Maybe this could be a good excuse for some travel down south to Atlanta for the VCF-SE 1.0! :)

--- In midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com, Dave McGuire  wrote:
>
>   I'm planning on it and have been discussing it with Dave Greelish.  I'm just
not yet sure of what to exhibit.
>
>                -Dave
>
> --
> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
> New Kensington, PA

I am still looking into the three phase electrical request too Dave.

Best,

David Greelish
- Computer Historian, Writer, Podcaster & Speaker
- Founder of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society

Producer of the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 1.0 - 4/20 & 4/21, 2013

http://about.me/davidgreelish

>> Very sorry to hear this everyone, and needless to say, I'm shocked.

Keep in mind that the 99% primary reason is just Sandy-related. The storm killed
InfoAge's transformer, and it's slow going to replace it. We can't plan our show
with that much near-term uncertainty about the electricity.

Well, if we want to do a workshop sometime this spring/summer AND ensure there
is power, I'll be buying an army surplus MEP-003A generator upstate and lugging
it down to WV for my parents. It puts out 13 kW, runs on diesel, and it
hot-switchable between 120 1ph, 240 1ph and 208 3ph. It'd be a good workout, to
load it down with some non-resistive equipment. The MEP-003A is intended for
comms huts, so the power is better regulated and cleaner than usual army light
plant generators.

If MARCH/InfoAge is seriously considering backup power, the MEP-003As (and the
smaller MEP-002) are regularly available for under $4000 with a warranty.

Thanks,
Jonathan

On Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:07:22 -0500
David Greelish <dgreelish@...> wrote:

> Very sorry to hear this everyone, and needless to say, I'm shocked.
>
> We're working very hard to have a great first show, which will then hopefully
bolster ours and yours for next year.
>
> Only just announced this on the Retro Computing Roundtable Sunday, but we have
our keynote speaker - Robert Tinney, famous artist of the classic Byte magazine
covers.
>
> If anyone would like to try and instead join us "down here" in the Atlanta
area this year, we'd love to have ya.
>
> I certainly hope our two groups, MARCH & AHCS, plus our two shows, VCF East &
VCFSE, can be partners in any way possible.
>
> Best,
>
> David Greelish
> - Computer Historian, Writer, Podcaster & Speaker
> - Founder of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society
>
> Producer of the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 1.0 - 4/20 & 4/21, 2013
>
> http://about.me/davidgreelish
>

On 01/22/2013 11:20 AM, David wrote:
>> I'm planning on it and have been discussing it with Dave Greelish.
>> I'm just not yet sure of what to exhibit.
>
> I am still looking into the three phase electrical request too Dave.

   Thanks!  But actually, don't worry about the three-phase...I've
eliminated those systems from consideration.  The worst I'd need is
single-phase 240, standard hot-neutral-hot.

              -Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

I forget if I sent this message ...

I have a work commitment on 1/30 in the evening, which means I can't watch "The
Americans" with our computers in it that night (10pm; FX channel). Can someone
please record it for me, burn a copy to DVD, and mail it to me (or send
electronically)...?

It will probably be on Hulu, etc., but I don't want to take the chance of
missing the debut episode.

Thanks.

This really takes me back to 1986-88 when I worked on these systems:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45hQS877UfY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_eyOG7QQA

     This is a 3000 Series 42, with a 7980 9-track tape drive (HP-IB) and
two 7959B (304MB) HP-IB hard discs.  The peripherals are not quite period
appropriate for the CPU - it would typically be used with a 7970 tape
drive and 7925 or 7935 discs.  I used to take the 1MB memory boards,
resolder some jumpers, remove the 16Kb RAM chips and repopulate with 64Kb
chips to turn them into 4MB boards.

     The HP3000 systems were designed with ease of maintenance in mind.  I
wouldn't mind finding a Series 42, one of these days.


Mike Loewen 		 mloewen@...
Old Technology       http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

Take a look at this Ebay lot

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892

I don't have a Kenbak, but at least I can get this.

