- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

TI 99/4a with Expansion System, Loaded/Working for Sale
by william degnan 18 Dec '15

18 Dec '15

I have listed a "super system" on Ebay, starting price is $1. It's tested, working and complete, with manuals and working disk drive. Feel free to ask questions. Shipping worldwide from Landenberg, PA. http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/272080377926 -- Bill

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Apple II GS Vulcan IDE Drive Replacement
by Joseph Oprysko 17 Dec '15

17 Dec '15

I have a II GS I had picked up which has a Vulcan controller and hard drive. The hard drive either needs to be reformatted or replaced. (I don't have a floppy drive for my IIGS to re-install the OS), although I just ordered a Floppy Drive Emulator from Big Mess 'O Wires, it actually looks like a very promising solution for my Mac's and Apple II's. But back to my question, Is there a modern replacement for the hard drive for the one that connects to the Vulcan card (CF->IDE or SD->IDE) that is known to work with this? Thanks, Joe -- 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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Update -- year-end donations
by Evan Koblentz 17 Dec '15

17 Dec '15

Everyone, Friendly reminder that if you'd like to get a 2015 tax deduction, then you need to send us a donation by Dec. 31 (two short weeks away). We accept PayPal to donations(a)vintagecomputerfederation.org and checks to VCF, P.O. Box 417, Eatontown, NJ, 07724. Thank you! Evan

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TRSWiki for Model III/4
by Peter Cetinski 16 Dec '15

16 Dec '15

I just released a new version of TRSWiki that runs on the TRS-80 Model III and Model 4. For those of you that don’t know about TRSWiki, it is a Wikipedia browser for the TRS-80. It requires a MISE for the Model I or a M3SE for the Model III/4 for Internet connectivity. The 640x240 hi-resolution options for the Model III/4 are pretty cool. Screenshots and more details on the website. Thanks! http://pski.net/trswiki/ <http://pski.net/trswiki/>

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Intel 8224 Clock Generator on non-8080 Systems
by Systems Glitch 16 Dec '15

16 Dec '15

I mentioned to someone at Festivus that I'd seen an Intel 8224 clock generator used somewhere in a non-8080 system, perhaps with a Z80. Apparently the item I was remembering was the Ithaca Audio Z80 CPU board: http://s100computers.com/Hardware Folder/Intersystems/Z80-I Board/IA Z80-I.htm Thanks, Jonathan

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Need Yamaha C1 EPROM images
by Ethan 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

Longshot but looking for the bios and 3rd chip EPROM images from the Yamaha C1 286-10 "music" laptop. I posted the floppy disk dumps that are pack in including some developer dox (including pinout of expansion connector!) in both disk image and zip format online. I also posted the EPROM dumps that I have -- I noticed text from the Copyright notices is corrupted so I'm thinking my issue with the computer is the eproms are going bad. There sems to be a lot of flaky/dead units out there (when I can find them.) I think the machine is strange enough not to be able to use other generic bios copies. Link of floppy files and my (prob bad) bios dumps: https://users.757.org/~ethan/pics/geek/Software/Yamaha_C1_Laptop/

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SOL-20/CUTTER ALS-8 ROM Images Wanted
by william degnan 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

Hi - I have a copy of the ALS-8 ROMS, but the last two of 4 are bad. Does anyone have a ROM image of the ALS-8 ROMs (1702, 2708, 2716 preferred) ? Intel or Motorola is OK. The original ROMs are 9216's FYI but I don't have a burner that works with these, nor the ePROMs. I would be equally thankful for a text file containing a log dump from Teraterm or text terminal program running a system using CUTTER/SOLOS to perform a RAM dump of the C000 Cfff page of a system with ALS-8 populated somehow -- Bill

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How do I change list distribution type?
by Joseph Oprysko 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

I thought that when I signed up for the list, it would send me the individual messages as well as the daily digest, but apparently it just sends me the daily digest. How can I correct that? -- 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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Getting Data off old Atari Floppies
by Herb Johnson 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

