- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

DC/Baltimore Area Enthusiasts?
by Robb Hill 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

Hi, Anybody in the DC/Baltimore area that might like to get together occasionally? I'd like to make it to NJ but only have been able to make it once. If there is enough interest, I would be happy to organize the meetup. Thanks, Robb

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Amstrad PC1512 and PC1640 - Power Supply Replacement
by Support 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

I'm glad to announce an Amstrad PC enthusiast in England is currently testing the ReActiveMicro Universal PSU as a possible replacement option for this rare-ish PC clone. It seems the Amstrad PC1512 and PC1640 systems were sold by Alan Michael Sugar Trading in the UK back in 1987, sold in Germany under the name Schneider, and were also sold in the U.S. under some other names as well. All these Amstrad machines used the display monitor to provide power to the PC body. +12, -12, +5, -5, volts DC - which is the SAME outputs as used by the Apple II systems and what the Universal PSU was designed to replace. Being a modern solution the Universal PSU accepts universal AC supply voltage (100-240v AC / 50-60Hz) unlike older power supplies. There are many Amstrad's out there not being used because the power supply has died. With some luck the ReActiveMicro Universal PSU will help breath some life back in to these old systems. Photo here: https://www.facebook.com/reactivemicrousa/photos/a.1461349847451589.1073741… Amstrad PC owners can get their own Universal PSU here or can email me off list: http://www.ebay.com/itm/302309768009 Henry S. Courbis Office Toll Free: (800) REACTIVE (732-2848) Office/Mobile Direct: (856) 779-1900 www.ReActiveMicro.com <http://www.ReactiveMicro.com> - Sales, Support, and News, Our Headquarters on the Internet ReActiveMicro.com/wiki - Support, Software, Manuals, and History. Create your own page today! Facebook.com/reactivemicrousa - Our Social Media Outlet and Support

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Museum Report 2017-07-02 July 2, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 02 Jul '17

02 Jul '17

Mostly a slow day, but had a family of 10 show up who had mostly been here before. Mostly kids, they loved it. I had a lot of them try various paint programs, Paintbrush, MacPaint, Deluxe Paint III. Also C64 SIDs. They loved it so much that the parents had to drag them away. They promise to come again soon. I had another family of 4 come in with moderate interest. Told them about VCF East and our booth at Maker Faire. Overall a nice day! I was able to reset the network connections on the tablets, so all of them are working well now. -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ========================================================

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OT: 500 GB PATA drive
by Kelly Leavitt 02 Jul '17

02 Jul '17

I'm trying to help a neighbor get his old XP machine running again. Lots of photos of course. Anyone have a cheap or free parallel ATA drive? Contact me off list please, Kelly kelly(a)catcorner.org

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 02 Jul '17

02 Jul '17

Good day visitorship-wise. Several families came through our door. One group was the extended family of an Infoage board member. Another group was a father and college-age daughter, both of whom studied compsci (they stayed for an hour). I spent a lot of time with visitors today debunking myths about Apple and such.

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Who going to Kfest?
by Evan Koblentz 01 Jul '17

01 Jul '17

Ian, Alex J., Andy Molloy, Henry, and yours truly are all going to Kfest. Anyone else from the group?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] The next Great VCF workshop July 15 & 16, 2017
by Blatboy 30 Jun '17

30 Jun '17

Alas, I now have a big freakin' deadline on July 17. You'll be having fun at the workshop. I'll be cramming. I took my name off the spreadsheet. I'm crossing my fingers my luck will be better for the August one. :) Walter http://www.jwalterhawkes.com http://www.blatboy.com like to know where/when I'm playing? Click here <http://www.blatomaster.com/mlist.php> to sign up for my list, and let the babble begin.

