- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Deadline for Saturday Dinner Pre-Payment for VCF East XIII
by Jeffrey Brace 14 May '18

14 May '18

I was just advised that there is a Pre-Pay deadline of Wednesday at midnight for pre-payment of the Saturday Dinner which is $29 send to paypal(a)vcfed.org. Thanks! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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VCF Saturday Dinner pay it now and get it out of the way!
by Jeffrey Brace 14 May '18

14 May '18

Cost is $29 per person. Send via PayPal: paypal(a)vcfed.org Put a note: VCF East XIII - Saturday Dinner You can bring guests if you like. Please don't wait until the last minute. Do it now, it's so quick and simple! :-D -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Overnight lodging @ VCF East
by Evan Koblentz 14 May '18

14 May '18

So far only 7 people signed up for staying overnight at VCF East. Is anyone else interesting? https://tinyurl.com/y928w6gq

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DEC RK06 Disk Cartridges
by Bill Degnan 13 May '18

13 May '18

Does anyone have an RK06 drive AND plan to go to VCF East AND would be interested in purchasing a cartidge pack or two? Reasonable offers accepted. I also have a few RA60 drive pack carts avail. Send inquiries through http://vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm

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ANNOUNCE: VCF East XIII 8085 Single Board Computer
by systems_glitch 12 May '18

12 May '18

Some of you may have noticed that I've been extra busy/slow to reply lately. It's not just because of taxes :) This is on my bench: http://i.imgur.com/TppyO2Mh.jpg We got together on the idea of a special edition vintage computer project for VCF East last year, but there wasn't enough time between when someone mentioned the idea and the event to actually get it done. This year, I've revised my 8085 SBC design into a larger, more full-featured board as seen above. Specs as follows: * 8085 CPU * 64K Static RAM * 32K ROM available in 4K pages * Autoboot/ROM switchout circuit * 8251A USART for console port * DS1233 EconoReset * Baud rates from 300 - 38400, baud clock independent of CPU clock * GlitchBus expansion header * Single 5V power supply The board is 8x5 inches, the GlitchBus expansion stacking area provides for a 4x5 inch board. Currently I've got the prototype version running GWMON, my ROM monitor, from Ferroelectric RAM in the ROM socket. The goal is to have a customized monitor and fully functional BASIC by VCF East. This is also the first board to commit to a GlitchBus pinout/layout -- several of us have been working together offline and through IRC to get it nailed down. Eventually, you'll be able to add a storage controller (CF, floppy, etc.) via GlitchBus and boot/run CP/M! The ROM can be switched out under software control, so the full 64K of RAM will be available to user programs. The board also supports FeRAM, so it's possible to have a core-like setup for main memory. If you use FeRAM or an EEPROM in the ROM socket, the board can update its own firmware. This revision is going to be released at VCF East XIII and is a special edition that will probably be limited to the show. We'll be doing an event-long workshop to build and test the SBC at InfoAge during VCF East, just like we did with the XT-IDE and Apple II prototyping workshop last year. If you choose to assemble your board at VCF East, you'll leave with a 100% tested and working 8085 SBC. I may bring a very few CRT terminals to make available to builders of the 8085 SBC. Evan got me a high-res PNG version of the VCFed logo, which I was able to work into a copper-and-silkscreen graphic for the PC board: http://i.imgur.com/H6iJnXIh.jpg I haven't nailed down a price for parts kits yet -- that will be forthcoming. Thanks, Jonathan

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FS: Motorola MEK6800D2 6800 Trainer/Dev Kit TESTED/WORKING
by systems_glitch 12 May '18

12 May '18

link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/273207889695 This one looks like it was essentially built and never used. Nothing has been added to the prototype area, it looks like the EXORcisor bus connection was never plugged in to a socket, and there was no additional RAM in U18/U19 sockets. I cleaned it up, removed some areas of excessive rosin flux, and brought the board up on a 5V bench supply. It draws around 1A with address/data info on the displays. Ran through the sample program in the manual, which worked fine. I added two Fairchild branded 6810 SRAMs to bring it up to a total of 512 whole bytes of memory :) Didn't test the cassette interface, I no longer have a cassette recorder kicking around. If you're interested and will be at VCF East, let me know -- I'll take substantially less if I don't have to pay eBay/PayPal fees and ship. Thanks, Jonathan

