August 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Mac SE coming to Workshop
by Herb Johnson 11 Aug '17

11 Aug '17

Degnan: I am picking up a MAC SE model 5011 with a bad SCSi HD (I am told) on the way to the workshop Saturday to play around with. Not sure if anyone is into these I think the hard drive is bad... ------------------------------------ It bugs me sometimes, that many of my VCFians don't realize I've been fixing and selling classic Macs and parts for about 20 years. http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/mac.html Old hard-drives fail for the factual reasons cited. Smacking hard drives to release them from what most call "stiction", works in various ways, depending on the actual physical fault, which isn't always "stiction". On compact Macs, there's bad connections which a smack on the case will verify and sometimes "fix". Just as in an earlier post, I suggested removing IC chips from sockets, fixes (or causes) bad connections. As for stickers on Macs. I don't engage in voodoo discussions, but sometimes voodoo methods have a basis in fact. A properly placed smack! is an exercise in physics; a properly placed decal is an exercise in art, or voodoo. Bill Degnan is an old friend of mine, but sometimes I think he "smacks" the VCFed NJ list, just to see if it "fixes" the discussion, or just to watch the sparks fly. Three times is the charm, Bill. Or...three strikes and 'yer OUT! ;) Herb "wack-a-mole" Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Stuff for sale - taking requests for anything workshop attendees would like to see.
by Douglas Crawford 11 Aug '17

11 Aug '17

I'll pack and bring to the workshop anything that folks are interested in. General Past projects, restored: - Amiga 3000, working, boots off hard disk, with cleaned keyboard, and pregnant mouse. $550 - TRS-80 Model III badged 16k,but 48k installed, diskless model, works great, have loaded files through cassette port from wave player. $150 - TRS-80 Model III 48k, Empty drive bays, but has drive supports and untested drive power supply. $100 - Kaypro 10, working ST-225 drive installed and loaded with both Perfect Software and Micropro software suites, reproduction install floppies. $300 - Commodore 8032, very nice, Everything I could think of to test all worked. Tested IEEE port with PETDisk. Saves and loads from Cassette. Keyboard was restored with conductive coating on the plungers. $275 - PC Junior monitor, works end of cord is not factory (I got it that way :) ). Nice looking, not yellowed. $45 FREE Stuff: - TRS-80 Model IV shell- just case, tube and video. Video board may not work. (not shown in the photos. Its presentable.) FREE - Kaypro II shell: case, Kbd shell, tube, and power supply. No drives. FREE APPLE: Compact macs: all work: I powered them up, screen, kbd, mouse, tested that the floppies mount and read. - Macintosh SE, ADB II dbd, Bus II mouse, Nice, dual floppy with SCSI drive that all works, System 7 installed. Video caps replaced. $200 - Macintosh 512K, yellowed, Ext. Kbd, cord, and Mouse, case flaw on top over what is a hot spot of the video board. $200 - G4 PowerPC Desktop, 800Mhz single proc, kbd and mouse $10 - Apple Studio CRT Monitor (shown paired with the 800Mhz G4 demonstrating that it all works) $100 each - G4 Desktop 450Mhz Dual Proc, System unit only. Case doesn't latch but looks nice. Works. THINKPADS: All have bad batteries of course but they run, as seen in the IMGUR photos. - IBM Thinkpad 380-D Win95 Laptop, works, Screen has bad pixels on left side, CMOS battery dead. - IBM Thinkpad 600E Win98 - IBM Thinkpad iSeries 1420 Win98 Professional CMOS battery dead, burried deep inside I think. And for your listening pleasure while you restore stuff: - Polk Audio bookshelf speakers

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S100 hybrid IMSAI/MITs on Ebay
by Herb Johnson 11 Aug '17