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Radio Shack Model II rescue
by Joseph Oprysko 30 Jun '17

30 Jun '17

There is a Radio Shack Model II that needs to be rescued. It's in Flushing, NY. If I was able to drive that far, I'd pick it up myself. Is anyone available in the area who would be able to pick it up? Thanks, Joseph Oprysko -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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looking for intel 4040 programs
by Herb Johnson 30 Jun '17

30 Jun '17

> So far the only [4040 programs] I know of are Herb Johnson's stuff at > http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/intel440_roms.html You're welcome. Also consider http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/int_upp.html which describes the Intel UPP programmers, operated by a 4040. Their code is locked up in 4001's. They are operated by an Intel 8-bit system. http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/a04.html A simple cross assembler. Pro-log's "The Designer's Guide to Programmed Logic" has how-to-code 4040 examples. I have copies from two years, 1972 and 1977. Copies are available for a modest fee. Yes, I charge fees. MOst use of 4004 and 4040, were in products for industry. The sources were never released for those. Disassembly is informative. The 4004 and 4040 were controllers and so most any code was special purpose. I suppose, you could try to find old Intel user archives - they had a small collection of 4-bit and 8-bit programs as part of their User Library. Many of Intel's eight-bit and 16-bit programs have been recovered in the last few years. But Intel lost interest in their 4-bit development products by the Multibus era. What's your plan? Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Colossal Cave Adventure on AMC website
by Douglas Crawford 30 Jun '17

30 Jun '17

Maybe old news, but here goes: Rick Adams made a web version of the game for AMC: http://www.amc.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire/exclusives/colossal-cave-adven… It has a nice green screen CRT look. FYI It has a single input line "Next ?" - not quite like a terminal. (Dummy me I was hitting ENTER expecting it to scroll and thought it was broken) from: http://rickadams.org/adventure/

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 20, Issue 29
by Kenneth Seefried 30 Jun '17

30 Jun '17

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> > I didn't say it was impossible, I said it was pretty tough to do. And I said it wasn't. It wasn't in the old days if you knew what you were doing and it definitely isn't now in the 95% of everything is Ethernet/IP world. > We've all seen those interfaces, and those of us (myself included) who > have used them have run up against the same old problem of driver > availability, OS version dependencies, etc etc. Some of us were and are capable of dealing with those issue and routinely do. > In fact the first widely-deployed router that was capable of routing > IP on a T3 at wire speed while handling BGP was an IBM RS/6000 7012-320 > with a synchronous serial card in it, bundled by IBM as the 6611 Network > Processor. I'm quite familiar with the 6611. Awful things to build large networks with (I did) unless you really, really needed SNA/APPN weirdness that it took Cisco a while to figure out (I, regrettably, did). But, yes, commodity hardware. Lot's of IBM network network gear is "IBM [RT,PC,PS/2,Power] + ARTIC card" under the cover. That said, I believe a properly configured Wellfleet BLN could handle T3 routing + BGP before the 6611 (in 1991?). The Wellfleet BCN certainly could, but I think production BCNs were delayed till after the 6611 shipped. I was building out a worldwide Wellfleet-based network at the time (1100 routers?), but some of the details have faded. Wellfleet had the worst user interface ever conceived (SiteManager aka SiteMangler), but we deployed tons, including some interesting FDDI->FDDI routing scenarios (so the bandwidth was there). Let's not stroll into the minefield that was Wellfleets OSPF implementation.... Those were heady days. > But this is not the norm by any stretch. Perhaps not the norm by Cisco sales numbers, but that's kinda like saying *BSD doesn't exist because Microsoft. - IBM sold a lot of 6611s. For a long time. - Internet IMPs were Honeywell DDP-516s - we've been doing routing on commodity hardware for a long time. - Nokia sold tens of millions of bog-standard rackmount ATX PCs (later CPCI) running FreeBSD (relabled IPSO) as firewall/routers with optional V.35/X.21, HSSI, ATM & FDDI interfaces. I still use a Nokia/Sagnoma sync serial card from an IP440 in my lab. - Most of the earlier Juniper line are repackaged PCs running FreeBSD (nee JunOS). - SnapRoute is a Linux-based routing platform that AT&T has vetted for 5G network routing on commodity hardware (http://about.att.com/story/white_box_collaboration.html) - etc., etc., etc. And that ignores the whole Software Defined Network (SDN) trend which is predominately OSS+White Box Hardware. Little guys like Google, Amazon & Facebook are betting on that. > The fact that it can be done, and was very occasionally done, isn't really the point. Sure, when 'the point' becomes cherry-picking whatever allows you think declare yourself 'right'. Par for the course, as they say.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] KIM-1 find (was:The next Great VCF workshop July 15 & 16, 2017)
by Jeff Galinat 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

