- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Speaking of the next workshop (Aug 20 & 21)
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Jul '16

29 Jul '16

Just reminding everyone that the next workshop is scheduled for Aug 20 & 21. So who's interested in going? And what will you work on? -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player?
by Jason Perkins 29 Jul '16

29 Jul '16

I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only use it 4 or 5 times. Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that has the best chance of reading the discs. Thanks, -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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TRS-80 PC-1 & Printer
by Herb Johnson 29 Jul '16

29 Jul '16

David Gesswein posted: > I would always recommend opening up and checking anything you know has a > battery in it. They frequently leak which will damage whatever is nearby. > Nicads leakage seems to be less volume than some other types. > > Powering it up with the leakage would likely make things worse. There's many kinds of batteries inside vintage electronics; it's useful in my opinion to identify what you have. Generally you should not replace one kind with another kind. I'll walk through reasons - do your homework before serious work. I won't discuss lead cells or gel-cells. NI-cd's or Nicads work at different voltages than Nickel-hydride which is the more recent alternative. Lithium cells are usually very small batteries. Leakage is a problem, among other problems. Nicads have a longer shelf life, can be completely discharged but still are rechargable - good for those solar yard-lights. They usually don't leak, but do corrode and produce a flaky material. You can still obtain NiCd batteries, for equipment which may sit for months and then be put back to service. Also: when you want the same voltage from the same number of battery cells (say a NICd 12V pack). Nickel-metal-hydride or NiMH don't like to be completely discharged. They are more common these days of course, and have more power in a smaller package. Lithium batteries were used for years in vintage computers, as clock and data backup power in tiny cells (Apple Macintosh computers). I believe many of the coin-cells are lithium. They are not rechargable, they have a VERY long shelf life. But the cylindrical-type (look like fractional AAA or AA batteries) sometimes leak, and when they do it's a gooey awful mess. The 1990 lithium removable cells, seem to leak more than the 1980's wired-in lithium cells. They have specific voltages per cell and package, so pay attention to both when replacing. A side issue: the constant voltage from these batteries, produces copper corrosion - that green powder stuff - on circuits. I see chips and PC boards with green on them. Not good, and scrubbing off the copper oxide just reveals bare copper which will corrode unless coated with something. Frankly- I advice removing these batteries from any computer, when you can operate it without one. Install it when using, if you insist on the correct date or have BIOS settings, etc. All part of the fun of vintage computer repair. I enjoy the challenges and finding problems and fixes and work-arounds. That calls for understanding the fundamentals. That's how I work.... Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player?
by Matt Patoray 29 Jul '16

29 Jul '16

On Fri, Jul 29, 2016 at 10:25 AM, Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Ben Greenfield <ben(a)cogs.com> > To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> > Cc: > Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2016 10:25:40 -0400 > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player? > My players my be too new. > > One is an LD-4000 and the other is a LD-4400 > > Let me know if those would work. > > Ben > Ben, Those players are both Laser Diode based, being industrial they may play the discs a bit better then a consumer deck from that time but not much better. I have one of these, but it is in Ohio, it plays GM and DiscoVidion Discs very well. http://www.blamld.com/DiscoVision/LD-660.htm This is also a great player for them. http://www.blamld.com/DiscoVision/VP-7200.htm -- Matt Patoray Owner, MSP Productions KD8AMG

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player?
by Ben Greenfield 29 Jul '16

29 Jul '16

My players my be too new. One is an LD-4000 and the other is a LD-4400 Let me know if those would work. Ben > On Jul 28, 2016, at 10:49 AM, Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > From: Ben Greenfield <ben(a)cogs.com> > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player? > Date: July 28, 2016 at 10:49:26 AM EDT > To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> > > > I have a few Pioneer Laserdiscs that are from the ‘80s I’m not at home to check the model. > They were used in interactive exhibits and have serial control if that helps date them. > > I will check if they work when I get home. > > Ben > > > > >> On Jul 28, 2016, at 10:45 AM, Jason Perkins via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: >> >> I've got some late 70s / early 80s General Motors laserdiscs that I >> want to capture, but my 90s Sony player won't read them. I'd like to >> try the discs in a 70s player to see if there's any hope of getting >> them to play, but don't want to drop $$$ on a player when I'll only >> use it 4 or 5 times. >> >> Does anyone on this list have a working player from 1984 or older with >> a gas tube laser? The GM dealers had Pioneer PR-7820's, I'd think that >> has the best chance of reading the discs. >> >> Thanks, >> >> -- >> Jason Perkins >> 313 355 0085 > > >

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OT: questions for famous hacker
by Evan Koblentz 28 Jul '16

28 Jul '16

I'm writing an article for work about end users being the weakest links in network security. Lined up an interview with a really famous hacker -- don't want to say who, but it begins with "Kevin" :) at 5pm ET today. That's one hour from now. Looking for serious suggestions of questions to ask him. Please reply on-list or privately, and PLEASE refrain from sarcasm or thread-drift.

