May 2019 - vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 27 May '19

27 May '19

There was a CDL (makerspace) barbecue tonight, so Charlotte and I went early to do some organizing in the museum and warehouse. VCFed inherited an Eagle //e (CP/M computer) and Dan Roganti's PET 2001 during VCF East. We moved both of those out of the workshop and into the warehouse. We made room for the Eagle on the E-for-Epson shelving unit. The PET went with our other PETs; there was plenty of space in that section. We made a new "C" shelving unit for our two Canon Cats, and we're getting a third one soon. I am not sure what else will go on that unit. We made another P-for-portables shelving unit and filled it about halfway. Now all the of extra luggables that were piling up elsewhere are where they belong. Finally -- and this will make Jeff Brace happy -- we made a shelving unit for all of the VCF East show supplies. No more piling that stuff on pallets.

2 1

B&C Microsystems EEPROM software
by Herb Johnson 27 May '19

27 May '19

> software > that goes with a B&C Microsystems Inc. UP100 Universal RS232 E(E)PROM/Micro > Programmer. If this is some modern unit with a single-chip microcontroller, you are probably out of luck. If not, if it's vintage enough to have a microprocessor and some ROM and some RAM: 1) confirm the unit is "RS-232" or serial. Many of them used a PC parallel port. YOu'll have to reverse engineer the circuits at the DB25 (or DB9) connector. 2) If it's really serial, chances are it can be operated with a serial terminal (or PC running a comm program). You may have to guess at the baud rates, it may be autobaud, using the first character received to determine a baud rate. "Hit return a lot.". If it's PC parallel, you are mostly out of luck. But there's still: 3) if all that fails, Pull the PROM out of the unit - chances are it has one - and dump it. Of course you'll need an EPROM reader, once, to do this. Also note the processor in the unit. You may need to disassemble the code, at least a little. But it may be informative even as an ASCII dump. - Um, this is the kind of thing done, lots of time in the past, to make sense of some unknown microcomputer. Is this "lost art" now? Puzzled, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

1 0

B&C Microsystems EEPROM software
by Matt Reynolds 27 May '19

27 May '19

Hi all, This might be a longshot, but I was wondering if anybody has the software that goes with a B&C Microsystems Inc. UP100 Universal RS232 E(E)PROM/Micro Programmer. I picked this up at the Flea at MIT a couple years ago and it didn't have the software with it. I found software for a similar device they made, but I don't think it will work. If anybody can point me in the right direction I'dd appreciate it. Matt

1 0

Binocular Loupe vs Microscope for vintage electronics repair
by corey cohen 26 May '19

26 May '19

So trying to decide on getting a binocular microscope or Binocular Loupe glasses for soldering and such on vintage computers. I don’t really do any SMD work, so $500+ for a good microscope vs $100 for a decent Binocular loop is a decision I need to make soon. Cheater glasses 2.5x used in conjunction with a large magnifier on an articulating arm just aren’t cutting it right now. What are your experiences with one vs another, if I don’t do surface mount work? Thanks, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ Sent from my iPhone

9 20

Museum Report 2019-05-26
by Jeffrey Brace 26 May '19

26 May '19

Despite the good weather and holiday weekend, there was a dozen visitors and mostly high interest. One kid about 8 years old, who came with his parents claimed to know a lot about vintage computers. I told him, "That's a Lisa". He's like, "I know." He seemed to have some knowledge, seemingly to be from YouTube videos, etc. So he knew some stuff, but only a cursory knowledge. He was quite interested in trying all of them that he only saw on YouTube in person like the Osbourne, IBM PC, Macintosh, Apple 2, etc. He spent time on various computers and I let him try some of them out as best as I could. Not all of them have a lot of software with them. Another kid, of about 10 years old was with his parents and brother. He came to do a project on computers that he needed to graduate (his words) from elementary school. His father said that this was the only vintage computer museum within 200 miles. I gave him a full tour and let him try out some computers. I showed him how tedious it was to do a simple program on the HP 1000. I taught him the concept of octal in the process.. And I properly biased him towards Commodore computers. I said look at this Amiga from 1985 and look at that Macintosh from 1984, he was like "I would rather have the Amiga." ;) I also showed him how much better the C64 was than the Apple II. :-D He really enjoyed the tour. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

