The Original Slide Rule Replacement - Hewlett Packard Handheld Scientific Calculator

As I have pointed out in a previous post, I am a calculator collector.  As I was doing research about HP Calculators in order to replace the one used during my college years, I learned of the original handheld scientific calculator.  This was invented by HP in the early 70s.  At first the machine didn't even have a model name, it was just the HP Handheld Calculator, but later it was labelled as the HP 35 since it had 35 keys on it.

As of this writing in early 2025 prices for the original HP 35 are rising with good working examples going for several hundred dollars on eBay.  These are much more repairable than modern calculators and there is at least one detailed tutorial video showing the process to take them apart and clean them.  The repairability and information online made me feel comfortable enough to purchase a non-working unit on eBay and attempt a repair myself, but things are often more complicated than initially expected.

The unit arrived and I was able to take it apart as shown in the video.  There were signs that this one had already been taken apart, which was disappointing since that was not shown in the eBay listing.  I should have asked for pictures of the back.  Cleaning the contacts did not resolve the dead keys on this calculator as it did in the YouTube video so it turns out that this calculator had something wrong with the electronics on the main circuit board.  I reflowed the solder joints and poked around on the main board a bit, it isn't very complicated, but I'm guessing one of the custom logic ICs is damaged, so this project went on hold for a few weeks.

Shortly after I got an email from one of my saved searches on eBay.  It was the cheapest HP35 on eBay in. quite a while.  It was a loose calculator without a Power Supply.  I talked to the seller and he had no way to power it up, so it was a gamble, but he also showed the back of the unit and this one had not been opened, so I took the chance and purchased it.

The second calculator was in really rough shape.  When I got it on the workbench it had battery corrosion on the inside of the battery compartment and it wouldn't power up.  I started disassembly, cleaning as I went.  It was obvious that corrosion had gotten inside and affected the power circuits under the battery compartment, however, the design was modular and that was not a part of the main logic board that was bad on the other calculator, so I was still hopeful.

When I swapped the older logic board onto the newer HP35 it fired right up and worked!  I was very happy to have a working calculator after buying two broken ones.  As soon as I got one working I checked for the 2.02 bug.  The working Logic Board is from the first year, 1972, but it does not have the bug, which is OK with me since it would have looked out of place in the newer case with the H P 35 logo on the front.

I also rebuilt the battery pack with 3 NiCd AA cells and it looks quite nice running without being plugged in...

So now that I have the first ever scientific calculator, the HP 35, and my favorite calculator, the HP48G that got me through college.  These are the bookends for my collection and should not really need any more calculators in the collection.  For now.

Another Beige Alpha Joins the Fleet - Compaq Professional Workstation XP1000

In the middle of last year an interesting workstation computer came up for sale on Facebook Marketplace here in my area.  The Compaq Professional Workstation XP1000 is an Alpha based workstation from just after Compaq purchased Digital Equipment Corporation.  The Facebook Markeplace ad stated that it was stopping on a boot screen and that it might not be working, but the price was low enough that I thought it was worth the risk of not being able to repair it.

Once I got the system home I was able to verify that the system was in the condition described and then started to read what I could find about this computer.  I soon discovered that the motherboard had a password installed on it.  In the PC world we would call this a BIOS password, but for an Alpha machine like this, it's the SRM console password.  The SRM console uses a command line but with it locked out even the help command was generating an error "Console is secure.  Please login.".  Because PCs have a jumper to reset this I was quite hopeful that it would just be a matter of time till I figured out how to reset that password but after not finding much documentation online I decided to ask for help on the Vintage Computer Federation Forums.

As usual there were several people who were a big help there, including one gentleman that uploaded some documentation to the thread that I had not been able to find online anywhere else.  Sadly, though, we did NOT discover a backdoor designed by Compaq to reset the console password.  Although I could not find an explicit statement for this motherboard I did learn that were other machines designed by Compaq that did not contain a back door, if the password is lost, the main logic board containing the firmware must be replaced.  So I decided to put the project on hold and keep the machine.  I setup a saved search on eBay since you never know what will pop up there and didn't think much about this project in the second half of last year.

