- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

VCF East flyer
by Evan Koblentz 01 Mar '17

01 Mar '17

A few people asked for the event flyer. Here's a link: http://www.vcfed.org/evan/eastxii.pdf .... download and share widely! ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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VCF East exhibit reg is closed
by Evan Koblentz 28 Feb '17

28 Feb '17

Here's the final exhibitor list: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-exhib… Anyone wishing to register an exhibit now must grovel at my feet. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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Ad space in VCF East program booklet
by Evan Koblentz 28 Feb '17

28 Feb '17

Anyone want to advertise their business in the VCF East program booklet, or know someone else who does? Cost is $400 for a full page, $200 half, and $100 quarter. Your ad will reach a few hundred tech-minded people, most of whom live with a couple of hours of here. The pages will be 5.5" wide x 8.5" tall (8.5x11 sideways folded in half). We print in color. Deadline is Friday, March 10 at midnight. Email me privately (evan(a)vcfed.org) if you're interested. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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FS: Several 1960's Raytheon Nixie Tubes and Control Boards
by Systems Glitch 28 Feb '17

28 Feb '17

I know there are several people who like Nixie tubes on this list, so: Links: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272572418459 http://www.ebay.com/itm/272572420943 http://www.ebay.com/itm/272572429330 Two sign indicators and one numeric tube. All tubes have been tested with a homebrew switchmode supply built to drive Nixie tubes. One of the sign tubes is obviously heavily used, the glass is darkened in the front. All three boards include a socket with the full pin count populated, which may actually be more valuable than the Nixie tubes, especially the sign tubes :) There's also a great mix of really old TTL on these boards. Some of it is packaged in blue plastic DIPs made by...Sprague! I didn't know they *made* ICs. Appears to be standard 7400 series TTL. The board with the numeric tube includes a white ceramic TDD1100 which appears to be compatible with the usual 7441 or 74141 Nixie driver ICs commonly found in 1970's equipment. Tubes are tested, control boards are not. Thanks, Jonathan

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Fwd: [AMPEX] Free: equipment racks in NJ
by Matt Patoray 27 Feb '17

27 Feb '17

Thought these might be of interest to some on the list. Reply directly to Tom. Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: > From: Tom Bassi via Ampex <ampex(a)lena.recordist.com> > Date: February 27, 2017 at 8:02:16 PM EST > To: Ampex Mailing List <ampex(a)recordist.com> > Subject: [AMPEX] Free: equipment racks > Reply-To: Tom Bassi <tom.bassi(a)gmail.com>, Ampex Mailing List <ampex(a)lena.recordist.com> > > 6 1/2-foot tall free-standing equipment racks, two-post variety (telco, > etc), two available. Both VG+ condition, one even has nice oak trim added > to the outside for improved aesthetics. > > Free, must pick up in central New Jersey, need them gone in about a week's > time frame. Email off list, please. > > Tom > _______________________________________________ > Ampex Mailing List > Ampex(a)lena.recordist.com > http://lena.recordist.com/mailman/listinfo/ampex > Copyright 2015 by the author of the post. > Sent: mspproductions(a)gmail.com

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Replacement VCF East speaker needed
by Evan Koblentz 27 Feb '17

27 Feb '17

Everyone, Oscar V. had to change his spring travel plans due to a family emergency. He sends his apologies, as he wanted to have an exhibit and give a Friday class about his Pi-based replica kits. We need a replacement topic/speaker. Emailed me privately (evan(a)vcfed.org) ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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IM-6100 Availability (PDP-8 on a chip)
by Systems Glitch 27 Feb '17

27 Feb '17

All, I had a component supplier get back to me today -- they appear to have several *hundred* IM-6100s in stock. Looks like I'll be able to do a bulk purchase on these to at least fill OSI 560Z kit needs. Contact me off-list if you'd like to purchase some of these CPUs independent of a 560Z kit. Information: the IM-6100 is an Intersil product that implements most of a PDP-8/e on a single chip. It doesn't handle memory management like the later 6120, but you can implement it yourself. It's used in the Ohio Scientific 560Z "Processor Lab" to allow PDP-8 code to be executed on an OSI system. Thanks, Jonathan

