- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Swap Meet @ System Source June 18, 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 18 May '22

18 May '22

Hello everyone, Here is the website with all the details on the swap meet @ System Source: https://vcfed.org/system-source-swap-meet/ ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Strange Commodore 1581 floppy drive issue
by Russell LeChard 16 May '22

16 May '22

Good Morning All. I am seeking some help from some Commodore experts with a Commodore 1581 floppy Disk drive. Some background: I've been an IT specialist specializing in IBM and compatible PCs since the early 90's. However, I started my computing journey with the TRS-80 model III and Commodore 64. I fell in love with the C64, and it began my start in a very successful career in IT. (see attach photo of my c64 setup in 1986 LOL) Recently I was lucky enough to find a C64C, a C128, and a 1581 3.5 floppy drive online for a reasonable price. Well, I did pay a premium for the 1581, but I never had one back in the day and well, I treated myself.. This past weekend I tested all 3 items and for the most part all worked OK. I was concerned the most about the 1581 working. After a delay in remembering the correct syntax for the C64 format disk command (open 15,8,15,"N0:testdisk,01": close15) - My memory isn't what it was in my younger days! LOL :-D), I was able to format a disk and then save a simple basic prg to it. However, when I try to load this basic prg (on the C64), it locks up the c64 and there seems to be no activity led lights and the 1581. I need to reboot the C64. Now, I tried the same task using the c128 and the same 1581 and floppy disk, I can now format, save, and load a basic prg without any issues. Everything seemed to work fine. My question is, are there any known compatibility issues between the C64C and the 1581 that the c128 fixed? I always thought the 1581 was compatible with the C64 and c64C? Very Strange. Any thoughts and advice are welcome.Thank you in advance. Take Care, Russell LeChard

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Al Charpentier in Dave’s Garage
by Richard Cini 16 May '22

16 May '22

Not sure if anyone follows Dave’s Garage on YouTube (Dave is an ex-OS engineer from Microsoft) but he interviewed Al Charpentier about Commodore and designing the VIC, and he mentions VCFe. Dave’s a big Commodore fan and kind of grew up like many of us, using the VIC or C64, as our first computers. https://youtu.be/rs6J_PP7O7k Rich http://cini.classiccmp.org/ Long Island S100 User’s Group Get Outlook<https://aka.ms/qtex0l> for iOS

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An idea for preservation and a proposal for the future of the VCF's library of written media.
by Lou 16 May '22

16 May '22

Hello all, I don't speak much on here often enough but I have been on the list and in the community for a little while now. Something came to mind the other night when I was doing research on preservation of physical book printed/written media and came to find not only several different kinds of methods and businesses that can scan these forms of media to a digital form but there are also scanners that exist which can do this job well without it being destructive to the books. The issue of course is that these scanners are by no means cheap for the average small scale user wanting to preserve a few of his books/manuals and some of the services out there that can offer this are either not much cheaper and/or only offer the destructive method of scanning this media (I.E. unbinding books to scan individual pages). After some time thinking about this, hearing some colleges and old libraries/research facilities having these for their own preservation efforts a thought came to mind...Why shouldn't the VCF have one for their own preservation efforts as well? The idea is simple enough, an investment in a non-destructive book scanner for the VCF which can be used to back up the existing library of physical written media, manuals, history, research, and more which can be put into digital form and be accessible to anyone who needs it without difficulty. It can help many countless individuals in the community who would need that information but isn't uploaded or documented anywhere else. A form of digital preservation and online library could be a great benefit to everyone. Finally, a further benefit is those who have their own materials they wish to preserve as well could do so with a suggested donation to the museum as well. It can be a service for other collectors who want to preserve their media as well and could even be added to the main library! Hosting of these materials could also be done and uploaded to archive.org to shoulder off the need of hosting our own site (unless desired of the community). It's a benefit with no real downside to the museum or the community at large. I know there will be some finer details to discuss and some minor issues that might come to light (especially anything involving possible copyright) but aside from this it can be a useful service for everyone. I just wanted to bring this idea forward to see what everyone thinks of it. Thanks for reading this out! -Lou