At the end of last year I gave quite a bit of thought to my Vintage Computing hobby.  I purged alot of my project machines, selling, donating to Free Geek, or recycling responsibly.  I also went through my wish lists and eBay saved searches and purged items that were no longer of interest and I discovered that I had setup the wrong search, adding an extra zero.  When I fixed the saved search I was shocked to learn that there was a logic board on eBay for sale!  I watched the item for a while and eventually made an offer that was accepted.

The board shipped from Israel so it took a while to get here but once it arrived I was able to pull my machine completely apart.  I used this as an opportunity to do some much needed dusting inside the case of this machine.  It was a huge relief when the system started back up after re-assembly and an even bigger relief when I was able to use the SRM console and issue commands to boot an Operating System off an Installation Disk!

Once I could start to explore, I learned that this was one of the newer XP1000 machines.  This machine can run the VMS operating systems and Unix like systems, but not Windows NT.  The older, slower machines could boot NT, but I already have one Alpha machine setup that way.  I know at least one DEC hardware enthusiast  who will be glad to see the machine running DEC software and not Microsoft software.

I had some old media for OpenVMS which I had burned while I was a part of the Community Licensing program, but that program has ended now.  I was able to install OpenVMS 8 on the hardware, but without licenses it's not very interesting or useful.  After searching on the Internet and reading for a bit, I learned that the archived version of Tru64 Unix on WinWorld has keys with the archive, so I gave that a try, and it worked well.

Configuring networking was a bit of a challenge, but I ended up getting that working with a Static IP and now the computer can read articles on FrogFind.com and 68k.news just fine.  I'm quite happy with how the machine turned out...

I was disappointed that I couldn't load older software on here.  I have been looking for some VAX hardware since that is what we used back in College, I remember the Motif Window Manager and that was such an interesting look and feel, but I didn't know that Motif was the precursor to the Common Desktop Environment (CDE).  Because of multiple vendors working together on this more open code base this Compaq (Digital Equipment) machine will join several others CDE machines that I have including IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, and SGI Irix.

I am not a calculator collector, I am not a calculator collector.

I am not a calculator collector.  I have to keep saying this to myself because I don't need another genre of items to collect, but I'm quite tempted by this since it is adjacent to retro computing.  I've managed to avoid printers (mostly), typewriters completely, and vintage test equipment, among many other interesting items that I would collect if time money and storage space were not limited.

So I have a few calculators.  I purchased a Radio Shack Pocket Computer 4 off Facebook Marketplace in 2020...

And since then I've been picking up interesting, older calculators from the 70s and 80s at Garage Sales and Thrift Shops when I can find them including a couple of hand held Casio units.  My parents had a Casio on their desk, it had a mesmerizing Nixie tube display and so although it was "portable / battery powered" it stayed plugged in and on the desk.  The Calculator Wars of the 70s were historically significant to the development of home computing as they occurred right before the home computer revolution and included many of the same companies.  Calculators were the "killer app" of Microprocessors before the home computer revolution began, but this is well covered elsewhere.

My personal calculator history started with my first graphing calculator, a TI-81.  My parents bought this for me while I was in high school and I spent quite a bit of time puttering with it and even wrote some simple programs to run on it.  I was recently able to reacquire a TI-81 from Free Geek Twin Cities and add that to my calculator not-a-collection.

My favorite calculator is the HP48G which got me through engineering school.  Back in the day we didn't have laptop computers for every student so pretty much everyone had an HP 48 of some sort.  It was hard to learn how to use it, but once I'd gotten the hang of it I can always come back to an RPN calculator, just like riding a bicycle, you never really forget how.  There's a review video from Calculator Culture on YouTube that I'd recommend, it has helped me understand why this calculator is so unique.

I wore out my initial 48G calculator.  I had tried to repair it at one point, but it was not designed for service and I ended up breaking mine.  I missed having it enough that about ten years ago I had purchased an HP50G calculator hoping that it would replace my worn out calculator, but I didn't like using it as much.  Another Calculator Culture review video explains this calculator well.  I ended up selling my HP50G as it didn't really match my expectations and was different enough from the 48 that is just didn't feel the same.

So after watching a few videos from HPcalc.org's recent conference and the Calculator Culture videos I realized that the best way to "Scratch the Itch" so to speak would be to just go ahead and buy an original HP48G.  With my new knowledge about the hardware revisions and the typical problems, I was hoping I could find a nice one on eBay at a reasonable price, and after waiting and shopping for a couple of weeks, I was able to find this lovely unit here...