11 Aug '17

Bill Degnan says: [link to IMSAI on eBay] Assuming this was assembled in the late 70's early 80's from parts of "older" machines. I am sure Herb would agree there were a lot more of these kinds of S-100 machines used. Most early "stock" S-100 systems were modified and did not survive into the 80's in their original stock configuration. I bet the person who buys this will take the parts and use them to "complete" other machines to return those to stock condition, destroying the historical evidence that most computers of the 70's were hacked. or paint the grey TAI chassis to make it blue. I do understand about the financial value incentive to buy/sell stock items, but historically there is a price to pay, lost knowledge. ------------------------------------- Bill evoked my name, so I'll respond, but try not to take all the "bait". By the way, the system in question was re-offered as a mixed system, it has pieces of IMSAI, TEI and other brands of boards in it. That's more informative, if not honest, of the seller to do. To Bill's point. It's a simple fact of history, that most owners of early S-100 systems (before they were sold as complete turn-key disk-based systems), bought them in pieces, modified them like crazy, mixed board-brands like crazy, made their own boards. This was done for good reasons, at the time. and...it's still done today. In the era, it was not "hacking", it was normal and necessary. It was critical to, and demonstrated, the growth of the industry. That is the history. So notions of "stock IMSAI 8080" or "stock MITS Altair" are mostly ...(hitting delete key repeatedly)....not consistent with actual history of use. Some are, and that's fine too, IMSAI and MITS sold stock complete systems (with branded disk drives and controllers, etc.) I have some brand-systems myself (Ithaca Intersystems comes to mind). It's pointless for me to tell other people what to do today with things they own or buy. Or to argue the merits of a stock system versus non-stock. It is not pointless, for me (or Bill Degnan) to represent and inform, about actual history of use, of a brand or of one system. The lost knowledge that Bill speaks of, is knowledge of the diversity of IMSAI/Altair compatible boards, and the history of S-100 companies, and the stories of individuals through the S-100 computers they put together, for purpose. It's a rich history, as I suggested. Some of the S-100 systems or boards on my Web site, have a history to them which I've described. Bill does the same on his site. s100computers.com has many histories of S-100 companies as part of the design history of the boards shown on-site. There's many other sites which discuss "history". Those individual efforts matter. It's not done much in books; there's some vintage-magazines with articles. Most of the published "histories", the professional historians, if they bother focus on a handful of computer brands and only a few early, specific systems. Antique professionals hardly care at all about old computers. There's exceptions of course. Thus, the burden of preserving this history, falls MOSTLY on individual "hobbyists", and a handful of institutions (some small, some not) who care to do the same. The downside, is the indifference and lack of respect, for amateurs, from professionals. Hardly a new phenomena. I really don't want to argue about this. People, institutions, publishers, professionals - all make their choices to suit their interests and resources. And so do I. I'm responsible for my efforts, not someone else's. My work speaks for itself. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Tarbell DD controller troubleshooting
by Herb Johnson 11 Aug '17

