- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Getting Data off old Atari Floppies
by Herb Johnson 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

> One thing I really don't like about old floppies is that for certain > brands etc of 5.25" floppies (and possibly 8" floppies) the media turns > to mush and will get all over the drive heads (and destroy the disk) My experience is, the magnetic coating crumbles. Friction turns the fragments into what might be called "mush". I confirm bad experiences cited with "Wabash" branded 5.25" diskettes. > Supposedly (Based on info from Chuck Guzis/sydex, though I've never > tried this myself), if you dismantle the floppy by cutting open the > vinyl case and removing the "cookie" inside, and put it on a baking > sheet and bake it in the oven at 300F(?) for maybe 8 hours, they can be > made readable again. You may need to apply some sort of sealant to the > outside of the disk after baking. This is, to be polite, flawed advice. There may be some confusion about "baking" 1/4" audio magnetic tapes - I have no details about that process. The diskette Mylar cookie will distort with heat - period. So will the plastic envelope. Distortion temperatures are likely above, 120, 130 degrees F. I don't know the minimum. Storage above room temperature is not recommended. I won't say "try this to see" because someone will mess up their oven and blame me. If you try this, use all possible caution and do NOT leave your experiment unattended. I am not responsible for injury or damage to you, your oven, and certainly to your diskette. My previous post in this thread, has a link to a Web page on my site, which discusses recovery methods I'm aware of. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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VC Forum joining VC Federation
by Evan Koblentz 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

A poorly-kept secret plan is now official. :) Erik Klein's Vintage Computer Forum will soon be part of the Vintage Computer Federation. Erik will continue running the forum on the Federation's behalf. The only public change will be the address: it will move from http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/forum.php to http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/forum/ .... of course there will be a redirect while people get used to the change. Erik asked me to announce here that he's looking for additional forum moderators. He's picky about selecting the right people :) but anyone interested should email him at webmaster(a)vintage-computer.com or send him a private message through the forum.

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The RIFA Cap Says: PFFFFFT!
by Systems Glitch 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Just had one blow in an old ECL monitor, releasing tons of stinky capacitor smoke. Had to take the monitor outside to let it finish smoking. I know these are "X2 safety rated" devices, but what does that really mean? "Keep two handy cos they fail a lot?" Seems to me that not blowing up would be a great safety feature, something you wouldn't relegate to cheap rice paper in epoxy. Thanks, Jonathan

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iMac
by chrisjpf33＠gmail.com 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Does the doorstop iMac at InfoAge provide a true value of these things?

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New board member: Erik Klein
by Evan Koblentz 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Folks, Earlier tonight we announced that Erik Klein's VC Forum is becoming part of the VC Federation. With that deal, the Federation board -- myself, Jeff Brace, and Corey Cohen -- voted to add Erik himself to our table. Although the non-profit Federation will own the forum, Erik will continue managing it. Erik will also be our west coast representative, especially re: an event that we haven't yet formally announced, but which is partially cited on the Federation web site. ;) (We really can't talk about that until things are settled with the venue and various partners. Trust me, we'll shout it from the virtual rooftops when it is official!) Erik joined this email list a couple of days ago. Please join me in welcoming him!

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Getting Data off old Atari Floppies
by John Heritage 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Dear Hobbyists, I went to VCF East 2014 and I remember a really good presentation on the best practices for getting data off of old floppies.. things like assuming your first read may be your only successful read, etc.. Can someone point me to a web link or send me the tips for restoring data off of old floppies? I have a # of old floppies including (I believe) snapshots of an Atari 8bit BBS I used to run with my father. Some floppies are in OK condition, others not.. and I need to know the order of operations for preventing damage to 'future floppies', etc.. Should I be cleaning the drive after every single disk? what's the best way to clean the drive?, etc... I plan to use a USB or RS232 to SIO type adapter and probably the Atarimax APE software (windows or DOS, tbd) as the 'destination', Thanks much :) P.S. Bonus points if someone can tell me if a 1050 is suitable for doing all of this work.. My old floppies are a mixture of 810 format (single density) and 1050 (dual density). I also think some 810 disks were written in happy drive format, but I believe a 1050 will still read them, just not as fast as a happy 810 drive would.. John H

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Museum Report
by Jeffrey Brace 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Mouse was docent for the museum yesterday Sunday December 13. He did a great job. There were lots and lots of visitors because of the Holiday train setup. Busy all day. I believe that the trains will be there one more weekend on Dec. 19/20 weekend.