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Magic smoke
by Evan Koblentz 12 May '18

12 May '18

Museum pet released its magic smoke. :( Appeared to come from front/underneath the motherboard.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] talk at VCF-East on audio cassettes for data; stuff
by Michael Thompson 11 May '18

11 May '18

> > Date: Thu, 10 May 2018 23:38:29 -0500 > From: Kyle Owen <kylevowen(a)gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] talk at VCF-East on audio cassettes for > data; stuff > > This may be too beyond audio cassettes, but I figured I'd share. > > I never really was interested in this portion of my first PDP-8 haul, but I > ended up with a Tennecomp Fidelipac drive. For those unfamiliar, these were > commonly used for commercial breaks in radio stations and the stations' > jingles. Similar to 8-track, but they didn't have a built-in pinch roller. > > I have yet to see if the unit is functional, and need to figure out where > the interface card is (if it came with the interface, even), as I would > like to digitize the tapes. Fortunately, I've got a friend with some radio > station cart machines, so I could possibly record them to audio files and > reverse engineer them from there. > > So yes, even a PDP-8/M, ca. 1974, and possibly prior, used an audio tape > system for data storage! > > Pictures here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kBL9gRGF697A0xUT2 > > Kyle > There is one of those on the PDP-8/I at RCS/RI and on the Classic PDP-8 at the Computermuseum der Fakultät Informatik. Michael Thompson

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Reanimating Zorba (long)
by Mike Loewen 11 May '18

11 May '18

It's alive! http://q7.neurotica.com/Zorba1.jpg http://q7.neurotica.com/Zorba2.jpg After several extended troubleshooting sessions, my Telcon Zorba (Nomis 9) is up and running! I don't know what happened to this system, but it had some major problems. When I received the system, it did nothing: no lights, no fan, no display. My first thought was a bad power supply, and a voltage check showed that the +12VDC line was down to around 8V. No filament on the CRT, either. Unplugging the display board allowed the 12V line to pop right back up to spec. So, something was wrong on the display board. A visual check of the display board didn't reveal anything obvious. I used my DMM and a curve tracer (connects to my oscilloscope's X-Y inputs) to look for anything odd. I found a large diode which appeared to be shorted. On desoldering it, it just fell apart! No idea what caused it to short, but I ordered some horizontal output transistors just in case. The diode was a MR854 400V 3A fast recovery diode, and the HOT was a BU807. The old HOT tested similarly to the new transistors, but I replaced it anyway. I replaced the diode with an MR856 (600V 3A) for an extra margin of safety. After adjusting the power supply, I plugged everything back together, and bingo, the filament lit up and the 12V line looked good. Still no display though, so I started looking at signals. With the help of the schematics, I traced things back to the CRT Controller chip (CRTC), an Intel 8275 programmable CRTC. No signals coming out of the CRTC at all. I found an Intel P8275 on Ebay, and sat back to wait. (tip of the hat to Ian Primus for troubleshooting advice) After I replaced the the CRTC, the system immediately beeped (which it had never done before), and eventually the boot display came up, telling me to press <ENTER> to boot. A slight tweak on the horizontal hold pot was all it took to stabilize the display. So, second problem solved. However, pressing <ENTER> did absolutely nothing. There was voltage going to the keyboard (the caps lock LED would toggle), but nothing was happening. I checked the output from the keyboard on the scope (looked okay) and from the inverter going to the 8251A USART for the keyboard. Time to haul out the logic analyzer and find out what's happening on the bus. On the diskettes which came with the Zorba, there was one labeled "Gemini Zorba Source BIOS 1.7A". I imaged the disks with IMD, and was able to pull the files from them. On the BIOS disk was source code for the CP/M BIOS, as well as source for the boot ROM. I dumped the boot ROM with my Data I/O 29B and ran it through a disassembler (z80dasm). Things didn't quite match up, and it was obvious that the ROM in my Zorba wasn't exactly the same as on the disk. Working with z80dasm on the Linux side and Z80ASM on the CP/M side, I was able to create an ASM file which assembled and loaded to an exact copy of my Zorba's boot ROM. Armed with the correct assembly listing, I hooked up the logic analyzer HP (1650B) to see what was happening. The code was stuck in a loop, waiting for the floppy drives to home to track 0. The heads would move (if initially off of track 0), but the code was waiting for an interrupt from the FDC (1793) which never happened. I started checking the circuitry for the interrupt chain, and found a shorted 2N3904. After I replaced it, the code moved on, but again was looping, this time waiting for the keyboard. I intially thought the USART for the keyboard was bad, but swapping it with another 8251A on the board didn't change anything. A check of the signals going to the USART showed the proper select lines activating, but the RxRDY line never showed a character ready. I finally checked the clock line for the USART. The frequency should have been 19,230Hz, but was nowhere close. The clock comes from an 8254-2 Programmable Interval Timer, which has 3 independent counters. The 8254 is programmed early in the boot process, and counter 3 takes the 8MHz clock and divides it by 416 to provide the TX/RX clock for the keyboard USART. The USART then divides the 19,230 clock by 16 to provide something close to the 1200 baud clock for the keyboard. The logic analyer showed the correct programming sequence going to the 8254, but only random values were coming out. So, back to the order form for a couple of 8254-2 chips and some other spares for inventory. As soon as I replaced the 8254 (actually with an 82C54-2) the frequency counter showed 19,230 from counter 3, and the keyboard magically came to life. It booted! This is the most difficult micro fix I've ever had to make. The tally of bad components reads: MR854 diode (shorted) 8275 CRT controller (dead) 2N3904 transistor (shorted) 8254-2 programmable timer (dead) I ended up using the following test equipment to find the problems: Tektronix 485 oscilloscope HP 1650 logic analyzer Curve tracer module Logic probe DMM Data I/O 29B programmer Advantest TR5823H Frequency counter I also wasted some time chasing imaginary floppy drive problems. To simplify things, I was only using a single floppy drive. After chasing code with the logic analzyer and the source listing, I discovered that whoever wrote the boot ROM code decided to wait for BOTH floppy drives to interrupt when they reached track 0 before moving on. If one of the drives is bad, or not installed, the code will loop forever waiting on the bad/nonexistent drive. All told, it was an interesting journey, and I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the Zorba. :-) Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Longshot: anyone free today?
by Evan Koblentz 11 May '18