11 Aug '17

Rich Cini: ...Tarbell DD controller for a machine I’m restoring and it doesn’t respond to any manual communications with the board using the test routines in the manual. ...Since it’s jumper-selectable for port ranges, I’ve tried both ranges. [Says he may replace the 8208 bus transcievers - what's a substitute?] ..A second Tarbell DD controller which won’t allow the CPU to come out of reset. -------------------- Pardon me for brief do-this suggestions, to save reading time and for clarity. And hello to my good friend and S-100 colleague Rich Cini. On the "can't address" board. Use an oscilloscope to look at the chip-enable signals for the floppy controller chip and data latches. See if the chips are being addressed when you send the IO read or write. Then trace backward to the I/O decoding and the bus pins. Or, start from the bus and trace "forward", your choice. Find the fault. There's many kinds of faults which can occur on any 1970's S-100 board. A common one is corroded IC pins and sockets. "Corrosion" comes in many flavors, as has been discussed in the S-100 community. "Replacing the chips" may simply clean the bad connection or remove the corroded chip; for awhile. Look for Ithaca Intersystems on my Web site for details. On the "stuck at reset" board. I don't know what that means. For this you may need a "divide and conquer" strategy. Presuming your board has socketed chips, remove the chips that access the S-100 bus, one by one; until the board no longer "sticks" the bus. When that happens, look at the schematic to see what function that last removed chip performed. Then add chips back in reverse order, to confirm the "stuck". By definition you MIGHT start with any chips on the bus reset lines. But "stuck at reset" is a vague symptom - your alternative strategy is to look (o-scope) at the reset lines on the bus, see if they are actually asserted and trace back on the Tarbell board to see what's asserting them. If those lines are OK at the bus, then you can try to determine the exact problem by bus signals. Maybe the data lines are jammed up, maybe it's the status or control lines, or address lines. Rich, I have a general argument for use of diagnostic methods - like the ones I've mentioned - over asking around for someone's list of known failures. (shrug) but you wanted some directions and not a lecture. My Web site has lots of examples of how I diagnose S-100 problems. Do the same things happen on one brand and model of S-100 board? Yeah, if the design is the problem, or if part-producers had a problem (poor sockets, chips that rust up). Otherwise, I think an oscilloscope and a schematic, and a working S-100 system, are your best friends. They will get you in the ballpark on some board. Then you can ask for specific help, or figure out the problem. Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Updates -- TV/monitor stuff
by Evan Koblentz 11 Aug '17

11 Aug '17

Update for Jeff/Corey: I talked to Adam and Dean, both of whom helped determine which monitors/TVs to keep and which to sell/recycle. We decided to move the 27" Sony TV from the sell/recycle pile back into the keep pile. It's a good TV for certain artifacts-of-the-month, it's good for some VCF East exhibitors, good for Festivus, and so on. Update for everyone: decided on my own to remove Bernie S.'s former prison TV from the sell/recycle pile. I talked to him and we made came up with a plan: he's going to autograph it for us, and then he supports us eBay-ing it or selling it at the next VCF East. After all it's a federal prison TV used by a famous hacker! Too important to let go for ten bucks. But we still don't need it, so we'll get real value from it. ________________________________ 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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using catweasel to format an RX01
by william degnan 10 Aug '17

10 Aug '17

Anyone ever formated an 8" disk to be used in an RX01 using a catweasel controller? Curious if it's worth trying this route. I have a Tandon 848 drive. Bill

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Museum Report 2017-08-09 August 9, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 09 Aug '17

09 Aug '17

About a dozen visitors today with varying interest. Corey and I took care of a maintenance project in the museum. -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ========================================================

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] the binary programmer cartoon
by Jeffrey Jonas 09 Aug '17

09 Aug '17

re: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/209/503496984_bc43812ff6_o.jpg It's a Far Side style cartoon "real programmers code in binary" showing a fellow at a CRT displaying only ones and zeroes. The kybd has 3 keys: 0 1 enter I'm not amused, nor is anyone who uses front panels, whether toggle switched or pushbuttons. At least we "enter the program" in binary. Even Evan's doing that now! Some systems have pushbuttons that encourage "chording" in octal: the kembak, Univac, HP, etc. There's a reason all computers up to the 70s had huge front panels. The binary status REALLY MATTERED. -- Jeff Jonas

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S100 hybrid IMSAI/MITs on Ebay
by william degnan 09 Aug '17

09 Aug '17

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Vintage-IMSAI-8080-Computer-Microcomputer-/192… Assuming this was assembled in the late 70's early 80's from parts of "older" machines. I am sure Herb would agree there were a lot more of these kinds of S-100 machines used. Most early "stock" S-100 systems were modified and did not survive into the 80's in their original stock configuration. I bet the person who buys this will take the parts and use them to "complete" other machines to return those to stock condition, destroying the historical evidence that most computers of the 70's were hacked. or paint the grey TAI chassis to make it blue. I do understand about the financial value incentive to buy/sell stock items, but historically there is a price to pay, lost knowledge. Bill

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Stuff for sale
by Douglas Crawford 09 Aug '17

