April 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Workshop May 6 & 7, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 17 Apr '17

17 Apr '17

Here are the details for the workshop DATE: May 6 & 7, 2017 LOCATION: InfoAge Building 9010C - Sandy recovery area, the cafeteria past the dorms. (2201 Marconi Road, Wall Township, NJ) TIME: Start about 1:30 P.M. on Saturday and ends whenever we go to sleep. End about 5 P.M. on Sunday. (Starts around 10 A.M. Sunday morning) SIGNUP here ==> : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1waEqeNHZeYM9t7OprYWHbwBrIVS9EzGNGl7… COST: - $10 for all members attending the workshop, which VCF donates to InfoAge as thanks for providing the space for us. - $25 for those wanting to stay overnight. Please pay me when you get there so that I don't forget. OVERNIGHT: Bring your own pillow, blankets, soap etc. We provide a bed frame and an uncovered mattress. There are showers and a kitchen for your use. - We will have PayPal credit card swipes available. EQUIPMENT: - VCF will provide a table and you can use any available electrical outlet. - Bring your own tools, power strips, power cords, and supplies etc. - Please bring an extra one or two power cords as these are often forgotten by people. DRINKS: You should bring your own. I would recommend bringing a cooler of some type. FOOD: You provide your own. We usually order pizza, subs or go out to a dinner and everyone pays their own way. Usually, we make a decision when everyone gets hungry. GATE: During the hours from 1 pm to 5 pm close the front gate behind you. We want museum visitors to go to the front lobby and not wander through the middle of the campus. Outside of those times, you can feel free to leave the gate open. PARKING: Park across from in the main parking area, unless you are unloading. QUESTIONS? Please ask me (Jeff Brace) or Evan. My cell is 732-759-1783 and Evan’s is 646-546-9999 in case you need to contact us. See everyone there! And have fun! -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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OT: large UPS units free to whoever wants them!
by Bob Shuster 17 Apr '17

17 Apr '17

I have two (2) Belkin F6C1500-TW-RK units that I just removed from service in my recording studio. These are heavy (24 pounds each!) and large units with 10 battery-backed outlets. They are 1500VA/830W units and most likely need the batteries replaced (two each.) They have also developed a hum. Definitely out of warranty. http://www.belkin.com/us/support-search?search=f6c1500-tw-rk <http://www.belkin.com/us/support-search?search=f6c1500-tw-rk> Before I send these to an electronics recycler, I thought I’d check here to see if someone might want these to restore/refurbish or otherwise use the parts. These were darned expensive - it’d be a shame to toss them if someone could breathe life back into them. Local pickup only (obviously) - I’m just northeast of Philadelphia - convenient to the PA Turnpike at Fort Washington. Email if interested! - Bob

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VCF Lunch Report - Saturday - NoVA
by Ethan 17 Apr '17

17 Apr '17

4 people in attendence, it was a nice day outside. Food was pretty good! We chatted for about an hour and a half then got a tour of the Fairfax Public Television studio! Which in itself was awesome! I was impressed by what Fairfax has going on! To the point I'm reluctant to tell friends because they will be trying to ma Someone on here suggested making it a continuous thing, Evan said he could put it on the calendar, and it was suggested to tick tock between VA and MD month to month. It all sounds good to me! Some weekends I have events and some weekends I need to get my diving in, but will make these whenever I can and hopefully enough others have interest to keep it going!

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A most interesting find!
by Neil Cherry 16 Apr '17

16 Apr '17

Actually finds would be more appropriate. I was cleaning out my garage and I came one box hidden in the back, behind the usual debris, forgotten. Upon opening it I am greeted by my first computer, my modified Atari 800XL with 256K and Omnimon. I thought I lost it or gave it to The museum. With it I've found 2 1050 drives and an 810 drive. Now that made me feel good. But there's more ... My SPO256 Talker board, a Peripheral Technologies PT-68K board, A modified Atari 520ST (with 2.5M of DRAM), an Atari 850 interface and a WD 1001-05 interface board. There are more things but I haven't really looked and I have more boxes. The return of my Atari 800XL really makes me happy! -- 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] May 6/7 Volunteer Day / Workshop Shop Weekend
by Duane 16 Apr '17

16 Apr '17

-----Original Message----- From: Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2017 3:22 PM To: vcf-midatlantic Cc: Jeffrey Brace Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] May 6/7 Volunteer Day / Workshop Shop Weekend We are having another workshop weekend. This time with a twist. May 6 we are looking for volunteers to work for 3 hours from 10am to 1pm. This will be hard work of clearing weeds from behind the warehouse, fixing the field ruined from VCF East, removing plywood from the warehouse windows, etc. Anyone is certainly welcome to work beyond the 3 hours, but 3 hours is the minimum we are asking. Evan, Corey and I will be assigning volunteers to specific tasks for this event. This will help our group and InfoAge as a whole. In exchange for this volunteer work VCF will buy volunteers lunch, waive the workshop fee for the weekend and give two t-shirts (VCF West XI and VCF East XII). Understand that this is serious work and we need serous workers who are not there just to socialize. There are showers in 9010-D that one can use to clean up afterwards. After the volunteer work, then the workshop begins. We will be starting around 1:30pm on Saturday May 6 and going through Sunday until around 5 or 6pm. We will be having the workshop in 9010-D which is where we had Festivus. It will be in the cafeteria and the game room. If you are interested in volunteering, then please contact me directly and I will add you to the list of volunteers. If you are just coming to the workshop, then the usual workshop rules apply. I will send out that info later. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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6503 in PAiA Synth Controller!
by Douglas Crawford 16 Apr '17

