April 2018 - vcf-midatlantic

I be going to VCF East 2018!
by Bryan Pope 16 Apr '18

16 Apr '18

Good afternoon all!, My room is booked and I so look forward to seeing everybody at this VCF East 2018! :-D I will be arriving Friday evening, enjoying a day of the show Saturday, then leaving Sunday. I can't wait! Cheers, Bryan

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Pointers towards cleaning a floppy drive
by Neil Cherry 15 Apr '18

15 Apr '18

After successful restarting one of my older computer (Sardis ST-2900, dang 9600 7N1 - weird). I now need working drives to boot OS9. So ... I'm about to venture on cleaning up a bunch of drives. And in the past I've used a cotton swab and Isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads and a wipe down of the rails. Then carefully 'lube' the rails and other parts with silicon spray in a cup and different cotton swab. Any recommendations or is this good enough? Anyone have any alignments disks for various drives? Also what is the best way to clean off mouse urine? -- 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] Vintage DEC PDP 11/23 Plus 1/2 Rack w/2 RL02 Drives $350
by Brian L. Stuart 15 Apr '18

15 Apr '18

On Sun, 4/15/18, W2HX via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > We picked up one PDP-11/23, one PDP-11/73, each > of those in a short rack, one MicroPDP-11, a > PDP-8a, four RL02 dirves, fourteen RL02 packs, etc. It was a > big haul. Pictures can be seen here for those interested: Nice haul! Color me envious. I've really got to break down an get a serious 11 one of these days. BLS

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Vintage DEC PDP 11/23 Plus 1/2 Rack w/2 RL02 Drives $350
by Christian Liendo 15 Apr '18

15 Apr '18

This will not fit in my Suzuki, so please don't ask me to get it. https://longisland.craigslist.org/sys/d/computer/6531496701.html

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 14 Apr '18

14 Apr '18

Lots of visitors today! I was busy all day giving tours. Tony was there for about an hour and also gave tours. Adam continued working on surplus things for VCFed to sell at East. Jeff S. came by with his extended family. Steve A. is our docent tomorrow.

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Moved the UNIVAC!
by Evan Koblentz 13 Apr '18

13 Apr '18

Me, Tony, Bill Drom., Bill I., and Dan J. all moved the UNIVAC onto its new pallets today. Here is the "after" picture: https://tinyurl.com/ycjp28yw. You can see how the new pallets are all plywood on top (not spaced-apart boards like a warehouse pallet), painted to match (thanks to Laura), and designed to perfectly fit the width of each component (thanks to Drom). The pallet left of the desk is wider to hold the Signal Data Converter and the paper tape I/O console together, because those are small components. At an upcoming work day (probably the April workshop) we'll move the components about one foot farther back on the pallets. That way we can bolt down the CPU and tape drive, which makes it safe to open upper cabinets without risk of anything tipping forward. We'll probably touch up the paint on some of the pallets and maybe also touch up parts of the wall this weekend. Another thing we might do is add a trim piece across the front of all three pallets for better looks. We moved the switcher rack (basically a giant A/B switch!) back into the warehouse. In addition to making the exhibit look nicer, this project also gives us several more feet of empty space where the center aisle begins near the museum front door. We're planning to move the "featured artifact"* exhibit to that spot. -Evan * Formerly "Artifact of the Month"; changed the name because we never got around to changing it every month! ________________________________ 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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Landenberg Workshop This Weekend APRIL 14th 9am -??
by Bill Degnan 12 Apr '18

