- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How To Geek article on floppy data recovery
by gsteemso 08 May '20

08 May '20

On May 8th, 2020, Herb J. wrote: > This reply is long, because I'm arguing in opposition, and that means I > have to make a case about, and explain about. But I'll save some people, > some time. I"m going to fuss about these microcontrollers becoming > obsolete. If you don't care about that, save time and stop reading here. [Herb's cogent argument elided here] > And in closing .... > > The reason I'm familiar with this kind of "these go obsolete" arguments, > is because I've seen this show before. Over the last few decades, > various modern means to read ancient floppy diskettes have been > produced. They have become in-favor and discussed and distributed. Then > the developers lose interest; then the users lose interest; and they go > out of production and use. Over geologic time (several years), these > things simply come and go. > > So the vintage computers remain, but these modern devices do not. That's > about as simple as I can put the argument. I can't materially dispute any of this; in fact, it neatly lays out something that has bothered me for years without my having been able to work out why. The obvious next question, then, is -- to borrow the words of Charles Schultz -- "Now that we know that, what do we do?" It looks to me as though the common thread, amongst all of these unintendedly ephemeral solutions, has been their use of "easily available" hardware which failed to stay that way. Obviously, then, solutions of this type must be implemented on hardware which is widely available from multiple independent sources, _and_ will be straightforward to substitute for when that eventually does change. We use this stuff in support of systems which remain usable, if not always all that use_ful_, for decades. We already know what stays around, or at least remains well-documented and -supported. By sheer weight of installed base, it would be very hard to lose all support for x86 or 6502 software. Equally, despite their clumsiness, I find it very difficult to believe that we will suddenly become unable to substitute newer devices for EPROMs; hell, such substitutes are already made by at least two unrelated sources just amongst the retrocomputing community, let alone industry at large. The only real irritant, then, becomes working out how to cheaply do whatever it is these other projects are using FPGAs for. Those are the parts that get updated whenever someone works out a better technique, but... as a general rule, the interface to whatever vintage hardware is more or less invariant, correct? That would mean the alterable functions can be carried out in software rather than in (redefinable) hardware. Flash updates are still flash updates, regardless of whether they contain computer programs or FPGA configuration files. Can anyone poke holes in this? Gordon S.

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Virtual Computer Museum Docents Wanted!
by rar 06 May '20

06 May '20

Did you ever want to be a museum docent or curator? Here is your chance! We are making a virtual tour of the System Source Computer Museum. Here is the beginning: https://museum.syssrc.com/tour/index.html I have tagged a handful of objects. Would you create (or submit) great audio, video, or web pages about any of the artifacts in the museum? I'll review and post! Thanks. Also, save the date for a VCF repair workshop November 14th and 15th in Hunt Valley MD. Bob Roswell broswell(a)syssrc.com<mailto:broswell@syssrc.com> 410-771-5544 ext 4336 Computer Museum Highlights<http://museum.syssrc.com/> [syssrclogo_38years]

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How To Geek article on floppy data recovery
by Jeffrey Brace 02 May '20

02 May '20

https://www.howtogeek.com/669331/how-to-read-a-floppy-disk-on-a-modern-pc-o… -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Zenith I/O board
by Mike Loewen 30 Apr '20

30 Apr '20

I have what looks like a Zenith 4-port serial I/O S100 board: http://q7.neurotica.com/Zenith_front.jpg The Z100 Technical Manual mentions a Z-204 Multiport Input/Output board: could this be the one? Does anyone have a manual? Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Another C64 Fastfingers MIDI Demo
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

Dan Laskowski posted another video on his C64 MIDI software demo: https://youtu.be/QLgzjaVQE34 -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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OT: Digitizing Magnetic Audio Tapes
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

I recently found some old family audio reels with voice recordings: Cavalier Sound Magic 1807, Cavalier Sound Magic 905, Plastic-base audiotape. Pictures found here: < https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jxGDi4grZqLLeqWe2-9ygWwezVK9DdCQ?us… > What I want is to digitize these magnetic audio tapes to a modern audio format. I no longer have the player. I know that there are services that can digitize them, so if anyone has actually used a service, then let me know. Otherwise, maybe someone has a player and some mechanism to digitize them? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Anyone in NJ want to take a crack at this?
by Dean Notarnicola 26 Apr '20

26 Apr '20

https://www.facebook.com/138645462866451/posts/3045688845495417/?d=n

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UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) was: How's Everyone Doing
by Herb Johnson 25 Apr '20