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Fwd: [infoage volunteers] Extra hands needed
by Evan Koblentz 27 Feb '17

27 Feb '17

Everyone, Martin's been very kind to VCFed. It would be awesome if some of our members can help him back with this project for InfoAge's giant satellite dish. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [infoage volunteers] Extra hands needed Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2017 08:36:20 -0500 From: Martin Flynn <maflynn(a)theflynn.org> Reply-To: infoagestaff(a)googlegroups.com To: Is <infoagestaff(a)googlegroups.com> On Saturday morning, March 11, 2017, I will be installing IT cables in the 9162 attic to support another computer on the TLM-18 console. If you are available to lend a hand, please let me know. Martin Flynn -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "InfoAge Science Center Volunteers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to infoagestaff+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to infoagestaff(a)googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/infoagestaff/7EC697D8-A212-4821-AFA3-425C…. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

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Virtual Computer Museum Tour and (paid) Help Wanted
by rar 27 Feb '17

27 Feb '17

As of last evening, I have the beginnings of a virtual museum ( https://museum.syssrc.com/album/pan<https://musuem.syssrc.com/album/pan> ) Enjoy! I am looking to hire an interested party to document up to 1000 objects in the virtual tour. There are two parts to the project: 1) Create a base page about an artifact. For example: a. https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/105/ b. https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/personal-computers/410/ I will supply pictures of the actual object. You will write the text, find videos, emulators and provide other information. All the information goes into a Django CMS 2) Tag the item on the VR tour. It requires editing an html document like this: { "pitch": -7.0, "yaw": -15.408, "cssClass": "custom-hotspot", "createTooltipFunc": hotspot, "createTooltipArgs": "Japanese Abacus - soroban (算盤, counting tray) ", "clickHandlerArgs": "https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/early-computing/20/", "clickHandlerFunc": modalpop, All are welcome to come to Baltimore to visit the real Museum. Bob Roswell broswell(a)syssrc.com 410-771-5544 ext 4336 Computer Museum Highlights<http://museum.syssrc.com/> [syssrc-logo-label-10-9-16a]

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museum report
by Evan Koblentz 27 Feb '17

27 Feb '17

I was in our museum from 1pm-4pm today. It was quiet. I feel asleep at the chair of our office PC, so I don't know if there were any visitors! Had a meeting at 4:00 with Fred and two of the Infoage board members about improving the Infoage website. Then I went to the main Infoage staff meeting at 6:30. Only thing going on that affects us is they're having a veteran's day thing on Saturday May 20 with extended museum hours. The rest of us is normal bureaucratic baloney. :) ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 26 Feb '17

26 Feb '17

Mixed day at the museum! Totally dead from 1:00-3:00, and then very busy from 3:00-5:00. Several families came through. They all spent a good amount of time here and our teenage guests seemed genuinely interested. We had a surprise VIP: the daughter of Lloyd Christianson. Lloyd worked here in his Army days when it was Camp Evans and then co-founded Electronic Associates. I'm very happy that she discovered us, and she was very happy to see our EAI TR-20 on display and to hear that we're restoring it. I have her contact information and will definitely follow up. She didn't know much about his work, but she said her relatives might. I hope to find out what he did here, etc.

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DEC 5380 chip
by Herb Johnson 26 Feb '17

26 Feb '17

> Friends, google has not been kind to me. Looking for the datasheet > on the 5380 chip used in my PDP-8/e in the M8650 TTY board.. Run my reply past David Gesswein. But the 5380 on the M8650 schematic, looks a lot like Signetics SP380, down to the pinouts. (don't be confused by OR vs AND, use Boolean logic). you can get SP380's on eBay for several dollars. Or ask some PDP-8 owners. There's also some notes on this page: http://tronola.com/html/ram_for_pdp-8e.html which suggest the DEC S380 is your "5380". Also look at some DEC handbooks about the Omnibus. And of course, stare at your board, see the brand and number on the chips versus names in the schematic. DEC is your friend here, Google merely introduced you to them. ;) Herb Johnson stumbler with 8's -- 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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560Z Build Writeup
by Systems Glitch 26 Feb '17