09 Aug '17

The AppleColor monitor is claimed. ------------ I'll keep reposting an update list like this as we go: The projects have stacked up too high... so I'm lightening my inventory! These are being first offered to folks who can pick up at the workshop and to folks local to Pottstown PA for pickup. What doesn't sell now might be offered later for the next workshop or ebayed. Suggested retail prices are given, taking reasonable offers of course. Generally taking best offers, at my discretion. I might be persuaded to a cut additional break if you have a cool project purpose. Everything can be seen here: http://imgur.com/a/Mz4Cv General Past projects, restored: - Amiga 3000, working, boots off hard disk, with cleaned keyboard, and pregnant mouse. $550 - TRS-80 Model III badged 16k,but 48k installed, diskless model, works great, have loaded files through cassette port from wave player. $150 - TRS-80 Model III 48k, Empty drive bays, but has drive supports and untested drive power supply. $100 - Kaypro 10, working ST-225 drive installed and loaded with both Perfect Software and Micropro software suites, reproduction install floppies. $300 - Commodore 8032, very nice, Everything I could think of to test all worked. Tested IEEE port with PETDisk. Saves and loads from Cassette. Keyboard was restored with conductive coating on the plungers. $275 - PC Junior monitor, works end of cord is not factory (I got it that way :) ). Nice looking, not yellowed. $45 FREE Stuff: - TRS-80 Model IV shell- just case, tube and video. Video board may not work. (not shown in the photos. Its presentable.) FREE - Kaypro II shell: case, Kbd shell, tube, and power supply. No drives. FREE APPLE: Compact macs: all work: I powered them up, screen, kbd, mouse, tested that the floppies mount and read. - Macintosh SE, ADB II dbd, Bus II mouse, Nice, dual floppy with SCSI drive that all works, System 7 installed. Video caps replaced. $200 - Macintosh 512K, yellowed, Ext. Kbd, cord, and Mouse, case flaw on top over what is a hot spot of the video board. $200 - G4 PowerPC Desktop, 800Mhz single proc, kbd and mouse $10 - Apple Studio CRT Monitor (shown paired with the 800Mhz G4 demonstrating that it all works) $100 each - G4 Desktop 450Mhz Dual Proc, System unit only. Case doesn't latch but looks nice. Works. THINKPADS: All have bad batteries of course but they run, as seen in the IMGUR photos. - IBM Thinkpad 380-D Win95 Laptop, works, Screen has bad pixels on left side, CMOS battery dead. - IBM Thinkpad 600E Win98 - IBM Thinkpad iSeries 1420 Win98 Professional CMOS battery dead, burried deep inside I think. And for your listening pleasure while you restore stuff: - Polk Audio bookshelf speakers /************************************************************************** * In the batter's box * I may also be selling these items in the future but not committing to it. * Let me know if you have strong interest, don't ask me what I want for them- * tell me what they are worth TO YOU. (such a tease, I know) */ - Model IV, really nice one, NEED TO DELAY SELLING THIS at least UNTIL I get my 4D working. (seen in the main imgur) - Altos 580 CP/M MP/M Project. I have quite a bit of doc and disks for this. (seen in the main imgur) untested - DEC Rainbow project: See here: http://imgur.com/a/wHs4j rough - Amiga 4000 Works booting from floppy. http://imgur.com/a/YY6hK - Dual 8" floppy S-100 by Pegasis (Small time NJ S-100 board integrator)w/ rebadged (shoddilly) Televideo 925 Terminal. (seen in the main imgur) There is extensive documentation and working media for this. - SD Systems big hulking industrial S-100 system populated with complete SD System cards! http://imgur.com/a/4GNWB - AT&T / Teletype 5425 Terminal that goes with things like the ATT 3B computers. Very nice, works great. PS2 - IBM PS2 Model 77 486DX2 Desktop - IBM PS2 Model 30 286 Desktop - IBM PS2 Model 56 SX Desktop **************************************************************************

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