January 2022 - vcf-midatlantic

For VCF Docents on duty 01/15/2022
by Martin Flynn 02 Jan '22

02 Jan '22

As a reminder: CDL and VCF are installing aerial fiber between 9032 and 9059 on January 15th, 2022 The road (the red box) will be closed to through traffic between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. http://compdecon.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/no_drive_zone.png If you need to get to second street or beyond, all traffic will need to go around 9059 the long way. Please disseminate as widely as possible. Martin Flynn

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For VCF Docents on duty 01/15/2022
by Martin Flynn 02 Jan '22

02 Jan '22

As a reminder: CDL and VCF are installing aerial fiber between 9032 and 9059 on January 15th, 2022 The road (the red box) will be closed to through traffic between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. If you need to get to second street or beyond, all traffic will need to go around 9059 the long way. Please disseminate as widely as possible. Martin Flynn

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OT (In support of VCF East in the main 9032 room)
by Martin Flynn 02 Jan '22

02 Jan '22

CDL is requesting the assistance of the VCF membership in deploying the fiber optic feed for the 9032-A/B and 9032-C/D data racks. Target date is January 15th, 2022 starting at 10:00 AM. The work was deferred due to conflicts with other users of 9032 November and December. Work will entail: * Laying out the fiber on the rear lawn of 9059, and between 9032 and second street. * Use of ladders to place the cable (if you have your own 8-12 foot step ladder, bring it!) * Attaching the fiber to buildings 9059 and 9032 with ty-wraps, using the hangers already deployed. * Entry to the cable vault on the rear of 9059, and the attic of 9032 to route the access point and camera cables. Martin Flynn

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First homebrew computer project
by Joseph Giliberti 01 Jan '22

01 Jan '22

Greetings Everyone, I'm Joe Giliberti. I had been a member of the original MARCH up until 10 or so years ago, when a personal issue prompted me to leave. It also didn't help matters that it took me more time than most to grow up into a responsible adult. Now that many things have changed and that I've been getting back into the hobby over the past few years, I've decided to come back. I keep making plans to get to events but something always seems to interfere. I'm really hoping I'll be able to get to the workshop on Sunday. Any who, in the past few years I've been getting more and more into the hobby, doing lots of reading to expand my knowledge beyond writing BASIC on my Apple IIe. I've decided that I want to take a shot at constructing a basic computer. Over the years, I've been amassing component parts from estate sales and one particularly lucky estate cleanout. Among other things, I've accumulated thousands of capacitors, resistors, transistors and diodes, hundreds of 7400 series TTL and quite a few microprocessors and support chips. I think I want to base the computer around an 8080. There are the two main reasons I want to go this route: -I have an 8080A and many of the support chips, most of which are of the early gold and white ceramic design. -Ultimately, I want the system to be capable of running CP/M Initially, I'm not looking to make it overly complicated. Ideally, I'd like to have a machine language monitor and TinyBASIC in ROM. I'd also like a serial connection for I/O and a cassette interface for mass storage. If someday I get really ambitious, I might look into things like video hardware and floppy disk mass storage, but I need to take care of the basics first I still need to do a lot more research and study before I start doing things like design and construction, but I would very much appreciate any suggestions or feedback on my plans for this endeavor. Thanks and Happy New Year! Joe Giliberti

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Happy New Year!!
by Bob Flanders 01 Jan '22

01 Jan '22

Back At'cha. Bob On Sat, Jan 1, 2022, 11:19 Bob Aviles via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Happy New Year as well. > > > On Saturday, January 1, 2022, 01:06:15 AM EST, Christian Liendo via > vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > Same to you. Happy New Year everyone! > > On Sat, Jan 1, 2022, 12:01 AM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > On behalf of VCF we wish all of you a Happy New Year! > > > > It has been a challenging, interesting and fun year. I look forward to > > planning a lot more exciting events this year and hope to see everyone > > again soon! > > > > ========================================= > > Jeff Brace > > VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President > > Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner > > VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director > > Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity > > http://www.vcfed.org/ > > jeffrey(a)vcfed.org > > > >

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Happy New Year!!
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Jan '22

01 Jan '22

On behalf of VCF we wish all of you a Happy New Year! It has been a challenging, interesting and fun year. I look forward to planning a lot more exciting events this year and hope to see everyone again soon! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Ti-99/4a Motherboard Troubleshooting
by Bart Hirst 31 Dec '21

31 Dec '21

Hello, do we have any members that can assist with Ti-99/4a motherboard troubleshooting? I've already checked most of the "low-hanging fruit" (voltages, clocks, overheated chips, traces, caps, troubleshooting steps etc.) and i've been looking at pulseview output of various things with one of those inexpensive 8-channel FPGA logic analyzers <https://www.amazon.com/KeeYees-Analyzer-Device-Channel-Arduino/dp/B07K6HXDH1> you can pick up off amazon for $13. This unit has the classic "black screen and tone of death" going on. So far I haven't been able to find anything wrong except the 9900 seems to go into a ROM/RAM R/W loop. Never makes it to the GROMS. Bart

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