On 6/29/2017 9:00 AM, Chris Fala wrote: > $20 KIM-1?!?!?!? I don't think jealous is a strong enough word. Let me > know if you ever get tired of it! LOL Sounds like your priorities for > going to this event are in order. :-) Have a good time. > > Chris > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: *Jeff Galinat via vcf-midatlantic* > <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org > <mailto:vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org>> > Date: Thu, Jun 29, 2017 at 7:18 AM > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] The next Great VCF workshop July 15 & > 16, 2017 > I won't be able to make it as the 16th is the Sussex County Hamfest, > last year I scored a $20 Rev-b Kim-1. > Regards, > Jeff Galinat > Thanks Chris, The guy said the KIM-1 didn't work but I figured that for $20 I would hang it on my wall if I couldn't fix it. I brought it home, applied power, hit reset & it worked fine. I entered the clock program from the "First Book of KIM" and it worked as expected. The only thing I can think of think of is that the seller mistook the SST switch on the keyboard for a power switch since it is labeled ON/OFF and he didn't know that you had to hit reset before it would do anything. Anyway, there is always lots of interesting stuff at the Sussex hamfest. Regards, Jeff

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The next Great VCF workshop July 15 & 16, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

Sign up now or miss out on the most awesome VCF workshop: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16G0w7Z5y15B2uWh-NKItmVnoJF-f3NIIFQD… -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ======================================================== <https://www.avast.com/lp-safe-emailing-3177-b?utm_medium=email&utm_source=l…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/lp-safe-emailing-3177-b?utm_medium=email&utm_source=l…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Semi-OT: microcontollers (?)
by Herb Johnson 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

I find Evan's responses satisfactory, and reasonable. If he says he wasn't opposed to old microcontroller discussions, good; sorry for my misunderstanding. And I wasn't out to attack him personally; just ideologically. I think prolonged discussions here of modern tools and architectures, in modern context, are to be discouraged. But as they are relevant to support vintage computing - RaspPi's emulating, WiFi chips on Commodore 64's, vintage architectures, etc. - then discussion is useful. I guess Evan started that discussion to make that point. Another discussion group, supports the COSMAC 1802. There's recent discussions there, of how USB/serial dongles complicate use of the 1802 at 2Mhz with a bit-banged (low baud rate, low response) serial interface. That discussion won't occur in USB world, or in Windows world - they would find such applications inexpiable, foreign. But I don't participate in those worlds - too "new". Thus discussion groups limit their range, for purpose. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Slightly OT
by Martin Flynn 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

Free inkjet cartridges 4 cyan. HP564xl 3 yellow. HP564xl Will drop off in IXR lab July 8th

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Looking for a mostly working SID chip
by Jason Perkins 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

My new-to-me C64 has a very failed 6581 SID. 2 voices are bad (one is mostly stuck on), it gets super hot, and after running for a while it makes the machine lock up. Does anyone have a mostly-working SID they would want to part with? PS: Sidbench shows just how broken this one is. I was rather bummed since this seems to be a low hour C64. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU88B_mWQM8 Thanks, -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Cromemco JS-1 joysticks color
by Dan Roganti 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

anyone ever notice the difference in color of the Hammond clamshell case ? I dug out my JS-1 joysticks, which I picked up over the years, looking them over cause one of them needs a rebuild. I have a 3rd spare in case I needed parts, and the top cover of the clam shell has a different color. The bottom of the clamshell has the same blue color on all of them. One color is beige, and the other is a light gray. But they are original. I just never noticed they went thru a color change. Dan -- _ ____ / \__/ Scotty, We Need More Power !! \_/ _\__ Aye, Cap'n, but we've only got 80 col's !!