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Classic Tandy compters, New York and The Big Bang Theroy
by Kelly Leavitt 13 Dec '15

13 Dec '15

I know many of you don't watch sitcoms, but I'm a fan. For those of you that don't partake, you can stop here... So, here's a link between this nonsensical show and our hobby. Specifically, one of the characters (Howard Wolowitz) is named after an early developer for TRS-80 computers. I started working on databases on TRS-80 model II computers. The database we used was called Profile. It was created for Radio Shack by the Small Computer Company in Hawthorne, New York. The Small Computer Company was founded by Howard Wolowitz in 1979. Bill Prady, now a producer for The Big Bang Theory, used to be one of Howard's partners. So, it ain't much, but to me it was fun when I figured this out. Kelly References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FilePro http://www.photobuff.com/filepro.htm http://www.photobuff.com/move.htm http://www.sfdrupalguy.com/six-degrees-of-howard-wolowitz

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Getting Data off old Atari Floppies
by Herb Johnson 13 Dec '15

13 Dec '15

> ... and I need to know the order of operations for preventing > damage to 'future floppies', etc.. Should I be cleaning the drive > after every single disk? what's the best way to > clean the drive?, etc... http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/clean_disks.html Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preservation of 1970's computing email: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com alternate: herbjohnson ATT retrotechnology DOTT info

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Another site update
by Evan Koblentz 11 Dec '15

11 Dec '15

On mobile browsers, when you press the "menu" button, the sub-menus are now indented so you can see the hierarchy. Thanks yet again to Steven T.'s web designer Darren for this improvement.

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iMac
by Herb Johnson 11 Dec '15

11 Dec '15

> they go from $20-$30 to as much as over $100 plus shipping. The "plus shipping" is significant in cost and risk. That depresses the sale price. Consider packing and shipping a forty-pound CRT terminal in a plastic case. Of course you want the case to remain intact and not cracked. You also don't want the CRT shadow mask or yoke to "shift" from impact and misalign the color display (look it up). And consider these are close to two decades old: time and high-voltage ozone have degraded the plastics; so has exposure to light and chemicals with chlorine (bleaches, floor cleaners). Few know how to pack items in these circumstances; and "return for refund" makes no sense because you won't get either your original OR return shipping back. Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Happy DEC-10 day
by Michael Thompson 11 Dec '15

11 Dec '15

> > Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2015 23:06:38 -0500 > From: Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Happy DEC-10 day > > There are three KS-10s here. None are functional, but one had its > first power up (well, first in a few decades anyway) a few weeks ago. > We hope to have it paired with a disk drive and running by spring of > 2016 or so. > > -Dave > > -- > Dave McGuire, AK4HZ > New Kensington, PA > I will boot my KS10 on DEC20 day. -- Michael Thompson

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Teletype Sounds Video Posted (with PDP 11/05)
by william degnan 11 Dec '15

11 Dec '15

Here is a video that has a lot of teletype keyboard that can be used for sound capture in hi-res so hopefully this will do. Except for the non-percussive keys like SHIFT, I noticed no sound difference between keys including LF vs CR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepU_gTkMFY This is the PDP 11/05 S I was working on last month, with ASR 33 Teletype as printer/keyboard. Entering, editing and running a simple DEC BASIC counter program. -- Bill

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Simpler web domain for VCF
by Evan Koblentz 11 Dec '15

11 Dec '15

We bought vcfed.com and vcfed.org. Both of them forward to vintagecomputerfederation.org ... and they're a lot easier to put on our literature and stuff. :)

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Happy DEC-10 day
by Herb Johnson 10 Dec '15

10 Dec '15

Those who remember the legacy of the PDP-10, DEC-10 and DEC-20 might use this day, to consider what might have been, and what was, for this DEC product line. In the late 1970's I ran a KA-10, the oldest PDP-10, for a university's Artificial Intelligence department. But it was also used for general timesharing access, and many universities ran TOPS-10 and PDP-10 KA's and later KI's and KL's to service many many terminals. These were not small machines, they filled rooms. But a later KS-10 model was a microprogrammed version of the PDP-10 - it was only the size of a very large refrigerator. Compuserve used KS-10's as network controllers, and ran their own OS on 10's to provide their services. But DEC "choked" on developing 36-bit PDP-10 compatible workstations or desktops (some of those engineers went on to form Data General) and DEC produced the VAX line instead. The old PDP-10's were eventually taken out of commercial service; I don't know if any are running commercially today. It's hard to run one "privately" in a basement or garage, but someone likely fires something up in the winter. If anyone knows directly of a PDP-10 out there today, it would be nice to know of it. Happy DEC-10 day! Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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TI 99/4a BlowOut
by william degnan 10 Dec '15

10 Dec '15

Selling off extra guaranteed-to-work (30 days) TI 99 4/a systems - you can customize your order as I have a lot of available inventory. Min order is $49.99 depending on the hardware and software purchased. I will set it all up and make sure it works correctly before shipping. Contact me privately with system quote requests including your address. Assume shipping is = cost + materials. Here are some photos of example systems on hand. http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ti/ti994a/ -- Bill