26 Feb '17

Had time to do a full writeup on building the 560Z: http://www.glitchwrks.com/2017/02/26/osi-560z-build Thanks, Jonathan

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] more stuff to donate
by William Dudley 26 Feb '17

26 Feb '17

We have a winner! If you live near Jackson, NJ, you can pick it up. If you go to the museum for work sessions, we can meet there. Failing that, there's VCF East. Or I can mail it. Bill This email is free of malware because I run Linux. On Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 2:09 PM, Peter Cetinski <pete(a)pski.net> wrote: > I'll take the H19 docs if still available. Thx. > > Pete > > > On Feb 26, 2017, at 12:48 PM, William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > > 1. Notebook with ALL the documentation for the Heath/Zenith H19 Terminal. > > (I'm sorry I didn't find this when I gave away the terminal last year.) > > This is a three ring notebook, two inches thick, with everything about > the > > H19. > > > > 2. Heathkit manuals ONLY for IO-4550 Dual Trace 10MHz scope. Two > manuals, > > "Operation" and "Assembly". > > > > If no takers, I'm afraid they'll be recycled for the paper value. > > > > I will mail these if requested. > > > > Bill Dudley > > Jackson, NJ > > > > This email is free of malware because I run Linux. >

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DEC 5380 chip
by W2HX 26 Feb '17

26 Feb '17

Friends, google has not been kind to me. Looking for the datasheet on the 5380 chip used in my PDP-8/e in the M8650 TTY board (and elsewhere, surely). It appears to be a quad, dual input AND chip with inverted inputs (ie a NOR gate). Can anyone help me find this? much appreciated. Eugene W2HX

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FS: Damaged DEC H-217D 16KW Core Memory Board
by Systems Glitch 26 Feb '17

26 Feb '17

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272570404475 Acquired with a large lot of other boards. I know these are used in PDP-11/05s and PDP-11/10s with 16KW core as a factory configuration (my PDP-11/10 is configured as such). This one has some damage in the core plane area -- see the pictures in the listing. No idea if it's fixable or useful for anything other than the driver circuits. Figured I'd list it rather than shearing off the edge fingers and harvesting the driver ICs. Thanks, Jonathan

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more stuff to donate
by William Dudley 26 Feb '17

26 Feb '17

1. Notebook with ALL the documentation for the Heath/Zenith H19 Terminal. (I'm sorry I didn't find this when I gave away the terminal last year.) This is a three ring notebook, two inches thick, with everything about the H19. 2. Heathkit manuals ONLY for IO-4550 Dual Trace 10MHz scope. Two manuals, "Operation" and "Assembly". If no takers, I'm afraid they'll be recycled for the paper value. I will mail these if requested. Bill Dudley Jackson, NJ This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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Ohio Scientific 560Z Board: IT LIVES!
by Systems Glitch 25 Feb '17

25 Feb '17

IT LIVES! I spent most of today hacking on the 560Z board. I got the 12-bit porthole going first, took a bit as the manual doesn't tell you that you need IC CC installed if you want to be able to write to the 4K exposed in the porthole. After that, I plugged in a Z80 and tried to get it running the test code in the manual. Turns out I had a dud Z80 :) With a good one installed the test code ran no-problem, as did a little hand written code to push data to the lamp register on the new memory board. I plugged in an IM-6100 and pretty much determined that at least the first one I tried is dead. I'll recheck the soldering on it later -- it's stuffed into a machine pin socket and soldered in, since half of the legs were rotted off by that corrosive black foam everyone loves so much. Anyway, the second IM-6100 works! And the 560Z board works! And the 12-bit RAM board works! I made a (low-res, poorly focused) video with our old digital point-n-shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYbGXHJST8U The IM-6100 is running a little loop that increments the accumulator and stores it to the lamp register. Storing of course clears the accumulator, but I have the lamp register mapped over RAM, so I just read the value back out of it. My first foray into PDP-8 code, it's certainly different, but it's still just machine code. Very happy that this seems to be coming fully together! Now if only I could find more IM-6100s...I'll test the remaining 3 tomorrow. Thanks, Jonathan