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTB: DECbrouter
by Kenneth Seefried 28 Jun '17

28 Jun '17

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> > > If you need to route something like a T1 or T3 line, that's pretty > tough to do on anything but a purpose-built router due to support for > those types of hardware interfaces. > That's not really true, except for very exotic or very ancient interfaces. I have at various times had DDS/ISDN, T-1/CT-1, T-3/DS-3, HSSI as well as Ethernet, TR, FDDI and ATM up to OC12 running on x86 platforms under various open source OSes (usually FreeBSD or OpenBSD) in production. Admittedly, FDDI, TR & ATM support have aged poorly in OSS, I haven't tried HSSI in years, and not too many people are provisioning DS-3s or OC-12 these days given the alternatives. What you don't get on the open source platform relative to a Cisco, et. al., is the protocol support. Pretty much only IP and limited higher level serial protocols (SDLC/HDLC/PPP/SLIP). > > Further, for more modern circuits > like OC192s, etc, there really aren't too many general-purpose computers > available that can move data that fast in any predictable or consistent > way, > While I'm unaware of an OC192 card for, say, PCI-e, FreeBSD on modern systems using Intel or Chelsio PCI-e ethernet cards can reliably route between 10G ports at wirespeed. I haven't gotten any of the Chelsio 40G cards yet, but they're supported as well. There are lots of folks doing exactly this to avoid the cost of something like a Cisco 12000 series router. Not just in labs or moms basement; for example the NANOG mailing list regularly has folks talking about this sort of setup running with BGP as core infrastructure. Folks like ServU have built a business around Intel ecosystem + BSD + 1/10/40G routers. What you definitely don't get on OSS is more than rudimentary QoS. Sophisticated bandwidth management pretty much requires dedicated ASICs. > > and nothing anywhere near as reliable or internally redundant as > something like a big Cisco or Juniper machine. They exist with their > six-figure price tags for a reason. > I would agree with this. From: systems_glitch <systems.glitch(a)gmail.com> > > V.35 sync serial. You can *get* V.35 cards for PCs, but I'd imagine it's > not supported in most OSes I'd want to do routing in (namely, OpenBSD). > You'd be surprised. The Lan Media Corp sync serial cards are pretty well supported on OpenBSD. The Sangoma sync cards might be; the T-1 cards are. KJ

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTB: DECbrouter
by Kenneth Seefried 28 Jun '17

28 Jun '17

From: Neil Cherry <ncherry(a)linuxha.com> > >How about an AT&T BRouter? I think it's a Cisco CGS (the smaller of >the 3). I think it's running a 9.x code (might be 10, I hope not). > IGS was the small one, no? Fixed 1 port net and 1 port wan? Sorta evolved into the 3000 series. CGS & MGS were in the middle and AGS was the big one. Last IGS I had ran IOS 8.x. Of course, you mention CGS now and it's the Cisco Gateway Switch. KJ

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Semi-OT: microcontollers
by Evan Koblentz 28 Jun '17

28 Jun '17

Let's use the "Semi-OT" subject line prefix for posts about microcontrollers. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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workshop prize! (speaking of microcontrollers)...
by Evan Koblentz 27 Jun '17

27 Jun '17

I went to Microcenter today seeking a screen protector for my new phone (they didn't have it) and decided to buy a $10 Pi Zero-W. They have a good supply of the Zero, -W, and Pi 3. Girlfriend was with me and she bought one too. I asked why, and she said it can be a prize to give out at our next workshop. Okay then! Some lucky attendee will get it. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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looking for intel 4040 programs
by Jonathan Gevaryahu 27 Jun '17

27 Jun '17

Does anyone on the list have any Intel 4040 programs, code listings or rom images lying around? So far the only ones I know of are Herb Johnson's stuff at http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/intel440_roms.html -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(a)gmail.com jgevaryahu(a)hotmail.com

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTB: DECbrouter
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 26 Jun '17

26 Jun '17

systems_glitch via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Anyone have a DECbrouter they want to sell? This is a DEChub 90 module. >Also looking for a v.35 and/or RS-232 cable for it. I have one but I'm not really looking to part with it unless you want to give me ridiculus money for it.