25 Apr '20

I'm surprised by all the interest in UPS's. I have generations of them, myself, in the few to several hundred watt range. Every digital device in my home has a small UPS on it, always has. Just makes sense. When I get a power hit, the birdies sing from each one. The older household buy-at-Staples ones work fairly well, when batteries are replaced every handful of years. They appear at thrift stores for several dollars; the salvage value of the gells is about a few dollars. Avoid the very smallest units, only buy units that take standard sized cells. Funny, some units WILL take standard sized cells, if you chop out the ribs molded into them, that hold SMALLER batteries - so they can sell them cheaper. That's my kind of 'creative destruction'. I have some old 1990's APC rack-mounters that I haven't populated in several years, 3000 watt. And some other floor models in the few thousand watt range, which need those larger 17VA batteries, not the several VA 12V common sized gell-cell units. I just scrapped two giant UPS's, 3-phase units, that took four car battery sized lead-acid cells. They also went back to the 1990's. Wiser heads told me "those are too old and inefficient for today's use". The steel went on the curb and disappeared. Anyone need 60 Hertz ferro-resonant chokes and transformers? Hey, I can use them for exercise equipment - if I don't mind losing a toe if I drop one! ;) If interest persists to when we get together again, I'll bring some around for purchase. Batteries not included. Regards, Herb "Amps" Johnson PS: does this still count for "how's everyone doing"? Do we all run on batteries now, or what? ;) -- 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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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's Everyone Doing
by Ethan O'Toole 24 Apr '20

24 Apr '20

[NON-Text Body part not included] > Anybodyworking on interesting stuff? > BillInderrieden It's kind of a bummer when I look at my phone and it shows the calendar date for VCF East coming up that isn't going to happen. Shortly after the last how's everyone doing email the customer I work for laid off most of the workforce and went into Chap 11. Pretty crazy! They were building a low earth orbit satellite network to deliver internet around the world. Funding issues. Ooops! I still have a job though, and I am thankful for that. NERD WISE... SO.. MUCH.. NERD!! 1. Amiga 600 repair. Years ago a friend gave me an Amiga 600, and it worked and was awesome. Then capacitors leaked and damaged the board. Been working to fix it, kind of hit a wall where I made progress now I'm lost. Found some awesome resources, check out https://www.amigapcb.org/ ... The 600 has a lot of surface mount stuff, that site lets you walk around with the mouse and see the source/destination of every trace and signal line! And English Amiga board, and DiagROM. 2. Repaired a Yamaha Motif midi module. LCD went out. Bought new LCD, didn't fix. Fixed it though. 3. Managed to edit a video for youtube (channel is telmnstr) on Blackmagic Davinci Resolve. This was my first time taking a stab at a modern editing system doing HD stuff. I usually use Blackmagic production switcher so I don't have to edit. But yea, I got the hang of it and really enjoyed doing the project on it. Was quick, and I will do more. 4. Going to fix a APC UPS for a friend. Needs new caps. 5. Trying to track down a driver for my old Yamaha C1 midi portable 286-10mhz computer. I fixed the base functionality but now need to make more progress. 6. Finally finishing a CNC machine I started in 2012. Actually made some progress but then had to order a bunch of parts. No idea how long it will take ball screws to arrive from China. Going to get fasterns from local fastenal. 7. Started toying with OBS, a software video switcher. All the geek video conferences going on -- I had to try it and test out some other capture hardware that I had picked up for an event a friend and I were supposed ot do video / audio / gaming / vintage computers for (B-Sides Charm.) Have been really impressed, to the point that I'm planning to potentially sell my BMD ATEM TVS hardware rig. 8. 3d printing cases and enclosing some hardware for the laser projector controllers. Also hope to get around to rebuilding two laser projectors, but it will probably require a bunch of parts. 9. Listing some crap on ebay. And it's selling? Mostly arcade / pinball parts and broken consumer A/V stuff. 10. rebelted a cassette deck I found at a thrift store in NC. It's working 90%, and there is a random screw left over. 11. IRC, Slack, Discord, etc. I plan to jump int othe IMSAI 8080 again. Have an Atari 800XL to fix. And plan to start pulling out some systems and test thru them / cut interesting software disks to go with them. Mainly Apple IIGS, Apple IIc, Apple IIsomething, NeXT Slab, Atari 8bits (need to mod the floppy emulator with a 74LS07 IC or something so it still works with floppy drives), Atari ST, and maybe sort out stuff on Amiga. Right now the 600 is kicking my butt though. The Yamaha laptop did for 3 years until I had an idea randomly. Also need to recap an Amiga 4000T motherboard. Eeeek! So much to do! Some friends are going SCUBA diving on the weekends near Richmond VA, staying isolated. I might try to get wet soon. Some parts on order for this. The water is like 50F-60F which is pretty cold, though. Would be nice if it was 70's out and not 60's. If anything, I'm getting a lot of stuff done that has been in the backlog!! Hope everyone else is safe and okay and if it's your thing progress on projects!

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VCF Italia 2020 Virtual Show Friday April 24 3:30PM EDT
by Jeffrey Brace 24 Apr '20

24 Apr '20

VCF Italia was cancelled due to Covid-19, but they are doing an informal show. The plan is for the following to talk: VCCI board of directors and our VIP guests among whom there should be Lee Felsenstein, Allan Alcorn, Liza Loop and maybe even Sophie Wilson. Date: Friday, April 24 Time: 3:30PM EDT https://mmnet.webex.com/mmnet/onstage/g.php?MTID=e0a83e848f2edd3c0bca59beba… <https://mmnet.webex.com/mmnet/onstage/g.php?MTID=e0a83e848f2edd3c0bca59beba…> Event number: 841 509 662 Password: VCFI It will be recorded for those that can't make it live. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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