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Repairs / Next Workshop
by James Garland 10 Dec '15

10 Dec '15

Hello everyone, I've been wondering if there are any plans for having a repair workshop soon. This is probably a bad time to ask about workshops seeing as Festivus is so soon (which I am excited to attend). Anyway, I'm looking for some help on a (probably simple) repair project I've been struggling with for a while. Thanks, James Garland

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Perq 1
by Kenneth Seefried 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

FYI...if you don't already know, the Tony Duell (ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk) in that thread probably knows as much about Perq electronics and repairing them at the component level as most anyone left around. If you're doing Perq repair, he's probably the first person you should reach out to. KJ

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Fabri-Tek MP-12 Industrial Computer
by Kyle Owen 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

I made this post to the Vintage Computer Forum, and some bits and pieces to cctalk, but since Connor brought his to Festivus, I figured I'd share with you all what we've learned about it. And on that note, sorry I couldn't make it up there! It wouldn't have been feasible for me to make it up there for the weekend, considering I had to be back Monday at 8am for a final exam. Apologies to anyone offended by this wall of text. Here are some pictures, first: http://imgur.com/a/oziVX 1. These systems date to 1975 or so, but were used up into the 2000s for controlling movie film developing tanks, as I understand it. Thus, powering them up was as easy as plugging them in...almost. There's no obvious spot for power, but upon removing the cover, it became clear that it would obtain power via the paper tape reader and I/O box with a V.35 connector. So instead, we've hot-wired in a line cord across the transformer in the main box. 120VAC power is transmitted over a straight-through DA-15 connector...kind of scary, but I guess it works. 2. I wrote some very simple code to test the front panel operations. Turns out that while the machine runs, the front panel lights only show what's on the bus, so watching the accumulator is not possible. You can single-step, though. Also, to show how limited the front panel really is: the deposit operation doesn't increment PC automatically. So if you're having to toggle in much, it's address, load, data, load, and repeat. However, if you're clever and not toggling in too many JMP, JSR, SKP, or other such operations that change the PC, you can use single-step to increment the PC. 3. Just the Fabri-Tek by itself is kind of lame. It has no I/O without the paper tape reader and I/O box connected via the DA-15 cable (using a high-speed synchronous serial connection with a bunch of 7400-series shift registers). It also only has 4k of core (and a dash of ROM at the top). The ROM is a very basic paper tape loader, dare I say, even more basic than DEC's RIM loader. It took quite a while for me to fully understand how it worked, but I am finally there now. The ROM's used are 512 by 4 bit bipolar PROMs. It would appear as though when the word is equal to 7777 octal, core is referenced instead. Otherwise, the ROM values are read. Writing to the location does nothing, best I can tell. Here's the disassembly listing of the ROM code: 1 7755 *7755 2 07755 0000 BEGIN, 0 3 07756 7755 TEMP, BEGIN /NOT IN ROM 4 07757 7602 CLA HLT /7602 5 07760 7755 ADDR, BEGIN /7755 STARTING ADDRESS? 6 07761 1360 START, TAD ADDR /1360 GET STARTING ADDRESS? 7 07762 3356 DCA TEMP /3356 SAVE TEMPORARILY 8 07763 6012 LOOP, 6012 /6012 ADVANCE TAPE 9 07764 7106 CLL RTL /7106 10 07765 7006 RTL /7006 11 07766 7006 RTL /7006 ROTATE SO BIT 0 IS IN BIT 7, BIT 4 IN BIT 11, ETC. 12 07767 6015 6015 /6015 READ TAPE AND SKIP 13 07770 5367 JMP .-1 /5367 14 07771 7420 SNL /7420 SKIP IF LINK IS SET (BIT 6 OF PAPER TAPE IS SET) 15 07772 5363 JMP LOOP /5363 16 07773 3756 DCA I TEMP /3756 17 07774 2356 ISZ TEMP /2356 18 07775 5355 JMP BEGIN /5355 19 07776 7776 7776 /NOT IN ROM 20 07777 5361 JMP START /5361 21 $ Notice there are two locations there that are "NOT IN ROM." These are unprogrammed in the PROM, allowing for the system to read and write from core in those locations. Understanding what 6012 and 6015 did were the tricks, though. I wrongfully assumed that the reader was compatible with the high speed reader that DEC used or the IOmec reader, but instead, this has its own instructions. 