I've paired it with the original manual set that I'd kept all these years.  I'm glad I kept the manual since there's alot I've forgotten about how to use the machine (the manual is hundreds of pages long).  As described in the review video above the LCD screen isn't great, the contrast is poor, although not being backlit means that the battery life is quite good.  The keyboard is amazing, the keys are clicky, very tactile and enjoyable to use.

I've enjoyed having this machine back at my desk, and I'm getting back into the habit of using it.  During my research I've also found a much more modern iOS app that emulates the 48.  I've used about a half dozen of these over the years since getting my first Smart Phone and this one is the most useful and stable, it's called iHP48 and it is much better than other iOS Apps that emulate HP 48 which I have used before.  This is the main calculator app on my phone now and I use it almost daily.

Doing the research about HP 48 and being exposed to other calculator collectors has helped me learn about the history and development of the handheld scientific calculator.  I've become aware of the first Handheld Scientific Calculator, the HP 35 from 1972.  But this is a story for another day, so I will wrap up this bLog post by simply stating the obvious, I am a calculator collector.

My Newest, Oldest Apple II Plus (1979)

There were three very important home computers that came out in 1977, the Commodore PET, the Apple II and the Radio Shack TRS-80 Computers.  We retroactively call the Radio Shack the TRS-80 Model 1 but that is not how it was advertised at the time.  Also, the use of the term trinity to describe these three computers is something that appears to have begun in the mid 90s.

One of my goals in the Retro Computing hobby is to own all three of the original premade personal computers that didn't have to be built from kits like the Altair 8800.  So far I have been able to acquire; an Apple II Plus from 1979, a Commodore PET 4016 from 1980, and an original TRS-80 Model 1 computer.

Recently on a trip to Free Geek Twin Cities I was able to acquire another Apple II Plus machine and this turned out to be a machine from 1979.  This got me thinking again about wanting to get as close as possible to an original Apple II experience from 1977 and so I started doing research.  Tech Time Traveller has a really helpful video on this topic here.  He also painnstakingly built up this list of machines have have sold on eBay, since eBay doesn't keep pricing information and old listings around on their site very long  Thanks Tech Time Traveller!  Now that I know an original Apple II from eBay is probably more than I want to spend right now, what are my options?

Going back to the machine from  Free Geek, I learned that the board in my "newest" Apple II Plus is a "Revision 4" logic board.  This is from the period in 1979 was when Apple was making both the II and the II Plus at the same time, and often with the same logic board and only different ROMs and different RAM amounts.

At the same time as this was going on a listing came up on eBay for a computer that was listed as an original Apple II machine, but after inspecting it it seems likely that this machine had been upgraded to II Plus, which I later confirmed was the consensus in one of the Apple II Facebook groups.  I'm still considering the option of building an "Original Apple II" by getting bits and pieces and putting them together, but I think I'd rather hold out and wait till one comes along that is more complete locally, or with a backstory that I can learn about.

In the meantime, I learned about the Apple II ROM card, which was a period correct accessory card from 1979 that folks bought when they were upgrading their Apple IIs to Apple II Plus which allowed them to put the old ROMs onto an expansion board and switch them in at will from a switch on the back of the computer.  I used to have a modern card that did this, but ironically that card failed, so I set out to find a vintage card that still had the correct ROMs on it (Many, perhaps most of the ones on eBay have been stripped).  This article on the VCFed forums explains which ROMs where the period correct ones for an original Apple II (With Woz's Integer basic, and without Applesoft Basic).  I was able to find and acquire one of these period correct cards with the full ROM set, and it works great...

So, as of this writing, my Apple II Plus behaves in exactly the same way as the original machine, so I am now able to explore software from that era.  A good win for a reasonable price with parts that are still relatively inexpensive.

2024 Year End Retrospective - Six Years of Vintage Computing

I made a return to Retro Computing in 2018.  Or it may be more accurate to say that it's something I've always enjoyed doing and never stopped completely but in 2018 I started spending more time on the hobby and became aware that there were others out there who also enjoyed fixing up and using old computers.  This happened primarily through finding YouTube channels like The 8-Bit Guy, LGR, and Adrian Black and connecting locally with folks at Free Geek Twin Cities.  In 2018 and 2019, I acquired just a few machines and authored a few articles on my bLog about my adventures in Retro Computing but things changed in 2020.