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Museum Report 2017-06-25 June 25, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 25 Jun '17

25 Jun '17

A good day at the museum. About two dozen visitors. They ranged from the "lets zip on through" to the "let's ask lots of questions and be really interested". One guy was here yesterday and was so impressed that he brought his whole family today! I was also able to have a 7 year old boy type in a 5 line BASIC program into the Commodore 64 and help him figure out how it worked. That's always fun to teach kids simple programming. I love teaching hands-on stuff. I was also able to complete the window tint, so the areas that have no blinds are tinted now. It is much better now with sunlight, but not blasting sunlight. Next time I will work on getting newer SIDs for the Commodore 64 demo. -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ======================================================== <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Intel dropping their IoT platforms (was re: CHIP, WiFi RS-232)
by Jeffrey Jonas 25 Jun '17

25 Jun '17

[this is 'on topic' because these systems are used to retrofit vintage/legacy systems, as well as for emulators such as the PiDP-8] The Raspberry Pi and CHIP seem to be the clear "winners" despite supply/supplier problems. I am disappointed that the BBC MicroBit is not on the top-ten list despite their dedication to education and STEM/STEAM. They're kinda available in the USA. Circuit Cellar has always been full of SBC (single board computers), now SoC (Sytem on Chip) and such. Others mentioned the Omega 2 https://onion.io/omega2/ and VoCore http://vocore.io/#store They're cheap, but how about FREE? Just re-purpose your old routers with dd-wrt, open-wrt and such. A friend and I tried one of the Orange Pi variations and were disappointed. Very little community support, few distros work at all. I'm extremely disappointed with Intel totally dropping their Edison and Joule development systems, particularly with all the nationwide Hack-A-Thons using the Edison hardware. It wasn't just the hardware, but all the "technology evangelists" and support engineers to indoctrinate folks to the Intel/Linux way. I'm concerned about the future of Hack-a-Thons with the loss of Intel as a major underwriter, hardware supplier & technology support. Despite seeing them on the shelf at MicroCenter, I never felt that the Intel Galileo gained enough traction. I spent a week just trying to get a LCD shield running and gave up because the libraries were all AVR-centric, and the Arduino development environment has no concept of using different platforms at the same time (Intel Galileo, Arduino Explora, Arduino nano). Intel first lost the embedded market when they gave up on their X-scale ARM chips, and now they're giving up again? the news from slashdot: Intel Quietly Discontinues Galileo, Joule, and Edison Development Boards https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/06/19/1720201/intel-quietly-disconti… Intel is discontinuing its Galileo, Joule, and Edison lineups of development boards. The chip-maker quietly made the announcement last week. >From company's announcement:/Intel Corporation will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Galileo development board. Shipment of all Intel Galileo product skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. [...] Intel will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Joule Compute Modules and Developer Kits (known as Intel 500 Series compute modules in People's Republic of China). Shipment of all Intel Joule products skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. Last time orders (LTO) for any Intel Joule products must be placed with Intel by September 16, 2017. [...] Intel will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Edison compute modules and developer kits. Shipment of all Intel Edison product skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. Last time orders (LTO) for any Intel Edison products must be placed with Intel by September 16, 2017. All orders placed with Intel for Intel Edison products are non-cancelable and non-returnable after September 16, 2017. The company hasn't shared any explanation for why it is discontinuing the aforementioned development boards. -- Jeff Jonas

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Museum Report 2017-06-24 June 24, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 25 Jun '17

25 Jun '17

About a dozen visitors came today with medium to high interest. One lady was from Maine was in the area visiting her husbands relatives in New Jersey. She had read about our group recently and made a point to visit us today. She wasn't sure exactly where she had read about us. So I guess our media presence is working! She loved our museum! I also started work on putting tint on the museum windows by the workshop PC. The sun gets quite strong and it gets hard to work on the computer in the afternoon with the sunlight blasting down. I should be able to finish tomorrow. -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ======================================================== <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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RX01 drives for pickup/super cheap/ trade
by william degnan 24 Jun '17

