- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

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

31 Dec '21

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

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InfoAge on News 12 NJ
by Jeffrey Brace 31 Dec '21

31 Dec '21

VCF gets about two seconds of video: https://newjersey.news12.com/looking-for-a-road-trip-check-out-camp-evans-i… ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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NJ-12 PSA (public service announcement) for VCF & infoage!
by Jeffrey Jonas 30 Dec '21

30 Dec '21

I hope someone can get hi-def video captures from NJ-12 TV. They're continuously playing the Infoage PSA (public service announcement). Hopefully that brings in more folks! Docents, be sure to ask "how did you hear about us" :-) -- jeff jonas

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VCF Swap Meet February 26, 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 30 Dec '21

30 Dec '21

VCF will be doing a swap meet on February 26, 2022. It will obviously be an indoor swap meet. Since there is a big demand for our swap meet and we haven't had one in while we are scheduling one on February 26. We will be using the following buildings: 9010-D, 9032-A, 9001 (dining room). We will fill up spaces in that order (9010-D being first). Please bring your own table. Tables are not required, but recommended. This is the sign up form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfplnIROL-TTJ3qNkIo45mTelGNY3QCaFi… Time: 8AM to 2PM (general public) Vendor Setup 7AM Place: InfoAge Campus Parking for vendors: Inside gates Parking for general public: InfoAge parking, and overflow lot across from Brookdale. Cost is $20 per space with $10 for each additional space. A space is considered a 6 by 3 foot area (the general size of a table). ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] slot 2 xeons
by John Heritage 30 Dec '21

30 Dec '21

A quick search on Vogons - pentium 3s are generally fully locked multipliers - can't go up or down. Xeons though could have their multipliers reduced. Engineering samples of p3 of course can do all sorts of things. I'm not sure if you can put a slot 1 CPU on a slot 2 board. Bios support at least would be required. On Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 2:05 AM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Anyone know if such can run or be made to run at a speed lower then it's > rated? Specifically can a 1ghz 133mhz piii run in a mobo that normally > takes a 700mhz 100mhz piii? >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] slot 2 xeons
by Kenneth Gober 30 Dec '21

30 Dec '21

On Tue, Dec 28, 2021 at 2:05 AM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Anyone know if such can run or be made to run at a speed lower then it's > rated? Specifically can a 1ghz 133mhz piii run in a mobo that normally > takes a 700mhz 100mhz piii? I haven't dealt with Slot 2 processors, but with Slot 1 the clock speed is simply the product of the bus speed times the multiplier. Assuming that Slot 2 is similar to Slot 1 in that respect, a 1GHz CPU with a 133MHz bus speed runs with a 7.5 multiplier. Depending on your motherboard, the bus speed might or might not be configurable. The multiplier is typically programmed into the CPU and isn't something you can set yourself. This means that if you use that CPU in a motherboard configured for a 100MHz bus speed, you will effectively get a 750MHz CPU (100MHz bus clock times 7.5x multiplier). Aside from running at 750MHz rather than 1GHz it should work. If your motherboard has jumpers allowing the bus clock to be changed to 133MHz you will need to do that to get the CPU to run at full speed. -ken

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VCF East 2022 - Theme, Registrations, Tickets, etc.
by Jeffrey Brace 30 Dec '21

30 Dec '21

So the themes for VCF East 2022 (as decided by those who voted) are: 1) Women in Computing 2) Computers for the masses I activate the following registrations: *Class Registration:* https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJnIi482Bq4RTiYwweRKC5mni9yfzPwle… *Exhibit Registration:* https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUestwcqFWT7EY3m0kShPtYISMvP2-qYq… *Vendor Registration:* https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfLYKC-WZVpWFiN4gigPL26ZFAP67o66Lg… *Eventbrite Tickets:* https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vintage-computer-festival-east-2022-tickets-23… ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Software for TI Portable in VCF Museum
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Dec '21

