February 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

VCF East online ticketing is open
by Evan Koblentz 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Get your tickets now. Save time at the show. http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/tickets/ Remember: You get in free on the days you're participating. Thus tech speakers get in free Friday, exhibitors get in free Saturday/Sunday.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Eniac in the "news"
by Brian L. Stuart 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

On Thu, 2/2/17, Dan Roganti <ragooman(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Brian,I didn't know I missed any announcement about your > simulator since your VCF exhibit last year. I'm looking froward > in trying yours too. Rather use yours running natively than a java > applet. I'm using linux mint with the amd64, I see the executible > for this, it shouldn't matter then which distro right ?Dan Dan, It turns out I didn't make any announcements before now. I had hoped to get more documentation done before calling much attention to it. On the other hand, I do have to be realistic about the pace at which I'm getting there. :) But between the timing with the hackaday article and the finalizing of the configuration commands/files, it seemed a good time to mention it. The Linux distro shouldn't affect things to any significant extent. The binary is statically linked so it doesn't make any assumptions about library versions. You will need TCL/Tk installed, but there's a high probability it's already there. One thing I have noticed is that some installations create the wish executable with version number appended and not have one just called wish. If that's the case, you'll want to either create a wrapper script or a symbolic link so that you can run wish without specifying a version number. Have fun, and I'll be glad to try to answer any questions that come up. BLS

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Why isn't my program working?
by Evan Koblentz 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Dan R. and I were up late, via phone + Facebook, trying to solve the latest bug in the quest to make cool Lego computer-controlled robots. A few days ago I gave up on the last version of the robot and make a new one. The previous version had a steering issue: it was rack-and-pinion style, like a car, but the Lego sensors (opto and touch) couldn't react fast enough to switch off the pinion motor. Thus the rack would keep moving after hitting its mechanical limit, breaking the Legos (or I'd strengthen the Lego construction and then risk burning out the motor). So I took it apart and made an all-new robot. This one has tank treads controlled by individual motors on each side. In the software, my first choice was to control it via keyboard: I'd pick four keys in the corners of a square pattern to represent the treads moving left/forward, left/reverse, right/forward, right/reverse. I wanted the user to have to hold the buttons down, like a gas pedal, for the motors to keep going. Applesoft expects the opposite -- press-and-release to do anything. We tried various tricks but at best the relevant bits would stutter on-off-on-off, not stay on as needed. Thinking it might be a keyboard issue, I switched to joystick button control. Button 0 for left tread, button 1 for right tread. When that works, then I'll made the joystick movement act as a shifter for forward/reverse on each tread. Same problem! With the latest test code I've got one motor stuttering and the other working smoothly (again this is in gas pedal style -- press and hold to keep the motor going). Here's where it gets really weird. Dan and I weren't sure where the problem resides, so I tried it in Logo. Works perfectly! That proved the problem isn't the joystick nor the Lego hardware interface. (I also tried swapping my well-used Lego hardware interface for the new-in-box one that Ben G. loaned us; same problem.) Back to BASIC. Swapped the button 0 and button 1 code positions in my test program. It still has the problem with the button 0 bit stuttering, even though it executes button 1 first! What the.... I'm stumped. Here is the test code (Lego subroutines excluded; they work fine): 10 REM INITIALIZE LEGO INTERFACE 20 GOSUB 1000 30 REM CLEAR THE MOTOR BITS 40 T(0)=0:T(1)=0:GOSUB 1215: (refers to ports 0-1 on the 7-port interface box; routine 1215 turns bits off) 50 REM CHECK JOYSTICK BUTTONS 60 B0=PEEK(49249) 70 IF B0>127 THEN T(0)=1:GOSUB 1115: REM TURNS ON BIT 0 80 IF B0<127 THEN T(0)=0:GOSUB 1215: REM TURNS OFF BIT 0 90 B1=PEEK(49250) 100 IF B1>127 THEN T(1)=1:GOSUB 1115: REM TURNS ON BIT 1 110 IF B1<127 THEN T(1)=0:GOSUB 1215: REM TURNS OFF BIT 2 120 GOTO 50 Other things we tried: swapping motors, swapping wires, different ports on the interface box, non-consecutive ports, rearranging the code lines to alternate (such as PEEK for B0/B1, enable one motor, enable the other, disable one, disable the other, loop). Also tried using the keyboard equivalents to joystick buttons 0/1 which on my computer (//e Platinum) are open-Apple and Option (Option = closed Apple from the earlier //e). I lost track of the results from each individual experiment (and I'm not going to do them all again), but they were all either the same or worse. Again, right now with the above code, the motor attached to button 0 stutters (you can even see port 0's LED flashing every couple of seconds) while the motor attached to port 1 goes on, stays on smoothly while you hold button 1, and turns off when you let go. Sooooo.... the problem isn't the joystick, the hardware, the Legos, or the computer. And it works fine in Logo. That leaves one thing: BASIC. How do I fix this? ________________________________ 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

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UPDATE! Re: Successful workshop January 14&15, 2017
by Herb Johnson 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/vcf_jan17_rep.html Photos and brief notes on the Jan VCFed Repair Workshop. I'd appreciate any corrections or additions. Thanks to Jeff Brace for some photos and ID's. Evan posted: > Img_5055 -- everyone at the restaurant was fascinated by your meal. The hamburgers and other dishes served at the Main Street Grill, were pretty impressively large and well prepared. there was two days of food on those plates. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Care and feeding of my desoldering station?
by Neil Cherry 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Okay, I want to back up my brag that I kept my soldering station working (actually the tip, this station was beat up 30 years ago but it's gotten worse). SO I have this cheap Aoyue desoldering station. I've been keeping the spring and the nozzle clean but I'm puzzled as the why the large tube of silicone? It doesn't really explain in the manual how to maintain the station and the large tube seems a bit much for the vacuum attachment at the based. Any hints tips, or clues? -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Eniac in the "news"
by Brian L. Stuart 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

On Tue, 1/31/17, William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > http://hackaday.com/2017/01/31/eniac-the-way-we-were If anyone is interested in an alternative simulator, the one I've been developing is available: http://cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/eniac/eniac.html BLS

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] <---is this necessary?
by william degnan 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

On Feb 1, 2017 7:59 PM, "Bob Flanders via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > I vote keep it as it is. > > Or change at random

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<---is this necessary?
by Herb Johnson 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

Question to the list moderator. We've posted in the "subject" line, the phrase "[vcf-midatlantic]" for some time now. But a recent post did not have that phrase, and apparently it at least made the Web archive for the list. Evan - it's your call. Is this phrase really necessary, or desirable? Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Two more teachers needed for Friday @ VCF East
by Evan Koblentz 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

Everyone, The speakers (but not yet the times etc.) for Friday @ VCF East are posted here: http://vcfed.org/wp/classes/. We need two things: 1. An instructor for the power supply topic 2. One more topic/instructor Given all the knowledge in this group, someone must be interested... ________________________________ 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

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The next workshop sign up sheet (Feb 11 & 12, 2017)
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

For those of you that missed it in my last e-mail with all the important info. Here is the signup sheet again: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13GnWX3AajJRMede2N7BrVht2j26hyt4lQoO… -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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