11 May '18

My helper for museum work today had to cancel. Anyone else happen to be free? Looking for a helper from noon to about 5pm.

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Mark your calendars! Festivus 2018 - December 1 & 2, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 10 May '18

10 May '18

I reserved the room. Festivus will be December 1 & 2, 2018 in the same place as last year (9010 C & D) - The Sandy Recovery area I hope lots of people can make it this year. Last year was a big turn out. It's always lots of fun! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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WTB/ISO: Intel MCS-48 and Prompt 48 Hardcopy Documentation
by systems_glitch 10 May '18

10 May '18

All, I'm looking for hardcopy documentation on the Intel MCS-48 series of microcontrollers and Prompt 48 development system. I've got all of the various PDFs, but I like having book copies to work out of. Prefer to pick up at VCF East, of course :) Thanks, Jonathan

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Festivius 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 09 May '18

09 May '18

I'm looking at December 1 & 2 for Festivus this year. Any objections? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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VCF East XIII - Saturday Dinner payments
by Jeffrey Brace 09 May '18

09 May '18

Just a reminder to pay for your Saturday dinner if you are attending. The cost is $29 per person. Please send your payment for dinner to paypal(a)vcfed.org In the notes put: VCF East XIII - Saturday Dinner. I'm updating the paid list everyday. The more people that pay earlier, the better for me. Thanks! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Free AT&T UNiX System V Release 4 User’s Reference Manual
by jaj＠totallyamused.com 08 May '18

08 May '18

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VCF East XIII - Building 9059 Room Planning
by Jeffrey Brace 08 May '18

08 May '18

FYI 9059 will be our classroom instead of the model train room down the hall from the museum. So I took pictures of the room: <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HNi6Lnajl6TxhKhlkW8YT5UltKYSwamh> Looks like they put new tiles on the floor, painted them and the walls. Also there are new electrical outlets on the wall as well as ethernet ports. The projector screen is there *and* works. I made sure to test that it unrolls. The projector on the ceiling *doesn't* work, so we need to supply one. I counted 22 adult chairs and 10 childrens chairs, so I won't count them. I had thought about mentioning this room a few times in our VCF East planning, but we never go through our list so I kept forgetting about it.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Ascii keyboard and Televideo Personal Terminal
by Jeff G 08 May '18