Bill

"B. Degnan" <billdeg@...> writes:

>Take a look at this Ebay lot
>
>http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892
>
>I don't have a Kenbak, but at least I can get this.
>
>Bill

I have a drawer full of such floppy disks.  I can bring some to InfoAge
if needed.


--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.

One disk?

Am I missing something or is this a joke?

On 01/23/2013 12:06 PM, B. Degnan wrote:
> Take a look at this Ebay lot
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892
>
> I don't have a Kenbak, but at least I can get this.

   I can pick this up for you, but I'll need to rent a truck.

   Did you notice the name of the town where the seller is?  I got
(another) chuckle out of that.

              -Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

On 1/23/2013 12:15 PM, evan@... wrote:
> One disk?
>
> Am I missing something or is this a joke?
>
>

Evan Evan Evan..,,

      I won't start to answer what you are missing as I don't think the
email size protocol can handle it..

      I also know that ebay listing is no joke.  It is extremely serious
stuff.

Cheers,

Bryan





;-)

Dave McGuire <Mcguire@...> writes:

>On 01/23/2013 12:06 PM, B. Degnan wrote: > Take a look at this Ebay lot
>> > http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892 > > I don't have a Kenbak, but
>at least I can get this.
>
>  I can pick this up for you, but I'll need to rent a truck.
>
>  Did you notice the name of the town where the seller is?  I got
>(another) chuckle out of that.

It is real place, however.

--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.

-------- Original Message --------
> From: "Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman-" <VAXman@...>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 12:41 PM
> To: midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [midatlanticretro] Ebay - anyone interested in this I can
pick up
>
> "B. Degnan" <billdeg@...> writes:
>
> >Take a look at this Ebay lot
> >
> >http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892
> >
> >I don't have a Kenbak, but at least I can get this.
> >
> >Bill
>
> I have a drawer full of such floppy disks.  I can bring some to InfoAge
> if needed.
>

You can give them to Evan.  He'll catch up with me.

bd

On 01/23/2013 12:43 PM, Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman- wrote:
>> On 01/23/2013 12:06 PM, B. Degnan wrote: > Take a look at this Ebay lot
>>>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892 > > I don't have a Kenbak, but
>> at least I can get this.
>>
>>  I can pick this up for you, but I'll need to rent a truck.
>>
>>  Did you notice the name of the town where the seller is?  I got
>> (another) chuckle out of that.
>
> It is real place, however.

   Yes.

       -Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

--- In midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com, Dave McGuire  wrote:
>
> On 01/23/2013 12:06 PM, B. Degnan wrote:
> > Take a look at this Ebay lot
> >
> > http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892
> >
> > I don't have a Kenbak, but at least I can get this.
>
>   I can pick this up for you, but I'll need to rent a truck.
>
>   Did you notice the name of the town where the seller is?  I got
> (another) chuckle out of that.
>
>              -Dave
>

Yes, a Floppy disk is much better than a Kenbak.  I traded all my Kenbak's for
floppy disks years ago, best deal I ever made!

LoL at the name of the town.  I bet the guy selling this floppy has a magnetic
personality too.

Thanks for the chuckle of the day Bill!

:) J

-------- Original Message --------
> From: "Dave McGuire" <Mcguire@...>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 12:53 PM
> To: midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [midatlanticretro] Ebay - anyone interested in this I can
pick up
>
> On 01/23/2013 12:06 PM, B. Degnan wrote:
> > Take a look at this Ebay lot
> >
> > http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892
> >
> > I don't have a Kenbak, but at least I can get this.
>
>   I can pick this up for you, but I'll need to rent a truck.
>
>   Did you notice the name of the town where the seller is?  I got
> (another) chuckle out of that.
>
>              -Dave
>

I greatly appreciate it, but Brian S has a drawer full of these disks!
Rich city boys and their drawers full of diskettes.  I am going to ride my
helicopter to his house on my way to xylophone practice later today.

bd

I need to get an image of the Boot ROM for the Super Brain.

