August 2022 - vcf-midatlantic

VCF Forum hits 700K Posts!
by Jeffrey Brace 24 Aug '22

24 Aug '22

See picture here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FDHruz_2wOA9GWpVaLDxxSH0FsWYBwkQ/view?usp=… Not sure how many of you on this list use the VCF Forum, but since we have switched from vBulletin to XenForo, there has been vast reliability and improvements in the VCF Forum. There was a trend towards people not using it when vBullitin was having problems. But now, old users are coming back, lots of new users are joining and overall the members on the forum are happier. We seem to be *the* place to go for Vintage Computing, but I may just be overly exaggerating that. I'm just proud of the work that our moderators and administrators of the VCF forum have been doing with moderating and maintaining it. ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Can anyone identify this mystery IC
by Douglas Crawford 24 Aug '22

24 Aug '22

A little more... https://imgur.com/f4noWuk We have this on display under a microscope at VCF Mid-Atlantic museum. It is strangely constructed to my eye. no lead frame or bond wires. Its build ON the leadframe. Its symmetrical, appears to be a dual something. A mixed signal IC design collegue said: ---- That lead-frame is really weird. It seems to be some sort of flip-chip, but the leads don’t even line up from one side of the chip to the other! Never seen anything like it. The only other thing I would GUESS is that this is some sort of analog IC, probably bipolar. ----

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Wang 4000 - Aug 29th Ramsey - Who's interested in participating on Zoom
by Douglas Crawford 23 Aug '22

23 Aug '22

Hello Members: The visit from Ramsey Mahadeen of Atlas Industrial to discuss his use of the Wang 4000 next week already! The schedule for the session is not known yet. I expect to know soon. I will be leveraging what I currently use for web broadcasting. What I have is Zoom integrated with OBS. Zoom participants see the video production in Zoom and the Zoom session is included in the streaming to youtube. I plan to have three cameras, one in the docent area for sit down talks, one wide shot at the Wang computer for show and tell, and one camera at the Wang for close up detail. OBS does the camera switching, recording, and streaming to youtube. Folks who want to passively watch can use youtube. Zoom is for folks that may want face to face with us here in the museum. I am envisioning that at several points during the session we will engage with the participants on the zoom call. Links to the Zoom and Youtube will be provided later. I'd like to get a feel for the interest level of participating on the Zoom call. Please respond here, public or private. Please pass this on to contacts interested in Wang that are not on this email forum. Best regards- Douglas Crawford Mid-Atlantic Steering Committee, Museum and Warehouse Manager

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Repair Workshop Info August 27 & 28 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Aug '22

22 Aug '22

Signup for August 2022 Repair Workshop here: August 2022 Repair Workshop Signup Sheet <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18cH9sUKDnstGDdedUPRqcfRj27BbTF6hLwp…> Spaces are first come first serve to the CDL space. Limited space available. Overflow space in 9032-A building. Sign up to guarantee a space in your preferred area!!! *DATES*: August 27 & 28, 2022 *LOCATIONS:* InfoAge: 2201 Marconi Road, Wall Township, NJ 1) Building 9059 (CDL Hackerspace - Formerly IXR) AND 2) Building 9032-A (Old workshop area in main building) TIME: Saturday START time == 10 A.M. END time == 11PM. Sunday START time == 10 A.M. and END == 5 P.M. *SIGNUP HERE!*: Signup sheet Click HERE! <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18cH9sUKDnstGDdedUPRqcfRj27BbTF6hLwp…> Face Masks are required for non-vaccinated people. Vaccinated people have the option to wear masks, but they are highly recommended. *COST:*- $15 per person, PER day. This money goes to InfoAge and CDL. - $25 per night for those wanting to stay overnight (Money goes to InfoAge). Please pay ME upon arrival. Cash or PayPal is acceptable as payment. Ask ahead of time if you need to use a credit card. *OVERNIGHT*: Bring your own pillow, blankets, soap etc. We provide a bed frame and an uncovered mattress. There are showers and a kitchen for your use. - You can pay via PayPal to paypal(a)vcfed.org. or to me via cash or credit card in person. *EQUIPMENT:* - VCF will provide a table and you can use any available electrical outlet. - Bring your own tools, power strips, power cords, and supplies etc. - If you need particular tools that you don't own or particular parts, please post to the list for those going. They may have what you need. Let them know ahead of time. - Let everyone know what project you are working on ahead of time to inspire collaboration. *DRINKS*: You should bring your own. We have a refrigerator in CDL to keep them cold. VCF will buy some water and soft drinks for member use. *FOOD*: *Saturday afternoon*: Pizza from Attilios (Tinton Falls) *Saturday Night Dinner at 7PM?*: Options: * Brick House Tap and Tavern * Main Street Bar and Grill * MJs * Patrick's Pub * Ottos * Robinson Ale House Signup here for Saturday Dinner *Sunday Morning*: Bagel order from Delicious Bagels Sign-up HERE *Sunday Afternoon*: Wawa GATE: Please close the gate behind you at all times. We want to make sure that museum visitors pay at the InfoAge front desk during museum hours. PARKING: Park in the main parking lot, unless you are unloading. Don't park on the lawn. QUESTIONS? PHONE: ( 7 3 2 ) 7 2 2 - 5 0 1 5 EMAIL: repairworkshops AT vcfed DOT org Have fun everyone! ========================================= 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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Can anyone identify this mystery IC?
by Douglas Crawford 21 Aug '22