08 May '18

I found a pic of the terminal with the keyboard and garage...if anyone has (at least) the keyboard and garage they'd like to sell I'd be interested! https://www.flickr.com/photos/chiclassiccomp/451684314/ Jeff aka Bags

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VCF East XIII - T-shirt Arrival & Preparation
by Jeffrey Brace 07 May '18

07 May '18

They were expected to arrive May 16, but I got a message from UPS that they will be delivered tomorrow 5/8. A whole 8 days ahead of schedule. So I need to give t-shirts to: 1) Exhibitors 2) Volunteers 3) Instructors Who else are we giving t-shirts to? I want to separate them out. I should have all of their sizes. Now I'm wondering about folding them. Who can do this? Laura? It needs to be done by Thursday night, so that they are ready to go Friday. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Museum Report 2018-05-06 May 6, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 07 May '18

07 May '18

Got here earlier than usual because of the weekend event says the museum should be open at 12. Tony was here moving the new backdrop for the featured artifact. I helped him move it. He also measured his exhibit table and looked at the Apple //. We had about a dozen visitors today from the casual run through, to the give me a tour to the move extensive long tour. Connor S stopped by with his mother and grand parents visiting from St. Louis. I let him try some BASIC programming on the original chiclet PET as well as play Little Computer People on the Commodore 64. I asked him for an update on his science fair that he did on vintage computers. It sounded like it went well. I assessed the state of various machines to see how we could get more demos running on them. One thing that I would like to have is a MOD player for the Amiga 1000 called EdPlayer. Could someone bring that in? I would love to get other micros working in the museum such as: Getting the floppy drive working on the TRS-80 and run some demo on that machine. Getting an iPod to load programs into the Apple /. Getting the tape drive working on the Commodore PET etc. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Blast from the past
by Evan Koblentz 06 May '18

06 May '18

Former MARCHin Jeff Frady who now lives in Austin, Texas said he's going to VCF East on Saturday May 19. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Museum Report 2018-05-05 May 5, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 05 May '18

05 May '18

Dozens of casual visitors going through the museum It was a big event all over Monmouth County. It was Weekend in Old Monmouth advertised via Monmouth County Historic Commission. One unique visitor worked on the project for the Original IBM PC. She said that the group making it took the little name plate and put it on badges. But one guy objected because the name plate was supposed to be for production computers. She recognized the manuals and asked where was DisplayWriter. It's fun when you get visitors that have worked on the original machines. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 04 May '18

04 May '18

Don C. and I met at the museum at 10am today. We worked on various projects for VCF East and the museum itself. Most notably, we constructed a wall/backdrop for the featured artifact exhibit. It is L-shaped: 6.5 feet tall and 4 feet on each side. We painted it the usual gray. Next time I'm there, I'll trim the sides/top (probably with dark green) to make it stand out. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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VCF East Hotels
by Jason Perkins 04 May '18

04 May '18

VCFers, Those of you staying at a hotel this year: What do you recommend? I've stayed at the Red Roof Inn and found it was fine. Are there any other places near InfoAge that you've found a good deal? Thanks, -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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talk at VCF-East on audio cassettes for data
by Herb Johnson 03 May '18

03 May '18

I've agreed to give a casual talk at VCF-East, on the use of audio cassettes and recorders for program storage on first-generation (1970's) vintage computers. I'll describe how a "TTL logic gate" can create audio waveforms and interpret them, with little more than software and hardware. I'll try to point to early Altair/IMSAI class S-100 computers, early COSMAC (RCA 1802) computers, possibly others. I'll try to reference the earliest efforts to create various standards. And I'll point to current recovery work on some old cassettes. I'll likely point to various Web pages for details and images - no PowerPoint presentations, no exciting videos. Maybe one wailing audio tape. Some stuff I won't know - I have an idea about that. So why do this? There's recent and successful efforts, to recover programs today from COSMAC tapes 40 years old now - that's interesting. Many period micros are operated today, with MPEG music players acting as the audio source; so it's still in use that way. I mentioned the techie bits of cassette storage and retrieval - I'll draw some schematics. And unfortunately, experience with audio cassettes is becoming "lost" - a generation of young adults have NEVER handled such a thing. (shrug) so it's a teaching moment for those folks. Unaccustomed as I am with public speaking (snort!), I'll welcome some discussion from the audience. I'm sure some attendees to VCF-East will know more than I, about some part of vintage-time use (or modern use) of audio cassettes for data. So people with an interest or experience, may want to think in advance about what they might say, bring props, whatever; but keep to the point and be brief. I'm simply making a point, that cassettes-as-storage was a REAL THING that mattered with first-gen microcomputers; it wasn't that hard; and these things are surviving pretty well. One thing I'd like to hear from others about, was the volume of cassettes available for 1980's video-gaming "systems", for instance the Timex/Sinclair 1000. Early Apple IIs and TRS-80's used cassettes. Those systems weren't on my radar at that time. My impression is that a lot of little companies, computer clubs, individuals, distributed bunches of those program cassettes in the period. If anyone remembers cassettes for their system, consider speaking up at the talk. If you are so moved about some notions on the subject, email me via my retrotechnology.com site. A Web search of my domain will find plenty of cassette material, but it might spoil any surprises from my talk! ;) Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Request from another dimension.
by murph 03 May '18