David Riley: >> Chuck's advice was to do what he did: make a plywood box, >> put a 25W bulb in, and "bake" it in there for a few days >> (sans vinyl jacket). That won't get you above warping >> temperature. Please don't bake any plastic-based media >> at 300F. Did Chuck say why to do this, what this baking would accomplish? The previously referenced Web page which discusses baking audio tapes says: "The purpose of "baking", is to drive out all the moisture that the tape binder has accumulated, which is what caused it to go sticky in the first place." I do not know that this applies to diskettes and the binders used on their surface coatings. another Web page on baking tapes is: http://www.wendycarlos.com/bake%20a%20tape/baketape.html ..and one Google search hit for "guzis bake diskettes" says, Chuck baked *10-inch tape reels", not diskettes; and the thread was about baking TK50 tape cartridges. Read the thread. https://www.mail-archive.com/cctalk@classiccmp.org/msg04318.html [Re: TK50/TK70 Info, Chuck Guzis Fri, 28 Aug 2015] another "hit" is on the mark: here's an exerpt. http://marc.info/?l=classiccmp&m=137627575108631&w=2 [classiccmp list Re: MFM floppy disk write precompensation Chuck Guzis, 2013-08-12 2:18:15] Sure, remove the cookies from the jackets, bake them at 140F for 4 or 5 hours, then apply a good-quality synthetic auto paint sealant--Klassic seems to be pretty good. No abrasive polishes, please..... That seems to provide a slick enough surface to keep the heads from grabbing the oxide--at least for a few reads. The alternative is disaster....Basically, you want to prevent the heads from "grabbing" the oxide. Once that starts, you're looking at a circle that you can see through. Get yourself an old box of Wabash floppies (any size) and play around......[end excerpt] --------------- Kyle Owen, good student he is, did his homework, and corrected my assumption that the Mylar would buckle - it's much more temperature tolerant, which you'd want for a stable magnetic backing. Thanks, Kyle! In any event, I did an uncontrolled experiment. Briefly: several minutes of baking an 8" diskette envelope (probably PVC?) and the diskette media cookie (Mylar coated with oxide) at 110-120 degrees F, did not seem to immediately distort (melt) either cookie or envelope. But minutes into a 180 degree spike, turned the envelope to a waffle, and put noticeable distortion into the cookie. When cooled, the cookie showed some distortion - I could not say it was sufficient to cause read errors. Of course the envelope was trashed. Again - I'm not convinced baking floppy diskettes, will solve any problems with mold or "moisture", which occurs more often than "flaky" diskettes. Chuck Guzis - who has informed me many times through the decades on matters floppy - seems to use this method to re-bind magnetic coatings on diskettes. and that's consistent with the same method, used to re-bind magnetic coatings on a certain class of 1970's audio tapes, some old DEC magnetic tapes, etc. This was informative discussion, thanks! Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Getting Data off old Atari Floppies
by Herb Johnson 15 Dec '15

15 Dec '15

> One thing I really don't like about old floppies is that for certain > brands etc of 5.25" floppies (and possibly 8" floppies) the media turns > to mush and will get all over the drive heads (and destroy the disk) My experience is, the magnetic coating crumbles. Friction turns the fragments into what might be called "mush". I confirm bad experiences cited with "Wabash" branded 5.25" diskettes. > Supposedly (Based on info from Chuck Guzis/sydex, though I've never > tried this myself), if you dismantle the floppy by cutting open the > vinyl case and removing the "cookie" inside, and put it on a baking > sheet and bake it in the oven at 300F(?) for maybe 8 hours, they can be > made readable again. You may need to apply some sort of sealant to the > outside of the disk after baking. This is, to be polite, flawed advice. There may be some confusion about "baking" 1/4" audio magnetic tapes - I have no details about that process. The diskette Mylar cookie will distort with heat - period. So will the plastic envelope. Distortion temperatures are likely above, 120, 130 degrees F. I don't know the minimum. Storage above room temperature is not recommended. I won't say "try this to see" because someone will mess up their oven and blame me. If you try this, use all possible caution and do NOT leave your experiment unattended. I am not responsible for injury or damage to you, your oven, and certainly to your diskette. My previous post in this thread, has a link to a Web page on my site, which discusses recovery methods I'm aware of. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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