12 Apr '18

Landenberg Workshop This Weekend APRIL 14th 9am -?? Please RSVP if you have not already done so. Advise when you'll be arriving....Note times and locations below. There is no fixed theme, bring what you want to work on. Generally-speaking I picked VAXen as a theme but it does not matter. And it looks like I will possibly work on my Altair exhibit for VCF East too. BRING A SMALL TABLE, TOOLS, and a POWER STRIP if you want to ensure you have a place to work. I will furnish what I can but I can't promise everyone will have workspace. I live in Landenberg, PA contact me privately via http://www.degnanco.net for my contact info. SCHEDULE 1. 9AM Set up / work until 1PM 2. 1PM - 4PM We will caravan over to the new Computer Church computer museum (a 501c,etc org) to review the extensive collection and maybe help out there. 3. 4-530?PM Dinner at Victory Brew Pub 4. 600 PM - ??? Return to my house to work. A few pedestal VAXen 3800's and 4000's in addition to the workstations may be available for cash reimbursement to cover expenses acquiring them. Landenberg, PA Inquiries: http://www.vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2018/thecomputerchurch/ (photos from a few months ago, a lot done since.) Bill

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UNIVAC updates
by Evan Koblentz 11 Apr '18

11 Apr '18

Bill Drom. and Duane were at the museum Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to do more UNIVAC restoration. Bill sent me a report today: ---------------------------- We spent most of our time running down intermittent faults in the 1219B computer. Mainly using the oscilloscope and logic prints in addition to the diagnostic program used by the navy we were able to find several bad cards in the computer. We finally got it to run full un-jumpered diagnostics for over an hour before we stopped it. We also tried to get the paper tape punch in the 1532 console to operate properly. Duane even ran the computer in slow op step mode so we could observe the reader in slow motion. We had less success with that. We switched to the mylar tape donated by, I think it was Alex at the last workshop. It looks like it works about 95% but haven’t been able to get perfect tape copies yet. Duane brought a full new box of magnetic tape and two original master head alignment tapes with him for the museum. We looked at the 1540 tape handler but it looks like we need to do some pinch roller adjustments. We only have a copy of the schematics from NASA which is slightly different from our unit. We are still trying to get the correct books on that but our hope is getting low. We left for home on Tuesday with the computer still working but with one intermittent problem in channel 17 I/O section. ---------------------------- Bill also sent two videos and two pictures: https://tinyurl.com/y9dwqe8t. -Evan

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Thinking ahead to VCF East Friday classes
by william degnan 10 Apr '18

10 Apr '18

On Jan 3, 2018 3:07 PM, "Dan Roganti via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 2:17 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > > > > >> Are any of our VCF-MW brethren confirmed > >>> to sell The 6502 40th Anniversary Computer Badge > >>> at VCF-east 2018? > >>> > >>> I'd love to see > >>> AM: build the badge > >>> PM: assembler programming the badge > >>> > >> > >> There are too few session slots already. We're not going to devote any of > >> them to badges. > >> > > > > This gives me an idea though ... a few years ago we had a single assembly > > session, which wasn't enough. > > > > We could have a whole track of assembly classes for different processors. > > Bring your laptop (and favorite emulator), follow along with the > > instructors. > > > > > just some constructive suggestions > try to allot more than 1hr, maybe 2hr > so the class has time to get situated, practice the example code, and ask > questions > Because this is most likely a beginners class, > because if it's any higher level of instruction, > well, there still won't be enough time alloted for the experienced users > if you expect to squeeze 4 or 5 different assembly classes into a single > track on one day > Als4o the instructor should have some method to make the example code > available, > eg, a wiki page, which they can download prior to the class, or handout a > usb thumbdrive to share the example code [again time needed to get situated] > Dan When I used to run the workshops we had targeted objectives for the assembly class I may still have the worksheet Dan created for the cp/m gen class that involved z80 assembly. That was at least 10 years ago.

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Floppy emulators, any experience?
by Neil Cherry 10 Apr '18

10 Apr '18

I'm currently planning on various restorations of my older systems. Unfortunately I've got a limited number of working drives. I'd like to know your experiences with the floppy emulators that are available. I've seen the HxC, the Gotek and the clones, though I think the Gotek is also a clone. I haven't purchased anything and I'm trying to understand these things better before I start buying anything. -- 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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