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TRS-80 PC-1 & Printer
by Joseph Oprysko 28 Jul '16

28 Jul '16

I just picked up this system, and the screen is practically unusable. Does anyone know if there is a way to repair this kind of damage on the old LCD screens. It doesn't appear to be cracked at all. If it is unable to be repaired, would anyone know where I could get a replacement display (if possible at all) Also, the printer apparently runs off an internal (read as non-replaceable) ni-cad battery. I'm not sure if it needs replacing or not at this point, I'm going to try and let it charge for 15hrs (per the manual) and see if it functions at all then. Otherwise I will probably have to take it apart and try to get the battery stats and find/make a replacement. -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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OT: Anyone have an old laserdisc player?
by Herb Johnson 28 Jul '16

28 Jul '16

Matt Patoray said: > The best player for those discs is a Pioneer VP-1100 or a >Sylvania VP-7200. The Pioneer VP-660 also works well. > Avoid the Sony LDP-1000 as almost all of them have laser tubes > that have gone to air. I'm sorry to hear about the Sony; I have a Sony LDP-1500 model I've not run in years. I'll have to check it out. If others bring their laserdisk players to Infoage, maybe I'll bring mine for sale. Matt: an old trick to restore HeNe laser tubes, is to put the tube in a plastic bag and fill the bag with helium. Yes, the helium will leak out of the baggy, but it will hold for a day or so. That seems to be sufficient to restore the helium lost from the gas tube. Comments? Also: I think the topic of laserdisks is marginally "on" for vintage computing. Early commercial video arcade games used laserdisks. I think the first was "Dragon's Lair" if memory serves. Laserdisks were supported by personal computers in the era as used in education - commercial, military, and K-12. (My Sony model has a serial? interface and some kind of command set.) The vintage arcade collectors/restorers are important members of the vintage computing community. Many of the dealers, offer vintage digital parts that cross over to 1970's-80's vintage computers. They are active in the emulation community of course; many also own vintage computers. For myself, early on, I had a summer job repairing those early microprocessor-based video game boards. I also had a contract job, documenting software which supported a set of training videodisks on a PC. Laserdisks (and RCA's SelectaVision Capacitance Electronic Disc or CED) were an important development in multimedia computing for industry and home. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Extremely Rare Celebration Apple-1 Computer on Charity Buzz Auction
by madodel 27 Jul '16

27 Jul '16

*Extremely Rare Celebration Apple-1 Computer* https://www.charitybuzz.com/catalog_items/extremely-rare-celebration-apple-… Estimated Value: $1,000,000 Current Bid: $270,000 "The"Celebration" Apple-1 <http://apple1.charitybuzz.com/>is an original Apple-1 pre-NTI board that has many unique features, period correct power supply, original Apple-1 ACI cassette board (also populated with Robinson Nugent sockets), early Apple-1 BASIC cassettes, original marketing material, and the most complete documentation set of the known Apple-1 boards. The "Celebration" Apple-1 is extremely rare not only because of the scarcity of Apple-1 computers, but according to Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computer, no known PCB boards of this type were ever sold to the public. At this time, this is the only known Apple-1 to show the signs of starting out as a blank original-run board and not part of the two known production runs, so this board appears to be unique from all other known Apple-1 boards."

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Macintosh Floppy drive repair guide
by Matt Patoray 26 Jul '16

26 Jul '16

Hi all, I rember that someone in the group had done a presentation of Macintosh floppy drive repair (it might have been Ian P, not sure). I have decided that my pile of bad 1 and 2 MB Mac floppy drives needs attended to, they are all Sony auto inject drives. Was there a resentation ever done, and if so, was there a powerpoint that was with it? Or if anyone knows of a website with a good tutorial. Thanks, -- Matt Patoray Owner, MSP Productions KD8AMG

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