July 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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Repair workshop wrap-up 7/11 & 7/12, 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 26 Aug '20

26 Aug '20

We had 10 people come to our repair workshop. It was very successful and everyone enjoyed it. We seem to have a pattern that works for everyone, so we will repeat it for the next workshop on August 15 & 16. I worked on recovering data from a modern hard drive Jonathan and Ian helped), which I will detail in another email. I also was successful in repairing a Rev A Commodore 64 board. Alex Jaccocks and Jonathan Sturges helped me. It had bad Character RAM (U6), Character ROM (901225) and a bad U1 chip (6526). This Rev A board has a ceramic VIC 6567 chip too! Bill Dromgoole successfully repaired the museum's Ohio Scientific computer. There were 3 keys that needed replacing. Ian fixed one of his black and white TVs and worked on many other things with others. Neville worked on his Kay Pro. I'm not sure how he made out with his repairs. Mike Rosen worked on Commodore 1541 repairs. Ian and Jason Perkins also worked on scanning some documents from the museum warehouse for preservation. Don't know what Alex Jaccocks and Jonthan Sturges were working on. Bill Indereidden continued to document and work on the Wang 4000. Maybe everyone can tell what they were working on and their progress. Next workshop is August 15 & 16: Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L3Jc_RIHiBG08kZOOAgzvqjf8G0ox9ZRa6B… There will be a limit to 10 people in the workshop area. If more want to come, then there is room for 2 or 3 people in the museum workshop space. Face masks are required for this gathering. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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VAX/RD54 recovery
by David Gesswein 02 Aug '20

02 Aug '20

I had gotten a RD54 and worked out how to pull the head servo for data recovery. http://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/head_servo/pics/rd54_wires.shtml?small At a previous workday a VAX was being worked on for the Museum. The drive in it had head position errors so I wasn't able to get a good read at the time. With the above method I probably can read it now. If the drive is still around and not reformatted I can try at the next work day. I think their was another drive that wasn't read from a PDP-11 also. Did the VAX get a new OS install on it?

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keyboard cable for Kaypro
by Herb Johnson 01 Aug '20

01 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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VCF West goes live tomorrow at 12 PM Eastern Time
by Jeffrey Brace 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

You can see our show live via YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YoolSAHR5w Show starts at 12PM Eastern and runs to 6PM Schedule for VCF West 2020 Virtual: [image: image.png] -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Coast Star Article on InfoAge and VCF re-opening Aug. 1
by Jeffrey Brace 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

The Coast Star newspaper had an article about InfoAge reopening. See attached. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Sunday Repair workshop 8/2 Cancelled
by Jeffrey Brace 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

A lot of people had plans already this weekend and were already planning on coming to the workshop on Aug 15 & 16. Nobody is signed up as of now, so I'm cancelling the repair workshop for this Sunday Aug 2. Saturday is still available. Anyone can still repair stuff on Saturday, but no one is signed up as of now so we will be doing the watch party Saturday and working on some museum repairs ourselves. Corey and I have to support Erik and his VCF West 2020 Virtual Festival. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] 8080 programmer trainer
by Jeff Galinat 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