Jeff recommended Brian Cirulnick, but I can't reach him.
I can only find 1 email address on his website (Techrat@...) but it is not
working.

Anyone know how to reach Brian?

Thanks,
Josh

-------- Original Message --------
> From: "Dave McGuire" <Mcguire@...>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 1:23 PM
> To: midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [midatlanticretro] Ebay - anyone interested in this I can
pick up
>
> On 01/23/2013 12:43 PM, Brian Schenkenberger, VAXman- wrote:
> >> On 01/23/2013 12:06 PM, B. Degnan wrote: > Take a look at this Ebay
lot
> >>>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/181067769892 > > I don't have a Kenbak, but
> >> at least I can get this.
> >>
> >>  I can pick this up for you, but I'll need to rent a truck.
> >>
> >>  Did you notice the name of the town where the seller is?  I got
> >> (another) chuckle out of that.
> >
> > It is real place, however.
>
>   Yes.
>

I feel like I just created a whole lot of head pain.  I was just kidding
around.  A disk a disk my kingdom for a disk

On 1/23/2013 1:27 PM, B. Degnan wrote:
> I feel like I just created a whole lot of head pain. I was just
> kidding around. A disk a disk my kingdom for a disk

I don't give a flux about your disk ;)

"B. Degnan" <billdeg@...> writes:

>I greatly appreciate it, but Brian S has a drawer full of these disks!
>Rich city boys and their drawers full of diskettes.  I am going to ride
>my helicopter to his house on my way to xylophone practice later today.

No rich city boy here... I never had any use for these floopy things which
is by have many.
--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.

Anyone here been a member of any of these IBM PC user groups?

http://vintagecomputer.net/ibm/IBMPCUG.TXT

Bill

So the unhacking continues....

It looks the resistor at R14 is missing, it's a 1.5k
and there is a 1.5k resistor attached to a via near u47 that appears to be
hanging in mid air (there isn't a silk screen so I assume its a hack unless it
was used to pull a signal down/up as per a fix that is broken)

Also it appears someone tied the serial port RTS signal to a 5v trace.

I haven't removed the board yet from the machine, so there might be more
underneath.  I just need to make more room for parts on my bench as I remove
them (i.e. wood sides and stuff) so they don't get damaged.    Since this is a
long term project I can 't just use my soldering table as I will be starting my
Scelbi soon...

From a power supply perspective the power supply puts out about 4.7 volts on the
5v when not plugged into the motherboard, but 3.7 volts when plugged in, so
something is drawing it down.  I removed and reseated all the chips and I just
ordered a large sheet of antistatic foam so I can pull all the chips and perform
the check out procedure from the manual for the video, then processor. 
Hopefully I can find it that way.

It would help if at some point I can play with someone else's Sol to see what I
should see when there is no personality module or Ram and then what it looks
like when I start to plug them in.  Also it would be helpful to see if my
personality module even works, it's a mm5204 kind so I can't easily reprogram it
or test it.  I guess I could throw Solos on my 8k bytesaver and use it for now
at the same address the personality module should be at, but I don't know if
that will mess me up.

Someone on the Altair forum is planning an mm5204 programmer so I may have to
buy one if I can't get a 2708 personality module and I'm not paying $100 to that
guy on ebay, it's overpriced and the card is missing a chunk (I guess someone's
dog got hungry)

Cheers,
Corey

I should also mention my Sol-20 is a rev D motherboard.

