April 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) was: How's Everyone Doing
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Nov '20

29 Nov '20

I decided to make a new thread since there is a lot of interest in this topic, etc. @Dave Mcguire. Thanks for the tip on where to buy replacement batteries. As far as I know APC is the most recommended brand. I see others are using Panasonic. I'm curious to know which brands everyone recommends or discourages? On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 1:02 PM Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > On Fri, 24 Apr 2020, Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > > > I used to work for a large music streaming provider and we had thousands > and > > thousand of servers. The data center would put out a notice that they're > > going to do UPS maintenance or Switchgear maintenance... and usually > that > > night we would have maybe up to 20 servers have issues. Hard hang or > maybe a > > reboot. Meanwhile everything looked okay. > > At one point, I had a production server in the data center, an IBM > RS6000 > with redundant power supplies (2). The techs were moving systems to a > different power bus and unplugged one of the supplies: my system promptly > shut > down. It turned out that my system required THREE power supplies before > redundancy was in effect. Oops. > > > Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us > Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum report - 12/16/18
by Douglas Crawford 04 Jul '20

04 Jul '20

Again? This isn't getting through. On 12/17/2018 12:28 PM, Douglas Crawford wrote: > Great day at the museum. Visitor flow was non stop in the afternoon. > I am grateful for the assistance of Chris and Tony, with their help we > cycled > through the visitors and gave everyone good attention. > Its fun to docent in teams! > > The museum looked sharp and with Tony's help we had most everything > running that is > demo-able.

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Zenith I/O board
by Mike Loewen 30 Apr '20

30 Apr '20

I have what looks like a Zenith 4-port serial I/O S100 board: http://q7.neurotica.com/Zenith_front.jpg The Z100 Technical Manual mentions a Z-204 Multiport Input/Output board: could this be the one? Does anyone have a manual? Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Another C64 Fastfingers MIDI Demo
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

Dan Laskowski posted another video on his C64 MIDI software demo: https://youtu.be/QLgzjaVQE34 -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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OT: Digitizing Magnetic Audio Tapes
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

I recently found some old family audio reels with voice recordings: Cavalier Sound Magic 1807, Cavalier Sound Magic 905, Plastic-base audiotape. Pictures found here: < https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jxGDi4grZqLLeqWe2-9ygWwezVK9DdCQ?us… > What I want is to digitize these magnetic audio tapes to a modern audio format. I no longer have the player. I know that there are services that can digitize them, so if anyone has actually used a service, then let me know. Otherwise, maybe someone has a player and some mechanism to digitize them? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Anyone in NJ want to take a crack at this?
by Dean Notarnicola 26 Apr '20

26 Apr '20

https://www.facebook.com/138645462866451/posts/3045688845495417/?d=n

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UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) was: How's Everyone Doing
by Herb Johnson 25 Apr '20

25 Apr '20

I'm surprised by all the interest in UPS's. I have generations of them, myself, in the few to several hundred watt range. Every digital device in my home has a small UPS on it, always has. Just makes sense. When I get a power hit, the birdies sing from each one. The older household buy-at-Staples ones work fairly well, when batteries are replaced every handful of years. They appear at thrift stores for several dollars; the salvage value of the gells is about a few dollars. Avoid the very smallest units, only buy units that take standard sized cells. Funny, some units WILL take standard sized cells, if you chop out the ribs molded into them, that hold SMALLER batteries - so they can sell them cheaper. That's my kind of 'creative destruction'. I have some old 1990's APC rack-mounters that I haven't populated in several years, 3000 watt. And some other floor models in the few thousand watt range, which need those larger 17VA batteries, not the several VA 12V common sized gell-cell units. I just scrapped two giant UPS's, 3-phase units, that took four car battery sized lead-acid cells. They also went back to the 1990's. Wiser heads told me "those are too old and inefficient for today's use". The steel went on the curb and disappeared. Anyone need 60 Hertz ferro-resonant chokes and transformers? Hey, I can use them for exercise equipment - if I don't mind losing a toe if I drop one! ;) If interest persists to when we get together again, I'll bring some around for purchase. Batteries not included. Regards, Herb "Amps" Johnson PS: does this still count for "how's everyone doing"? Do we all run on batteries now, or what? ;) -- 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] How's Everyone Doing
by Ethan O'Toole 24 Apr '20

