June 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by Herb Johnson 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

To Paul: Thanks for the response to my post; and likewise for the other responses and your offer to head's-up here your next run of boards. If you have insights into USB/serial buffering issues, you can contact me privately c/o retrotechnology.com. (I follow the VCFed list by Web, so I don't see private email addresses for private contacts.) - Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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WiFi RS-232 Internet Modem
by Herb Johnson 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

> but I really want to to be able to ssh from my Apple IIe > to any of my machines without having to serial tether the Apple IIe to > one of my Linux boxes. Caution: this message may be boring to younger audiences. This is not my technology, but I have interests in 20th C. serial in the 21st century. After noodling the Web and Twitter, my impression is that this item seems to come available briefly, then get sold out; that may repeat or not. I'm not passing judgement, I'm simply reporting what I found. There's any number of WiFi dongles which are a little programmable and which accept serial trans/recieve, and have some other I/O bits. Neil Cherry works with ESP8266 type WiFi dongles, as part of his open IOT activities; he's reported on them in this list. This responds to the "want non-tehered serial" comment above. I think I see one such dongle on this device, on a board that probably includes another processor and some RS-232 type level-converting. One could likely build one with an Arduino - some of them are WiFi without a shield. For fun, you could add a speaker to sound-out the wired-modem buzz-whirr connect sounds. One challenge of vintage use of 21st century connection technology - WiFi, even USB/serial dongles - is how they manage both sides of the 20th century transfer. Translation: USB dongles have hardware buffers (and software drivers) that screw up character processing and other delays, by old MS-DOS programs and old slow microprocessors. I don't know if the WiFi dongles have similar issues. Here's a tech note I wrote recently, reportage on discussions about the above, in an on-line 1802 COSMAC forum. Many 1802 microcomputers were severely limited, even by mid-1970's standards. That's fine, it was a condition of the times. http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/mship_ttlusb.html Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Head alignment tape
by Herb Johnson 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

> 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". Seems to me, there's likely several boxes of mag-tapes in the inventory. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Friday funny
by Evan Koblentz 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

Had a phone call with a former DEC Alpha engineer today. Best quote: "It'll run infinite loops twice as fast!" -- Sent with K-@ Mail - the evolution of emailing.

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Kermit and the Brain exhibit blog
by Douglas Crawford 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

For those interested, I documented the creation of my past VCF East exhibit and reproduced the demonstrations I did at the show on youtube. Many missed the demonstrations on Saturday while the Superbrain was out of commission. The page also links to the Superbrain restoration blog for those interested in that whole saga. https://abitoutofplace.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/kermit-and-the-brain/

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Young Innovators Faire
by Evan Koblentz 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

Chris/Todd/Doug are representing VCFed at the Young Innovators Faire (a small Maker Faire clone) tomorrow and Sunday at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, 100 Station Ave., Oaks, Pennsylvania. Bring your kids and say hi to them! ________________________________ 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 instagram.com/vcfederation

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Head alignment tape
by Duane Craps 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

All, This past work session Bill Dromgoole applied power to the museum's UNIVAC 1540 Magnetic Tape Unit. There were problems but just seeing the indicators lit up is good progress. I wonder if anyone has a 800 BPI, NRZ Master Head Alignment Tape (skew tape) to donate to VCF. Since we are not likely to ever run into a commercial tape I guess I could tweak the handlers to mach each other if they even require alignment but, it would be better to be able to do it the right way. Also could use some blank or good used tapes. It might be a long time before we need them but it would be nice to have them available. Duane Craps

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OT: Chuck Thacker passes away at age 74
by Tony Bogan 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/14/chuck-thacker-lead-designer-of-the-xerox-alt… Sent from my iPhone

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Commodore SX64 and 8050 in Newport Delaware
by william degnan 14 Jun '17

14 Jun '17

There is a thrift shop called Hippo Thrift that has a sx64 (no keyboard cable) and a 8050 IEEE drive (no IEEE cable) for sale. The SX64 comes with a lot of CBM carts and a carrier full of Commodore disks, no labels. I did not test these. If interested, you have to call them in advance, they're keeping these in the back, not a regular item to sell in the shop. What got my attention in the first place was the CBM 8096 that they were also selling. It has a keyboard issue but otherwise works. A CBM 8032 with a 64K memory expansion that is branded "CBM 8096" is very rare, worth taking time out the day to pick it up. I don't know if I have ever actually seen one before in person. Not as rare as a P500 or C65, but still a lucky find. The thrift shop is a mile or three from rte 95 just south of Wilmington, Delaware. Because I don't have enough room to store this one, if anyone wants a regular nice and clean CBM 8032 that works, I am selling it for $150, pickup only I live about 15 miles west of the shop. If you want it shipped the price is $300 + shipping (Ebay prices for my trouble) Bill

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Re: vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 20, Issue 13 Museum Pix
by SVCatITC＠aol.com 14 Jun '17

14 Jun '17

I'll chime in with my $0.02. I agree with Jim, Drew, Evan. We all have identified the problems. All it takes is time and money (the talent we have in spades). Evan mentioned my involvement with the TR20. We also, when that project is completed, will start thinking about restoration of "George", however, all these projects require the donated extended time, parts, specialized test equipment to get this (in some cases 50yrs old) stuff resurrected. We all have lives outside of this venue. Having said that, the obstacles should not deter us from pushing ahead. Here's my idea.... One of the projects I plan to have ready for East XIII exhibiting is an IBM, USA made '286 (640k soldered to the motherboard), under plexiglass, so that viewers, expert and novice, will see how we made things in that era. It is planned to have 2 ESDI drives and an Intel Above Board EMS memory card fitted. For a "hands on", I plan to have that machine running Win3.0. controlling a Z80 based materials testing machine. The OEM's DOS software (1987era) of the test machine will be running on Win3.0 . This testing machine has plenty of visuals (blinkin lights) and octal displays for the eye candy. We plan on crushing soda cans and showing the stress strain curves of the testing. Begrudgingly (LOL), Evan has given the nod to this display. Quoting "it's time to display 286 artifacts". After East is over, it is my hope that this display can be brought into the museum as a "computational device of the month" to show there were other things done with PC's in this era, other than games, and financial forecasts. The testing is safe and will be easy to demonstrate by the docents. Bill Degnan's year of the appliance computer, comes to mind with this project. The point of the droning on, is to show that other fresh ideas can be considered to bring more life into the museum (and hopefully more donations) while the main projects continue at the slow methodical pace they need to take. Feel free everyone to tell me I am way off base with my idea. I can take the hit, otherwise...... Let's start brainstorming ideas. Bill Inderrieden In a message dated 6/13/2017 12:04:38 P.M. EDT: Drew Notarnicola writes: Message: 1 Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2017 12:41:51 -0400 From: Drew Notarnicola <drew.notarnicola(a)gmail.com> To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum pictures >If we are willing to enhance the experience from viewing lifeless >artifacts to showing operating equipment >and a good bit of hands on I think it would be some mighty strong gravity. >The problem is half our artifacts are lifeless because they either don't >run yet or they can't have monitors hooked up. And we don't have anything >yet that visitors can do that's hands on.

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