6012, instead of reading the buffer like on a PC8E, advances the tape one byte. What should've clued me in that this wasn't DEC was that 6015 isn't used on the PC8E except in perhaps very rare circumstances, as it's a combination of clear flag and skip if flag. On the IOmec reader, it skips if the end of tape flag is set. In the Fabri-Tek, 6015 reads the buffer and skips if the reader is ready, apparently. Once that was figured out, it became clear that this was similar to the RIM loader, but only to a point. Starting at 7777, the loader jumps immediately to START, where it loads 7755 into the AC, then deposits into a temporary address. It then advances the tape, clears the link and rotates an empty AC around 6 times. Then it reads the buffer and will jump back to LOOP since the link is not set. It then repeats, advancing the tape, clearing link, rotating accumulator, and reads again. If the first byte it read in had a 1 in the 6th bit, the link will now be 1, causing it to skip. The second byte should only have data in the bottom 6 bits (bits 0 through 5, if you will) so that you don't disturb the upper 6 bits in the AC. This value is then dumped into the address indirectly referenced by TEMP, which as we loaded initially, is still 7755, with the label BEGIN. The temporary address is then incremented and now points to itself: location 7756 contains 7756, and location 7755 contains the word constructed from the first two bytes on the paper tape. Here's where things get funky: the program jumps to 7755 (BEGIN), not 7763 (LOOP) as one might expect. I was very confused; why would it want to jump to the word it just deposited from paper tape? Unless that first word is a jump instruction, you're not going to get very far. Well, that's exactly what I decided to do. Obviously this loader is pretty useless by itself, but maybe I can find a way for it to load a custom BIN loader that will support checksums and other niceties. If the first instruction on paper tape is 5363, you will JMP BEGIN (5355) at location 7775, then JMP LOOP (5363) at location 7755 (BEGIN). That will allow the loader to read another two bytes off the tape, construct them into a word, and deposit into the TEMP location. As you've probably figured out, TEMP holds the pointer to where the next word will be stored. Since TEMP is pointing to TEMP, this next word should be the starting address of your program (minus one; there's an ISZ TEMP prior to the deposit of the next data word). Now we're onto something! You can keep loading data sequentially with this manner. But how do you stop? Well, if you want, you can put some unpunched trailing tape which will never deposit anything since bit 6 isn't punched, or you can put your code up at the very top of the 4k field such that your last instruction overwrites location 7755 with a HLT or JMP instruction; when the loader issues JMP BEGIN, it will now be jumping to your new instruction that you loaded at 7755, letting you break out of the loader. Now there's an idea for the BIN loader! The BIN loader is generally put right under the RIM loader anyways, so the last instruction on the tape could be a JMP to a HLT instruction immediately before the normal start of the BIN loader. See that location near the top: 7776? It never got used. I decided to use it for the BIN loader; turns out DEC did too. 7777 was the starting address for the BIN loader (similar to here, it jumps to the actual start of the program), but unfortunately, that part's in ROM, so it can't be (easily) changed. The CLA HLT instruction at 7757 was never really used either, but that's alright. Not very important, best I can tell. I've since written a simple C program (available upon request) that reads a DEC BIN or RIM tape and outputs a Fabri-Tek RIM format tape, adding the required JMP LOOP instruction and organizing the data so that the sequential loader puts it in the right spot; sure beats editing tapes by hand in a hex editor. I've found I can't mix hex and octal in my head very easily. These