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Another history story
by Evan Koblentz 25 Feb '17

25 Feb '17

I wrote another history angle for TechRepublic. http://www.techrepublic.com/article/storage-class-memory-supporters-may-hee… ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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mpi 91/92 disk drive manual
by William Dudley 25 Feb '17

25 Feb '17

I found a photocopy of a "product manual" for the MPI model 91/92 disk drive (5 1/4 floppy). It was part of a larger manual for a Direct 800 video terminal that I no longer have, that nobody's ever heard of, and probably even fewer had the "computer" version with the disk drives. ANYWAY, does anybody want this photocopy of the service manual? If it's rare and there aren't already scans of it on the Internet it might be useful. Any interest, lemme know, or I'll recycle the paper. Bill Dudley Jackson, NJ This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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List check. Please disregard.
by MailmanLists Support 25 Feb '17

25 Feb '17

15.16 AEDT List check.

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SWORDFISH!
by Jeffrey Jonas 24 Feb '17

24 Feb '17

Apropos of Enigmas: https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/02/alan-turing-code-breaking-cocktai… A pop-up cocktail bar inspired by the life of WW2 code breaker Alan Turing is set to open in London, and the waiting list is already 7,428 people long. the subject refers to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordfish_(password)

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next Wednesday - VCF East exhibit deadline (almost full)
by Evan Koblentz 23 Feb '17

23 Feb '17

VCF East exhibit registration deadline is March 1, however, now I must add: "Or if it fills up, whichever comes first." There are only three or four spots left, and five or six people expressed interest. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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I thought this Dilbert Cartoon was appropriate
by Christian Liendo 23 Feb '17

23 Feb '17

I figured a few people here would get a chuckle. http://dilbert.com/strip/2017-02-23?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=socialmarketin…

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] ISO: IBM PCjr and accessories
by Bob Aviles 22 Feb '17

22 Feb '17

Hi, I have a pair with ps, disk, book, sidecar, and manual. Bobby -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 2/22/17, Joseph Oprysko via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] ISO: IBM PCjr and accessories To: "vcf-midatlantic" <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Cc: "Joseph Oprysko" <joprysko1(a)gmail.com> Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2017, 11:54 AM The IBM PCjr was my first "real" computer (following the Timex Sinclair 1000). While I know I doubt I'll be able to track one down with the 3rd party second-story 2nd Floppy drive and memory expansion. I would like to have one in my collection for nostalgia's sake. I'm looking to do this as a trade, as my financial situation, has severely numbered my days as a "vintage PC hobbyist". Likely, once I'm done the purge, I'll have maybe 2-3 vintage PC's left, as opposed to the rather broad collection I have now. I'd like one of them to be a well outfitted PCjr. The others to stay, remains to be seen, but likely my Apple IIe, and my Mac SE/30. Things have been EXTREMELY difficult for me these past few years. In my neck, EVERY disc or vertebrae is herniated. In my lower back I have two herniated discs, and moderate narrowing of the spinal column. Meaning in the next few years I could lose the ability to walk/drive. Even with Medicare, the 20% in co-payments needed for me to get surgery is more than I get in disability in a full year. I LOVE MY COMPUTERS AND WANT THEM TO HAVE A GOOD HOME. -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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Laser card enclosure ... homemade :)
by Evan Koblentz 22 Feb '17

