May 2021 - vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

May Repair workshop - sockets
by Herb Johnson 18 May '21

18 May '21

> David Gesswein > Tue May 18 23:59:58 UTC 2021 > > On Tue, May 18, 2021 at 02:34:01PM -0400, Herb Johnson > >> Much discussion occurred about IC sockets. No one suggested purchase >> of machine-pin sockets, which is my choice. >> > > So I'm no one now :-). [reference to his suggestion in kind] > That was a lot of email to try to follow today. Of course, my apologies. And you provided my excuse. There has been a lot of email, which has drawn my attention as well. And I see Dave McGuire agrees with both of us. Martin says he'll consider both and look at prices; perhaps accommodate both factions. It is the buyer's choice. Those who use IXR's sockets, I believe should contribute back to replace them. So the users will have a vote, in the long term. Another way to argue the point, is to repair with sockets to match, unless all/most sockets are damaged. I believe our friend Jon Chapman AKA Systems Glitch, uses machine-pin to replace vintage sockets when damage is widespread. Regards, 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 comcast DOT net

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Bernoulli Drives needed in working condition
by Herb Johnson 18 May '21

18 May '21

This thread and subject-matter, seems to me to be "much ado about nothing". Sorry. But there is so. much. chatter. about this Bernoulli drive and cartridge business, reasonable people can't keep their focus on *what the tasks are*, what is reasonable to do, and unreasonable to do, and by whom. This caught my attention, because I likely have a clue about this tech. http://www.retrotechnology.com/aux/iomega10.html Are these the 'droids you are looking for? Note: I'm in the process NOW of selling the drive. I may have some IBM controllers available. I'm not giving them away, this is stuff I sell. That's not exactly why I posted. So: what is all this chatter about, and what seems a plausible path forward? First: the propositions, as stated by Jeff Brace: > Someone donated two 10x10 Bernoulli drives to VCF. They are in unknown > condition. She gave us the manual, a cable and one cartridge. She wants to > donate the remaining cartridges, but would like to supervise the deletion > of the data they have on them. So we need one in working condition first. and: > It is payroll data that the couple used for their business for many years, > so it is quite sensitive. First: this appears to be a legal contract over property and services. Not that I'm a lawyer. VCFed Incorporated may wish to examine these terms, as Dave McGuire pointed out, and see if the Corporation wishes to engage in such contracts with clients. Hint. Hint. Second: how many carts is this about, anyways? Ebay price - by luck I happened to look recently - some tens of dollars each. Point being: why spin all our wheels, just over a few carts? And: *are there any in the VCFed Inventory already*? Just a thought. Related: "two 10X10 drives" is ambiguous. Is it one cabinet with two drives, as per my unit? That's my guess, and I show an example. Third: I see no "data recovery" in these terms, as suggested in the chatter. Just data security. So: let the client keep the carts, if they choose to destroy them, that would be sad. But that solves the problem, no. further. fuss. needed. That's my recommendation. If there are objections: 1) Google "who bells the cat?" Hint: it's about finding volunteers for difficult tasks. 2) Google "the lady who put salt in her coffee". Old-person alert - this is 19th century technology. It's about solving problems. 3) - if you think YOU can make this work, convince Jeff Brace and the corporation, and that you can execute on it. I won't touch that, myself. I don't make that offer. 4) - if you think more 10MB carts are important - buy some off eBay. Or donate $$$ to VCFed Inc and they can buy them. Myself: I'll consider it, depending on what becomes of this donation, and my own sale of my drive (if that's the drive in question). So here's my specific advice, since I'm posting so much already. Tell the donor: "Thank you for the donation of the drive equipment and the single disk cartridge. Unfortunately, we are not in the business of data destruction and deletion. And we will not be able to operate the drive anytime in the near future: our resources to restore and operate equipment are voluntary and limited; it needs a controller we would have to acquire. "So we are not able to satisfy your terms of assured data destruction; so we cannot accept your data cartridges. If we become aware of such services, we'll provide you with contact information as a courtesy, for your own considerations. Thank you again for helping us in our goals of preserving vintage computing technology." This solves all problems, with no additional resources of time, money, materials or performance by individuals or VCFed Inc.. And that is my contribution to the discussion. That, and a link to what I think may be similar tech. At some point soon in time, I may add IBM controller information to my Bernoulli Web page. That may be useful for information. If VCFed has some interest in items I have, they or their donors can contact me for prices. Those items are untested, as-is, without warranty or fitness for use. Regards, Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- 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 comcast DOT net

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May Repair workshop - sockets
by Herb Johnson 18 May '21

18 May '21

> Dean, > I’m ordering sockets for CDL stock / is there a specific type that is preferred ? > > Martin Flynn > Martin, thank you. I’m not sure. Perhaps Jeff S, Herb, Ian, et al would > have a better idea of common sockets types we’re likely to go through > Dean Notarnicola Much discussion occurred about IC sockets. No one suggested purchase of machine-pin sockets, which is my choice. "Double wipe" sockets are preferred by others. CDL "should" purchase whichever style they find satisfactory. As to number of pins: some of all kinds should be stocked by CDL, they will get used eventually. But pin-counts above 40 are somewhat specialized. - regards, 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 comcast DOT net

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those S-100 connectors
by Dave McGuire 18 May '21