tapes are best edited in an octal editor, which I haven't really found. My workaround is a Vim script that converts the buffer from binary to octal digits and back. A little tedious, but not too bad. 4. All this to say, here's the custom BIN loader I wrote based on DEC's original BIN loader: 1 /BIN LOADER FOR FABRITEK 2 /KYLE OWEN - 4 DEC 2015 3 4 7653 *7653 5 07653 0000 SWITCH, 0 6 07654 0000 CHAR, 0 7 07655 0000 CHKSUM, 0 8 07656 0000 ORIGIN, 0 9 10 07657 0000 BEGG, 0 11 07660 3253 DCA SWITCH 12 07661 4304 JMS READ /GET CHAR 13 07662 1317 TAD M376 /TEST FOR 377, SUBTRACT 376 14 07663 7750 SPA SNA CLA /DON'T SKIP IF BIT 0 IS SET 15 07664 5270 JMP .+4 16 07665 2253 ISZ SWITCH /YES, COMPLEMENT SWITCH 17 07666 7040 CMA 18 07667 5260 JMP BEGG+1 19 07670 1253 TAD SWITCH /NOT 377 20 07671 7640 SZA CLA /IS SWITCH SET? 21 07672 5261 JMP BEGG+2 /YES, IGNORE 22 07673 1254 TAD CHAR /NO, TEST FOR CODE 23 07674 0313 AND MASK /TYPES 24 07675 1343 TAD M200 25 07676 7510 SPA 26 07677 2257 ISZ BEGG /DATA OR ORIGIN 27 07700 7750 SPA SNA CLA 28 07701 5657 JMP I BEGG /DATA, ORIGIN OR L/T 29 07702 7402 HLT /IF FIELD SETTING, HALT! 30 07703 5320 JMP BEGIN 31 32 07704 0000 READ, 0 33 07705 6012 6012 34 07706 6015 6015 35 07707 5306 JMP .-1 36 07710 3254 DCA CHAR 37 07711 1254 TAD CHAR 38 07712 5704 JMP I READ 39 07713 0300 MASK, 300 40 41 07714 4345 BEND, JMS ASSEMB 42 07715 7041 CIA 43 07716 1255 TAD CHKSUM 44 07717 7402 M376, HLT 45 07720 4257 BEGIN, JMS BEGG 46 07721 5320 JMP .-1 47 48 07722 3255 GO, DCA CHKSUM 49 07723 1254 TAD CHAR 50 07724 3376 DCA WORD1 51 07725 4304 JMS READ 52 07726 3354 DCA WORD2 53 07727 4257 JMS BEGG 54 07730 5314 JMP BEND 55 07731 4345 JMS ASSEMB 56 07732 7420 SNL 57 07733 5341 JMP MEMFLD 58 59 07734 3256 DCA ORIGIN 60 07735 1376 CHEX, TAD WORD1 61 07736 1354 TAD WORD2 62 07737 1255 TAD CHKSUM 63 07740 5322 JMP GO 64 65 07741 3656 MEMFLD, DCA I ORIGIN 66 07742 2256 ISZ ORIGIN 67 07743 7600 M200, 7600 68 07744 5335 JMP CHEX 69 07745 0000 ASSEMB, 0 70 07746 1376 TAD WORD1 71 07747 7106 CLL RTL 72 07750 7006 RTL 73 07751 7006 RTL 74 07752 1354 TAD WORD2 75 07753 5745 JMP I ASSEMB 76 77 7776 WORD1=7776 78 07754 0000 WORD2, 0 79 80 7755 *7755 81 07755 5317 JMP BEGIN-1 82 83 $ I opted to keep some of DEC's comments, but got lazy when retyping out parts and didn't include all of them. DEC did a very nice job with this loader; it's very efficient. I made it more efficient by stripping the field support (the Fabri-Tek may never get extended memory, or at least not anytime soon). There's also only a high-speed reader here, so I stripped the low-speed code as well. The process for loading the BIN loader is super simple: load the tape into the reader, reset the Fabri-Tek to clear AC, load 7777 into PC and run. The BIN loader is quickly loaded, and upon completion, the loader jumps to the HLT instruction prior to the start of the BIN loader. Take out the BIN loader tape, put in a BIN-formatted tape, and run. When the trailer is encountered, the checksum is verified in AC (should show zero), and you should be ready to roll with your newly-loaded program. 5. We also deciphered some more instructions for the I/O box: 6052 and 6053 read the buttons and switch on the front of the reader box. 6070 through 6073 allow you to turn on the seven 7-segment displays on the front of the unit. Each instruction except the lasts updates two at a time. They use a 7442 to drive the displays, so you only get 0-9, garbage, and blank. Too bad they're not connected directly to shift registers so that you could turn on individual segments and make some letters too. 6074 writes to 8 open-collector outputs on the back, and 6075 controls two relays. We've seen potential references to device code 06 and other potential instructions for 05 and 07, but further investigation is required before we can determine what they do. Think that's about it for now...trying to track down a V.35 connector so I can feel a bit better about the power situation, and eventually I'll port my SPI-controlled LED string program to the machine so I can have something to impress my family members with in a couple of weeks. Big thanks to Connor for his help in reverse engineering parts of the hardware for better understanding of the system, and for dumping the ROMs, among other things! Kyle