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VCF East 2022 Post Event Survey Results
by Jeffrey Brace 16 May '22

16 May '22

After a few weeks we have closed the survey and here are the results: https://bit.ly/vcfe2022post_results Overall very positive feedback. It's nice to see what we are doing well and not so well. We will address whatever improvements that we can for next year's show. Thanks everyone for doing the survey! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] An idea for preservation and a proposal for the future of the VCF's library of written media.
by Eric Rangell 15 May '22

15 May '22

Hi all, After working with Bill Degnan on his archive of print media we decided to showcase a selection of magazines in the library section of his museum, and keep the rest of the materials in numbered boxes. Photos were taken of the materials in each box which can be used to produce Finders Aids, which list the resources available and where they are located. This model is based on the system used by the Hagley library, for example: https://www.hagley.org/research/programs/sarnoff-library-project/sarnoff-li… <https://www.hagley.org/research/programs/sarnoff-library-project/sarnoff-li…> However, even cataloging the rich collection of materials requires data entry work and selection of the appropriate software for hosting it. The level of granularity for the finders aids is also a consideration. Somebody with experience in library science would be useful for establishing best practices for such a project. Ultimately it comes down to prioritizing the preservation of materials based on factors such as condition. Another example project to look at was the preservation of Ted Nelson’s junk mail collection on the Internet Archive, which was self-funded by donations to paid volunteers who scanned the materials. Eric

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: time to downsize
by Bob Shuster 13 May '22

13 May '22

Yet another update! I just finished going through and listing the Commodore stuff. New pages posted at: theshusters.com/bobvintage.html - check it out. Please read through the first page and that will answer many questions. If you’re reading this list you have my email - it’s intentionally not listed on the pages. And again, I’m only making this stuff available to those on this listserv for now. Once I finish going through everything (and there’s a lot more) and I’ve given list members time to peruse, I’ll start listing elsewhere, but mainly I’d like to see the stuff go somewhere where it will be appreciated! Thanks for looking! Texas Instrument stuff next. - Bob Shuster

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Please subscribe to VCF YouTube channel
by Jeffrey Brace 13 May '22

13 May '22

Before we can do fundraisers on our YouTube channel, VCF needs 10,000 subscribers. We are currently at 7,800 subscribers. Please subscribe and spread the word. https://www.youtube.com/c/VintageComputerFederation501c3 Thanks! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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almost vintage computer free to "good home"
by William Dudley 13 May '22

13 May '22

I have a Dell Optiplex GX280 that I'd rather not send to the landfill. It's in a large tower case. Dates from 2004-ish Pentium 4 cpu, 3.2GHz, NOT 64 bit capable No hard drive, but includes ATA DVD drive. No RAM (takes up to 4 400 or 533 MHz DDR2) Includes mother board video, also includes some kind of semi-trick video card ("PCI Express x16 DVI video card", according to Dell). Sometimes the computer won't POST. Some forum searching suggested applying pressure to the heat sink, and lo and behold, this "fixed" the problem. >From this I infer that there's a dodgy solder joint under the CPU socket. This can sometimes be fixed by dribbling liquid flux around the edge of the socket (so it runs underneath) and then heating the socket with a heat gun for 30 sec to a minute. I use kitchen aluminum foil to mask off everything but the socket, so the small SMT parts on the motherboard don't start wandering about or "tombstoning". If that's too much like work, you could put a brick on it. Or a piece of foam rubber between the heat sink shroud and the cover. This computer and I are located in Jackson, NJ. I can meet you or deliver to a "reasonable" radius from here, which radius includes the museum in Wall, NJ. It's kinda big to ship, so I'm less interested in shipping, although if you want it bad enough, I could pack it up for shipment. Bill Dudley Jackson, NJ This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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FREE STUFF
by Bill Degnan 13 May '22

13 May '22

Hopefully you can view this brief 17sec video https://www.facebook.com/billdeg/videos/535587494677969 126 S. Union St Kennett Sq PA (parking lot behind kennettclassic.com) EVERYTHING NOT CLAIMED WILL BE E-CYCLED on FRIDAY thanks BIll

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Help shipping ASR-33 from Allentown
by Dave 12 May '22