21 Aug '22

https://imgur.com/gallery/LmhW8zd -DC

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Looking for SCSI ID select cable
by Bob Shuster 20 Aug '22

20 Aug '22

I opened an Apple Hard Disc 20SC to see why it wasn’t working properly, and discovered that the SCSI ID select cable (which connects from the drive select jumpers on the drive mechanism to a push-button mechanism on the back of the case) was missing. Obviously I can just set jumpers on the drive, but as this unit is a bear to get apart without damage I’d like to restore the functionality of the ID selector switch. Image linked below. Any chance someone has a spare or can point me to a source? It doesn’t have to specifically be from an Apple SC drive - I think these were fairly common across external SCSI devices. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l4rgj0poQ-h8Tepce1NcM4j-EMSyWYmi/view?usp=… <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l4rgj0poQ-h8Tepce1NcM4j-EMSyWYmi/view?usp=…> And by the way, and some of you will find this interesting, I discovered that the drive wasn’t working properly was because it had an ICD AdSCSI ST card attached - it had been repurposed as an Atari ST drive at some point! Thanks for any help! - Bob Shuster

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] The TI Mini I rescued
by Michael Thompson 20 Aug '22

20 Aug '22

> > > On 8/17/2022 12:22 PM, Kelly Leavitt via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > >> Any interest in getting this old mini running? I'd like to work on it > >> if there is any interest. > >> I believe it was a TI 990/10 with a CDC fixed disk and a CDC cartridge > >> disk. > >> > >> Kelly > The RICM has a 990/10 and a 990/12, lots of spare boards, and lots of TI terminals. Let me know if you need anything for this project. -- Michael Thompson

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Wang 4000 Restoration at VCF Mid-Atlantic
by Douglas Crawford 20 Aug '22

20 Aug '22

Any Wang Calculator & Computer aficionados here? We are in the beginning phase of our Wang 4000 restoration at VCF Mid-Atlantic InfoAge. On August 29th, The original Wang Programmer from Atlas Industries, the company that donated the machine will be visiting to tell us what he knows... remembers... about the machine to help us get started. The machine is not ready to be powered on, but hopefully we'll be in a good position to begin power up / restoration when we consider all the information we receive. Mark the date. There is likely to be some kind of video meeting hosted for tuning in. Details to follow. And it will also be recorded of course. Contact me off list if you have special expertise in Wang 4000 or related architecture. Photo: https://imgur.com/6i5IsRA Detail photos: https://imgur.com/a/u8VkxIA And a technical treat- the extremely rare manual: https://www.mediafire.com/file/i1nry8of42tm8w9/Wang4000_InstructionManual.p…

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RAM Test/Diagnostic ROM for Rockwell AIM-65
by Jonathan Chapman 19 Aug '22

19 Aug '22

All, Finally got some time to clean up the source for our RAM test/diagnostic ROM for the AIM-65: https://github.com/glitchwrks/aim65_memtest/ Initial work was largely done by TangentDelta. This was written to help diagnose and repair some dead AIM-65s. The test will run on a minimally functional AIM-65 -- all you need is a working CPU, ROM socket, and display board. It performs the following tests: * ROM checksum * Stack page quick write presence * Zero page quick write presence * RIOT single-pass memory test * Full system memory test The ROM checksum and stack page tests are accomplished with macros so that they can run with no RAM, since of course that might be faulty! Once the stack page passes, zero page is tested. With stack and ZP tested, the RIOT and exhaustive system memory tests are performed. These tests are more complete, since we have a minimally functional system by this point. The exhaustive test is based heavily on the routines from the OSI MEMORY TEST from OS-65D 2.0, published in OSI Small Systems Journal, Volume 1, Number 3, September 1977. Thanks, Jonathan

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Official Vintage Computer Federation Membership has started
by Jeffrey Brace 19 Aug '22

19 Aug '22

The national board has been discussing for quite a while about how and when to start VCF membership. We decided to get it started simply and quickly. Just in time for VCF West. Instead of deliberating for any longer on which benefits would be included, we decided to start out simply. We plan on adding more benefits as time goes on. As stated on the membership signup page: https://vcfed.org/membership/ The cost for membership is: - $25 for a 1 year individual member. - $100 for a 5 year membership. ------------------------------ For a limited time we are offering a 2 year membership for $25. This offer expires *12/31/2022*. Membership benefits currently include a *20% discount* on all VCF run events starting *08/15/22*. *To receive the discount you must sign up for the event through the event registration system on our website.* ------------------------------ We are working on adding additional valuable benefits to the membership. The event registration system is being worked on and will be available soon. ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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