29 Dec '21

On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 6:49 PM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > The TI was known for speech synthesis s/w. I don't have it. I do have > SNOBOL somewhere though. I'll have to look. > Interesting. SNOBOL. I had only known about it from a level on the Tron Arcade game. That interesting that it was developed at Bell Labs! I didn't know this. Fascinating! > On Wednesday, December 29, 2021, 05:06:20 PM EST, Jeffrey Brace via > vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > David Gesswein has graciously detailed his repair of the TI portable. Does > anyone have any suggestions for which software we should put on to this > machine when it goes back into the museum? > > ========================================= > Jeff Brace > VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President > Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner > VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director > Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity > http://www.vcfed.org/ > jeffrey(a)vcfed.org > >

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Your First Modem? (was: Help me remember my first modem)
by W2HX 29 Dec '21

29 Dec '21

What was your first modem? Mine was a kit from Micromint in Long Island. It was around 1980 or so (I was about 13). My dad drove me to Cedarhurst, LI (I lived in Merrick, LI) to the Micromint sales office and bought this kit. It was an acoustic coupler, 300 baud kit, with an enclosure, a PCB and a bag of parts. I had low expectations that it would work when assembled. I spent a few days assembling and soldering everything. I think the time was around Christmas and my new brother-in-law was over. He was a post-grad at university of Texas at Austin and had a computer account (don't recall the computer). It was time to test it. Me, my brother-in-law and my father were all standing around my TRS-80 Model III and this newly built modem, trying to call into the computer system at UT Austin. In those days, long distance calls were expensive. We must have dialed that computer 20 times while attempting to adjust the pots and make it work, unsure if it would ever work. I can't imagine what the bill was. I was adjusting one of the pots and then, like a miracle, there it was "WELCOME TO THE UT AUSTIN COMPUTING CENTER" I can't swear that is exactly what it said but you get the idea. We all jumped for joy. The darn thing worked as advertised. Great experience and that modem served me well for several years until I upgraded to a Micromint 1200 baud "direct connect" modem before I went to college. 73 Eugene W2HX Subscribe to my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/w2hx-channel/videos -----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic-bounces(a)lists.vcfed.org> On Behalf Of Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Friday, December 24, 2021 10:29 PM To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Neil Cherry <ncherry(a)linuxha.com> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Help me remember my first modem On 12/24/21 9:22 PM, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > I'm trying to find a picture of my first modem online, and can't seem > to find one.. > > I remember my first modem (I was ~ 7 years old or ~ 1983-1984 when we > first got it, but had it for years later) being a 300 baud "Bell" > modem. I > *believe* it had an acoustic coupler, but it *might but I do not > remember needing to use it to initiate connections to BBSes at the > time. I'm not sure if there were hybrid modems where they still had > an acoustic coupler, but also supported auto dial of some kind. > > My memory also tells me it was a black modem, rectangular (metal?) > exterior. I think the modem might have said "Bell Labs" rather than > just Bell on the front. I'm also 95% sure that the modem .. disappeared .. > from Bell thanks to a family member who worked there/at AT&T (and also > was an Atari 800 owner like us). We attached this modem (and later > modems) to an Atari 850 interface, so it had a standard serial interface. > > Lastly, I'm certain it was *not* a Bell 103 modem - which would have > been positively ancient by the early 80s, but some other design from > Bell. Or at least not an original appearance one.. I recall the Bell 300 modem (non-acoustic coupled). It had a AT&T Bell logo on the front. So either Commsphere or Dataphone, probably Dataphone. I think it had 103 on the front. Black plastic front, rest of it was metal and an external 48v DC power brick, 2 screws on the brick. I can't recall if the modem had screws or was hard wired. I do recall a DB25, male I think. -- 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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Software for TI Portable in VCF Museum
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Dec '21

29 Dec '21

David Gesswein has graciously detailed his repair of the TI portable. Does anyone have any suggestions for which software we should put on to this machine when it goes back into the museum? ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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