03 May '18

Someone on the Mastodon/GNU social network is trying to identify an old part, I was hoping that maybe someone could help. https://octodon.social/@phooky/99960546962469308 I'll be happy to pass any info along to them, so no sign up is required.

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Here's the speaker grid for VCF East
by Evan Koblentz 03 May '18

03 May '18

At long last: the Friday speaker grid! Made with high-tech HTML4..... http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/classes/ ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Anyone Have a Functional C128DCR (or C128) Board to Sell?
by J. Alexander Jacocks 02 May '18

02 May '18

All, I spent all this past workshop attempting to repair my C128DCR's luma/chroma output, which seems to have lost the chroma. Does anyone have a spare board? I need to get something working by VCFe, and I also could use another board, to compare. Drop me a line, if so. Better, if you're somewhere near DC, so I can come and get it. Thanks! - Alex

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Finalized VCF Workshop Dates for June, August
by Jeffrey Brace 02 May '18

02 May '18

OK. I checked with all the appropriate people and here are the finalized dates: June 9 & June 10 June 30 & July 1 August 11 & 12 In case anyone asks, we cannot do any in July because of conflicts with other events (Hamfests, K-Fest, etc.) and availability of the room at InfoAge.

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Ascii keyboard and Televideo Personal Terminal
by Jeff G 01 May '18

01 May '18

First question - does anyone have a 7-bit ascii keyboard I could borrow or potentially buy? Second question - Does anyone have extra parts and/or a manual to a Televideo Personal Terminal? Not even sure of the model of this as I can't find much documentation, but do see a few Youtube vids on it. Its a pretty small terminal. This one is badly yellowed, missing the spacebar, and I think it has some corrupt nvram (from just sitting) but I have no idea how to clear or fix it. On the "personal terminal" front, I also have an old At&t "Personal Terminal" that has a mushy touch screen on it (literally). I used to have a keyboard for this and got rid of it years ago like an idiot. Would anyone have such a keyboard for one laying around? The connector on it would be similar to the one that goes into the IBM model M, sort of a flat wide connector. The keyboard is fairly short/small and came with a "garage", sort of a shallow stand that the entire thing would sit on and provide a space to slide in the keyboard. Wish I could find one again. Thanks! Jeff aka Bags

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A few workshop notes
by Herb Johnson 01 May '18

01 May '18

I was able to come out to the workshop on Sunday, and work on an unusual computer I obtained. It's a Motorola EXORset 30. It's a 6809 development system running an XDOS OS on floppy, and supported by Motorola's EXORbus bussed backplane. It came up without a lot of fuss. It needed some careful AC power conditioning to the power electrolytics. http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/exorset.html I gave some support to Adam, who was able to operate his SGI Indigo computer for the first time, thanks to a keyboard and mouse I provided. I chatted with several people attending, providing sage wisdom about problems with RAM, switching speeds of diodes, pressure rollers on tape drives. I removed some rust from a couple of dot-matrix printers, and was surprised to find they could still print! Thanks to Jeff Galinat, who leant me AC cables and a 360K diskette; and to Jeff Brace for his support of and at the Workshop. Of course, I learned a lot about how my friends were diagnosing these issues. The depth of talent on site Sunday was amazing. It's rare and informative, to discuss 3-volt negative logic and the switching speeds of diodes at one point, then the problems of aged hard-rubber rollers at the next moment. I learned more about the early history of Apple II products. I got under the hood of some early Commodore PET's to see the less-than-industrial designs they produced early on. Any of these repair and preparation activities could be discussed at length. And it's a pleasure to see what the Museum's UNIVAC is able to do, even as more work is in progress. To think that other shipboard computers like that, were operating at sea in the late 1970's is astounding. Then to have one operational today, that's a great gift. That's also true of the PDP-8 "straight-eight", which was under repair at the diode level this weekend. And it's good to see my friends again, see and hear about them and their work and history with vintage computing. Even the weather was cooperative. Herb Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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NASA - FORTRAN
by Tony Bogan 01 May '18

