April 2018 - vcf-midatlantic

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Last call for this weekend's workshop April 28/29
by Jason Perkins 24 Apr '18

24 Apr '18

If I came up, could someone help me diag a problem with one of my Lisa's 3.5 drives? There's something goofy with the spindle speed regulation, and I know it's not the drive. Probably a fault with a logic chip on the io card. Might need to break out the scope. Jason Perkins 313 355.0085 Sent from my Kindle On April 24, 2018, at 12:11 AM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: Signup here: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15skPd9SrZ2WsHMoTBTrrvBNwG1nbixVNfey… >

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forum posting problem
by W2HX 23 Apr '18

23 Apr '18

Hi guys. I just spent an hour working on a post on my PDP-11 project. I was reviewing it when I clicked on one of the inline images (as attachment) to see how it looked. It brought up the framed hop-up with the image. I clicked the image within the hop up and the browser now showed the url for the image directly. No hop up, no forum in the background. I then went to click "back" to continue editing the post and I got a blank white page. I went back several times just to arrive back at the original "REPLY TO POST" when I began with no sign of the hour of work I did. Nothing I could do would get it back. Anyone know if the draft is stored somewhere? Is there some place I can go to view my drafts and continue on? Otherwise, very sad! Eugene

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Last call for this weekend's workshop April 28/29
by Jeffrey Brace 23 Apr '18

23 Apr '18

Signup here: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15skPd9SrZ2WsHMoTBTrrvBNwG1nbixVNfey… >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] VCF East XIII - NEEDED = Camcorder operator, camcorder
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 23 Apr '18

23 Apr '18

Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic writes: >> We are down one camcorder operator and camera for video recording our >> Friday classes. > We have exactly enough. > That means I have to step >in to give others breaks. > I'm looking for another operator to be in >the rotation of filming the > classes. > We also need another camcorder >to record the classes. > >I have 3 Canon Vixia series HD cameras. They can use high class SD cards >for direct recording to card. I won't be available to run the camera(s), >but can supply them (will be doing a table). > >I also have a full Blackmagic ATEM HD switcher rig with HDMI to HD-SDI >converters, coax, and a rack with two 7" preview monitors + laptop. It >can do direct to disk H264 encoding and what not, and has multiview >support where you can see all the cameras and switch between them. >Possible to do multicamera switched recording with it -- but someone >else would have to take on the recording and mixing part. But hardware >is available for use if desired. > >Here is my AV/Laser show/Lighting inventory if anything from it would be >useful for VCF let me know. I am kind of a music / AV hardware geek as >well as retro computers and arcades/pinballs: > >https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rGwXOI-DjikYgY9UBDTl4cLfb_Oo6Aovmeh… > > > - Ethan I have a Canon VIXIA HF-G40. I was planning on attending the VMS talk, so I will video that session.

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gold fing-ers
by Herb Johnson 23 Apr '18

23 Apr '18

So, I'm obtaining a recently-made PC board, which was produced by some PC board house from Gerber files, the usual sort of small-run hobby project. This particular board, was with ENIG plating on board and fingers. This means, a micron-thick plating of gold over 150-200 microns of nickel, mostly for better soldering and copper protection. But that also "covers" the edge-connector fingers, they are not heavier gold. What's out there, for adding gold to those fingers? There's a good number of them, not just a dozen or two. I"m bothering to ask the question here, because it's a "vintage repair" problem also. A solution for one or two fingers, is a solution for many. Or, tell me "nickel isn't so bad, don't insert and remove it every day, you'll be fine". No, I won't spend $300, $600 for a gold-plating electro-pen system. If someone has that and wants to give me a quote, I'm all ears, tell me how many microns you'll plate. No, I won't mix up cyanide solutions, not likely to use nitric acid; it's outside my experiences and one "oops" could really ruin my day. I don't expect to rub gold-leaf on fingers and glue them down, that won't last. I may well go to some PC board shop and ask them for a quote, maybe someone has done that. So - what do people here know-of, from repair experiences or their own experiences? I have looked around the Web, there's means of doing these things, but it's hard to judge them "cold". And of course, it's hard to search on "hobbyist covering PCB edge connector with gold", there's many people selling products or showing how they mess with aqua regia or coat quarters with microns of gold. Herb "Goldfinger" Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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VCF East XIII - NEEDED = Camcorder operator, camcorder
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Apr '18