12 May '22

Hi all, Back in February, I bought an ASR-33 teletype on Ebay. The seller is stalling on the shipping. Initially, I think there were some family issues, and now I suspect he's just having trouble figuring out how to get the ASR prepared for freight. I contacted him a month a go and he said he was going to see "how I can break it down to make if more flat than tall". I suspect (and hope) that he is an honest (if not super diligent) seller that has no idea how to ship this. Is there anyone on this list who might be able to give me a hand in getting this going? I imagine that some folks here may have been through something like this in the past. I could use any help at all, including guidance on the best way to ship the teletype, any suggestions for (as minimal as possible) disassembly and getting it on a pallet, etc. If there is someone in the Allentown area who might be able to help me get this shipped, I would be most grateful. Thanks in advance, Dave

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Help shipping ASR-33 from Allentown
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 12 May '22

12 May '22

Dave via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: >Hi all, > >Back in February, I bought an ASR-33 teletype on Ebay. The seller >is stalling on the shipping. Initially, I think there were >some family issues, and now I suspect he's just having trouble >figuring out how to get the ASR prepared for freight. > >I contacted him a month a go and he said he was going to see "how I >can break it down to make if more flat than tall". I suspect >(and hope) that he is an honest (if not super diligent) seller that >has no idea how to ship this. > >Is there anyone on this list who might be able to give me a hand in >getting this going? I imagine that some folks here may have >been through something like this in the past. > >I could use any help at all, including guidance on the best way to >ship the teletype, any suggestions for (as minimal as possible) >disassembly and getting it on a pallet, etc. If there is >someone in the Allentown area who might be able to help me get this >shipped, I would be most grateful. I'm originally from the Lehigh Valley and I go home quite often. It would help if you'dstate where this ASR is to be shipped to. ;) Do you know where in Allentown this seller resides?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Help shipping ASR-33 from Allentown
by Bill Degnan 12 May '22

12 May '22

Totally agree. When I have sold a Teletype I break it down, pad and lock down the key spots inside, bubble wrap the entire thing, get a good box with proper padding and then show it already packed as part of the listing. I get the weight and dimensions for shipping. But some sellers don't know better, they're not experienced. best to just be friendly and offer to help with specific directions. Or just drive up there and get it. b On Thu, May 12, 2022 at 4:43 PM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > I have to admit that I cannot understand these sellers on eBay, > they know they have to ship the item, > shouldn't they have figured this out in advance? > I certainly would not buy the item unless I knew how it was going to be delivered to me safely! > > Mike > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On May 12, 2022, at 4:10 PM, Dave via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > Back in February, I bought an ASR-33 teletype on Ebay. The seller is stalling on the shipping. Initially, I think there were some family issues, and now I suspect he's just having trouble figuring out how to get the ASR prepared for freight. > > > > I contacted him a month a go and he said he was going to see "how I can break it down to make if more flat than tall". I suspect (and hope) that he is an honest (if not super diligent) seller that has no idea how to ship this. > > > > Is there anyone on this list who might be able to give me a hand in getting this going? I imagine that some folks here may have been through something like this in the past. > > > > I could use any help at all, including guidance on the best way to ship the teletype, any suggestions for (as minimal as possible) disassembly and getting it on a pallet, etc. If there is someone in the Allentown area who might be able to help me get this shipped, I would be most grateful. > > > > Thanks in advance, > > > > Dave > > >

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VCF Repair workshops and keeping the costs of HVAC down
by Jeffrey Brace 11 May '22

11 May '22

VCF makes use of the Makerspace and classroom in 9059 during our repair workshops. CDL just cut the checks to cover the first quarter gas bills for their Makerspace (per the IA lease agreement). The total came to $932.00. The cost per therm has gone up. During workshops, we need to keep the exterior doors closed to keep the heat and A/C in the building. How we can help: not allowing the doors to be held open for extended periods of time. Moving things in and out is fine, but keeping it open for extended periods of time increases the HVAC costs. Thank you for your cooperation. ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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VCF East Clinic kudos (soldering iron cleaning brass)
by Herb Johnson 11 May '22