01 May '18

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/01/fortran_data_galileo_ganymede_moon/ Tony

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OT: Funny
by Evan Koblentz 01 May '18

01 May '18

Damn printer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQGtucrJ8hM ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Future VCF Workshops - Summer 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 01 May '18

01 May '18

I'm looking ahead and will be picking dates for the June, July and August workshops. June 9&10 seems like a good date which conflicts only with Pacific Commodore Expo NW in Seattle. July 14&15 is the only weekend available at InfoAge and conflicts with Sussex Hamfest. Is this a big Hamfest? If so, we could do June 30&July1 instead. August Weekends: 11&12, 25&26 I did my best to avoid conflicts with known Hamfests and Vintage or related shows. Any thoughts or feelings about these dates?

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A few workshop notes
by Evan Koblentz 30 Apr '18

30 Apr '18

Good workshop this time around! Thanks to Jeff for organizing and everyone who attended. A few notes: - Special thanks to Ian, Jason P., Rich, Eric, Jeff J., Jeff B., Matt K., Laura, Martin (remotely), and Adam for all working on VCFed things. - Special thanks to just about everybody who was there Saturday and helped with unloading the IBM System/34. Darn good thing that IA owns a forklift and the military vehicle group guys were there to operate it! That's the right tool for the job, and it sure made easy/short work of unloading the minicomputer. - Last thing I did before leaving today was install the front trim panels on the UNIVAC pallets. Now they look like display platforms instead of forklift pallets: https://tinyurl.com/yctdlkfl. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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stumbled upon this TRS-80 thingy
by W2HX 30 Apr '18

30 Apr '18

https://bindable.com/api? looks like a model 4, but with some kind of blanking panel where the drives would live. I wonder if this was an actual version, maybe used in training or a dumb terminal? Or maybe someone just made up a panel. Looks nice :)

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Workshop tomorrow breakfast
by Jeffrey Brace 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

9am Princess Maria Diner, then back to workshop by 10:30.

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road signs, construction on I-95/I-295 near Trenton NJ
by Herb Johnson 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

For those traveling by car or truck on I-95 - I-295 around Trenton NJ. About the "loop" around Trenton, from the PA border, across US-1, to I-195 east/west (a major route to VCFed facilities at Infoage / Wall NJ). There's a signage and exit-number change on that loop. The entire loop is now signed "I-295", from the PA-NJ border to I-195. Formerly the NJ segment from the Scudders Falls bridge between PA and NJ, to US-1, was called "I-95". So your GPS maps may/may not show, and your eyeballs will see, signs which look a little different. I live in that area. There's also changes now and in years to come, at the PA Turnpike (I-276) and how it connects to the NJ Turnpike and to I-95 in PA. I don't follow that in detail and don't use those routes. But in several years, that Scudders Falls bridge will be replaced and become a toll bridge. Construction is happening there NOW and it may slow down traffic and line the road with blinky-light barriers. Old folks like me, who use paper maps and navigate by signs and eyeballs, not some digital GPS voice, pay attention to this stuff. Please, no snarky remarks, I'm trying to do my driving friends a favor here, not expose myself to ridicule. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Two incoming artifacts tomorrow
by Evan Koblentz 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

Tomorrow's workshop attendees will get to see two new artifacts if things go according to plan: the NeXT Cube (morning) and a minicomputer (afternoon or evening, depends on the person driving it down to us from Boston).