I had purchased an MST-80 off eBay a few years ago and the primary reason was I wanted the clean white/gold ceramic 8080 for use in my IMSAI. I replaced that CPU with a brown ceramic 8080 and resold it to another list member for my original purchase price. One cool feature of the keypad & monitor program is that data can be entered/displayed in either Hex or Octal just by toggling the H/O key on the pad. I think this is very handy as many people learned the 8080 opcodes in octal (like the Altair panel is laid out) while other folks like me learned them in hex. I worked for IBM and was trained to use hex notation while some of my friends who used mini's like the PDP-8s used octal. I thought this was a very handy feature to implement. Regards, Jeff On Fri, Jul 31, 2020 at 5:14 AM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Thanks for the info > I have not had time to research yet. > I’m going to check it out today. > 👌🏽 > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Jul 31, 2020, at 12:03 AM, Doug Crawford <memphis(a)ptd.net> wrote: > > > > The MST-80 with ceramic ics- the ICs are worth more than the trainer. > > One with plastic ICs is going for $200 right now. > > Probably the going rate these days. Not a lot have transacted in recent > memory. > > Its a really nice little unit. I have one. > > Rarer than the Heathkit. > > DC > > > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] 8080 programmer trainer
by Bill Degnan 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/heath/index.htm Assuming it's an ec3400 More valuable if you have the RAM expansion box, and if they work or almost function properly that helps. They're not expensive in ebay, in fact this model is popular and cheap, a lot of people like these and I am sure you'll find people at the workshop with experience. Here is mine: https://www.vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=553 Currently it's in display at kennettclassic.com Bill On Thu, Jul 30, 2020, 7:49 PM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Absolutely. > I was Knee-deep in raccoon S—t so I took a couple of pictures. > But now that I cleaned it up I can take some better pictures and look it > up on the Internet if necessary. > I found a few trainers including 2 HeathKits. > And I’ll bring them all to the workshop probably on the 16th. > I also have the Kaypro II, that once I clean it up and check it out a > little bit, I’ll bring it to also. > Mike R. > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Jul 30, 2020, at 3:16 PM, Doug Crawford <memphis(a)ptd.net> wrote: > > > > Yessir, if you can identify it we can look it up. It must have some > identifying text on it. > > > >> On 7/30/2020 2:47 PM, Sentrytv wrote: > >> Guys and gals > >> We are off subject !! > >> I sent an email asking about an 8080 trainer > >> The subject was not about attachments. > >> So please let’s keep to MY subject, or start a new one. > >> Mike R. > >> Please don’t take this personally. > >> > >> Sent from: > >> My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > >> > >>>> On Jul 30, 2020, at 1:16 PM, ☼ wil lindsay ☼ via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > >>>> > >>>> I'm sure this has been discussed many times before I joined, but is > there > >>>> anything wrong with linking from an anonymous image hostlike imgr? > This is > >>>> done on several platforms to keep bandwidth down and make > image-viewing an > >>>> option. > >>>> As an example: https://imgur.com/gallery/EEzixyX > >>>> allows 1 or multiple images, and was painless to setup and share. > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 1:08 PM Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic < > >>>> vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > >>>> > >>>>>> On Thu, 30 Jul 2020, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > >>>>>> > >>>>>> On 7/30/20 11:52 AM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > >>>>>> This honestly reminds me: who runs the list at the moment, and > would it > >>>>>> make sense, with the modern day and age, to disable the automatic > >>>>>> stripping of attachments? Even if only .jpg and .png files are > allowed, > >>>>>> and only under a certain size, that would be a massive improvement. > >>>>> That's an opinion that is not universally held. > >>>>> > >>>>> -Dave > >>>> I agree with Dave. > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us > >>>> Old Technology > http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ > >>>> > > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] 8080 programmer trainer
by Sentrytv 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

Thanks for the info I have not had time to research yet. I’m going to check it out today. 👌🏽 Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > On Jul 31, 2020, at 12:03 AM, Doug Crawford <memphis(a)ptd.net> wrote: > > The MST-80 with ceramic ics- the ICs are worth more than the trainer. > One with plastic ICs is going for $200 right now. > Probably the going rate these days. Not a lot have transacted in recent memory. > Its a really nice little unit. I have one. > Rarer than the Heathkit. > DC > >> On 7/30/2020 7:49 PM, Sentrytv wrote: >> Absolutely. >> I was Knee-deep in raccoon S—t so I took a couple of pictures. >> But now that I cleaned it up I can take some better pictures and look it up on the Internet if necessary. >> I found a few trainers including 2 HeathKits. >> And I’ll bring them all to the workshop probably on the 16th. >> I also have the Kaypro II, that once I clean it up and check it out a little bit, I’ll bring it to also. >> Mike R. >> >> Sent from: >> My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. >> >>> On Jul 30, 2020, at 3:16 PM, Doug Crawford <memphis(a)ptd.net> wrote: >>> >>> Yessir, if you can identify it we can look it up. It must have some identifying text on it. >>> >>> On 7/30/2020 2:47 PM, Sentrytv wrote: >>>> Guys and gals >>>> We are off subject !! >>>> I sent an email asking about an 8080 trainer >>>> The subject was not about attachments. >>>> So please let’s keep to MY subject, or start a new one. >>>> Mike R. >>>> Please don’t take this personally. >>>> >>>> Sent from: >>>> My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. >>>> >>>>>> On Jul 30, 2020, at 1:16 PM, ☼ wil lindsay ☼ via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> I'm sure this has been discussed many times before I joined, but is there >>>>>> anything wrong with linking from an anonymous image hostlike imgr? This is >>>>>> done on several platforms to keep bandwidth down and make image-viewing an >>>>>> option. >>>>>> As an example: https://imgur.com/gallery/EEzixyX >>>>>> allows 1 or multiple images, and was painless to setup and share. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 1:08 PM Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic < >>>>>> vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>>> On Thu, 30 Jul 2020, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> On 7/30/20 11:52 AM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >>>>>>>> This honestly reminds me: who runs the list at the moment, and would it >>>>>>>> make sense, with the modern day and age, to disable the automatic >>>>>>>> stripping of attachments? Even if only .jpg and .png files are allowed, >>>>>>>> and only under a certain size, that would be a massive improvement. >>>>>>> That's an opinion that is not universally held. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> -Dave >>>>>> I agree with Dave. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us >>>>>> Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ >>>>>> >>> >

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