Just before the pandemic started in early 2020 I purchased my first compact Mac, a Macintosh Plus from Free Geek.  I ended up buying and repairing alot more machines during and after the lockdown.  Some were machines that I'd used and had nostalgic memories like Apple IIe and Macintosh PowerPC machines but others were older machines like the Bell and Howell Apple II Plus and the Tandy Model 102 that allowed me to learn more about repair, the use of the machines, and the history of the development of the machines.  During 2020 I participated in Vintage Computer Festival Midwest for the first time.  It was an online show and I watched most of the talks, learning about disk imaging with the SuperCard Pro, that some people use their crawlspace for storage of Retro Computers, and many other interesting topics.

In 2021 my acquisitions mostly happened all at once, I bought a large lot of Apple Laptops from my friend John Bumstead.  I spent a good deal of my hobby time during that year processing through that lot of computers.  I kept many of the machines and also sold many of them.  it was an amazing experience that helped me understand which of Apple's portable machines I enjoy repairing and using most.  I still have some PowerBooks from the early 2000's, the "Peak Fastener" era for Apple that I haven't processed yet, this is my least favorite era of Apple Laptops. But during 2021 I was also able to acquire some machines that I'd had little or no exposure too like an IBM 5150 that I purchased from Facebook Marketplace and a Next NextStation computer from VCF Midwest.  I also repaired or built up a handful of beige box PCs.

During 2022 I got on a bit of a Commodore kick.  The VIC-20 was my first computer that we had at home, so re-acquring one of those was quite nostalgic for me, but I also acquired older hardware, like a Commodore PET that needed extensive repair, and newer machines like C64 and Amiga 500.  I also acquired my first Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) hardware including a little know CP/M machine called a DEC Robin, and a more common DEC Alpha computer.  I missed VCF Midwest in 2022, but I continued to buy and build beige box PCs.

2023 was another enjoyable year for me in Vintage Computing.  During the year after searching for several years I was able to acquire a Gateway 2000 486 PC, which was my first PC that I had during college.  I got my first of the Original Home Computers from 1977, a Tandy Radio Shack Model 1, getting it clean was a major chore, but I'm glad to have one.  I also got a Kaypro 1 '86 an 8-bit Atari Computer, and several Unix workstations from the 90s including a Sun and an SGI Indy, so there was a great deal to learn and explore last year.  I was also able to attend VCF Midwest once again, this time as an exhibitor.  As an exhibitor I didn't acquire many new machines, but I was able to find many parts to help move projects along or complete systems I'd already built up.

As I think about 2024 the IBM RS/6000 is a highlight.  I had purchased one as a parts machine from Free Geek in 2023 and ended up failing in my repair attempt.  I thought I wouldn't get another chance but in 2024 a generous donor offered one on the forums and I took him up on it.  The machine runs great and joins my collection of Unix Workstations as well as other Computers Made in Minnesota.  On the history / nostalgia front I acquired a Kaypro II computer, which was something I'd been looking for for a while as my grandpa used to have one of these.  The Compaq Portable III was a fun and challenging repair, and now I have the first three Compaq Portables.  I also got to go back to VCF Midwest this year, and one of my kids came along, so that was fun.  The Tandy 2000 repair was my largest repair effort of the year but my friend and I both came out of that with two working Tandy 2000 computers, which is a very interesting early MS-DOS machine.

So heading into 2025 what aspects of Vintage Computing will I do more of and what will I do less of?  What do I enjoy doing more and what do I enjoy doing less?

I enjoy learning about computers that are "new to me", and I get just as much (or maybe even more) enjoyment from going back in time as from going forward.  I enjoy repairing computers and learning about alternate operating systems.  I want to understand what it was like for the people using the computers at the time, so the CRTs, the Keyboards, and the Disks are important to me and I like that to be original.  I don't mind at all if we can find a way to replace the hidden hard disk drives with reliable solid state storage because we can't use the computers at all if they won't boot up, but that is my primary exception and I like to keep things period correct as much as possible. 