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Fabri-Tek MP-12 Industrial Computer
by Herb Johnson 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

Kyle, always good to hear from you. About the size and depth of your post, I'll comment but frankly policy is up to the listserv moderator Evan not me. My own comment is: content preservation and distribution is best served thru a Web site, not an email list. That's my 20th century point of view which I do not apologize for. That aside, you've shown good work to deconstruct the Fabritek implementation of the PDP-8. Your description needs no further comment, um, that's a good thing. ;) Neil Cherry and I had the pleasure to work with Connor at the event, on his Fabritek, which is not able to read from his reader. We with Conner, based on oscilloscope readings, determined the reader was getting serial clock and data/control bits, but not returning any data. But the reader was responding to IOT's out to the reader to display octal values or operate the reader. This suggests serial output from the reader is a good place to start looking. Kyle (and Connor), contact me privately about more information on the Fabritek, in the usual way. Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preservation of 1970's computing email: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com alternate: herbjohnson ATT retrotechnology DOTT info

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Perq 1
by william degnan 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

Here is a message from CCTECH about the Perq 1 keyboard and mouse. For whomever it is who attempts to repair the FKAMARCH Perq 1, save this info... Bill > >> I rescued one for VCFederation museum two years ago. > http://vintagecomputer.net/perq/ > I was just looking at it this weekend. It needs a keyboard and mouse I > believe. I remember there was a guy in Texas who had a few, never heard > the full story though. > That's a PERQ 1 (or 1a, the difference is in the CPU board), The keyboard and pointing device for a PERQ2 series machine are very different. > The PERQ1 uses a standard Summagraphics Bit Pad 1 as the 'mouse'. It has to be the GPIB version, and connects to the GPIB port on the PERQ. There was going to be a special mouse known as the 'Kriz tablet' but AFAIK it never existed. > The keyboard is an 8 bit parallel interface with strobe. IIRC it's essentially the ASCII code on the bottom 7 bits and the top bit is the ctrl key. Also in the keyboard are the reset button (which IIRC just grounds a line on the connector) and the DDS (diagnostic display) which is a 3 digit decimal counter cleared by the reset button and incremented by a signal from the processor, The machine will run without a DDS, but it's a lot harder to figure out why it doesn't boot. > Basically what I am saying is that while it is nice to have the right parts, there are going to be workarounds if you can't get them > -tony (Duell)

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Hoodies, part 2
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic writes: >On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 3:49 PM, Brian Schenkenberger via vcf-midatlantic ><vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > >>>Cut off the hood, sew the neck back together. :) > >> Isn't that a hardware modification? > >An unsupported configuration. ;) You might understand my disdain of the hood more than others. I don't like the fact that my ponytail would fill the hood if it was left hanging at the back. It's an uncomfortable feeling. I once worked for a company and they gave out hoodies (with the company logo) as a Chritmas present. I did not like how it felt when worn so I cut it up for car polishing rags.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] COFFEE MUGS
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Duane via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Evan > >I like heavy mugs like these: > > >https://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/custom-mugs/cuppajo-diner-mug.htm > >Duane I'd prefer a beer mugh or etched pint glass would be even better. ;)

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Hoodies, part 2
by Evan Koblentz 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

The hoodies we ordered look great and fit comfortably. A few people at Festivus wish they'd ordered one. :) Picture: http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/evan/hoodies.jpg We can order more when we reach 20 units committed. So, if you want one (or more than one) then add your name / shirt size / quantity to this thread. Prices: small through XL = $20, 2XL = $25, 3XL = $30. All are men's sizes. Kids/womens/or anything bigger than 3XL are not available. If you need to have them snail-mailed to you, then add $5 per shirt (U.S./Canada only). DO NOT PAY UNTIL WE REACH 20 UNITS. DO NOT USE THIS THREAD FOR ANY OTHER CONVERSATION. Thank you.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Hoodies, part 2
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic writes: >The hoodies we ordered look great and fit comfortably. A few people at >Festivus wish they'd ordered one. :) > >Picture: http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org/evan/hoodies.jpg > >We can order more when we reach 20 units committed. So, if you want one >(or more than one) then add your name / shirt size / quantity to this >thread. > >Prices: small through XL = $20, 2XL = $25, 3XL = $30. All are men's >sizes. Kids/womens/or anything bigger than 3XL are not available. > >If you need to have them snail-mailed to you, then add $5 per shirt >(U.S./Canada only). > >DO NOT PAY UNTIL WE REACH 20 UNITS. > >DO NOT USE THIS THREAD FOR ANY OTHER CONVERSATION. > >Thank you. If it didn't have a "hood" I'd get one. ;)

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Help - Need Teletype Sounds
by Mike Willegal 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Hi Bill, A video might be a good way to go - if you could take video of the keyboard as you enter keys, I could pull the sounds of individual keys out of it. One thing that is important to me is getting line feed sound separate from carriage return. The SCELBI’s assembler output driver used a rather unusual technique of printing the second half of the line, then CR in order to print the first half. Now, positioned in the middle of the line, it sent a LF alone in order to print the second half of the next line and so on. regards, Mike Willegal

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Mac LC II free to good home
by Evan Koblentz 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

I received this message: >> Free. CPU powers up but monitor does not. Located in Bridgewater, NJ. Don't reply to the list. Owner is Ray Z. -- ray.zaman(a)gmail.com

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Help - Need Teletype Sounds
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Mike Willegal via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Hi, > >I need the recorded sounds of a Teletype in operation in order to add a >= few bells and whistles to my SCELBI/8008 emulator. > >Specifically, I need separate sounds from line feed, carriage return and >= regular characters. I=E2=80=99m not sure if there are differences = >between the sounds of different alpha and numeric characters being = >printed, but if there are, I could use the sounds of each character in = >order to increase the fidelity of the emulation. Sound should be what >= an operator would experience while operating. File format >doesn=E2=80=99t= matter too much, as I can read and convert most common >sound file = formats. > >Anyone willing and able to help out with this? Your best bet is to get one of the MARCH/VCF members to fire up their teletype and record what you desire. A good set of microphones, a quality/professional A/D and a good bit of sound isolation from any associated kit would provide an ideal starting point. I have pro-mics, stands, booms (somewhere), Apogee Duet (24bit/192k A/D) and, of course, the Mac. If I had a teletype, I'd record it for you.