22 Apr '18

We are down one camcorder operator and camera for video recording our Friday classes. We have exactly enough. That means I have to step in to give others breaks. I'm looking for another operator to be in the rotation of filming the classes. We also need another camcorder to record the classes. e-mail me privately if you can help.

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Couple of more Friday speakers needed (for real this time)
by Evan Koblentz 22 Apr '18

22 Apr '18

Some unfortunate news -- Dan R. can't make it to VCF East after all. He was going to give two of the Friday talks, but he's having a rough patch in his cancer treatment. They changed his chemo dosage and it's made him too tired to travel anytime soon. Let's come up with a couple of more AWESOME tech classes to make Dan proud!!

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VCF East XIII - Saturday Dinner - May 19, 2018 at 7:30 pm
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Apr '18

22 Apr '18

WHAT: VCF East XIII Saturday Buffet Dinner DATE: May 19 TIME: 7:30 PM LOCATION: Clancy's Tavern (West Grove Plaza) CITY: Neptune Township This is this same place that we had it the last two years. The VCF East XIII organizers reviewed the feedback from the survey that I sent out a few weeks ago for our Saturday dinner. We started this dinner so that the whole large group of us could chat in a casual place and have a decent meal after a weekend of fast food. I did my best to find a reasonable price, high quality of food, good parking, short distance from VCF East, able to accomodate dozens of people, etc. The cost of the dinner will be $29. This is the best that we can do for such a large group. The menu is more flexible than other places for a large group of people. We reserved the place for 40 people. So if you want to go, then make sure you pay ahead of time to secure your spot. You can prepay to paypal(a)vcfed.org and make sure to include a note that it is for VCF East XIII Saturday Dinner. The VCF East organizers decided together along with feedback from my survey that the following will be the new unlimited buffet menu: COLD Caesar Salad Cold Cut Platter Fresh Fruit WARM Nachos Beef Stroganoff with egg noodles Chicken Parmesean Penne Vodka DESSERT Carvel Ice Cream Cake After dinner some of us are going to visit the nearby SilverBall Arcade in Asbury Park. Anyone is free to meet us there. I'm not sure of the exact time. Maybe 9:30 or 10pm.

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 22 Apr '18

22 Apr '18

Sorry everyone for the late report. I had to rush to a personal commitment after museum hours and just got home. Moderate amount of visitors today. About a dozen total, all adults. I installed kick-down doorstops on the double-door entrance to our museum. Before we were using a wedge-style doorstop and only had one of those. New ones are a nice improvement. I tested our new Compaq Portable III because I need a working one for Lego robot demos. It boots to a memory error, so I'll see about fixing it at the next workshop -- something about "error 21" but I forget the exact message. We have another one for parts if needed. Should I start with the usual reseating, etc.? (Worse problem: the prior owner inserted a 5.25" disk ** sideways ** .... it's stuck in there. I will take it apart at the workshop to undo their action.) Laura was there today to paint the trim pieces that will attach to the front of the new UNIVAC pallets. Tony stopped by to work on the last of our untested Apple IIs.

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Workshop pictures?
by Evan Koblentz 20 Apr '18

20 Apr '18

Anyone got a good picture of yourself or other group members doing something interesting at one of our repair workshops, or a picture of you and your children in our museum? We need some high-quality photos for a new VCF banner (the vertical kind) that we'll use at various demos, conferences, etc. .... but they have to be pictures of people we know due to copyrights. Also, we need them really soon .... now would be great. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive 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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