11 May '22

[Regarding brass for soldering iron tip-cleaning.] https://www.testequity.com/category/Electronic-Production-Supplies/Solder-A… This is not "brass wool" which would be an abrasive mesh of dry, sharp fine brass wire. The Hakko product is apparently brass coiled ribbon (my words for it) that is *rosin coated* (fatty acid compound). Other products may have other coatings, or none. A stated virtue of brass over wet sponge is "the tip temperature is not reduced". The virtue of brass is that it's softer than most metals. Of course, melted solder is softer still so it removes excess solder from tips. Since it removes solder, it's likely it will accumulate loose solder splatter. That's likely why it's contained in a bowl or holder, to capture the material. This is all Web homework I did, not stuff I knew previously. Someone with industrial training in soldering, or some reference for that training, may be informative. Regards, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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OT: looking for Ryan’s (with the IMSAI at the workshop) email
by Crawford Griffith 10 May '22

10 May '22

Folks, I wanted to follow up with Ryan who had an IMSAI at the S-100 workshop at VCFE. Of course, In addition to not getting his last name, I didn’t get his email address before he left. If Ryan is on this list, please contact me via email, or if anyone else has his info, please send it to me. Thanks, Crawford

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] FS: Non-Linear Systems X-2 Nixie Meter
by Dave McGuire 10 May '22

10 May '22

On 5/9/22 19:22, Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > I have one of their multimeters! I have the model with the edge-lit displays. Gorgeous. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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FS: Non-Linear Systems X-2 Nixie Meter
by Jonathan Chapman 10 May '22

10 May '22

All, I don't usually post about test equipment here, but this one is made by Non-Linear Systems, so I figured there's enough overlap that folks might be interested: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275305278929 NLS is probably better known for the Kaypro series of computers, but they invented the digital multimeter back in the 1950s! Their first unit was an electromechanical beast, using stepping relays and edge-lit numerical displays. This is of course a later model, and is fully solid state, with Nixie tube displays. I went through the meter around three years ago, replaced a cap in the HV supply for the Nixie anode voltage, reformed the logic and analog supply caps, and cleaned up a previous repair that was causing excessive leakage on the 1000V range. A basic calibration was done following the manual, using a Fluke 343A DC Calibrator and a calibrated Fluke 8842A. Three years later, it's still holding calibration! Anyhow, I'm letting it go as I don't use it much, I have a number of Nixie meters, and though this one is both very nice and historically significant, it's DC-only. The option boards for AC and ohms conversion are not present. The schematics are available, and it'd be possible to recreate them on protoboard with the appropriate Elco connectors. Thanks, Jonathan

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Free stuff Weds Night (semi OT)
by Bill Degnan 09 May '22

09 May '22

This is s a follow up to my earlier email about the large lot of computer and some electronics/consumer items I am trying to offload here, the entire lot for $100: https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/sys/d/kennett-square-vintage-computers/… I have received some interest in some items, all offers considered. Some of the items are from the 80's, most are from the 90's and a few things are from the earlier 2000's. I get it that many consider a lot of this post-vintage. For those who are interested anyway - whatever does not sell it will be unceremoniously moved into the parking lot. At that point it will be free to a good home. What remains after that will be recycled. We're filming the museum on Thursday so it needs to be gone by then. Bill P.S. From a bargain collectors' standpoint - the strategy of picking up the nice things before everyone else considers them "vintage" has it's merits. That's what I do. Some of these CRTs will be hard to come by eventually. People are practially giving away late 486/early Pentium stuff now, but not forever.

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Looking for 16-bit ISA memory board
by Joseph Giliberti 09 May '22

09 May '22

Greetings all! I'm looking to expand the RAM in my IBM PC/AT and I'm having a hell of a time finding an expansion board. It has one megabyte onboard, but I'd like to get it to eight. It seems that everyone hung on to their 8-bit boards but nobody has 16-bit ones and the few that I found are barely populated. Does anyone here have such a board that they'd be willing to part with? Thanks in advance! Joe Giliberti

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OT - Anyone Want to Meet up in Nashville, This Week?
by Alexander Jacocks 09 May '22

09 May '22

I’m going to be at a conference this week, so if anyone wants to meet up, let me know. - Alex

