June 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) was: How's Everyone Doing
by Jeffrey Brace 30 Nov '20

30 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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keyboard cable for Kaypro
by Herb Johnson 02 Aug '20

02 Aug '20

regarding: "Trip to Brooklyn to the Gowanus eReycling warehouse + questions" Someone posted that they obtained a Kaypro 2x but not the keyboard cable for it. Jim Hart posted "I believe you can use a regular handset cable from a corded telephone". I suggest caution. Someone with a Kaypro and experience with these telephone cords, that one can do as Jim suggests. Or Jim may wish to confirm the practice he cites, in his post of June 3. A counterexample I know of, is the Apple Mac 128K 512K and Plus. Use of a telephone coiled cord on THOSE systems, will *destroy* either the keyboard, or damage the Mac motherboard. Apple reversed the wiring on their keyboard cables; reversed DC voltage to the Mac keyboard is bad, very bad. Thus my caution. Regards, Herb 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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Looking for CompuPro CPU-Z
by Richard Cini 18 Jul '20

18 Jul '20

All – Yet another project afoot…trying to get my 8” SA-851 drives working with my IMSAI. My configuration is highly customized using 5.25” drives in place of 8” (and part of two VCF presentations). As a test, I wanted to throw together a small CompuPro system to see if I can get disk images from the Maslin archive working. The only board I don’t have is the CPU-Z board. I have an Interfacer 1, plenty of RAM boards, and the Disk 1 controller. Does anyone have a spare working CPU-Z board that they could part with? Even if I could just use it for testing, that’d be great, but I could do a trade also. I have a ton of spare boards and a few other interesting things. Please contact me off-list. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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Small LCD Monitors available
by Kelly Leavitt 10 Jul '20

10 Jul '20

Does anyone need smaller LCD monitors? I have about 8 more than I want to keep on hand. 15", some 17". Some have DVI inputs as well as the 15pin input. All tested to power on. All I want is for someone to come here to Wantage, NJ and pick them up. 73 de Kelly KE2L

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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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September Repair Workshop 9/12 & 9/13, 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

I added another Repair workshop to the calendar. Sign up here: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QPWVJSRL94SdHKtmkUmH6WESwckeXbn8PgV… > -- ========================================= 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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Anyone know where I can find an HP Laserjet 4P maintenance kits?
by Mike Shaw 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

Hello, I have an HP Laserjet 4P that I rescued and it looks like it needs a fuser replacement and I can't seem to find one. Anyone got any sources that might have a kit for sale? Thanks, Mike SHaw --- "Yeah right, man. That's a typo. Orwell is here now. He's livin' large. We have no names, man. No names. We are nameless!" - Cereal Killer, from the movie Hackers(1995)

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[OT] Low resolution high color games = bad?
by John Heritage 25 Jun '20

25 Jun '20

Hey folks, I've always felt that the mid-90s when games were still fairly low resolution (320x200, 320x240, sometimes 640x400) but started having access to 16-bit and 24-bit color palettes, the graphics tended to look very bad/blurry. This contrasts with a few years earlier where you had the same resolution but less colors so it was easier to 'see' what was going on in a game. For me there was a ratio -- at 1024x768 - 65,536 colors is fine, but 320x200 -- anything more than like 256 colors or so becomes too much and makes things hard to distinguish. The 'too many colors at low resolution' kinda turned me off gaming for a little while in the mid-1990s. Does anyone have similar thoughts/experiences?

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Cayman GatorBox on Ebay
by Mike Loewen 25 Jun '20

25 Jun '20

For anyone interested in putting their old Mac or IIGS (or even a IIE with an Apple Workstation Card) on a TCP/IP network, I have an original GatorBox up on Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/114274629072 Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Altair - DB25 mounting - thick panel
by Jeff G 24 Jun '20

24 Jun '20

So an update to my previous "Altair can't jump" thread - turns out it was something on that serial board, as I was finally able to get a 88-2SIOJP from Martin Eberhard, and it works great and the Altair CPU had no problems whatsoever running CPM, Basic, and a variety of other software I threw at it. I'm amazed at how awesome these reproduction boards are for these things (my Altair had ONLY a cpu board in it). I do plan to revisit that card though as I can now use the monitor on the 2SIO to test/troubleshoot it much faster than toggling 60+ bytes every time. Next question - I went to mount the DB25 serial ports into the back of the cabinet, to find that the panel is pretty thick, and really prevents the plugs from connecting properly with the locking screws (screwnuts?) in place. (I'm coining that word!) It also seems like the nut part of the screw would have to be half as deep to compensate for the thickness of the panel. I can grind it down but then it'd only leave a couple threads left. I think I can overcome this using the serial cables included with the 2sio card by actually mounting them on the outside surface, if I can find some longer screwnuts that would go all the way through the housing and the panel. Something like this but maybe a hair longer: https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32997261872.html Anyone else have any other ideas though? I'm good with IDC connectors and ribbon cable so could always use a different connector. I think i've seen some older uber-deep DB25s and now I know why they existed lol. Jeff aka Bags

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