In general, I'm not a fan of computer gaming.  I know that's unusual since gaming is the "killer app" for most retro computer enthusiasts, but I've just never been a huge fan of computer gaming.  I also don't like overclocking vintage hardware or installing period correct processor upgrades, although more RAM is always nice.  In my mind, if you want a faster retro computer, just buy one from a few years later.

Because they are inexpensive and easy to repair I have gotten quite a few "Beige Box" PCs.  Some of these have historical significance like the IBM PC 5150 and the Compaq Portable I and others have nostalgic significance like my Gateway 2000 486, but I am running out of space for storage and I need to sell most of these PCs and stop collecting more "Beige Box" PCs.

During 2023 and 2024 when I exhibited at VCF, I was able to both exhibit computers that tell a story and to sell computers at the same time.  I enjoy that event alot and I hope to continue to be able to participate in VCF Midwest as well as some of the smaller local meet ups as time and budget allow.

Knowing which computers I'm willing to give away or sell also helps me think about preserving the ones I want to keep.  Several times this year when I got a computer out of storage that I had put away in good working order it came out of storage not working and needing repair.  So I've been on the lookout for spare machines for some of my favorites.  I don't need 3-4 of a kind, for me two seems like the sweet spot for space vs. long term usability, but unfortunatly I cannot extend this policy to CRTs they are just too bulky.

Another lesson I've learned is that if I let my project list get too long, or if I am feeling too much pressure about a certain repair then it makes the hobby less fun.  If I have had a project on the list for over a year and I haven't gotten too it, it's OK to let that project go and sell or donate the hardware back to another collector or Free Geek and move on to something that's more exciting.

So what is next for vintage computing in 2025?  I have a stack of three Sun Ultra 5 and 10 workstations out in the garage that are "on deck" for repair, expect a bLog article about that in early 2025.  I have lots of little projects planned, small improvements to computers I already own.  In 2024 I've been posting about these smaller projects on Twitter / X and enjoying the community there, so I plan to continue doing that.

And for sure, I will keep an eye out for interesting projects and try to stay focused on buying computers from my wish list...

Apple II (original, not plus not e)
Apple Macintosh PowerBook 100
Apple PowerMac G5, late 2005, dual 2.3Ghz model A1117 (last air cooled G5)
Apple Macintosh SE/30 or Logic Board

Toshiba Libretto Palmtop PC
Grid Systems Laptop w/ Plasma Display
IBM Thinkpad T30 or A31 (Last model with Serial Ports Built In)

Commodore PET 2001 (chiclet Keyboard and Tape Drive)
Tandy Model 100
Digital VaxStation 3100 (w/ monitor, keyboard and mouse)
DEC PDP-11/03 or similar 11/23, etc.
Digital PDP 11
68k Apollo Workstation
68k Sun Workstation

Thanks for reading this long and rambling article, if you've made it this far I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tandy 2000 Computer Lot - Repaired in 2024

My most recent project has been too repair a large lot of Tandy 2000 computers.  A friend of mine has been collecting these machines for several years and had parts from nine different machines...

We made an agreement that I would work on repairing these machines and we would split the working computers coming out of the repairs but before discussing the repair let's review a bit of history about this machine.  These machines were designed and built by Tandy in 1984.  They run MS-DOS but they are not compatible with the IBM PC like a Compaq computer from that time period.  Tandy had been successful in the computer business since the beginning of the Home Computer era and compatibility had not been a major concern up till that point so they planned to (and succeeded at) building a more powerful computer.  These Tandy machines are unique because they have an 80186 processor and many other differences from IBM PCs and Compatibles.  Here's an ad from the time showing Bill Gates touting the benefits of this machine...

I'm interested in this period of MS-DOS compatible machines that are NOT IBM PC compatible because I think this is a fascinating period between the end of the 8-Bit CP/M machines and the rise of the PC compatible.

Now onto the repair, as you will see these machines were in rough shape.  It turns out that many of the power supplies are no longer working.  I created the following pinout table for the power supply connector going into the motherboard:

Nominal Voltages of Tandy 2000 Power Supply
Pin            Voltage
Orange      +12 V
Grey          5V
Red            5V
Red            5V
Black         Gnd
Black         Gnd
White        -12 V
Blank

Having the pinout and nominal voltages allowed me to go through and sort out the working power supplies.  I think some recapping will be required in the future but for now I do have enough working power supplies to get 3 working computers.