24 Jun '17

All, Please contact me via vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm Times Up! If you want an RX01 drive and live near Landenberg, PA I am liquidating 4 of them (maybe 5). Although I personally don't own controllers for these, the drives work on UNIBUS, OMNIBUS, and QUADBUS DEC machines. *Name your price. $150 for one $200 for two $250 for three $300 for all four. First come first served. (something to reimburse my expenses/storage)* If you want to trade for one *or more*, I will trade for a RX01 disk controller OMNIBUS or UNBUS. "Working" or something I can fix. I will also trade for a RK05 UNIBUS backplane/controller complete or incomplete If you need to have them shipped I have an ebay auction here, normal price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-DEC-RX01-Dual-8-In-77-Track-PDP-8-PDP-11-Fl… So as you can see, you save a huge discount if you come get them. I have already sold two. First come first served. No I am not lugging them to a workshop unless you're willing to pay closer to "retail" price. These are stored in my house, climate controlled. They have been, to my knowledge, in climate controlled storage since taking off line. Bill

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WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by Paul Rickards 24 Jun '17

24 Jun '17

I've created a WiFi RS-232 Internet modem that plugs into a 25 pin RS-232 port and emulates the Hayes AT command set. It allows you to use your retro computer or terminal to dial "dial" BBSs online. More info here: http://biosrhythm.com/?page_id=1453 Contact me privately if you have questions. Cheers, Paul twitter: @paulrickards

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Where's Evan?
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 23 Jun '17

23 Jun '17

http://tmesis.net/Where's%20Evan/Where's%20Evan.jpg

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Where's Evan?
by Evan Koblentz 23 Jun '17

23 Jun '17

This is not an official VCFed thing, but, this weekend I'll be demoing the Apple // + Lego robot setup with GardenSLUG -- that's Garden State Lego User Group (an "Adult Fan of Lego" aka "AFOL" group, so they tell me) at the NJToyCon in Parsippany. https://www.toyconnj.com/ This will be my first time meeting the adult Lego group people. I mean, what a bunch of wackos, grown men spending their time and money on their hobby from the 1970s and 1980s .... oh, crap. ;) Anyway I have no idea if my demo will fit in, but they seem welcoming so I'll go and have fun. It is only 30 minutes from home. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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PC/AT replacement lock
by Richard Cini 22 Jun '17

22 Jun '17

All – In case anyone is looking to replace the barrel cam lock on their 5170 PC/AT, it’s fairly easy. Look on eBay (picture attached, hopefully) or elsewhere for a 3/8” depth, 90-degree cam lock with the key removable in both positions. You will need to recycle the locking bar from the old lock and may need to bend it slightly to clear the internal metal part of the enclosure top. Works like a charm. Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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PDP-8E rails?
by W2HX 22 Jun '17

22 Jun '17

Hi friends. I have a PDP-8/e and I would like to mount it in a rack as a sliding unit. Here is a photo of what I have mounted on the side of the PDP-8E to help figure out what I need. Does anyone have what I would need to mount this in a rack? For sale? http://w2hx.com/x/PDP/PDP-8E/2.jpg Thanks Eugene

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VME Graphics Cards
by John Heritage 22 Jun '17

22 Jun '17

Has anyone ever come across any VME graphics cards? I have an Atari Mega STE with an unused VME slot, and would love to have some higher resolution output for that machine than what the stock ST chips provide.. Just figure I'd ask..

