December 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Head align Tape
by Duane Craps 16 Jul '18

16 Jul '18

>>> 7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage". Head alignment tapes are not track specific. They have one track the width of the tape and are used to adjust time delays to time align the bits coming off the read head when reading the alignment tape. Then a "scratch tape" is used while writing all ones to adjust the write delays while looking at the read amps. We used the same alignment tape for 7 and 9 track units. Duane On 6/17/2017 11:40 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > 7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage". On 6/17/2017 11:40 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > On 06/17/2017 11:37 AM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >>> 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". > That wasn't me. But yes, that can be useful for rough validation. > >> Seems to me, there's likely several boxes of mag-tapes in the inventory. > Yes, I brought a few boxes several years ago. > > -Dave > v

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Anyone with a QIC drive or original LaserDisc player coming to Festivus?
by Jason Perkins 14 Jan '18

14 Jan '18

The planets aligned, and it looks like I'll be able to make it to Festivus this year :D I have a QIC tape that has the OS for the TI MicroExplorer LISP card I got a few years back... and no way to read it. It's Mac formatted somehow. Does anyone have something that could read this tape? I've also got some somewhat degraded LaserDiscs from 1979 that don't play in my 1990s player. If someone has one of the original machines with a helium neon laser tube I'd love to see if the discs are salvageable. Thanks! -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Needed: gray metal teletype stand/table/desk
by Evan Koblentz 04 Jan '18

04 Jan '18

Everyone, We're still looking for an appropriate desk, stand, table, etc. to use with the Univac. It needs to be metal, and ideally painted gray but we could always paint it by ourselves. Of course it needs to be strong enough to hold the 1960s teletype, but it shouldn't be too large -- we do not want a big desk there, just something maybe 2-3 ft. wide. We need this relatively soon. It should be in good condition (nothing rusted, in need of repair, etc.) and have a period 1960s look.

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thinking ahead to VCF-east 2018
by Jeffrey Jonas 04 Jan '18

04 Jan '18

Are any of our VCF-MW brethren confirmed to sell The 6502 40th Anniversary Computer Badge at VCF-east 2018? I'd love to see AM: build the badge PM: assembler programming the badge

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January 2018 Workshop is Jan. 13 & 14
by Jeffrey Brace 02 Jan '18

02 Jan '18

I will send more detailed into soon. The usual place 9032-A. The usual times: 10am to sleep Saturday and 10am to 5pm Sunday. $10 per person per day. (Sorry InfoAge rules) Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P_V4ZK7gVPihRXoDL4Ij4o4tNpB4MlwUdjq…

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Don't forget!
by Evan Koblentz 01 Jan '18

01 Jan '18

Today is your last chance to contribute to VCF as a 2017 tax deduction. Please visithttp://vcfed.org/wp/contribute/to help us keep the forum running, continue expanding the Vintage Computer Festival events, improve the VCF museum, and more. Thank you!!!

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Apple 1 emulator
by William Dudley 01 Jan '18

01 Jan '18

I find this somewhat amazing. https://hackaday.com/2017/12/30/espple-a-wireless-apple-1-on-an-esp8266/ Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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Catweasel MK4 Plus
by william degnan 01 Jan '18

01 Jan '18

Ebay has a Catweasel MK4 Plus <https://www.ebay.com/itm/Catweasel-MK4-Plus-Multi-Floppy-Controller-for-PC-…> ending in two hours ... going to be pricey per its rarity, but here is your chance! Bill

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 31 Dec '17

31 Dec '17

Highlights from the museum today: - Bill Lange and his uncle stopped by - A few families visited. One family had a 10-year-old son who impressed me with his knowledge of Apple II history. He has a GS and knew BASIC. - I finished setting up our two new display cases in the microcomputer aisle. Last time (Wednesday) we selected the initial batch of artifacts: case #1 got our blue box, 6501 kit, early USR modem, Pennywhistle modem, and Popular Electronics Digital Logic Micro Lab (from 1970); case # has an top shelf open for now (to be filled with various early PDAs) while its other shelves have consoles (Tele-Games (Atari) Pong, Fairchild Channel F, Magnavox Odyssey). Today, I installed the black backings that we made for each case because they're glass on all four sides and nobody needs to see behind them. Here is case #1: http://snarc.net/case1.jpg .... I'm going to put another piece of thin black material under the 6501 box so it doesn't reflect onto the shelf below it (looks lousy from above). Here is case #2: http://snarc.net/case2.jpg. Both displays look better in person than up-close with the camera.

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Correction -- Semi-OT: Annual post: what tech did ya get?
by Herb Johnson 31 Dec '17

31 Dec '17

a Pro-Log model 980 EPROM programmer, with multi-PROM adapter. The unit's software is not working. But the value of the 4040 processor, several hex-digit numeric display, keyboard and other parts made the purchase worthwhile. And, I may get it running! Anyone with a Pro-Log 980, please contact me. (no Web page yet on this item.) Also obtained: a pre-microprocessor "micro"controller with core memory. It played a small part in MINIcomputer to microprocessor development. This is what microcomputers looked like, before microprocessors. http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/varisystem.html Herb Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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