- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

How's everyone doing?
by svcatitc＠aol.com 29 Mar '20

29 Mar '20

Bill I. here; This sounds like a group therapy session in a psych ward! (LOL) But as the comedian Steve Allen said "all seriousness aside folks". . . I'll chime in. We're doing OK here in Brick, NJ. Wifey and I are doing well health wise. (other than my wife's prolonged physical handicaps) The north end of town just got our 1'st Covid-19 test site at the Rent-a-Docs walk in clinic, in the parking lot. Being part care giver to my wife makes it hard to have time to work on fun stuff, however, this down time will give me the much needed time to clear out my warehouses of projects that are just not viable anymore. Before you guys start drooling, I do not havea lot of surplus CPU stuff. Most if it is industrial and lab stuff I was going to overhaul and resell. The stuff is longpast its prime and is ready to be scrapped. I spent way too much money on rent housing this stuff for the opportune time to work on it, which has come and gone. Its time to shed the overhead. Field service work has been put on hold for right now by my clients (I'm in the same boat as Dave McGuire), and my consulting contract with my affiliate in St. Louis will be terminated as of June 1. So the shedding aforementioned warehouse overhead is a must. I still have past invoices to submit, so that will also take up my time. (and get some much needed cabbage in the till) Enough of my tales of woe, (giggling). When I do have the spare time, I am working on the EAI TR 20 ground buss system for the display rack here at home. With all the peripheral displays planned (plotter, scope, etc.), a good quality analog ground summing point is required. I plan on incorporating the Comdyna GP-6 analog mini-computer into the TR-20 display as signal processing. Our unit in the warehouse is in need of some TLC (busted jacks etc.) If you want to see what a GP-6 looks like, see Bob Roswell's website,and look at the glamour shot pictured. https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/251/ F.Y.I. Ray Spiess, founder of Comdyna, is an ex-EAI alum, so the artifact fits in the story line in our analog display. The other VCF project I got "volunteered" into (smiling) is the Wang 4000 restoration. I got two of the rack drawers,photographed, documenting each card in the file. I am working with Rick Bensene of the Old Calculator Museum, who has an immense knowledge of the Wang Calculators and informs me that some of the calculator components are incorporated in the ' 4000. That project, obviously, has been put on hold until crisis conditions improve. Best get back to the insanity! Stay Well Folks; Bill

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's everyone doing?
by Jeffrey Brace 28 Mar '20

28 Mar '20

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 5:58 AM ajpierson1 via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > Been working from home to keep us on the air. Fortunately, it's > much easier to keep a TV station operational when you don't have to keep > the studio spaces running, and more than half of the employees aren't > generating new trouble tickets. In the mean time, I've played through Doom > Eternal which was amazing. I've also repaired my Heathkit H89's power > problems which knocked it out of commission on Friday night of Oh, you know how to fix them? VCF has one in the museum that you could look at. I'm not sure of its condition as I haven't powered on, but I assume that it needs some repair or at least TLC. > VCF East last year. A TO-3 socket for one of the 5V regulators was > damaged, and while I was making the repairs the other day, I swapped the > old linear regulator for a drop-in switch mode supply (also in a TO-3 > package). So far, I've had good luck with those in a VIC-20 and a 1541 > drive, thus it seemed like a natural choice to reduce heat output in my > H89. I've also had way more group voice chats with friends around the > world these past few weeks, mostly talking about vintage computer topics. > In this way, a few of us helped one friend through some H89 diagnostics and > repair which has brought the machine back to life (mostly). I believe he > will be using it for his VCF exhibit soon enough. Last week, I was also > taking a crack at implementing Glitchbus on the Cactus, but that's been > sidelined for the moment. I also took a brief (and isolated) drive out to > my storage unit last week to drop off projects I don't have space for at > the moment. If any of you are familiar with the Votrax SC-01-A speech > synthesizer chip, I scored a Type'N Talk on ebay recently, and spent some > time figuring out how to interface with it properly. It sounds great, and > I was not expecting to find an entire 6802 based machine inside the tiny > chassis.I've always got a stack of projects to tackle, so this really isn't > all that different for me. We'll get thru this with a little vigilance, > patience, and isolation. -Alexander 'Z' Pierson It's nice to hear that you have time to work on projects and to keep in touch with other vintage computer friends. I plan on getting back on IRC now that I have more free time than I used to! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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How's everyone doing?
by Jeffrey Brace 28 Mar '20

28 Mar '20

Things are rough these days. How's everyone handling it? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's everyone doing?
by Jameel Akari 28 Mar '20

