The workshop was great. I estimate that on Saturday there was about 20 people there. Lots of things fixed. I started evaluating my many, many C64, but didn’t get very far. I will get started earlier on Saturday next time as many people do one day and leave early. Who else wants to tell what they worked on and fixed? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation
I worked on my Atari VCS system to get it working and for sale. I also worked on three Commodore 64 units and learned quite a bit about the diagnostic tools available to plug-in and see which chips possibly could be defective. Unfortunately I couldn't repair any because I need the chips, but it was a it was a productive day. I learned from Chris and Todd, (forgot last names) about these tools for diagnostics. I met another Mike who also had Commodore 64 to work on and try and repair. Workshop definitely had more people there than the last time I attended and I will most likely attend the next one. Mike Rosen Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.
On Jan 14, 2019, at 12:54 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
The workshop was great. I estimate that on Saturday there was about 20 people there. Lots of things fixed. I started evaluating my many, many C64, but didn’t get very far. I will get started earlier on Saturday next time as many people do one day and leave early.
Who else wants to tell what they worked on and fixed?
-- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation
Mike, Glad that you could make it and had a productive workshop. Next time I will have one or two C64 parts machines available. I also have some extra chips such as PLA available. Alex J told me about Forever PLA. I will look into buying some. The C64’s PLA was notorious for failing. I will also dig up a C64 diagnostic that uses LED lights to tell which chip is bad. This is useful when there is no video working. On Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 1:05 PM Sentrytv <sentrytv@yahoo.com> wrote:
I worked on my Atari VCS system to get it working and for sale.
I also worked on three Commodore 64 units and learned quite a bit about the diagnostic tools available to plug-in and see which chips possibly could be defective. Unfortunately I couldn't repair any because I need the chips, but it was a it was a productive day.
I learned from Chris and Todd, (forgot last names) about these tools for diagnostics.
I met another Mike who also had Commodore 64 to work on and try and repair.
Workshop definitely had more people there than the last time I attended and I will most likely attend the next one.
Mike Rosen
Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.
On Jan 14, 2019, at 12:54 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
The workshop was great. I estimate that on Saturday there was about 20 people there. Lots of things fixed. I started evaluating my many, many C64, but didn’t get very far. I will get started earlier on Saturday next time as many people do one day and leave early.
Who else wants to tell what they worked on and fixed?
-- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation
-- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation
Tony won "first to smoke". On Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 12:54 PM Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org wrote:
The workshop was great. I estimate that on Saturday there was about 20 people there. Lots of things fixed. I started evaluating my many, many C64, but didn’t get very far. I will get started earlier on Saturday next time as many people do one day and leave early.
Who else wants to tell what they worked on and fixed?
-- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation
Primarily worked with Mike P. and his son Brian (sorry if I got the names wrong. I previously communicated with them via the list and coincidentally ran across them while I was a docent. At that time I discovered that Mike is a huge collector of vintage telephone equipment. While not strictly a VCF thing, it is very cool and somewhat related. We got to talking about a 1950ish rotary telephone that I bought on eBay a few years ago because it was the exact model that my grandparents had. I didn’t think it worked because Comcast doesn’t provide a real phone circuit (sort of). Mike brought a line simulator with him and it turns out my phone works perfectly! I enjoyed the sound of the real bell ringer, hope the other attendees did too! :-) We also tried to diagnose a C64 that he and his son recently acquired. The Commodore didn’t do anything except produce a video sync signal. Didn’t respond to diagnostics cartridge at all. Thanks to Todd for loaning us his Hakko desoldering gun. I removed the PLA chip which was soldered in and installed a socket (thanks Jeff). We tested the chip in a good C64 and proved it was bad. Installing a good PLA didn’t fix the problem, but it was still good experience and at least we confirmed one bad chip. Definitely time well spent. Perhaps the most productive workshop I attended so far. One of the most enjoyable for sure. Chris F. On Jan 14, 2019, at 12:54 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote: The workshop was great. I estimate that on Saturday there was about 20 people there. Lots of things fixed. I started evaluating my many, many C64, but didn’t get very far. I will get started earlier on Saturday next time as many people do one day and leave early. Who else wants to tell what they worked on and fixed? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation
My old Motorola Vonage box not only supports a ring number (REN) of 6, but it also supports pulse dialing. That's why I have yet to give up my Vonage service for Comcast. I use an old rotary dial ITT wall phone in my workshop. On Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 1:29 PM Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org wrote:
had. I didn’t think it worked because Comcast doesn’t provide a real phone circuit (sort of).
A newbie, Matt C., joined after he met Dean via LetGo. He brought two Laser 128s to the workshop but he didn't know much about them. I tested both of them. One had a bad keyboard and the other had a bad drive. The keyboards weren't compatible models, so I swapped the drives. Fairly easy because Ian, Tony, etc. previously taught me how to work on these machines -- they're a PITA to open/close compared to an Apple //c, but swapping components is easy. Now he has one working computer and one for parts. I also taught him about ADTpro, etc.
For my Asterisk/FreePBX setup at home, I now have two ATAs which support pulse dialing: a Grandstream HT502 and a UTStarcom iAN-02EX (circa 2004). The HT502 doesn't always pick up the correct number of pulses, but the UTStarcom does every time. The only thing I don't like about the UTStarcom is that it doesn't do SIP correctly so I had to configure for MGCP. It's also very difficult to find firmware for it. The HT502 rings the rotary phone louder, which doesn't make sense since it has a 3 REN versus the iAN-EX02's 5 REN. On Mon, 14 Jan 2019, Jeff Salzman via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
My old Motorola Vonage box not only supports a ring number (REN) of 6, but it also supports pulse dialing. That's why I have yet to give up my Vonage service for Comcast. I use an old rotary dial ITT wall phone in my workshop.
On Mon, Jan 14, 2019, 1:29 PM Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org wrote:
had. I didn?t think it worked because Comcast doesn?t provide a real phone circuit (sort of).
Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
participants (6)
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Chris Fala -
Evan Koblentz -
Jeffrey Brace -
jsalzman＠gmail.com -
Mike Loewen -
Sentrytv