2 1

PDP-11 RL02 Locations?
by W2HX 25 May '19

25 May '19

Hi all, Still working (slooooowly) on getting a PDP (or two) up and running. I am now ready to mount two RL02s into a small DEC rack cabinet from which they came. I can fit two RL02s into one rack (with the CPU as well). I have 5 RL02 drives numbered 0,0,1,1,3. Meaning I have 2 zeroes, 2 ones, and one three. My question is whether there there is a standard about the location of the drive numbers. Let me clarify, I know that I can change the number by moving the numbered light cover so this is easily changeable. But in a data center, was 0 typically on top? Or 1? I am not sure which operating system I will run (probably several). If drive 0 is treated differently than the others (for booting for example) then it might make sense to have 0 on the top where I can access the drive from the top without needing to extend the drive. Or, if any operating system can be booted off any drive number, then maybe it truly makes no difference. Thanks for the bandwidth Eugene

2 3

Whoa - HP acquires Cray
by Evan Koblentz 24 May '19

24 May '19

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/17/tech/cray-jurassic-park-computer/index.html

7 14

Maker Faire this year
by Herb Johnson 23 May '19

23 May '19

> -Alexander 'Z' Pierson: Two machines come to mind: The uKENBAK-1 and > the ELF membership card. I have the former, and I'm willing to lend > but the latter I'm sure someone else has on hand. http://www.sunrise-ev.com/membershipcard.htm For those not familiar: The 1802 Membership Card is a reasonable replica to consider. It's pretty close in design, to the original 1976 RCA COSMAC ELF. It's part of a long tradition of ELF-like systems sold over the decades. It has toggle switches and LEDs, like the original; all parts are like-vintage. And it's not hard to build, it's sold as a kit with how-to-assemble manual. All of that, is a deliberate effort to replicate the vintage experience. This model been in distribution for several years now. Interest is steady, people work with them in the ELF/COSMAC community. I can provide one for display, but I can't be there to run it. In operation, you either run it from a serial terminal (USB dongle to a laptop), or toggle-in programs and run those (blink lights, make sounds if there's a speaker, etc.), or run from ROM. The ROM runs a monitor, or BASIC, or of course any program in ROM. But even as a static display, it's pretty neat to see a small compact microcomputer. Since it's the size of an Altoids can, it won't take much table space. Contact me, or the developer Lee Hart, if there's interest in displaying a model. Cheers, Herb -- 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

1 1

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Maker Faire this year
by Evan Koblentz 23 May '19

23 May '19

> > the ELF membership card. I have the former, and I'm willing to lend > but the latter I'm sure someone else has on hand. > > http://www.sunrise-ev.com/membershipcard.htm > > For those not familiar: The 1802 Membership Card is a reasonable > replica to consider. It's pretty close in design, to the original 1976 > RCA COSMAC ELF. It's part of a long tradition of ELF-like systems sold > over the decades. It has toggle switches and LEDs, like the original; > all parts are like-vintage. And it's not hard to build, it's sold as a > kit with how-to-assemble manual. > > All of that, is a deliberate effort to replicate the vintage experience. > > This model been in distribution for several years now. Interest is > steady, people work with them in the ELF/COSMAC community. > > I can provide one for display, but I can't be there to run it. In > operation, you either run it from a serial terminal (USB dongle to a > laptop), or toggle-in programs and run those (blink lights, make > sounds if there's a speaker, etc.), or run from ROM. The ROM runs a > monitor, or BASIC, or of course any program in ROM. Fair enough -- yes we'd like to borrow that. Can you make (or refer us to) a cheat-sheet with some simple demo instructions?

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT Atari 800 key caps needed and Commodore VIC 20 case.
by Jason Howe 23 May '19

23 May '19

Call Brad at Best Electronics. He has key caps in Stock. He will ask a few questions about your keyboard as there were three different keyboard mechanisms used on the OG 800. --Jason On May 23, 2019 10:59:55 AM PDT, Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > -- Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

1 0