18 May '21

Those EDAC S-100 backplane connectors are $9.01/ea at DigiKey, FYI. I'm usually a Mouser man, but DigiKey's $9.01 sure beats Mouser's $16.80. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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Bernoulli Drives needed in working condition
by Jeffrey Brace 18 May '21

18 May '21

Someone donated two 10x10 Bernoulli drives to VCF. They are in unknown condition. She gave us the manual, a cable and one cartridge. She wants to donate the remaining cartridges, but would like to supervise the deletion of the data they have on them. So we need one in working condition first. As I understand it, the drives need a special card on an "older" PC to operate. She disposed of the PC that had that card. Is there anyone who has this card and can get these drives in working order so that the lady can delete her data? ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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H89 for museum; gotek?
by Herb Johnson 18 May '21

18 May '21

Preserving continuity of thread-subject; item below was posted in the May Repair thread. - Herb > [vcf-midatlantic] May Repair workshop > jsalzman at gmail.com jsalzman at gmail.com > Tue May 18 12:35:40 UTC 2021 > > > I did more work with my own recently acquired H89 that I brought. Herb was > eminently helpful in figuring out what I had available, and was able to get > it booted with the disks that came with the acquisition. I spent most of > the weekend working out some of its little issues after it had been sitting > for over 30 years. > > [other matters deleted] > > One of the last things I did before leaving the event was to take a closer > look at the Museum's H-89 that Herb was working on. I pulled the drive > controller card and found a great amount of green rot on the main > controller IC's socket and pins. There was no noticeable damage to the > board. I replaced the socket and cleaned up the pins of the IC. That > didn't change the behavior of the drive controller, but it was certainly a > needed fix. The rest of the board is all 74XX TTL logic. The board could be > refurbished easily if the primary controller chip is still good. There were > a couple TTL chips that had similar rot on them, but not nearly as bad. It > was running late for me, so I didn't repair/replace those sockets at that > time. > > Jeff Salzman Jeff, thanks for the Sunday follow up on the Museum's H89. If I can work on it again, I will contact Jeff Brace accordingly to set a date. I see mid-June is a workshop, but I could stop by when the Museum is open. On Saturday, the H89 was working, booting HDOS, but had some issues. I saw some socket and chip corrosion, probably due to some local moisture; I took no action, Jeff Salzman did his follow up, thanks for working on that floppy controller. I don't believe I saw problems with the floppy controller. The problems I found were: some keyboard keys did not produce the right ASCII code (garbage); cause undetermined. There's a 20V DC issue (details previously in this thread) which I haven't decided on a fix for, it is not "broken" just too high for known reasons. Also I did not restore the H89 external drive's gummy spindle; I did restore the H89 internal drive's spindle, same brand/model of drive. So the same fix is needed. If I'm smart, I'll bring a working drive of the same brand and model if I have one in my stock: save myself on-site time. Or I will rob one from another H89 in VCFed Inventory. (If people are curious, I'll identify the drive at some point.) Plan B, would be to restore another H89 from the VCFed Inventory. A backup unit is also a good Plan B for the Museum. I'll inspect the inventory of H89's if time permits or parts are needed. 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 comcast DOT net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] GSA lighthouse offices available
by Christian Liendo 18 May '21

18 May '21

I have done work at some of them (USCG reservist), some of them get flooded and I think the salty air is not that great for computers . It would be cool to have an event there, but not store or keep computers there for a prolonged period of time. On Sun, May 16, 2021 at 6:28 PM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > Here is a link that I found online after I read a newspaper article referring to the federal government, general services administration, providing free offices to Nonprofit organizations and others. > These “offices” happen to be old light houses that are no longer are used. > Would it be interesting if VCF were to have a computer museum in a lighthouse? > Link is below. > > https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mprnews.org/amp/story/2021/05/15/free-offi… > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.

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Vendor Tables at VCF East
by Jeffrey Brace 18 May '21

18 May '21

Hello vintage computer vendors, VCF East is planned to be a live in-person show October 8, 9 & 10. It looks like it will be the biggest show yet with lots of great speakers, exhibitors, classes and of course vendors. Would you like to have a vendor table VCF East? I have created a vendor registration for you to fill out. If you have any questions, then please ask me! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdbmxktA4G_Jb_ZtVYIOa66cJG7TebmKNd… ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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May Repair workshop
by Jeffrey Brace 18 May '21

18 May '21

Much thanks to Tony and Dean for managing the workshop on Saturday and part of Sunday. I had a much needed break from doing the workshops each month. The May repair workshop had half the number of usual suspects, but a lot got done. Lots of good work done by the people there. It also made it easier to find a place to go out to dinner as a larger group of 15 is harder to accomodate on a Saturday night. I know that Jeff Salzman and Herb were working on the H89, and got it mostly working. So hopefully at the June repair workshop we can get Alex Bodnar to come take a look at it since he seems to be highly recommended in repairing these machines. I know that Bill I and Jeff Jonas were making progress in the warehouse. I'm not sure what else went on. I got there at 1PM on Sunday. Maybe others can fill us in on their progress in different areas. Next repair workshop is June 12 & 13. Look for the next e-mail for the sign up. ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Bernoulli Drives needed in working condition
by Dave McGuire 18 May '21

18 May '21

On 5/18/21 10:59 AM, Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > That would make sense. They probably have old digital artwork.. I'm not sure why one would assume artwork. Heck I stored nuclear detonation simulation data on them at work, and 8051 assembler source code on them at home! -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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