22 Feb '17

I needed a way to protect the Lego card from curious fingers. We don't own the Laser enclosure device, so the card just hangs off the side of the computer. No good. Michael Mulhern (via Facebook) humorously suggested I could make the enclosure out of Lego. I thought that was a fine idea. So here's what I did today: http://vcfed.org/evan/laser/enclosure/1.jpg http://vcfed.org/evan/laser/enclosure/2.jpg http://vcfed.org/evan/laser/enclosure/3.jpg http://vcfed.org/evan/laser/enclosure/4.jpg http://vcfed.org/evan/laser/enclosure/5.jpg Satellite dish is, of course, non-functional... The whole top comes off for card/cable access. I might hinge it. The enclosure is highly functional and good for a laugh. About the self-adhesive velcro attaching it to the computer: I felt bad doing it, because I spent so much time cleaning the case, but I needed a quick/easy way to attach the enclosure and also remove it. I know that GooGone will come to the rescue when I someday need to remove the adhesive. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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ISO: IBM PCjr and accessories
by Joseph Oprysko 22 Feb '17

22 Feb '17

The IBM PCjr was my first "real" computer (following the Timex Sinclair 1000). While I know I doubt I'll be able to track one down with the 3rd party second-story 2nd Floppy drive and memory expansion. I would like to have one in my collection for nostalgia's sake. I'm looking to do this as a trade, as my financial situation, has severely numbered my days as a "vintage PC hobbyist". Likely, once I'm done the purge, I'll have maybe 2-3 vintage PC's left, as opposed to the rather broad collection I have now. I'd like one of them to be a well outfitted PCjr. The others to stay, remains to be seen, but likely my Apple IIe, and my Mac SE/30. Things have been EXTREMELY difficult for me these past few years. In my neck, EVERY disc or vertebrae is herniated. In my lower back I have two herniated discs, and moderate narrowing of the spinal column. Meaning in the next few years I could lose the ability to walk/drive. Even with Medicare, the 20% in co-payments needed for me to get surgery is more than I get in disability in a full year. I LOVE MY COMPUTERS AND WANT THEM TO HAVE A GOOD HOME. -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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VCF Southeast -- who's going?
by Evan Koblentz 22 Feb '17

22 Feb '17

I've been given the opportunity to attend VCF Southeast (April 29-30) thanks to one person's generosity. Going to bring the Lego - Apple (Laser) exhibit. Who is else from our group is attending? I would guess Brian Stuart, some of the VA/NC people, etc. (Of course, several of the SE people are on this list too: Alan, Kyle, David Greelish, and so on; several of them are making their caravan trip to East too!) ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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Laser 128/EX manual?
by Evan Koblentz 22 Feb '17

22 Feb '17

Does anyone have a decent-condition Laser 128/EX manual to donate or loan to the museum? (There's a PDF of the manual on Archive.org, Asimov, and several private sites, but it is the same scan in all of them -- badly yellowed. A * good * scan would suffice, but we'd much rather have the original book for demo purposes.) ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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If anyone's interested: latest robot program
by Evan Koblentz 21 Feb '17

21 Feb '17

Here is my new-and-improved Lego robotic forklift program. Special thanks this time to Paul Hagstrom for his helpful suggestion that I detect all the joystick direction options, save the active one to a variable, and then POKE once as needed vs. trying to detect/POKE after each possible case. ---------- 10 GOSUB 1000: REM INIT LEGO 20 POKE L,0: REM ALL OFF 30 GOSUB 2000: REM NAVIGATION 40 GOSUB 3000: REM BUTTONS 50 GOTO 30 60 END 1000 S = 7:L = 49280 + S * 16 1010 POKE L + 3,1 1020 POKE L + 2,63 1030 POKE L + 1,0 1040 POKE L,0 1050 RETURN 2000 REM NAVIGATION 2010 FB = PDL (1):LR = PDL (0) 2020 M = 0 2030 IF FB < 75 THEN M = 5 2040 IF FB > 180 THEN M = 10 2050 IF LR < 75 THEN M = 9 2060 IF LR > 180 THEN M = 6 2070 POKE L,M 2080 IF M = 10 THEN CALL - 198: FOR W = 1 TO 500: NEXT W 2090 RETURN 3000 REM FORLIFT 3010 IF PEEK (49249) > 127 THEN POKE L,16: GOTO 3010 3020 IF PEEK (49250) > 127 THEN POKE L,32: GOTO 3020 3030 RETURN Real simple: Lines 10-60 are the main program, 1000-1050 are the required Lego initialization, 2000-2090 are the robot control (front - back - left - right), and 3000-3030 make the forklift go up/down. Hey Jeff and Dan, I think I've graduated from spaghetti code. :) As I told Dan already, the next thing I'll add is a Lego sensor to prevent the forklift from trying to continue going up/down when it reaches its mechanical limit. This did not work on my previous robot (to detect the limits of rack-and-pinion steering and disable the relevant motor) because the motor moved too fast. Not a problem with the forklift: it intentionally moves veeeeeeeeeery slow. I also ordered mini banana plugs so I can make new connecting wires between the Lego interface box and the motors, lights, and sensors. The 30-year-old wires from Lego are badly worn out. The difference when I connected a motor using these old wires vs. using modern alligator clips was palpable. Jeff B., all I have to do to dominate your Capsella robot is corner it, get the forklift under its drive wheels, and press the up button before you escape. :) Then your robot will be (ahem) forked. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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more retro-computing goodness on hackaday.com
by William Dudley 21 Feb '17