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Help - Need Teletype Sounds
by Mike Willegal 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Hi, I need the recorded sounds of a Teletype in operation in order to add a few bells and whistles to my SCELBI/8008 emulator. Specifically, I need separate sounds from line feed, carriage return and regular characters. I’m not sure if there are differences between the sounds of different alpha and numeric characters being printed, but if there are, I could use the sounds of each character in order to increase the fidelity of the emulation. Sound should be what an operator would experience while operating. File format doesn’t matter too much, as I can read and convert most common sound file formats. Anyone willing and able to help out with this? regards, Mike Willegal

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Festivus
by Herb Johnson 07 Dec '15

07 Dec '15

I was at Festivus on Saturday. It wasn't just games and food. I had some good discussions with a number of people on vintage topics. Someone brought a Fabritek PDP-8 clone controller, and Neil Cherry and I helped him with some I/O diagnostics - it's an odd architecture. There was brisk trade in 360K diskettes, S-100 cards and not-so-old Byte magazines. And it's a good time and place to catch-up with friends and colleagues about activities going into winter. So it was a good get-together. Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Festivus
by Evan Koblentz 06 Dec '15

06 Dec '15

About three dozen people attended Festivus this weekend. Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us and also to everyone who brought food and stuff -- there's always more than we expect. During clean-up earlier tonight, we put aside a large box of leftover party supplies and non-perishable food. That will be useful for the next couple of events (workshops early next year). We collected $10/person (as was announced here during the planning emails) and donated that back to InfoAge. Several people made extra donations to the Federation -- thank you!! Another special thanks goes to Tony Bogan for bringing most of the tables and all of the chairs. Once again, happy Festivus season to all.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Festivus 2015 day 2
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 06 Dec '15

06 Dec '15

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic writes: >9:25am -- 11 of us are at the diner for another hour-ish and then we'll >g= o back to partying. Is anyone else joining us today? Have fun guys! I have to unload last evening's VAXstation haul home and then load up for the afternoon's rocket launch. It's mile west of New Bedford Rd. (that's just due east of Rt.18 exit on I-195) on 18th Ave (Rt.30), if anybody is interested.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Festivus 2015 day 2
by tom.hornberger＠verizon.net 06 Dec '15

06 Dec '15

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Festivus 2015 day 2
by Evan Koblentz 06 Dec '15

06 Dec '15

9:25am -- 11 of us are at the diner for another hour-ish and then we'll go back to partying. Is anyone else joining us today?

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PIDP-8
by Duane 06 Dec '15

06 Dec '15

Oscar Vermeulen’s PDP-8 simulator is featured on hackaday: http://hackaday.com/2015/12/05/experiences-in-developing-an-electronics-kit/ He has sold over 1000 units. Duane

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TRS-80 Article
by Bob Flanders 05 Dec '15

05 Dec '15

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/340081/golden-age-of-trs-80-a-look-bac…

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New Version (2.2) of SCELBI Emulator Available
by Mike Willegal 05 Dec '15

05 Dec '15

If you have an Mac and run out of things to do at festivus, you may want to check it out. http://www.willegal.net/blog/?p=7703 <http://www.willegal.net/blog/?p=7703> regards, Mike Willegal

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Radio
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 05 Dec '15

05 Dec '15

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Someone should bring a boom box. The local station (101.5) plays classic >= rock and 60s-80s music on weekends. Good background music that >everyone l= ikes. 101.5! Gack!

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Stereo speakers
by Ian Primus 05 Dec '15

05 Dec '15

Can anyone bring a pair of speakers? I've got a good working receiver, but I noticed as I was loading speakers into the van that the foam surrounds are shot. For movie audio, my Plan B will be fine - I've got a really nice boom box with large speakers and a line input, but if someone has a convenient pair of decent speakers they can bring along, we can have a little more flexibility.

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Goodnight kids
by Evan Koblentz 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Happy Festivus Eve!

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Radio
by Evan Koblentz 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Someone should bring a boom box. The local station (101.5) plays classic rock and 60s-80s music on weekends. Good background music that everyone likes.

