[GreenKeys] OT: old computers 'n stuff

Mon Apr 24 02:13:54 EDT 2017

Hi, guys!

Like you, Gil, I found the early personal computing era a great deal of fun. I still have a MITS Altair 680b that I just haven't been able to bring myself to part with. Built a bus extender/adapter to take then-sorta-nearly-compatible SS-50 bus Smoke Signal Broadcasting company RAM and floppy controller boards. Dual 5.25in floppies with hard sectors. Wrote a program to decode RTTY to my Hazeltine monitor but never could whip the RFI problems. Some years later my friend & I were among the first to demonstrate in our offices that personal PCs weren't just for playing games.

 I have a nixie counter I built from a CQ magazine article & using a PC board from Circuit Board Specialists. Maybe you recall it. It didn't use latches to present data to the nixies, so when it counts you can see the nixie numbers whizzing around. Still use it.

Wayne
WB4OGM

-----Original Message-----
From: Gil Smith <gil at baudot.net>
To: Jbensadon <jbensadon at hotmail.com>
Cc: aaa-greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sun, Apr 23, 2017 11:47 pm
Subject: [GreenKeys] OT: old computers 'n stuff

Hey Josh:

I'm going to copy greenkeys on this, as there may be old-computer fans out there who find it interesting.

That's funny about the magazines;  I had a very nice collection of Byte mag, but let it go years ago after moving it too many times.

Wow, that's a lot of computers you have there!  I am jealous of the Altair and IMSAI.

Short version:  I have tinkered with electronics since I was a kid.  Been an EE for many decades -- analog, digital, embedded micros in assembly and C, pcb layout...  Never got into asics or pals, or such, but going to dabble in dsp soon.  On the side in the last few years I built and launched five high-altitude balloons with my kids, and my son and I are just getting into drones.  We also did a bunch of java code for his school's frc robot.  He and I are also both hams and we get out to local transmitter hunts when we can.

My first "programmable" computer was a little dev kit: an RCA VIP with an 1802 cmos micro, which used a tv as the display.  Just a hex keypad, but it was fun.  

Back when Apple II clones were starting to appear (80 maybe?), I was working at a place that made HF radio gear, and the guys in drafting said "hey, we can clone that pcb," (which was taping up 4X mylar on a light table back then), and an engineer said "I can clone those chips," and about a dozen of us pitched in and we each made a clone. That was also fun.

Spent some time on a cpm Kaypro, then moved on to ibm pc.  After those early fun days of rapid computer development, computers started to get evolutionary and kinda boring.  Then I got the Macintosh (the proper name back then) SE, and later a color Mac II with Photoshop 1.0 and a LaserWriter.  Those were fun days.  After that it just got boring again.  I have done a lot of embedded programming but never did any programming on winblows, but dabbled a bit on programming the mac.

I am invigorated again lately by getting into some android programming.  That will be a major platform of the future imho and will meld with chromebook soon I hear.  It lets me combine custom hardware and make the phone/tablet the i/o device -- what I have always really been looking for.  I did a custom ECG (heart monitor) board, streamed data over bluetooth to my android app, displayed the scope display, etc.  Fun stuff.  I have more projects to try out with it.

gil

gil smith, AF7EZ
greenkeys moderator
gil at baudot.net

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: stuff
From: Jbensadon <jbensadon at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, April 23, 2017 6:05 pm
To: Gil Smith <gil at baudot.net>

Hi Gil,

Well, for a living, I do security systems.  That's Intrusion, Card Access and CCTV surveillance.  

I am an active hobbyist, always building or programming some old system for fun.

As a teenager, I grew up reading Popular and Radio Electronics magazines.   I ditched most of my magazines in my 20's, but at the start of my 40's, I rebuilt my collection and now it's bigger and better than before!

Then, when building my collection through ebay, I discovered some vintage computers that I would see in the magazines and then I got hooked on collecting them.  My collection is up to about 50 computers.  Amiga's, Amstrad's, Altairs, Atari's, Apple, BBC, Commodores, Cannon, ELF's, IBM's, IMSAI, HP's, Sinclair's, Osborne, Kaypro, TRS-80's, Sorcerer, Ohio Scientific, SWTPC, Zenith/Heathkit's.  I also have some microprocessor trainers.  I even paid dearly for a 4004 SBC, those are quite expensive!  

I also have a small collection of old test gear, mostly analog volt meters, capacitor meters.

There's also a small collection of calculators and some small hand held games.  I even have a Simon game.

That Nixie counter you have sounds very neat, I've seen them before and they are definitely a nice thing to have in your collection.  I'd love to see pictures and know more about your spectrum and audio analyzers.

My newest addition is this ASR33 in working order.  I picked it up for $1,000 Canadian, that's like $70 US.  (joke)

In November, I was getting ready to exhibit it with my ALTAIR 8800 for the loading of Microsoft's first software, which of course was 4K BASIC.  I was showing off my shorter (better) bootstrap loader.  Bill Gates published a 20 byte bootstrap loader, well, I did it in just 12 bytes. 

My latest project is firmware for Lee Hart's Z80MC computer.  It's a computer that sort of fits in an Altoids mint can.  It just got a little thicker with the new middle board we added to run CP/M from a micro SD Card.

Well, that's all about me in a nut shell, sorry about the long email.  

Hope you have the time to talk about your electronics!

Cheers,
 Josh Bensadon

Toronto

From: Gil Smith <gil at baudot.net>
 Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2017 5:23 PM
 To: Jbensadon
 Subject: stuff 

Yeah, we have a great bunch of folks who are always ready to help.

What do you do in electronics?  I have a few older computers:  an original ibm pc, a mac se, a couple of osborne cpm machines, couple of hp-85s, some s-100 boards, a 4004-powered board, some others I likely don't remember since I last tucked them into storage.  I have a bunch of old hp test gear as well:  nixie counters, spectrum analyzer in the old 141 frame, audio analyzer, various oscillators including some pretty old ones...

So much stuff, so little time.

gil

gil smith, AF7EZ
 greenkeys moderator
 gil at baudot.net

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