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Looking to sell my Lisa 2/10
by Blake Patterson 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

Greetings, I have a Lisa 2/10 (not Mac XL) in excellent condition with orig mouse and Lisa OS manuals/disks and the printer cable that I want to sell, but I worry about shipping it due to age and weight and size (eBay). I just don't use it and I feel bad having it just sitting there. I live in Alexandria, VA. Is anyone reading this aware of someone who might be interested, within driving distance / local pickup? https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1686/26133044993_f9625694c3_b.jpg Thanks. bp -- Heisenberg may have slept here.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: tape rescue
by Jeffrey Jonas 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

Is anyone into video archives: u-matic and such? I'm helping a friend's estate. His TV show is old enough to be on U-matic and other "vintage" formats. I'll be asking for most help once his vintage computers are inventoried. -- jeff jonas

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OT: Commodore sign on i295?
by John Heritage 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

Dumb question - I got my drivers license right around the time Commodore went bankrupt.. However, for at least a couple of years, I remember seeing a giant "Commodore" sign on the side of i295 heading south (New Jersey).. where Pureland industrial park is. (~ I think between Exit 10 and 11). I know that C='s HQ wasn't very far away in West Chester. Does anyone else remember this sign - and was it for "the" Commodore? Did Commodore have operations in Pureland at some point? (There's a small possibility the sign was on the other side of the road.. but I definitely remember the sign around that area of i295..) Thanks :)

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Need for workshop : Cardco Universal Centronics Parallel Printer Interface Commodore 64
by Jeffrey Brace 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

Since Evan is asking for things for people to bring at the last minute to the workshop, I'm jumping on the bandwagon ;) I have a Cardco Universal Centronics Parallel Printer Interface Commodore 64, but the wire that connects to the tape drive interface is disconnected. With help I should be able to repair it. It may just need soldering on the correct position. But as a backup, if someone has quick access to this device, then I would appreciate bringing it! I'm sure that there a dozen in the warehouse, but finding it may be a challenge, unless Adam has organized small interfaces as well!

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OT: last chance: CD drives & burners
by Jeffrey Jonas 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

I'm about to trash 2 banker boxes of parallel port ATAPI/IDE CD readers, burners and some DVD readers because nobody needs them. Even me :-/ Email me NOW if you want any because I am not bringing them to the workshop. -- jeff jonas

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Ethernet power injector
by Evan Koblentz 28 Apr '18

28 Apr '18

Can someone bring an Ethernet power injector tomorrow?

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Workshop note
by Evan Koblentz 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

I'll be there around 10am tomorrow. Jeff B. can't get there until 1pm, so whomever arrives first gets the honor of helping set up tables and stuff.

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Compaq Portable III diag/setup disk
by Evan Koblentz 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

For anyone going to the workshop this weekend: I may need a diagnostics/setup disk for the Compaq Portable III. Can someone find that image and bring it on 5.25 floppy? Also, TIL: Portable III and Portable 386 are different machines. Got myself confused by the naming. The one I need to get working this weekend is the III because it has the "backpack" for add-on cards.

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NiCad coin cells?
by Herb Johnson 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Neil likely is looking for, something like: 2.4V Volt Button Cell 80mAH NiMH Many of these are sold as 3.6 volt (three cells). Maybe he can chop up a couple. Local sources? Maybe Walmart or Best Buy, as some kind of "wired telephone battery". Radio Shack used to exist and sell these for $18. Ebay has bunches but I'm not sure how batteries ship from China these days. Jameco has them on back-order. Welcome to the 21st century, batteries not included. Herb "Player Piano" Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Friday speakers: need people to step up
by Evan Koblentz 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

We needed one more Friday speaker already, and now one of the other 14 pulled out. So we need two.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Off topic computer animation tape rescue
by Evan Koblentz 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

Ben I've been trying to reach you .... please email me off-list, evan(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Off topic computer animation tape rescue
by Bill Degnan 27 Apr '18

27 Apr '18

What computer was used for this, what kind of tapes? DLT? 9-track? On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 10:39 AM, Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Ben Greenfield <ben(a)cogs.com> > To: vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org > Cc: > Bcc: > Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2018 10:39:35 -0400 > Subject: Off topic computer animation tape rescue > Hey All, > > I just had Jeff Kleiser of Kleiser walzak stop by and ask to through out > his companies archive of tapes video, exabyte, dlts,.... > > > They are an early cgi firm think dancing gas pumps and listerine bottles. > > They also did spider man toby maguire era. > > I don’t know if anyone cares or wants to help migrate data, let me know > if you are interested. > > Ben >

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