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today's shelfware
by Jeffrey Jonas 09 May '22

09 May '22

Is anyone still using the Intel Edison or Galileo modules? I have spares to trade/swap. -- jeff jonas

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on topic and in tune but out of time :-)
by Jeffrey Jonas 08 May '22

08 May '22

I just stumbled upon the BBC archives https://www.youtube.com/c/BBCArchive/videos The first part is the radiophonic studio but then there's a delightful 80s computer with a light pen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZuf0LIU-2A Peter Howell gives the DOCTOR WHO THEME an 80s REMIX | The Music Arcade | Making of | BBC Archive Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop demonstrates how he reimagined Ron Grainer's classic Doctor Who theme - which was first realised so startlingly by Delia Derbyshire and Dick Mills in the 1960s - to make it 'brighter and more modern sounding' for the 1980s. He uses modern polyphonic analogue synthesisers like the Yamaha CS-80, an ARP Odyssey Mk3 and a Roland Jupiter-4, a vocoder and an old, malfunctioning phase shifter unit he found in the back of the Workshop. Gent that he is, he then pops over to the Music Arcade studio to demonstrate the extraordinary new Fairlight CMI Series II synthesiser to the some kids from St Mary's Balham Primary School and hosts Tim Whitnall and Lucie Skeaping. This clip is from The Music Arcade: Electricity in Music. Originally broadcast 2 February, 1982.

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OT: Cool Ham Radio History
by Chris Fala 08 May '22

08 May '22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaTm_LUifUI

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FOR SALE: SemiOT: Too many computers
by Bill Degnan 07 May '22

07 May '22

I have a large lot of computers, parts, software, and consumer electronics for sale. See it all here: $100 takes the whole thing, a donation to Kennett Classic. https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/sys/d/kennett-square-vintage-computers/… To me some of this stuff is post-vintage but now is the time to pick up things like CRTs and Pentium 1's while they're still shunned by collectors as too new. That's what I did when 286/386 was considered to new. Time marches on. Bill

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information overload and all that jazz [was Mastodon]
by Jeffrey Jonas 07 May '22

07 May '22

Raymond Scott's 1960 album "The Secret 7: The Unexpected" predicted this: Citing the liner notes: "A Message from Where" is a gentle protest based on Scott's feeling that "we're getting too many messages from too many places". This was DECADES before the Internet, cable-tv, texting and all our wonderful new-and-improved sources of "information overload"! The man saw the future and knew it was ludicrous. samples of the tracks: https://www.raymondscott.net/music/streaming-audio/s7/ An amazon comment finally unmasks the men of mystery: This late-'50s album by the amazing Raymond Scott boasts a truly ALL-STAR jazz supergroup line-up: Elvin Jones Milt Hinton Kenny Burrell Eddie Costa Sam "The Man" Taylor Harry "Sweets" Edison "Wild" Bill Davis Jean "Toots" Thielemans

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KISS goes wrong
by Jeffrey Jonas 07 May '22

07 May '22

No, I'm not talking about Gene Simmons et. al., or https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/DeathTongue?file=DeathTongue.jpg I'm talking about insane engineering, gone insane! The stuff that Rube Goldberg, Heath Robinson, Frederick Roland Emett, and Wallace&Gromit build all the time: https://youtu.be/WN90HYiFpAw Marble Machine X - A Lesson in Dumb Design from Wintergatan Dumb Design requirements are holding the Marble Machine X back from Success, let us see if we can at least try to learn something from my biggest mistakes :) "Back to the drawing board" as we used to say, but more importantly, "THINK". Not "Think different", more like "think CLEARLY", "think AHEAD" but most of all, KEEP IT SIMPLE! Antoine de Saint-Exupery said it best "perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away" [sadly, "value engineering" often takes that to stupid extremes] -- Jeff Jonas

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Wang 2200 in Sagamore Hills, Ohio
by Dave McGuire 07 May '22