21 Feb '17

http://hackaday.com/2017/02/21/a-full-speed-portable-apple-e/ http://hackaday.com/2017/02/20/a-6502-retrocomputer-in-a-very-tidy-package/ Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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Apple Newton MessagePad books free
by Michael Kato 21 Feb '17

21 Feb '17

I have the following for local pickup in Alexandria/Crystal City VA. I will also ship if you pay for shipping(qualifies for media mail) https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1gmOrHMzhgkS3A2eG5XbVR2d3c Defying Gravity: The making of Newton - Menuez https://www.amazon.com/Defying-Gravity-Making-Markos-Kounalakis/dp/09418319… Apple MessagePad Handbook Newton Programmer's Guide for Newton 2.0 1996 ISBN 0-201-47947-8 Newton Toolkit User's Guide The NewtonScript Programming Language Newton Press User's Guide for Windows Programming for the Newton: Software development with NewtonScript McKeehan/Rhodes ISBN 0-12-484800-1 Programming for the Newton using Windows: Software development with NewtonScript McKeehan/Rhodes ISBN 0-12-484840-3 Newton UserInterface Guidelines ISBN 0-201-28838-8 The Newton PDA Platform: A technology and feature analysys (booklet) PDA Developers - Volume 3.1 - Jan/Feb 1995 Newton Technology Journal - Volume 11, Number 3 - June 1996 ....maki....

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Spring clean purge free items
by Jason Perkins 20 Feb '17

20 Feb '17

I'm beyond capacity on stuff. Items below are feee! 7x Avaya 5410 digital phones. With handsets. AT keyboard extension cables. 90s and late 80s mac manuals and software. Some in box. 2 moving boxes worth. Items below are as-asked. I'm open to offers. Sinclair zx81, with 16k ram module. Worked when I tried it last year. $20. SGI indego workstation. Has new clock battery. Front plastic has a few cracks. $40 IBM model M keyboard cables. Ps2 ends. $6 Phone Net mac networking adapters. $1 AppleBus cable tester. $5 I can bring items to vcf east! Thanks, Jason -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085 Sent from my iPhone

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How many c64s?
by william degnan 20 Feb '17

20 Feb '17

How many commodore 64's do you own working or no? I have a lot, not sure how many. I live near the old Commodore factory, they still pop up out of the ground when it rains Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net

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15 videos: Xerox Alto Restoration
by Jeffrey Jonas 20 Feb '17