28 Mar '20

Howdy everyone. Glad to see things are generally ok. Work has been busy - more or less the same, just WFH instead. A lot of time hand-wringing over VPN issues of course, but we’re handling them. At least for us, business has been good. I am planning to go by myself to the datacenter next week to work on some deferred maintenance; chances are I won’t even see another person the whole day. I do not mind that. I’ve been in several videoconference meetings per day - this has finally made me clean up my office / lab, which is still cluttered with VCF East 2019 / UNIX50 parts. My coworkers are alternately confused and amazed. ;) So I put away some things that were just collecting dust, promoted the VAXstation I got from Bill D. all that while ago to somewhere I can use it, and decided my Mac Plus deserved a space on my office shelf. I am concerned about what its insides might look like after years in storage. Maybe I’ll crack it open tomorrow. I’ve continued to work on, albeit more slowly now, my SYM-1 6502 project that was slated for VCF East. I might consider doing some videos and/or blog posts about it… that’d be a new thing for me. A new EPROM programmer and UV eraser came in the mail, woohoo! While cleaning out the shed I re-discovered boxes of electronic components that will finally be of use. I was really hoping for VCF-East consignment to be an outlet for some of my surplus. I’m debating whether eBay is worth trying. Are people buying used stuff from randos on eBay now? No idea. So… pretty ok. Until today. My wife found out she is being furloughed for an indeterminate time, as are most of her coworkers. Healthcare paid through May at least. The reality has set in. We’ll be fine, and we’ll figure it out, but I worry about people who may not. — Jameel Akari > On Mar 27, 2020, at 2:08 PM, Peter Cetinski via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > From: Peter Cetinski <pete(a)pski.net> > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's everyone doing? > Date: March 27, 2020 at 2:08:38 PM EDT > To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> > > > I’m in the same boat as many here. Working from home full-time on a new gig I just started this week. Of course, many TRS-80 projects continue to be on the queue. > > If anyone here is interested we’re having another live TRS-80 Trash Talk on Zoom tomorrow at 4pm EDT. > > I know you’re all on Zoom now so there’s no execuse! :) Everyone is welcome even if you don’t own a TRS-80. Maybe you’ll learn something you didn’t know about one of the original trinity microcomputers. > > https://zoom.us/j/567066261 <https://zoom.us/j/567066261> > > Take care, > Pete > > >

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TO-3 Regulator Replacements
by Alexander Pierson 27 Mar '20

27 Mar '20

Ethan, Thus far, I've been using a few different regulator types from https://www.ezsbc.com/ in various amperage and voltage combinations. A few people have warned about needing additional capacitors to mitigate jitter, but I haven't seen all that much during tests. When I did the first one, I added an extra tantalum per recommendations, however it actually added more ripple to have the extra caps so I removed them. Your mileage may vary. Here's the VIC-20 I installed one in: https://commodorez.com/img/silvervicguts.jpgAnd a photo of the outside, if you're curious: https://commodorez.com/img/silvervic1.jpg That VIC-20 is assembled from the discarded parts of at least 5 machines, including most of a C16 keyboard, and 6502 + 6522's from a dead 1541 drive. The case was pretty scuffed up, so I figured there was no harm in giving it a paint job while I was at it. It runs super cool now, even after a few hours of operation. I've contemplated adding heat sinks for some of the IC's but haven't crossed that bridge yet. This VIC came with me to VCFMW last fall, flown in as my carry-on item, where I used it to wardial the show's PABX with a modem 300. Here's the 1541 that received the same treatment: https://commodorez.com/img/1541regs.jpg The downside is that you can no longer us it to keep your coffee/tea warm. Let's see if the list serve processing will preserve my line spacing this time.-Alexander 'Z' Pierson

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Making lite of our situation
by Neil Cherry 27 Mar '20

27 Mar '20

On 3/27/20 12:48 PM, Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic wrote: I have no problem with it. I'm asthmatic but I also ride my bicycle in traffic so I laugh at stuff like this (while I still can). Once crashed, cracked several ribs, rode home 15 miles, my friend was torturing me with bad jokes (it was justified). We laugh, I cried, life goes on. ;-) -- 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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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's everyone doing?
by Ethan Dicks 27 Mar '20

27 Mar '20

On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 5:58 AM ajpierson1 via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > In the mean time, I've played through Doom Eternal which was amazing. I see my friends playing that but I'm pretty sure it will crush my gaming box. > I've also repaired my Heathkit H89's power problems which knocked it out of commission on Friday night of VCF East last year. I recently acquired an H89. I haven't even powered it on yet and it's in the basement of our makerspace so I won't be getting to it anytime soon. > ...while I was making the repairs the other day, I swapped the old linear regulator for a drop-in switch mode supply (also in a TO-3 package). So far, I've had good luck with those in a VIC-20 and a 1541 drive, thus it seemed like a natural choice to reduce heat output in my H89. Which one of these are you using? I have a similar assortment of machines (and there are some of these in PETs as well) so it's a part I could use in multiple locations. > If any of you are familiar with the Votrax SC-01-A speech synthesizer chip, I scored a Type'N Talk on ebay recently, and spent some time figuring out how to interface with it properly. I saw your posts. The arcade-sized Gorf and the RB5X robot have either an SC-01 or SC-02 (I'd have to check). Nice chip. Sounds like you have plenty of fun projects going. Cheers, -ethan

