Jan 30/31 Workshop location update & what's everyone working on?
I was at the InfoAge meeting tonight and scouted out the area. There is *some* snow at the back entrance to 9032-A. Not significant. I feel like most of it will be gone by Saturday as there will be above freezing temperatures Thursday and Friday. So what's everyone working on? Bringing? Me: Commodore 64 and Commodore 1541 repair. Various broken 1541, at least 2 working 1541, soldering iron, 1541 speed controller, and if I can find a disk cleaner kit. You: ?
On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 10:31 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I was at the InfoAge meeting tonight and scouted out the area. There is *some* snow at the back entrance to 9032-A. Not significant. I feel like most of it will be gone by Saturday as there will be above freezing temperatures Thursday and Friday.
So what's everyone working on? Bringing?
Me: Commodore 64 and Commodore 1541 repair. Various broken 1541, at least 2 working 1541, soldering iron, 1541 speed controller, and if I can find a disk cleaner kit.
You: ?
I will bring 1541 focus things. I have some good useful gear for this topic. b
Me: Commodore 64 and Commodore 1541 repair. Various broken 1541, at least 2 working 1541, soldering iron, 1541 speed controller, and if I can find a disk cleaner kit.
You: ?
I will bring 1541 focus things. I have some good useful gear for this topic. b
Bringing various tools, soldering iron / meters / part supplies / scope / resocketing tools etc. I've never dived into 1541's, or done any alignment, will want to get involved in some of that. So, I'll bring a mix of working vs non-working stuff. - Steve
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 8:29 AM, Steven Toth via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Me: Commodore 64 and Commodore 1541 repair. Various broken 1541, at least 2 working 1541, soldering iron, 1541 speed controller, and if I can find a disk cleaner kit.
You: ?
I will bring 1541 focus things. I have some good useful gear for this topic. b
Bringing various tools, soldering iron / meters / part supplies / scope / resocketing tools etc.
I've never dived into 1541's, or done any alignment, will want to get involved in some of that.
So, I'll bring a mix of working vs non-working stuff.
- Steve
As far as 1541's go, what I will start with is a few working drives. I want to set up some measuring equipment so we can take baseline readings of the electrical characteristics of the drives. Then with this info we can play doctor 1541 to diagnose non-working drives. We can line 10 drives up at a time, probe targeted points and determine which are the best candidates for repair. We can also swap parts, etc. I have an oscilloscope but if anyone wants to bring a better one, please advise and I will leave mine at home. I am also planning on bringing a few DEC power supplies to test out. h742a's. These are 115V and can be tested from a regular outlet. I have restored one from the grave, I hope to be able to bring up at least two more (I have 4 to be restored). Restoring the supply was a great learning experience for me, I was totally clueless about DEC repairs before I started. I know VCF has at least one h742a power supply in the store room we can take a look at, maybe diagnose the condition of VCFs pdp 11/40 power supply. Bill
As far as 1541's go, what I will start with is a few working drives. I want to set up some measuring equipment so we can take baseline readings of the electrical characteristics of the drives. Then with this info we can play doctor 1541 to diagnose non-working drives. We can line 10 drives up at a time, probe targeted points and determine which are the best candidates for repair. We can also swap parts, etc. I have an oscilloscope but if anyone wants to bring a better one, please advise and I will leave mine at home.
Good plan. I've never looked at 1541's before, so I have no schematic / maintenance docs.... yet. That being said, I'll happily help anyone. I plan to bring a modern scope, although I'm only around Saturday, so you might want to lug something up to NJ anyway.
I am also planning on bringing a few DEC power supplies to test out. h742a's. These are 115V and can be tested from a regular outlet. I have restored one from the grave, I hope to be able to bring up at least two more (I have 4 to be restored). Restoring the supply was a great learning experience for me, I was totally clueless about DEC repairs before I started. I know VCF has at least one h742a power supply in the store room we can take a look at, maybe diagnose the condition of VCFs pdp 11/40 power supply.
Power supplies (design/debug) I'm weaker than I'd like. I'd like to help with any DEC stuff - or listen/learn, either way is fine. Overall, I've never needed to realign a C64 drive, although I have done some Apple II driver calibration. Sounds like fun. - Steve
Can someone supply a good desolder station for removing ICs! Last time we had Corey's and it proved really really helpful.
The article seems very straightforward: www.vcfed.org/evan/1541.pdf. I encourage everyone to read it and consider its advice. Sometimes simple adjustments are a smarter choice vs. immediately jumping into all kinds of fancy electronic stuff. :)
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
The article seems very straightforward: www.vcfed.org/evan/1541.pdf.
I encourage everyone to read it and consider its advice. Sometimes simple adjustments are a smarter choice vs. immediately jumping into all kinds of fancy electronic stuff. :)
Thanks Evan, this is a nice article. I have a few books on repairing 1541's too, I was thinking to bring. b
The article seems very straightforward: www.vcfed.org/evan/1541.pdf.
I encourage everyone to read it and consider its advice. Sometimes simple adjustments are a smarter choice vs. immediately jumping into all kinds of fancy electronic stuff. :)
Thanks Evan, this is a nice article. I have a few books on repairing 1541's too, I was thinking to bring. b
You're welcome. I like this article because it is very simple. "Even an Evan can understand!" Obviously some of the drives will need sophisticated repair. But I'm thinking that the basics in this article should be tried before we starting probing and soldering anything. :) Someone should bring a metric crap-ton of sticky labels, so we don't get confused about who owns which drives. VCF itself probably has a dozen or so of the 1541s.