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Last-minute Festivus info
by Evan Koblentz 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Everyone who's going to Festivus: 1. Get to the InfoAge Science Center: 2201 Marconi Rd., Wall, NJ, 07081. 2. Open the main gate. Drive through. Close and latch (don't lock) the gate behind you. DO THIS EVEN IF IT WAS ALREADY OPEN WHEN YOU ARRIVE. 3. I bought bright colored duct tape. I will put giant block letters spelling "VCF" on the ground in front of the gate. There will also be big arrows. Follow them. 4. Jeff B. and I will be there at 10:30am. That party starts at 11am. We'll park our cars in an orderly row. Follow our lead. Do not park haphazardly. 5. Do not prop open the door to the building! 6. Sunday morning: we'll all meet for breakfast at 9am at our usual spot -- the Princess Maria Diner, 2044 Rt. 35, Wall NJ. Chances are we'll be back to InfoAge by 10:30-11:00ish. 7. If any gets lost or has questions, then call or text me at 646-546-9999. I'll answer promptly unless I am driving (approximately 9:30-10:30am tomorrow). See you all tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing old friends and new members alike.

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Festivus all setup and ready to go
by Jeffrey Brace 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

I made sure tonight that Festivus is 98% ready to go. Just a little bit of cleaning to do tomorrow morning. See all you there in the new location 9010-A!

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Festivus Entertainment
by Ian Primus 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

I am planning on bringing the same sorts of things I usually do - four or five televisions and some assorted video game consoles. Normally an Atari or two, NES, Genesis, and N64. Anyone have any requests? In past years, I've brought the sound system and the DVD player as well. Nothing fancy, just a hi-fi amplifier, some speakers, and an ordinary DVD player. I can bring a VCR as well, if need be. -Ian

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] UPDATE -- Festivus food thread: Who's bringing what?
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic writes: >I will bring hot chocolate and hit cups What will we be taking hit of in those cups?

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Festivus - Cooking times
by Jeffrey Brace 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Please be advised that I was thinking about doing burger/hot doog cooking at 2pm and again at 7pm. I may adjust this time slightly depending on circumstances. Jeff Brace

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Festivus food thread: Who's bringing what?
by Evan Koblentz 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Everyone, This thread is ONLY for discussion of who's bringing what food/drink to Festivus. Don't fork it .... unless you are the one bringing forks. VCF will provide: burgers, beef hot dogs, rolls, common toppings, common snacks (chips, pretzels, etc), soft drinks, bottled water Guesstimated attendance is three dozen nerds... Volunteers needed to bring: - plastic knives/forks/spoons - napkins, cold drink cups - styrofoam cups for coffee - coffee, machine, fixin's... - other entrees beside red meat - any other desserts / snacks My personal contribution is a tray of soft pretzels. They're yummy. Corey L.'s Penn Brewery is giving us a good amount of frothy stuff. He is unable to attend, but Kelly is retrieving and delivering it. Thanks guys! Big fan of your American P.A. :) As always, we're collecting $10/person that we donate back to InfoAge. Food contributions do not offset this. Nobody is required to bring anything, but it makes Festivus all the more festive when that happens. Please reply with what you're bringing. Ask if you are unsure about anything.

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New web site is live
by Evan Koblentz 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Ta-da! http://www.vintagecomputerfederation.org This is our new web site. Major thank-you(s) to designer Darren Kerr, his boss Steven Toth for allowing Darren's time on this project during work hours, and Bill Degnan for programming. Also thanks to Dan Roganti for designing the logo. There will be much more content in the days/weeks/months ahead. What's there so far is just the very basics. We are working on a tweak to the mobile version. It works, but you can't see any content loading unless you scroll down, so to a newcomer it appears as if the menu links don't do anything.

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***SPAM*** Logic probed (as seen on Hackaday)
by Neil Cherry 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Okay, not spam (but yes it really does sound like it this time ;-) ) I thought a few of you might find this interesting: http://lockett.altervista.org/logic65/logic65_build.html It's a crude logic probe using a Teensy 3.2 board (around $20). I'm not sure of the impedance but pretty cool and might be useful for the folks that needs something flexible in their tool box. PS: Chris I'm really sorry about my message to the group yesterday. Yes, I'm poking fun at myself here. Hope to see many of you tomorrow. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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Model train show @ InfoAge this weekend
by Evan Koblentz 04 Dec '15

04 Dec '15

Everyone, InfoAge's annual holiday train show starts this weekend. I encourage everyone to check it out. It's in the same large event rooms that we use for VCF East. However, please do not just wander in through the back hallway by our museum. There is a small admission fee for the train show. They'll be selling tickets in the main lobby.

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