20 Feb '17

of possible interest: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-_93BVApb58I3ZV67LW3S_JEMFnDrQDj&sp… Xerox Alto Restoration CuriousMarc This video series chronicles the restoration of a seminal Xerox Alto computer. This is the machine that Steve Jobs saw during a visit at the famed Xerox PARC, and would inspire the Macintosh. Although never commercialized, this 1974 design, built entirely out of simple TTL logic before a powerful enough microprocessor even existed, was so far ahead of its time that it is hard to comprehend. It demonstrated many then unheard-of firsts, and astonishingly, they all made it to the present day computer, barely modified: a personal computer booting from a hard disk, with a graphical screen, proportional fonts, a mouse driven GUI, a WYSIWYG text editor, a drawing program, IDE with overlapping windows, Ethernet, Net booting, laser printing, the first optical mouse - and even network games. Follow along as we delve into the depth of this machine while bringing it back to life step by step, while being constantly amazed at its never ending cleverness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhIohWr10kU&list=PL-_93BVApb58I3ZV67LW3S_JE… Xerox Alto Restoration Part 12 - Ethernet pioneers We bring up the Ethernet card and optical mouse, and are visited by Xerox Ethernet inventors and pioneer designers Dave Boggs and Ron Crane.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum report
by Michael Thompson 20 Feb '17

20 Feb '17

> > Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 00:01:32 -0500 > From: Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> > Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum report > > I bought two rolls of black stick-on window tint because Jeff B. noticed > that our workbench area gets very warm and sunlight shines directly where > we installed the bookshelves. Going to need some kind of squeegee thing and > some sort of spray to install the tint. Googling that for advice... > Home Depot sells an installation kit with soapy spray, squeegees, and a special cutter for trimming the film at the edges of the windows. The processes is not difficult, just use plenty of the spray on teh windows and film. Be very careful to get the bubbles out from under the film. If takes a lot of time with the squeegee working from the center to chase the bubbles to the edge of the film. -- Michael Thompson

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Another retro computer simulated with modern hardware
by William Dudley 20 Feb '17

20 Feb '17

http://hackaday.com/2017/02/18/arduino-altair-8800-simulator/ Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 19 Feb '17

19 Feb '17

We had about 15 visitors today. Mixture of families and adult couples. One group was a grandmother, adult daughter, and 10-year-old boy. The boy was precocious and somehow knew about MS-DOS and binary math. Another visitor was a guy in his mid-20s who said he came to our old museum four years ago. He stayed here today for a couple of hours to hang out and ask tons of questions. Our own Steve A. also visited with a friend of his. I bought two rolls of black stick-on window tint because Jeff B. noticed that our workbench area gets very warm and sunlight shines directly where we installed the bookshelves. Going to need some kind of squeegee thing and some sort of spray to install the tint. Googling that for advice...

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Why {vintage} Basic beats Python
by Douglas Crawford 19 Feb '17

19 Feb '17

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incompatible plastics :-(
by Jeffrey Jonas 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

I just had to clean plastic printer covers with GooGone because the bubble wrapped slimed it. I've had wires melt into the plastic storage box (polystyrene?). Programming templates crumbled to dust due to the outgassing of other plastic drafting templates. Is anyone aware of the chemistry involved?

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Museum Report 2017-02-18 February 18, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

So I volunteered to be docent at the museum despite being up until 5am and this will be the fourth weekend in a row that I have been here. I suppose I should expect to be here every weekend as VCF draws near. There were few visitors to InfoAge, and a few of them made their way to our museum. The Model Train guys were working on their stuff down the hall. The Antique Radio guys had their repair workshop today in 9032-A. I worked on VCF East planning, volunteer coordination, e-mails etc. Don Caselli stopped by to say hello. He has been busy taken care of his wife who broke her shoulder recently. Bill Inderiden stopped by to say hello. He was at the Radio repair workshop and updating me on the TR-20 repair status.His test machine broke and told me the long term plans of putting castors on the bottom of the rack where the TR-20 now resides. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Osborne 1 Spotted on CL
by Jason Perkins 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

This is actually just down the street. No affiliation: https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/sys/6007642031.html -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Off-topic my company just bought a large German CNC
by Ben Greenfield 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