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Making lite of our situation
by Sentrytv 27 Mar '20

27 Mar '20

Is it too early to make light of the situation? Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > On Mar 26, 2020, at 11:42 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > Things are rough these days. How's everyone handling it? > > -- > ========================================= > Jeff Brace > Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner > Vintage Computer Federation > http://www.vcfed.org/ > jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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InfoAge in The Star Ledger donates N-95 masks
by Jeffrey Brace 27 Mar '20

27 Mar '20

*1,400 old face masks were sitting in a basement. They’re now fighting coronavirus.* Photo Caption: The masks were stored for several years at the InfoAge Science and History Center in Wall Township, Monmouth County.InfoAge Science and History Center *By Anthony G. Attrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com <http://connect.nj.com/staff/AAttrino/posts.html>* Volunteers at one of New Jersey’s most historic museums on Thursday donated more than 1,400 N-95 face masks to a local hospital and other emergency workers to help them fight the spread of coronavirus <https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/>. “They were in the back of one of our warehouses, literally gathering dust,” said Mike Ruane, chief executive officer of InfoAge Science and History Center in Monmouth County. <https://infoage.org/> The masks, which had originally been ordered eight years ago for people responding to Hurricane Sandy, were uncovered days ago inside at the museum on Marconi Road in Wall Township. The museum is the site of the former U.S. Army base Camp Evans and the Evans Signal Laboratory, where scientists in 1946 bounced the first radio signals off the moon. When Hurricane Sandy swept across the state in 2012, devastating Monmouth County, a slew of volunteer recovery workers built a headquarters for themselves on InfoAge’s sprawling grounds, which contains 11 museums and five exhibits spread out across 34 acres. The masks were ordered for volunteers, who spent months knocking down damaged homes and repairing what they could. “The masks were needed for the workers, who went all over Monmouth County, tearing down sheetrock and helping to rebuild,” Ruane said. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, a museum worker remembered the masks were stored in a warehouse on the property. “Some of the boxes were banged up and some had mildew,” Ruane said. “But on the inside, the masks were wrapped up and not compromised at all.” The museum donated 1,000 masks to Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank and another 400 to Wall Township, which was planning to distribute them to emergency workers and senior citizens. “We think it’s great that we were able to help,” Ruane said. “We are members of the Wall Township community. We enjoy being here and this is our way of giving back.” As of Thursday, at least 742 people in New Jersey had tested positive for coronavirus. Nine people have died, including members of a family from Monmouth County. <https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/03/nj-family-ravaged-by-coronavirus-los…> -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's everyone doing?
by ajpierson1 27 Mar '20

27 Mar '20

Been working from home to keep us on the air. Fortunately, it's much easier to keep a TV station operational when you don't have to keep the studio spaces running, and more than half of the employees aren't generating new trouble tickets. In the mean time, I've played through Doom Eternal which was amazing. I've also repaired my Heathkit H89's power problems which knocked it out of commission on Friday night of VCF East last year. A TO-3 socket for one of the 5V regulators was damaged, and while I was making the repairs the other day, I swapped the old linear regulator for a drop-in switch mode supply (also in a TO-3 package). So far, I've had good luck with those in a VIC-20 and a 1541 drive, thus it seemed like a natural choice to reduce heat output in my H89. I've also had way more group voice chats with friends around the world these past few weeks, mostly talking about vintage computer topics. In this way, a few of us helped one friend through some H89 diagnostics and repair which has brought the machine back to life (mostly). I believe he will be using it for his VCF exhibit soon enough. Last week, I was also taking a crack at implementing Glitchbus on the Cactus, but that's been sidelined for the moment. I also took a brief (and isolated) drive out to my storage unit last week to drop off projects I don't have space for at the moment. If any of you are familiar with the Votrax SC-01-A speech synthesizer chip, I scored a Type'N Talk on ebay recently, and spent some time figuring out how to interface with it properly. It sounds great, and I was not expecting to find an entire 6802 based machine inside the tiny chassis.I've always got a stack of projects to tackle, so this really isn't all that different for me. We'll get thru this with a little vigilance, patience, and isolation. -Alexander 'Z' Pierson

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