07 May '22

On 5/6/22 20:38, Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > Even if I asked my son to go pick that up > it would be a 2 Hour Dr. from Columbus. 2hrs? At the drop of a hat. I generally want maybe an hour of notice if the drive is to exceed 5-6 hours. I've still not heard back from them; I'm hoping something can be worked out. LSSM doesn't have much of an acquisitions budget, so maybe it won't be all about the dollar signs for them. We'll see. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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Wang 2200 in Sagamore Hills, Ohio
by William Sudbrink 07 May '22

07 May '22

I wish I could go get it. https://www.estatesales.net/OH/Sagamore-Hills/44067/3272274 About 16 pictures down. Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Atari gets a shout out
by W2HX 06 May '22

06 May '22

https://youtu.be/WDrZY2hn5cs?t=480 Trevor Noah. 73 Eugene W2HX Subscribe to my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/w2hx-channel/videos

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10 Years ago today
by Christian Liendo 06 May '22

06 May '22

You can love or hate Facebook, but I do like the reminders of what happened in the past 10 Years ago today we had a VCF We mourned the loss of Claude Kagan Dave McGuire brought a rather nice DEC with multiple terminals David Gesswein brought a couple of DECs and had the PDP-8 out Bill Degnan had a IBM PC setup with multiple versions of the PC Bill Dromgoole brought his OSI collection Ian Primus had a large Apple II setup Kids were playing Guitar Hero on a C64 Brian Cirulnick and I were showing off our SGIs. Daniel Kottke was our speaker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boCSTajHutc It's nice to look back and remember.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] VCF East 2022 article and videos
by Dave McGuire 06 May '22

06 May '22

On 5/5/22 12:31, Brian L. Stuart via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > Yes, she was there. I kind of got the impression she didn't > want to be recognized though. She was almost incognito. > Otherwise, I might have mentioned that some of the bits > in my display were purchased from Adafruit. :) She's a bit of a celebrity, plus the whole "hard-core tech girl" aspect of things. I really don't blame her for staying low-profile; she'd probably end up getting cornered by tech guys and not have been able to enjoy the event. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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VCF East 2022 article and videos
by Jeffrey Brace 06 May '22

06 May '22

Thought I would share some good press about the show! https://hackaday.com/2022/05/02/vintage-computer-festival-east-raises-the-b… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5s7u8p3uqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVS4dCl4lcM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi07_OtCeFA ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Bench Spares order
by Martin Flynn 06 May '22

06 May '22

CDL is restocking & placing a parts order for the makerspace workshop, here's whats on the list so far: Pre-cut Heat Shrink assortments Molex pin kits (903 series 4 and 12 pin) Dual wipe IC sockets (Tyco-Augat) * 8-pin * 14-pin * 16-pin * 18-pin * 24-pin * 28-pin * 40-pin * 64-pin D & E connctor shells + pins for the pneumatic crimper 3.6V ni-mh packs and pigtails to replace motherboard barrel batteries Anything else suggested as stock? Martin Flynn

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VCF East 2022 photos
by Mike Loewen 05 May '22

05 May '22

For better or for worse, here are my pics: http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/VCF-East2022/ Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Veteran's Appreciation Lunch May 20 @ InfoAge
by Jeffrey Brace 05 May '22

05 May '22

Mike Ruane, CEO of InfoAge wanted me to pass this along to VCF members =========================== From: Patricia Mariconda <pmariconda(a)townshipofwall.com> Subject: Veterans Appreciation Luncheon May 20, 2022 Good Morning! I am reaching out to those of you who have previously participated in one of our Veteran or Senior events to invite you to be a vendor at our Veterans Appreciation Luncheon on May 20th at 11:00am. We will be inviting our township Veterans to lunch and would love for them to be able to explore numerous vendor tables as well. Please let me know if you are able to participate by responding with your organizations name. If you know of anyone else who would be interested and can provide a service to this population please feel free to forward the information. Just make sure that they RSVP to be by May 13th. Thank you and hope you are all doing well. *Patti Mariconda* *Director* *Wall Youth Center and Community Services* *1824 South M Street* *Wall, NJ 07719* *732-681-1375* ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Museum Docent training
by Jeffrey Brace 05 May '22