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 11:06 AM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
The article seems very straightforward: www.vcfed.org/evan/1541.pdf.
I encourage everyone to read it and consider its advice. Sometimes simple adjustments are a smarter choice vs. immediately jumping into all kinds of fancy electronic stuff. :)
Thanks Evan, this is a nice article. I have a few books on repairing 1541's too, I was thinking to bring.
Neat Evan, thanks for sharing. - Steve
On Thursday, January 28, 2016, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
The article seems very straightforward: www.vcfed.org/evan/1541.pdf.
I encourage everyone to read it and consider its advice. Sometimes simple adjustments are a smarter choice vs. immediately jumping into all kinds of fancy electronic stuff. :)
Thanks Evan, this is a nice article. I have a few books on repairing 1541's too, I was thinking to bring. b
You're welcome.
I like this article because it is very simple. "Even an Evan can understand!"
Obviously some of the drives will need sophisticated repair. But I'm thinking that the basics in this article should be tried before we starting probing and soldering anything. :)
Someone should bring a metric crap-ton of sticky labels, so we don't get confused about who owns which drives. VCF itself probably has a dozen or so of the 1541s.
I'm guessing VCF has about 100 1541.
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 12:44 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I'm guessing VCF has about 100 1541.
That is a slight exaggeration. :)
We probably have about 15-20.
All bad? What bad luck. b
They were donated to us via Bryan Pope who got a majority of them via 3 defunct Commodore user groups. They have been stored in the warehouse for years in all sorts of temperature and humidity conditions. I suspect that they all have one problem or another that makes them all unusable. I have not tested all of them. There are just too many. I would take one try it, then another and another, and just give up. On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 2:14 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 12:44 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I'm guessing VCF has about 100 1541.
That is a slight exaggeration. :)
We probably have about 15-20.
All bad? What bad luck. b
I saw them with my own eyes. I will show you on Saturday. :P On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 12:44 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I'm guessing VCF has about 100 1541.
That is a slight exaggeration. :)
We probably have about 15-20.
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 10:45 AM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
The article seems very straightforward: www.vcfed.org/evan/1541.pdf.
I encourage everyone to read it and consider its advice. Sometimes simple adjustments are a smarter choice vs. immediately jumping into all kinds of fancy electronic stuff. :)
Looks good. I printed a few copies which I will bring to the workshop. I also have other documentation and manuals for the 1541 which I will bring.
Probably the best thing I can personally do at the workshop is de-assembling all the 1541s to get the drives ready for repair. I may lack the electronic skills that you guys all have, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work a screwdriver. :) I'll also be meeting with some InfoAge management people about details of our museum move; etc.
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 3:02 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Probably the best thing I can personally do at the workshop is de-assembling all the 1541s to get the drives ready for repair. I may lack the electronic skills that you guys all have, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work a screwdriver. :)
I'll also be meeting with some InfoAge management people about details of our museum move; etc.
Anything in the museum that needs some workshop attention? - Steve
Probably the best thing I can personally do at the workshop is de-assembling all the 1541s to get the drives ready for repair. I may lack the electronic skills that you guys all have, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work a screwdriver. :)
I'll also be meeting with some InfoAge management people about details of our museum move; etc.
Anything in the museum that needs some workshop attention?
- Steve
Yes, but Jeff B. has a better list than I do.
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 10:25 AM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Can someone supply a good desolder station for removing ICs! Last time we had Corey's and it proved really really helpful.
I plan to bring mine. - Steve
I will bring Coreys again. I believe he left where I can access it. On Thursday, January 28, 2016, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Can someone supply a good desolder station for removing ICs! Last time we had Corey's and it proved really really helpful.
On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 10:31:19PM -0500, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
So what's everyone working on?
I will be doing more work on the straight 8 and helping Herb with his 8/A.
Bringing?
Soldering, desoldering tools, scope and other test equipment, PDP-8 parts, and documentation.
On 1/27/2016 10:31 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
So what's everyone working on? Bringing?
Me: Commodore 64 and Commodore 1541 repair. Various broken 1541, at least 2 working 1541, soldering iron, 1541 speed controller, and if I can find a disk cleaner kit.
You: ?
I will be testing/building S-100 boards. As per my usual MO, I will bring a lot of stuff just in case I can help anyone else out. The list includes: 7400 series chips Some 40xx CMOS chips, 8080/Z-80 CPUs & support chips 6502 & support chips 6800 & support chips 6116 to 61256, 2114 & 2102 static RAM 4116, 4164, 4464 Dynamic RAMS Spare EPROMS Discrete resistor & resistor networks Diodes, general purpose smail signal NPN & PNP transistors Tantalum & small aluminum electrolytic capacitors DIP IC sockets from 8 to 40 pin A 7400/4000 series chip tester Hakko soldering iron and Desoldering iron EPROM programmers & eraser along with some other stuff like meters,hand tools, etc. 2 Channel USB PropScope Small 2 channel Oscilloscope I realize that availability of tables might be a issue so I will bring 2 or 3 of the 2x4 foot resin tables for me to work on. My wife is working the weekend but I will be leaving at 3pm on Sunday to meet her when she gets off work which means I can help setting table up etc on Saturday morning., but I won't be around for breaking down the tables Sunday evening. See y'all Saturday, Jeff Galinat
participants (8)
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Chris Fala -
David Gesswein -
Douglas Crawford -
Evan Koblentz -
Jeff Galinat -
Jeffrey Brace -
Steven Toth -
william degnan