power in the lower outlet, you have the wrong black wire connected. (3) Hence, the third and most elegant way to find out *before* you screw in your wires is to use a conductivity tester to see that you have not the black wire that is lead to the FL4 outlet. In all cases, make sure you have the main breaker engaged (the T-shaped handle pushed in). Q: Should you connect the extra black wire? A: You don't need to and I recommend against trying. When I tried it it coincided with the breakdown of my power and logic box. This may be bad luck only or the box may have been bad to begin with (there is evidence for the latter), but it may also be a systematic issue. There is no need to share load between the thyristors. Geoff Roberts runs his 6000 for over a year 24/7 without using all three feeds. And he's got a full house cabinet. This is the whole story. It's really simple once you trust the system. TERMINAL If you wonder about terminal settings, the VAX console connector is wired as a normal DTE as should any computer. So you need a crossover wire ("null modem") between the VAX and the terminal (e.g. your computer.) As you can see, the VAX uses only RX, TX, and GND, so it's really easy to hack such a cable together.