March 2016 - vcf-midatlantic

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Workshop after-action report (IBM 029)
by whitneys 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

On a side note I'd like to thank everyone who welcomed me, and helped at my first workshop. Special thanks to Ian. To everyone else on the list, Hi! I'm new here. Whitney -- For external use only. If taken internally, consult a technician.

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Workshop after-action report (IBM 029)
by Mike Loewen 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

For the 2/27 - 2/28 workshop, I did some more work on the museum's IBM model 29 keypunch. When I first powered it up, it didn't do much of anything except run the motor. It gradually "warmed up" and started punching, but was obviously in need of lubrication. I cleaned and lubricated many maintenance points, which quieted down the machine and made its operation much smoother. I used Tech Rubber Roller Restorer to clean up the rubber feed rollers. I replaced my home-made arc suppression board with a spare from the warehouse. I also replaced the punch clutch pulley belt, which was ready to fall apart, and substituted a much better looking program drum. I adjusted the two pressure rail microswitches in the card bed, and cleaned and lubed the keyboard to fix some sticking keys. During the process, the machine developed another fault: each time a card would "register" at the punch station, it would automatically be "released" and sent to the read station. After several hours of troubleshooting, I discovered a broken wire leading to the escapement magnet assembly. It had been hanging on by a thread, causing erratic operation, and eventually completely broke away from the spade lug. I soldered it back on, and the machine was again punching. The very last thing I checked was the function of the sensing pins in the read station, by trying to duplicate a card. Not all card rows were consistently read, but improved with repetition. Unfortunately, I ran out of time at that point. I had lubed the sensing pins, but they need another round of cleaning/lubrication. At this point, the keypunch is useable for demonstrations in the museum room. The print mechanism still needs work, and doesn't print all of the characters correctly. Cleaning and aligning the print unit will be a major project. I multi-punched a VCF EAST 2016 card and left it on the punch. Oh yeah: I also pushed an IBM printer for a 1/4 mile. :-) Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Should the new museum have a name?
by tom.hornberger＠verizon.net 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

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OT: dual booting W7/Linux
by Evan Koblentz 29 Feb '16

29 Feb '16

I'm trying to shrink the Windows 7 partition on our new office computer in order to make a second partition for Linux. Windows' disk management partitioning tool is not working. It only let me shrink the partition by 8GB. Google indicates the reason is because of some un-movable files near the end of the partition. Defragging didn't help. I tried a few third-party partitioning tools. They didn't work either. How do I proceed?

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Gift letters for the Museum furniture donations
by Corey Cohen 29 Feb '16

29 Feb '16

To everyone who donated to the museum for our new furniture this year. I was having some email problems with all the domain DNS changes and didn't hit send on the gift letters for 2016. I have not forgotten you and also expect that starting January 2017 I will be generating a donation summary for each benefactor anyway and sending it out annually. I know that makes life easier since you will have all your donations in one place in one PDF. As far as I am aware I did get all the gift letters out for 2015. If I missed one, please contact me off list at corey(a)vcfed.org Keep an eye in your emails later this week for a PDF of the donation letters since January 1st 2016. Sorry for any delays or confusion, Thanks, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ

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LINC pioneer Wesley Clark passes
by Herb Johnson 29 Feb '16

29 Feb '16

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/business/wesley-a-clark-made-computing-pe… As an owner of a piece of a LINC, I've corresponded with the LINC engineers, who to this day work on or support the remaining LINCs in various collections. It's sad to hear that Wesley Clark passed away recently at 88. The NYT article notes his involvement with Whirlwind and SAGE and other notable computers of the 1950's. He will be missed. Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preservation of 1970's computing email: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com alternate: herbjohnson ATT retrotechnology DOTT info

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