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] CHIP, was Re: WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by Kyle Owen 22 Jun '17

22 Jun '17

On Jun 20, 2017 7:29 PM, "David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 07:30:53PM -0400, Dan Roganti via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > > Not they removed the 1x per person limit, but still prohibit the online > sales for the PI Zero???. > They also have the interesting per unit price which significantly increases with quantity starting with qty 2. My friend bought one, walked out of the store, walked back in and bought another. The look on the cashier's face was, shall we say, not very approving...! Kyle

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Museum Report 2017-06-21 June 21, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 21 Jun '17

21 Jun '17

Since I work in public schools, I am off work today, so I was docent at the museum. We had a few visitors today with moderate interest. I mostly got a look at any changes in the last few weeks since I was away. There are two new artifacts of the month. Next machine and Indigo 2. I hope to try to be here as many Wednesday as possible during the summer. There are a few dates where groups are visiting. I plan on making to being her on those days. -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ========================================================

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Retro computer desk / table recommendations?
by John Heritage 21 Jun '17

21 Jun '17

Hey folks -- Does anyone have any epic retro computer desks/tables they've seen that they'd recommend? I currently have an Atari 800XL, Atari Mega STE, and an Amiga 1200 crammed on a small 5' x 30" table. It has a few "stacks" for separating monitors, mice, and keyboards, but I'm looking to build something bigger than this. I might convert my guest room into a retro room (and then add an Atari 7800, Jaguar, and maybe an Amiga 500).. so if anyone has any suggestions, ideas, or pics they'd recommend I look at -- I'd appreciate it :). I do have a Roland MT-100 on the side for MIDI for these machines, and of course an old onkyo stereo to play those chiptunes loudly :). Thanks! John

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] CHIP, was Re: WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by Earl Baugh 21 Jun '17

21 Jun '17

There are two MicroCenters here in the Atlanta area, I've walked in multiple times and bought a number of Pi Zero W's. Never any muss or fuss. (same with the Zero when it came out) I currently am working not too far from one of the two, so if someone wants one (don't bury me with requests) just drop me a line in private. I can go by sometime and buy some ...just need the cost plus shipping and I'll get them to you. I've found that they work quite well with the BT and Wifi (I also have some RedBear shields that I use on the regular Pi Zeros and those work well too...but the W is cheaper...) Earl

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] CHIP, was Re: WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by william degnan 21 Jun '17

21 Jun '17

On Jun 20, 2017 10:15 PM, "Kyle Owen via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > On Jun 20, 2017 7:29 PM, "David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic" < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > On Tue, Jun 20, 2017 at 07:30:53PM -0400, Dan Roganti via vcf-midatlantic > wrote: > > > > Not they removed the 1x per person limit, but still prohibit the online > > sales for the PI Zero???. > > > They also have the interesting per unit price which significantly increases > with quantity starting with qty 2. > > > My friend bought one, walked out of the store, walked back in and bought > another. The look on the cashier's face was, shall we say, not very > approving...! > > Kyle I bought 5 zeroes from Ebay cheap, I guess I got lucky. The lot included headers. At the time there were.a few lots avail. I did not get the last one or anything like that. Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net

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Superbrain Restoration blog
by Douglas Crawford 19 Jun '17

19 Jun '17

I finally wrote up the saga of the Superbrain restoration that happened over the last several years. Its in my usual long winded story form. :O https://abitoutofplace.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/intertec-superbrain-qd-rest… This led to the Kermit and the Brain exhibit, which by the way, has undergone some extensive edits with help from a very kind edit reviewer and folks from The Kermit Project. It is much better than when I first announced it. https://abitoutofplace.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/kermit-and-the-brain/

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A little personal milestone
by Evan Koblentz 19 Jun '17

19 Jun '17

This is no big deal to most of you, but today I entered a simple front panel program solo for the first time (on the HP 1000 thanks to Mike L.'s excellent teaching last weekend). Hey you, David G.! This means I'll have more confidence the next time I try your similar program on the PDP-8.

