- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Interesting take on modern terminals
by Andrew Diller 13 Jan '21

13 Jan '21

Saw this posted on a discord I'm on, and thought it was appropriate for this group: https://uri.cat/projects/modern-retro-terminal/ Some interesting designs and very DIY... -andy

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 32, Issue 10
by Eric Rangell 12 Jan '21

12 Jan '21

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum Report 2021-01-10 Hi all, VCF owns an Applesauce floppy disk imager that was donated by John Keoni Morris. Over the past 2 years Tony and I tested it and got two 5.25" Disk II drives to work well with it (replacing the MC3470 amplifiers). It is a deluxe unit, so we also have an Apple 3.5" drive attached. We installed the sync sensors in the Disk II drives so it can create full flux images of GCR floppy disks in A2R and WOZ formats. Unprotected disks can be imaged to DSK or PO using the Fast Disk Imager. The latest version of the software can also create Commodore D64 and Atari image files for emulators. We were also able to image Lisa and Mac 3.5 disks. Yesterday I set up the unit on the Mac Mini in the museum, so it is available for use by anyone who has floppy disks that need to be imaged for preservation. To learn more about Applesauce, visit: https://applesaucefdc.com Thanks, Eric Rangell

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Did you know? Events calendar on VCFed website
by Jeffrey Brace 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

This is the website: http://vcfed.org/wp/groups/vcf-mid-atlantic/vcf-mid-atlantic-calendar/ It is found through menu path: Groups ... VCF Mid-Atlantic ... Calendar I also reorganized some of the menu items for clarity. For example, the Steering Committee sub-menu. I will work on other parts of the website in the future. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Museum Report 2021-01-10
by Jeffrey Brace 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

I got the FujiNet working on the Atari 1200. It looks like since the power button on the FujiNet is broken, I have to unplug the micro USB from the FujiNet to reset. And there is an order of power. Power on FujiNet, Power on Atari. And then reverse when shutting off. Bill Dromgoole got the Kleinschmidt printer working from the Univac. It took some work for him to prepare it and some onsite work to get it working. Jeff Salzman got the Zorba working and operating in the museum and able to boot from disk. The Xerox Star is working and operating for visitors to see now. The Osbourne 1 drive B needs looking after as it doesn't seem to work. Some programs need a drive B. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Repair Workshop Day 2 == 2021-01-10
by Jeffrey Brace 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

To quote Jeff Jonas: "This is the best repair workshop in a long time. We got a lot done and a lot of things got fixed." Dmitry got his C128 working. Ryan Morrison got his teletype working after reviewing the schematic. He can give everyone details. Bill Inderrieden and Jeff Jonas got the paper tape reader to read properly. Ian and Connor got the museum IBM System 36 working for the museum. Chris Fala installed a light switch in the warehouse by the door. So no more walking across the room in the dark to turn on the lights anymore! Does anyone else want to chime in on what they worked on? Next month Jeff Salzman is going to do a Commodore repair/demo theme. Pictures and videos from this weekend: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10KbtBsNn-kEyXKvIPkgTCPLRlofrAk4Y?us… -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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New YouTube Series on VCF's PS/2 Model 70
by Alexander Jacocks 11 Jan '21

11 Jan '21

All, I just started a new video series on the IBM PS/2 Model 70: https://youtu.be/tKha3QLwXgA In the first video, I attempt to install OS/2 2.1 on the machine, and natter on about computing history. Let me know what you think! - Alex

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Feb Repair Workshop - Feb 6 & 7, 2021
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Jan '21

10 Jan '21

*SIGNUP HERE!*: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FytFtk9_rE0Nw_Pk_M9bFVMh324hNwJMwcK… : -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Workshop Day 1 Jan 9, 2021
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Jan '21

10 Jan '21

A good showing with 18 people socially distanced, wearing masks and spread out over 4 buildings and 5 rooms total. 3 new people came. I will share pictures later. Bill Dromgoole fired up the Univac 1219B the first time in a year. Andy took some video of it and interviewed him. Hopefully it turned out OK. There was some warehouse work including getting a light switch by the door. It will make it greatly convenient! Bill Inderrieden got a Zenith PC to boot up. Jeff Salzman got the Zorba working. Anyone else want to chime in with what they worked on? We will meet again tomorrow at 10AM. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Museum Report 2021-01-09
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Jan '21

10 Jan '21

Dylan was docent that day. There was some high interest visitors and they loved watching Bill Dromgoole show of, explain and operate the Univac. It is a rare opportunity to see this machine in action and the visitors loved it! They also loved the C64 The Printshop exhibit. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] portable terminal preferences
by Herb Johnson 09 Jan '21

09 Jan '21

> I'm curious what everyone else uses to connect to their various machines. > Straw poll? Thoughts? 1) use a device with a REAL RS-232 UART. Not a USB/serial dongle. http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/mship_usb.html Here's a somewhat busy note about using a FTDI-brand TTL-to-USB dongle, on a 8-bit microcomputer to a USB based modern computer. It references some other information too. But the problem I want to call out in general, is the "layers of character flow control" section of the document. The problem in brief, is that a USB serial dongle has its own buffers and hardware and software handshaking. It is a microcontroller after all. It's only vaguely controlled by the modern computer with the USB driver, which may or may not have user-means to operate. Most people use these dongles with old "terminal emulators" that think THEY have a buffer and some handshaking control of a UART. The USB driver arbitrates some of that, but not always well. It's all too busy, and generally means a slower sustained baud rate to avoid loss of characters. And for long runs of characters (like XMODEM) you get losses anyway. I think trying to run an 8-bit micro at 19.2K baud at length, is asking for trouble. But people get obsessed about high baud-rates. And certainly it's no fun, to transfer a file and find errors, even with XMODEM and other protocols. So - find a computer with a real, live, UART buried in it. They still exist. And in fact, that GPD MicroPC suggested, *has* (apparently) a RS-232 port. Too fancy for me, any 1990's laptop will do. Some of them still work well. Even some post 2000 laptops and desktops have serial ports. Use those, available from any industrial dumpster. Regards, Herb Johnson -- 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 comcast DOT net

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