24 Apr '20

[NON-Text Body part not included] > Anybodyworking on interesting stuff? > BillInderrieden It's kind of a bummer when I look at my phone and it shows the calendar date for VCF East coming up that isn't going to happen. Shortly after the last how's everyone doing email the customer I work for laid off most of the workforce and went into Chap 11. Pretty crazy! They were building a low earth orbit satellite network to deliver internet around the world. Funding issues. Ooops! I still have a job though, and I am thankful for that. NERD WISE... SO.. MUCH.. NERD!! 1. Amiga 600 repair. Years ago a friend gave me an Amiga 600, and it worked and was awesome. Then capacitors leaked and damaged the board. Been working to fix it, kind of hit a wall where I made progress now I'm lost. Found some awesome resources, check out https://www.amigapcb.org/ ... The 600 has a lot of surface mount stuff, that site lets you walk around with the mouse and see the source/destination of every trace and signal line! And English Amiga board, and DiagROM. 2. Repaired a Yamaha Motif midi module. LCD went out. Bought new LCD, didn't fix. Fixed it though. 3. Managed to edit a video for youtube (channel is telmnstr) on Blackmagic Davinci Resolve. This was my first time taking a stab at a modern editing system doing HD stuff. I usually use Blackmagic production switcher so I don't have to edit. But yea, I got the hang of it and really enjoyed doing the project on it. Was quick, and I will do more. 4. Going to fix a APC UPS for a friend. Needs new caps. 5. Trying to track down a driver for my old Yamaha C1 midi portable 286-10mhz computer. I fixed the base functionality but now need to make more progress. 6. Finally finishing a CNC machine I started in 2012. Actually made some progress but then had to order a bunch of parts. No idea how long it will take ball screws to arrive from China. Going to get fasterns from local fastenal. 7. Started toying with OBS, a software video switcher. All the geek video conferences going on -- I had to try it and test out some other capture hardware that I had picked up for an event a friend and I were supposed ot do video / audio / gaming / vintage computers for (B-Sides Charm.) Have been really impressed, to the point that I'm planning to potentially sell my BMD ATEM TVS hardware rig. 8. 3d printing cases and enclosing some hardware for the laser projector controllers. Also hope to get around to rebuilding two laser projectors, but it will probably require a bunch of parts. 9. Listing some crap on ebay. And it's selling? Mostly arcade / pinball parts and broken consumer A/V stuff. 10. rebelted a cassette deck I found at a thrift store in NC. It's working 90%, and there is a random screw left over. 11. IRC, Slack, Discord, etc. I plan to jump int othe IMSAI 8080 again. Have an Atari 800XL to fix. And plan to start pulling out some systems and test thru them / cut interesting software disks to go with them. Mainly Apple IIGS, Apple IIc, Apple IIsomething, NeXT Slab, Atari 8bits (need to mod the floppy emulator with a 74LS07 IC or something so it still works with floppy drives), Atari ST, and maybe sort out stuff on Amiga. Right now the 600 is kicking my butt though. The Yamaha laptop did for 3 years until I had an idea randomly. Also need to recap an Amiga 4000T motherboard. Eeeek! So much to do! Some friends are going SCUBA diving on the weekends near Richmond VA, staying isolated. I might try to get wet soon. Some parts on order for this. The water is like 50F-60F which is pretty cold, though. Would be nice if it was 70's out and not 60's. If anything, I'm getting a lot of stuff done that has been in the backlog!! Hope everyone else is safe and okay and if it's your thing progress on projects!

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VCF Italia 2020 Virtual Show Friday April 24 3:30PM EDT
by Jeffrey Brace 24 Apr '20

24 Apr '20

VCF Italia was cancelled due to Covid-19, but they are doing an informal show. The plan is for the following to talk: VCCI board of directors and our VIP guests among whom there should be Lee Felsenstein, Allan Alcorn, Liza Loop and maybe even Sophie Wilson. Date: Friday, April 24 Time: 3:30PM EDT https://mmnet.webex.com/mmnet/onstage/g.php?MTID=e0a83e848f2edd3c0bca59beba… <https://mmnet.webex.com/mmnet/onstage/g.php?MTID=e0a83e848f2edd3c0bca59beba…> Event number: 841 509 662 Password: VCFI It will be recorded for those that can't make it live. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's Everyone Doing
by Jeffrey Brace 24 Apr '20

24 Apr '20

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 11:03 AM Bill Inderrieden via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Nowthat Mke Ruane has extended the closure of IA until June, I figured it > would be a goodtime to continue the shout out that Jeff Brace started and > see how everyone’sdoing. > > Stuffhere in Brick is moving like Ground Hog Day, although business > paperwork seemsto keep me focused if not only for a little bit of time and > I have to come backto it later. > > Waitingon shipments of PCMCIA stuff for the HP660LX so I can play further. > > Anybodyworking on interesting stuff? > I am finishing up working on The Print Shop C64 exhibit in the 80's bedroom exhibit in the museum. It took some effort to figure out how to backup original Print Shop disks so that I can return them to the lender. I had to find an old copy program called Kracker Jax that had parameters on the disk to make the backups useful. VCF owns two copies of The Print Shop disks, but they were unusable. I'm also working on the Commodore 128 exhibit in the museum to put GEOS 128 on the machine. The current plan is to use a 1541 Ultimate drive to run the software. This is a fun activity because I have primarily used the Commodore 64, and rarely used the C128 in 128 mode. I have used GEOS 64, so it will be fun to get GEOS 128 working. I was able to track down various disk images for applications for GEOS 128. I think I will also add a RAM expander to the machine to make it work a little better and faster. My other plan is to go through my two storage lockers that I am renting and consolidate into one. So I will be selling items once I get a list. My first item will be a Coco drive (new in box). > > BillInderrieden > > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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