[vcf-midatlantic] UNIVAC updates

[J. Alexander Jacocks]

Great news on the UNIVAC!

I did bring the new tape up, but it was Jason Perkins who donated it.

- Alex

On Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 11:40 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:

> Bill Drom. and Duane were at the museum Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to do
> more UNIVAC restoration.
>
> Bill sent me a report today:
>
> ----------------------------
>
> We spent most of our time running down intermittent faults in the 1219B
> computer. Mainly using the oscilloscope and logic prints in addition to the
> diagnostic program used by the navy we were able to find several bad cards
> in the computer. We finally got it to run full un-jumpered diagnostics for
> over an hour before we stopped it.
>
> We also tried to get the paper tape punch in the 1532 console to operate
> properly. Duane even ran the computer in slow op step mode so we could
> observe the reader in slow motion. We had less success with that. We
> switched to the mylar tape donated by, I think it was Alex at the last
> workshop. It looks like it works about 95% but haven’t been able to get
> perfect tape copies yet.
>
> Duane brought a full new box of magnetic tape and two original master head
> alignment tapes with him for the museum. We looked at the 1540 tape handler
> but it looks like we need to do some pinch roller adjustments. We only have
> a copy of the schematics from NASA which is slightly different from our
> unit. We are still trying to get the correct books on that but our hope is
> getting low.
>
> We left for home on Tuesday with the computer still working but with one
> intermittent problem in channel 17 I/O section.
>
> ----------------------------
>
> Bill also sent two videos and two pictures: https://tinyurl.com/y9dwqe8t.
>
> -Evan
>
>