05 May '22

Now that VCF East 2022 is over and I've started to wind down with post mortems, sending thank you emails, surveys, meetings, etc. and other post event cleanup; I've started to train some new docents: Rick Lewis Doug Crawford (he's been docent before, but needs a refresher) Bart Hirst I'm starting regularly scheduled training and hope to have docents in a regular rotation. If you are interested in being a docent, then send me an email and I will get you started in the training. The number of visitors has increased to a normal level in recent months, so it's important to have docents in the VCF museum during regular business hours. We are also getting school groups on Wednesdays which is nice to see the return of groups of students. There have also been recent events such as NJ Maker's Day, Tour of Old, Days of Learning and Lecture Series that have brought in many visitors to InfoAge and VCF in recent months. It's nice to see the level of visitors to InfoAge and the VCF Museum get back to normal. Please tell everyone about InfoAge, which is the diamond in the rough that not enough people know about. I will sometimes hear from visitors that live in the same town (Wall Township) that had never heard of InfoAge despite living in the same town for years. Word of mouth is one way that you can help get visitors to our museums. So please help us promote it! Thanks! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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My VCF East 2022 photos
by Herb Johnson 05 May '22

05 May '22

https://www.retrotechnology.com/vcfe22/vcfe_2022.html Some of my photos of the VCF-E 22 event, with some captioning. I'll fill in details as time permits. For those who think the Web page is clunky, it has the virtue of being compatible with any HTML browser, ever. Contact me with any errors and corrections or for non-private use of photos. - regards Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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VCF East Clinic kudos
by Herb Johnson 05 May '22

05 May '22

[Discussion about Jonathan's S-100 workshop in the CDL facility.] I spent time in Jon's workshop, mostly observing. I also enjoyed seeing the IMSAIs in repair. And it's good to see people learning to build kits from components. Jon and I tag-teamed on one IMSAI fix. He was looking up details on a front-panel signal that wasn't pulsing; but could not find an early IMSAI schematic. While he was looking, I reverse-engineered the circuit to trace it backwards. He found the problem from the schematic, just as I traced it back, to the same one-shot 74121. Replacing it solved the problem; apparently 40-year-old monostables tend to fail, Jon said at the time. There were a number of people in the workshop, exercising their collective knowledge of these early vintage computers. It was good to see them all, not just the S-100 machines. And it should be noted: there was a nice exhibit of early S-100 computers, thanks to Mike Loewen. I'm certainly in favor of another workshop devoted to more 1970's computers, if not only S-100 computers. If it's done during a swapmeet, I suggest not much work will get done in the morning, people will be swapping. So that eats into a day of repair. Regards, Herb Johnson sometimes called "Dr. S-100" -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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4th of May
by Jim Scheef 04 May '22

04 May '22

May the forth be with us all...

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: time to downsize
by Bob Shuster 04 May '22

04 May '22

I just posted another update, having finished going through my Commodore VIC-20 stuff. Next up is the rest of the Commodore stuff! I have two C64s (one boxed), a 64C boxed - plus drives, software, and books. Could be a few weeks before I finish going through those. Many thanks to those who have looked and especially to those who have taken some of my treasures! I’m glad they’re going to good homes. The main link: http://theshusters.com/bobvintage.html - Bob Shuster

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WTB: 150MB Bernoulli Cartridges
by Alexander Jacocks 04 May '22

04 May '22

Folks, I'm looking for 150MB Bernoulli cartridges. Please let me know, off-list, if you have some that you'd like to sell, and how much you'd like for them. Thanks! - Alex

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: time to downsize
by Bob Shuster 03 May '22

03 May '22

Oops, I missed one of my favorite computers, my Mac Plus 1MB with hard drive. I updated the Google sheet listing. Btw, I think I’m going to move the list over to a webpage. Google Sheets is not well-suited for a complex format like this and is very prone to accidentally deleting items (which I did with several!) I’ll send a new link when I’ve done that (and added a significant amount of new items, probably Atari next…) Bob Shuster

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SGI Monitors in North/Central NJ near Patterson
by Douglas Crawford 03 May '22

03 May '22

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/4394951120608651/?ref=search&refe…

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NJ Makers group on FB
by m simons 03 May '22