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OT - Live streaming / podcasting from VCF
by Martin A Flynn 18 Jun '17

18 Jun '17

OT Warning: One of the other InfoAge Teams (disclaimer I'm helping) is setting up a podcast / livestream studio at IA. The studio has a decent audio chain and will be able to stream to a commercial provider. Anyone interested in hosting a segment live from VCFE XIII? If so, email me directly to keep the chatter off the main list Martin

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Wifi232 on hackaday
by Duane Craps 18 Jun '17

18 Jun '17

Link to WI232 modem review on Hackaday: http://hackaday.com/2017/06/17/bbsing-with-the-esp8266/

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WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by Herb Johnson 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

To Paul: Thanks for the response to my post; and likewise for the other responses and your offer to head's-up here your next run of boards. If you have insights into USB/serial buffering issues, you can contact me privately c/o retrotechnology.com. (I follow the VCFed list by Web, so I don't see private email addresses for private contacts.) - Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by Herb Johnson 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

> but I really want to to be able to ssh from my Apple IIe > to any of my machines without having to serial tether the Apple IIe to > one of my Linux boxes. Caution: this message may be boring to younger audiences. This is not my technology, but I have interests in 20th C. serial in the 21st century. After noodling the Web and Twitter, my impression is that this item seems to come available briefly, then get sold out; that may repeat or not. I'm not passing judgement, I'm simply reporting what I found. There's any number of WiFi dongles which are a little programmable and which accept serial trans/recieve, and have some other I/O bits. Neil Cherry works with ESP8266 type WiFi dongles, as part of his open IOT activities; he's reported on them in this list. This responds to the "want non-tehered serial" comment above. I think I see one such dongle on this device, on a board that probably includes another processor and some RS-232 type level-converting. One could likely build one with an Arduino - some of them are WiFi without a shield. For fun, you could add a speaker to sound-out the wired-modem buzz-whirr connect sounds. One challenge of vintage use of 21st century connection technology - WiFi, even USB/serial dongles - is how they manage both sides of the 20th century transfer. Translation: USB dongles have hardware buffers (and software drivers) that screw up character processing and other delays, by old MS-DOS programs and old slow microprocessors. I don't know if the WiFi dongles have similar issues. Here's a tech note I wrote recently, reportage on discussions about the above, in an on-line 1802 COSMAC forum. Many 1802 microcomputers were severely limited, even by mid-1970's standards. That's fine, it was a condition of the times. http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/mship_ttlusb.html Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Head alignment tape
by Herb Johnson 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

> UNIVAC 1540 Magnetic Tape Unit...I wonder if anyone has a 800 BPI, > NRZ Master Head Alignment Tape (skew tape) to donate to VCF. 7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage". Also, as Dave McGuire noted, a lightly-used tape from a known-good drive will be useful. In the floppy-disk world, I use several diskettes each from a known good drive to validate "alignment". Seems to me, there's likely several boxes of mag-tapes in the inventory. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Friday funny
by Evan Koblentz 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

Had a phone call with a former DEC Alpha engineer today. Best quote: "It'll run infinite loops twice as fast!" -- Sent with K-@ Mail - the evolution of emailing.

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Kermit and the Brain exhibit blog
by Douglas Crawford 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

For those interested, I documented the creation of my past VCF East exhibit and reproduced the demonstrations I did at the show on youtube. Many missed the demonstrations on Saturday while the Superbrain was out of commission. The page also links to the Superbrain restoration blog for those interested in that whole saga. https://abitoutofplace.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/kermit-and-the-brain/

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Young Innovators Faire
by Evan Koblentz 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

Chris/Todd/Doug are representing VCFed at the Young Innovators Faire (a small Maker Faire clone) tomorrow and Sunday at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, 100 Station Ave., Oaks, Pennsylvania. Bring your kids and say hi to them! ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Head alignment tape
by Duane Craps 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

All, This past work session Bill Dromgoole applied power to the museum's UNIVAC 1540 Magnetic Tape Unit. There were problems but just seeing the indicators lit up is good progress. I wonder if anyone has a 800 BPI, NRZ Master Head Alignment Tape (skew tape) to donate to VCF. Since we are not likely to ever run into a commercial tape I guess I could tweak the handlers to mach each other if they even require alignment but, it would be better to be able to do it the right way. Also could use some blank or good used tapes. It might be a long time before we need them but it would be nice to have them available. Duane Craps

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OT: Chuck Thacker passes away at age 74
by Tony Bogan 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/14/chuck-thacker-lead-designer-of-the-xerox-alt… Sent from my iPhone

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