Hey All, I don’t want to sound too spammy but my company just purchased a 2000mm by 30000mm CNC with all sorts of great features that includes an Optical AI system to recognize patterns on materials and machine appropriately based on those markings. It also has a lathe. I bring this up because I thought people on this list might need simple access to a machine like this and I expect it too be under utilized for the first year. During this time if a Federation member wanted to try something, create vacuum form molds, PCB production, faceplate machining, …. I’m willing to do it for the sake of learning if you supply the material. The machine will be delivered in juneish and I will go through training on the machine at that time. To prepare for the training I’m gathering materials to experiment on and I’m shopping for milling tools. If anybody thinks they are interested contact me off-list and let me know your interest. I will be ordering the milling tools mid-aprilish. I hope someone takes me up on this, Ben

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FS: MITS Altair 8800B Turnkey Tested/Working, All MITS Boards
by Systems Glitch 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272560398074 Board Set as follows: * MITS 8080 CPU board * MITS 16K Static RAM board * MITS Turnkey board with TURMON ROM monitor Fully tested, it loads MITS Extended BASIC and runs. See the listing for repair details. This machine came to me as a parts bucket. Happy to deliver it in person to VCF East for no shipping cost -- payment will be required at the close of the listing, though. Thanks, Jonathan

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Three history talks at Trenton
by Herb Johnson 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

Evan announced these events at the Trenton Computer Festival: > 12:25-1:20 - Brian Stuart, "ENIAC Then and Now" > > 1:30-2:25 - Frank O'Brien, "Flying to the Moon / The Apollo Guidance > Computer" > > 2:35-3:30 - Jeff B. & [Evan Koblentz], 8-Bit 'Bots (Capsella, Lego) ..and Neil Cherry posted in reference to his talk: "Do It Yourself: Home Automation & More"; also scheduled at 12:25-1:20 Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing Brian's talk on the ENIAC, on the Princeton University campus. His talk was sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society chapter, and the ACM chapter, hosted at Princeton. They meet together each month for public presentations like Brian's. Brian gave a fine presentation, about the construction of the ENIAC and about its general operation. He demonstrated a visual and operational model of the ENIAC, which runs on modern computers. He described both its physical architecture, and its computing methods. ENIAC design and operation were a key part of computing development in the 1940's and 50's. I believe a video of this talk, may be on YouTube in due course. In attendance was my good friend and colleague, Frank O'Brien - an active member of the sponsoring organizations, and of course he's part of InfoAge. We took time to chat and I caught up with his recent activities. He's given his AGC talk a number of times recently. He tells me he's added some props to give descriptions about the fundamental issues of spaceflight guidance: "where you are, where you are going, which way is up?". So I look forward to seeing his presentation again. I've heard Neil's talks on Home Automation at TCF; they are informative and not "too technical for mere mortals". He's published, and well-versed, on the software and hardware of commercial products; and has championed open-source approaches. The subject is of interest to the vintage computing community, for those who develop or use access from their computers to modern devices and the Web. Another friend of mine, but one not active in VCF discussions, is Jonathan Allen. "Practical Electronics Tricks of the Trade" will be presented by him at 1:30-2:25. Jonathan has repaired and restored TV's and radios for decades. He's very familiar with 20th century test equipment and tools. His talk's content may be of interest to those beginning to restore their vintage computers. There are many other talks at the Trenton Computer Festival. There will be exhibits by computer clubs, including VCF Inc.; and by The Sarnoff Collection which is on the TCNJ campus, and which has vintage computers from RCA. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Available in NJ: Tandy 1000 RL
by Andy Meyer 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Tandy 1000 RL Worked when put in storage Available in Summit, NJ This is my friend's machine Email me directly for his contact info. Andy

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Person in Queens needs ride to VCF East
by Evan Koblentz 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

See the thread here: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?56291-Looking-for-VCF-East-ride-s…

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Left your flashlight at the workshop?
by Evan Koblentz 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Someone left a good-quality flashlight at the workshop. If it's yours then email me off-list, describe the flashlight, and I'll get it back to you.

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VCF West is August 5-6
by Evan Koblentz 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Go make your travel plans. :) http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/ ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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Late-night BASIC support
by Evan Koblentz 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Anyone up? I am fighting with Applesoft BASIC (and losing). Looking for late-night phone support... ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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