--- In midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com, corey986  wrote:
>
> So the unhacking continues....
>
> It looks the resistor at R14 is missing, it's a 1.5k
> and there is a 1.5k resistor attached to a via near u47 that appears to be
hanging in mid air (there isn't a silk screen so I assume its a hack unless it
was used to pull a signal down/up as per a fix that is broken)
>
> Also it appears someone tied the serial port RTS signal to a 5v trace.
>
> I haven't removed the board yet from the machine, so there might be more
underneath.  I just need to make more room for parts on my bench as I remove
them (i.e. wood sides and stuff) so they don't get damaged.    Since this is a
long term project I can 't just use my soldering table as I will be starting my
Scelbi soon...
>
> From a power supply perspective the power supply puts out about 4.7 volts on
the 5v when not plugged into the motherboard, but 3.7 volts when plugged in, so
something is drawing it down.  I removed and reseated all the chips and I just
ordered a large sheet of antistatic foam so I can pull all the chips and perform
the check out procedure from the manual for the video, then processor. 
Hopefully I can find it that way.
>
> It would help if at some point I can play with someone else's Sol to see what
I should see when there is no personality module or Ram and then what it looks
like when I start to plug them in.  Also it would be helpful to see if my
personality module even works, it's a mm5204 kind so I can't easily reprogram it
or test it.  I guess I could throw Solos on my 8k bytesaver and use it for now
at the same address the personality module should be at, but I don't know if
that will mess me up.
>
> Someone on the Altair forum is planning an mm5204 programmer so I may have to
buy one if I can't get a 2708 personality module and I'm not paying $100 to that
guy on ebay, it's overpriced and the card is missing a chunk (I guess someone's
dog got hungry)
>
> Cheers,
> Corey
>

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:35:57PM -0000, corey986 wrote:
> >From a power supply perspective the power supply puts out about 4.7 volts
> on the 5v when not plugged into the motherboard, but 3.7 volts when plugged
> in, so something is drawing it down.
...
> so I can pull all the chips and perform the check out procedure
>
Not knowing anything about what type of supply this is...
Since its low unloaded you may want to test it with a load resistor of
the expected draw to see if the power supply is bad and its not a loading
problem.

Good point.  It's a linear type supply.

I can hook one up tomorrow I have one I use for testing switching supplies.

Thanks,
Corey

--- In midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com, David Gesswein  wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:35:57PM -0000, corey986 wrote:
> > >From a power supply perspective the power supply puts out about 4.7 volts
> > on the 5v when not plugged into the motherboard, but 3.7 volts when plugged
> > in, so something is drawing it down.
> ...
> > so I can pull all the chips and perform the check out procedure
> >
> Not knowing anything about what type of supply this is...
> Since its low unloaded you may want to test it with a load resistor of
> the expected draw to see if the power supply is bad and its not a loading
> problem.
>

-----Original Message-----
From: midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of David Gesswein
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 6:36 PM
To: midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [midatlanticretro] I am definitely going to have to start a SOL
restoration blog...

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:35:57PM -0000, corey986 wrote:
> >From a power supply perspective the power supply puts out about 4.7
> >volts
> on the 5v when not plugged into the motherboard, but 3.7 volts when
> plugged in, so something is drawing it down.
...
> so I can pull all the chips and perform the check out procedure
>
Not knowing anything about what type of supply this is...
Since its low unloaded you may want to test it with a load resistor of the
expected draw to see if the power supply is bad and its not a loading
problem.

---

Both Herb's working and my partially-working SOLs have ~4.75 volts on the
motherboard rather than 5V.  We tested thoroughly, it seems to be "the way
it was".  Given Herb's system works, fyi.

Also, most people chipped off the last two pins of the edge connector of the
personality module.  This is normal.
http://www.vintagecomputer.net/processor_tech/sol-20/sol-20_SOLOS-connectors
-cut.jpg

Bill

>     This really takes me back to 1986-88 when I worked on these systems:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45hQS877UfY
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_eyOG7QQA

Clicking on the various YouTube links brought up this disturbing video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laZGMa4O2X4
~~
Mark Moulding

> Clicking on the various YouTube links brought up this disturbing video:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laZGMa4O2X4

That is one of the late PA-RISC ones. They did not use a big enough cannon.

--
Will