Next, I tested the motherboards.  Many of the logic boards were showing no signs of life with a known good power supply.  The motherboards have 128K RAM soldered on board (4164 DRAMs), and there was a 128K RAM daughtercard that plugged in on the main board itself.  I went through and separated these and tested and got a known good 128K RAM board and cycled through the motherboards, reseating and swapping chips that were socketed and eventually getting about half of the boards working but without doing any board level repair.

The lot also included expansion cards for High Resolution Color Graphics.  These boards require 256K RAM on the motherboard, and they were needed because the only working monitors we had for this lot were the CM-1 Color Monitor.  A couple of the Graphics boards had corrupt video in the color modes, so those were set aside.

The lot also included memory expansion cards that can hold either 128K or 256K on the board.  In the base configuration these machines could have up to 512K total, although later modifications could take them higher.  Thankfully the RAM chips are socketed on these boards, so I was able to take all the RAM off and cycle the 4164 DRAMs through my RAM tester.  After this there was enough working RAM expansion boards to bring the working computers up to 512K.

Next up for repair was the keyboards.  I had one working keyboard which had gotten damaged and had a couple of the keycaps broken off it turns out that was just mechanical damage and I was able to re-assemble and glue plastic parts back together.  The next repairs required me to take the keyboards apart.  One of the symptoms I noticed was that the lights on the Shift and Num Lock keys would come on, indicating that the keyboard had power but then none of the keypresses would work (indicating maybe a bad matrix).  Other keyboards had no power on them at all (which may indicate a bad cable).  I moved the cables around and I was able to get 3 more working keyboards out of the lot.  If needed, the cables can be transplanted into a Tandy 1000 keyboard, but those are getting hard to find, too.

The next order of business was the Floppy Disk drives.  The non-hard drive machines had two drives each and surprisingly most of the drives were in good working order.  I only had to swap around a couple of the drives and I was able to clean them with a normal floppy cleaning disk.  I didn't need to take them apart and lubricate them, although I should.  I was able to prove that both the A and B drives were working by using the disk duplication program called compdupe to create copies of the MS-DOS boot disk.  This machine can be difficult to create disks for because it's a Double Sided / Quad Density drive that can hold 720K.  It works with normal DS/DD media, which I have plenty of, but I still haven't found a way to create disk images, although I understand there are instructions online.

So, this wraps up the repairs, at least for now.  My friend and I split up the machines and we are both very happy to have Tandy 2000s in our collection, here's mine...

There's still a bit of extra material coming out of the repair, hopefully enough to make another working machine.  This material been offered to another Vintage Computer collector so perhaps the repair project will continue.  In the future, I have a couple of upgrades I'd like to do on the Tandy 2000s.  I'd like to figure out how to get the Hard Drive working again on the Hard Drive machine or get it working with an MFM Emulator.  I'd also like to see if I can replace one of the physical floppy drives with a Go-Tek.  This would make it much easier to work with the odd floppy format as there is quite abit of software avaliable for the machine online.  But for now I'm glad to have the project completed and move on to to the next Vintage Computer project.

Do you have memories of the Tandy 2000?  If so please feel free to reach out in the comments or send me an email, my address is posted in my Blogger profile.

My Visit to Cray Research and Paying it Forward with STEM

I'm a lifelong learner and invested in helping other people learn about technology.  It's one of my motivations for this blog.  I recently had a reminder of one of the many people who have helped me along the way.  As I was sorting and organizing some of my old letters I found this business card from an engineer at Cray Research.  This person spent an hour with me when I was job-shadowing as a High School kid.  I don't have permission to share his information, so I'll blur out his name, but in 1991 or 1992 Cray Research cards looked like this...

I grew up in a small town in rural Wisconsin called Elk Mound.  It is about 20 miles west from Chippewa Falls where Seymour Cray was from.  Cray was in Minnesota for Engineering school and the beginning of his career but after he was established he set up Cray Research back in Chippewa Falls in the 1980s.  When I was a kid my high-school guidance counselor knew that I was interested in technology and he arranged for my friend and I to spend a day at Cray Research in Chippewa Falls.  There was a general awareness in the community that Cray made super computers but I was not very informed about computing at the time so I didn't realize the importance of Seymour Cray, or what a cutting edge company Cray Research was.  The visit did make a big impression on me and helped confirm for me that I wanted to be involved in engineering of some kind.