03 May '22

Greetings, I reactivated the NJ Makers group on FB. I spent a lot of time looking for lists and things for spaces in and around NJ and surrounding states and found most of them were outdated, or no longer there. If you're active on FB, or even if you are only there to maintain a page for a club or group, maker space, local library, school, scout troop, or whatever, I'd like to invite y'all to join us and let us know about what you're doing as an individual or a group project. Lots of stuff that VCF does and other groups at InfoAge would be appropriate of course, so please help to spread the word.. I think there's a lot of people in the group that haven't heard of VCF, InfoAge, etc. https://www.facebook.com/groups/njmakers/ Thanks -- MS

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: time to downsize
by Bob Shuster 02 May '22

02 May '22

I posted a while ago about downsizing, and have gotten a significant way through. I converted to a webpage - it’s much easier to navigate than Google Sheets. That being said, I’ve gone through most of my Apple and Atari stuff (still more to come) and have reached a milestone where I feel comfortable sharing with the group. The new link: http://www.theshusters.com/bobvintage.html Please don't share for now without asking me. Right now it’s just open to this group - my contact info is intentionally missing from the webpages. If you can read this, you have my email. Email me with questions or offers! Please don't make offers on the list, but if you want to discuss my process and feel the group would benefit, then by all means knock yourself out! :) Bob Shuster (Slightly edited original message below) ---- Well, folks, I’ve gotten to the age where I need to seriously downsize my hobbies and collections, not wanting to leave it to my children to have to deal with in later years. (I had to do that recently for a relative.) On the electronics side, I’ve decided to concentrate on my vintage video game systems - and therefore sell off most of my vintage computer stuff. My collection includes mostly 8-bit stuff: TRS-80 Models I, IV, M100, etc. - Atari 400, 800, Stacy, Portfolio, ST, etc. - C64/VIC20 - T/S1000 (including an unbuilt kit), Apple II, II+, IIe, IIe Platinum, IIgs - Wang WLTC - Mattel Aquarius - TI-99/4A - many others that I still have to dig out - plus lots of peripherals, disks, manuals, etc. Also have some newer Macs starting with a Mac Plus in an Apple carrying bag. I’m starting with you guys before trying to list elsewhere, although I may hit some of the dedicated FaceBorg pages (such as for Aquarius and Apple II.) I'm willing to ship some of the smaller items, but in general systems or monitors will need to be picked up here (near the Fort Washington exit of the PA Turnpike) or nearby, and cash or PayPal for payment. I may also consider trades for some of the video game stuff I’m looking for. It pains me to do this, but the clutter is getting out of hand, and I haven’t touched most of these in years. It’s time for someone else to enjoy. Bob Shuster

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Trying to remember a name.
by Jeff S 02 May '22

02 May '22

I am HORRIBLE at remembering names until I use them on a regular basis. That being said, I'm trying to remember the name of someone I was talking to at the last VCF-East event, and perhaps some contact information. That person is probably on this list. If so, I apologize for forgetting your name. All I can provide is a description. He's about 5'5"-5'-7" or so, thin build. Has dark hair and a trimmed beard and mustache.I think he was carrying a shoulder bag with him when he was attending the event. I've seen him plenty of times at various VCF public events, so I know others have seen him around and most likely know him. I was talking with him about the older computing systems like Univac, Eniac and such. I can remember the dialog, but can't even remember his name (did I mention I was HORRIBLE at remembering names). Thanks for any insight, Jeff Salzman

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Trying to remember a name.
by Jeff S 02 May '22

02 May '22

That's the guy, I believe. His name stated with an A. On Sun, May 1, 2022, 4:14 PM drummy via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > I think I know who you mean.I spoke to him remember his name either. His > first name is short. Something like Ayn or Ain. Maybe

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VCF East 2022 Post Event Survey
by Jeffrey Brace 02 May '22

02 May '22

Hello everyone, For those that attended the show, please fill out this survey so that we may improve the show: https://bit.ly/vcfe2022post. Thanks! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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9-track tape deck
by Stephen A Edwards 02 May '22

02 May '22

Someone on Facebook has a reel-to-reel tape for a set of diagnostic programs for a Honeywell mainframe that they'd like to have digitized. Anybody have a working drive?

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