- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

VCF West XI August 6 & 7 - Who's Going?
by Jeffrey Brace 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

7 weeks to go. Corey, Evan and I are helping to organize. There are going to be great speakers and exhibitors! Check it out! http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/ Jeff Brace

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] [OT] In the Bay Area...On the Wrong Day
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

"J. Alexander Jacocks via vcf-midatlantic" writes: >I am in the SF Bay Area, until Thursday, for a conference, so I figured >that I should check out the Computer History Museum, which I have never >seen, to my shame. But then I found out that it is closed on Mondays >and Tuesdays, which pretty much makes it impossible for me, as I have >customer meetings all day Wednesday and Thursday. > >Does anyone else have suggestions of things worth doing, other than the >standard Weird Stuff/Halted visits? Put some flowers in your hair and stand around the neighborhood of Haight- Ashbury.

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Museum Report for Sunday, June 26th 2016
by Todd George 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

Slow day at the museum. One visitor today. He was a fellow InfoAge volunteer, came into the museum to chat, visit and soak up some A/C after mowing the lawns around an IA building or two. Worked on the Amiga monitor, no video/HV at all, all caps check out. Did not figure out the issue even after a nearly full tear-down of the monitor. Reassembled to leave it for next time. Also did a quick overall health check on the Amiga 500 power supply, all caps and voltages check out. All clear on that front, monitor is still dead though. :( The Macintosh was up and running early on, but developed a case of collapse part way through the day. Didn't get a chance to look into it, but it's only showing a vertical line now. I chose to just shut it down for the day. I also spent some time organizing the museum workbench. :) -Todd

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] K-Fest - who's going
by Todd George 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

> Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2016 12:39:58 -0400 > From: Jeffrey Brace <ark72axow(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] K-Fest - who's going > > Just wondering who's going so that others in our group might be interested > in meeting up etc. I'll be there. Driving so I can take/acquire mass quantities of stuff that would be difficult to transport via plane/convince TSA is not bomb materials. -Todd

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Bendix G-15 was Re: Univac, our first real work!
by Brian L. Stuart 26 Jun '16

26 Jun '16

On Thu, 6/16/16, David Riley via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > Our Bendix G-15, however, is tube-based (and drum-based, > which will probably be the bigger hurdle to getting it > running). True. The best bet for restoring the G-15 would be to construct a drum emulator that would interface with the rest of the machine using the same timing and signal levels as the original drum. Use that to get the rest of the machine running. Then if the original drum turns out to be unrestorable, we still have a running G-15, and if the original drum can be restored, the emulator can still be used to minimize any additional wear and tear on the original. I have no idea, however, how much of the original software still exists. I've got a few of the paper tape cartridges and I've seen some references online about software, so there is hope. Of course, writing software is a lot more fun than running old software, so even if nothing still exists, restoration would still be very interesting to consider. BLS

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FS: GR Electronics Type 8 Pocket Terminal (RS-232 serial terminal)
by Systems Glitch 26 Jun '16

26 Jun '16

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272287424144 I've had this little pocket terminal for a while, used to use it as a debug display when doing low-level debug on vintage systems. It's got a TI Graphing Calculator style keyboard and 8 character bubble magnified 16 segment display. Switch settable to work at 110 or 300 bps. +5V is supplied over the RS-232 cable (pin 9 +5V, pin 10 GND) and the terminal uses around 190 mA. The keypad seems a little stiff/insensitive, not sure if that's just how this particular keypad is, or if it could use a disassembly/cleaning. Thanks, Jonathan

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FS: Robot Research 800H RTTY/SSTV Unit (8085 based, parallel keyboard)
by Systems Glitch 26 Jun '16

26 Jun '16

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272287313991 Figured I'd post this here since this RTTY/SSTV unit is basically a vintage computer internally -- Intel 8085 based, composite video output, old Teletype layout keyboard, et c. Lots of good parts and a very heavy-duty keyboard enclosure if someone wants to roll their own computer into the chassis, repurpose the 8085 board inside, or just use the keyboard/enclosure with a vintage computer. It appears to be functional, but I don't have a receiver for RTTY/SSTV to actually tune in a station. Keyboard works with no stuck/dead keys that I noticed. This unit has RS-232 output, don't know about input, but I suspect it could be used with a composite monitor as a RS-232 terminal with a little modification. Price based on what similar RTTY gear has sold for recently, make an offer! Thanks, Jonathan

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K-Fest - who's going
by Jeffrey Brace 26 Jun '16

26 Jun '16

Just wondering who's going so that others in our group might be interested in meeting up etc.

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Upcoming: Apple II Prototype Card
by Systems Glitch 25 Jun '16

25 Jun '16

Apparently Ian is building an Apple II card for VCF, and doesn't like most of the current prototype card offerings -- either the layout is...deficient, or they're not regularly available. I laid out a simple pad-per-hole board: http://i.imgur.com/G5QOATi.png I have a small prototype quantity on order, but I'll probably be ordering 50 or 100 in the near future, if anyone is interested. Thanks, Jonathan

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FS: Solflower SBus to VME Converter Chassis
by Systems Glitch 25 Jun '16

25 Jun '16

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272286199075 Six-slot Solflower VME chassis with a converter board for hooking VME boards to a SBus Sun box. Unfortunately I don't have the SBus board that makes up the other side of the interface, so I was only able to power-on test it. No idea what it's worth, so I listed it for what I've seen similarly sized desktop VME boxes go for. Feel free to make an offer! Thanks, Jonathan

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