16 Apr '17

Music Synthesis led me into microprocessors in the late 70s. Around the time I built an Elf for synth control (an unrealized dream eclipsed by college then by the C64 then by Midi ) I was buying bits and pieces from PAiA and inspired by their designer John Simonton and contributor Craig Anderton. At that time they were offering a microprocessor controller add-on, very much like a trainer, for their modular synth rigs and selling bits of software for doing effects and controlling keyboards actions like portamento and the like. My recollection was that these were 6800 systems just like on the small cardboard boxed Heathkit 6800 trainer. My recollection was off. I just ran across 1978 PAiA catalog to find it was a 6502 variant with membrane keys instead of switches. http://rtellason.com/catalogs/PAIA-1978.pdf The controller is on the cover page and detailed on page 11. The whole catalog is a hoot of hobby electronic music equipment of the era. A short article on PAiA is here for orientation of folks not familiar with PAiA. https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=PAiA%20Electronics&item_type=topic

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May 6/7 Volunteer Day / Workshop Shop Weekend
by Jeffrey Brace 16 Apr '17

16 Apr '17

We are having another workshop weekend. This time with a twist. May 6 we are looking for volunteers to work for 3 hours from 10am to 1pm. This will be hard work of clearing weeds from behind the warehouse, fixing the field ruined from VCF East, removing plywood from the warehouse windows, etc. Anyone is certainly welcome to work beyond the 3 hours, but 3 hours is the minimum we are asking. Evan, Corey and I will be assigning volunteers to specific tasks for this event. This will help our group and InfoAge as a whole. In exchange for this volunteer work VCF will buy volunteers lunch, waive the workshop fee for the weekend and give two t-shirts (VCF West XI and VCF East XII). Understand that this is serious work and we need serous workers who are not there just to socialize. There are showers in 9010-D that one can use to clean up afterwards. After the volunteer work, then the workshop begins. We will be starting around 1:30pm on Saturday May 6 and going through Sunday until around 5 or 6pm. We will be having the workshop in 9010-D which is where we had Festivus. It will be in the cafeteria and the game room. If you are interested in volunteering, then please contact me directly and I will add you to the list of volunteers. If you are just coming to the workshop, then the usual workshop rules apply. I will send out that info later. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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Bowmar Brain, MOS, C=
by Douglas Crawford 16 Apr '17

16 Apr '17

I had a "Bowmar Brain" calculator in high school that my Dad gave me. When calc prices dropped to nothing, it seemed fit for me to dissect the Bowmar and see what was inside and it never got put back together. I think I thought I could hook it up and drive it like a math coprocessor or something. That never happened. I just ran across this paragraph in the MITS Wiki linking Bowmar to MOS Technology, and then C=: MOS supplied Bowmar calculator ICs... Bowmar imploded, I suppose one of the cripplers of MOS... leading to C= buying MOS. Bowmar Instrument Corporation introduced the "Bowmar Brain", a four-function pocket calculator, in September 1971 and the $179 calculator sold over 500,000 copies in the first year. Bowmar then developed the "901B" calculator that was priced at $120.[30] In September 1972, Texas Instruments (TI) introduced the TI-2500 portable four-function calculator that also sold for $120.[31] The 901B and the TI-2500 both used the TI TMS0100 family of "calculator-on-a-chip" integrated circuit. TI was now directly competing with their IC customers. Other semiconductor companies such as National Semiconductor and Rockwell began selling calculators. Commodore Business Machines and other office equipment companies also got into the market. A frenzied price war started. By early 1974, Ed Roberts found he could purchase a calculator in a retail store for less than his cost of materials. The larger companies could sell below cost to win market share. Bowmar lost $20 million in 1974 and filed for bankruptcy.[32] Commodore acquired their IC supplier, MOS Technology. Texas Instruments won the price war but their calculator division lost $16 million in 1975.[33] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Instrumentation_and_Telemetry_Systems

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 16 Apr '17

16 Apr '17

Good day at the museum. There was a grand opening today for the wireless operators' exhibit down the hall from us, so we have a lot of visitors. Around 20 total of all ages spread over several hours. Bill Dudley stopped by around 4pm. We began the process of transferring the kiosk system from a hidden directory on vcfed.org to an internal server (on a Raspberry Pi!) in the museum. We're going to need a static IP service for remote access to the kiosk server and our IP security cameras.

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vintage laptop museum web site in Russia
by william degnan 15 Apr '17

15 Apr '17

http://vintage-laptops.com/?page_id=2&lang=en This guy has been collecting and photographing his collection for years now, he has one of the most comprehensive collections I have seen. Bill

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