Seymour moved to Colorado Springs in 1989 so I can not claim that I was even in the same building with him but from what I hear he was a very quiet person and would have probably avoided a tour group anyways.  But I did meet an engineer who made an impression, the same engineer whose business card I found just last year. Using LinkedIn, I was able to reconnect with that engineer.  He's retired now and he didn't remember our visit, which is understandable since it's a distant memory for me as well, but I still had the opportunity to thank him.

I pursued engineering and my first job out of college was working at one of the Control Data successor companies.  One of my favorite memories from my short stint at that company was sitting with some of the older engineers in the lunch room and hearing stories about the early days of computing.  I remember being amazed at hearing for the first time how they had memorized the Op Codes for the computers they were working on.  Again, I didn't have the context that I have now, but having built a PDP-8 replica and learned a bit more about it I realize that this was not bragging.  The machine had no boot ROM so it was mandatory to toggle in the simple loader program if the computer memory was reset.  It was so common and important that DEC had it printed on the front panel of the machine.

But, I soon moved on from the Control Data company to the field of Factory Automation which I have been working in ever since.  That first job was the last of my loose connections with Seymour Cray and the Cray companies. But I remain committed to the idea of paying it forward, and I continue to welcome opportunities to give young people tours of my workplace.  It's exciting to think about where technology will be when these younger folks are my age or retired like the engineer at Cray who spent an hour with me 30 years ago.

Do you have any memories of Cray or the Cray companies?  Please leave a comment or feel free to reach out via my email address in my complete profile.

Apple II Plus - Trash to Treasure - Part III - The End?

I haven't given an update on my Bell and Howell Apple II Plus machine since 2020.  I have done several little upgrades on that machine which have combined to produce an amazing looking machine.  This year at VCF Midwest I got to talk to the owner of MacEffects, thank him, and show him a picture of the machine. Later I realized that I haven't posted about this machine here on the bLog.

Since I last blogged about this machine, I asked around about which color monitor would pair with the machine.  I realize that most Apple II machines of this era would have been paired with Black and White monitors, but I was holding out for a Color monitor that existed at the time.  It turns out that the Sony PVM line does go back to the 80s.  I didn't find a period correct PVM but I was able to buy one that is the right size to sit on top with the floppy drive next too it.

I also added the Language Card to get the machine up to 64K, and a Microsoft Z80 card so I can run CP/M on this machine.  I made some wiring repairs in the backpack for the power supply so it would be more reliable.  I make a joystick adapter to go from the DIP style connector to a 9-pin connector so that I can plug in Apple IIe style peripherals to this machine.

But the most dramatic changes are cosmetic.  After having an eBay saved search running for several years an Apple II Plus Top Cover came up.  I had seen one a couple years back and I took a pass on it, but I'd been regretting that decision so I jumped on this top cover.  Since it was for an Apple II Plus, the badge and color was wrong but as I have alluded too MacEffects is producing reproduction badges.  So with a bit of paint for the top cover and a new badge, it looks like a Bell and Howell top cover.

Knowing that I would have the computer looking amazing, and seeing that MacEffects also has case badges for the Floppy Drives, I purchased one of these as well.  Taking the drive apart to repaint the housing was pretty straightforward.

After a bit of repainting my barn find Bell & Howell Apple II Plus looks better than I ever could have hoped given the state the machine was in at the start...

During VCF Midwest I talked to another owner of one of these machines and through conversation with him and with other folks I learned that mine is one of the earlier machines.  It has the sought after Backpack (although the audio section of mine is not working) and it has keyboard keys that are more smooth.  Apparently Apple switched keyboard vendors later in the product run.

I'm super happy to have this machine in the collection and grateful to the community for the help, advice, and new parts that I needed in order to get this machine back to where it is now.  It's certainly in my top ten favorite machines in my collection.

Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2024 Recap

Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2024 is in the Review Mirror.  I was happy to be there for my third in-person visit, and my second time as an exhibitor.  This year I had a busy summer, so I wanted to show a display that was easier to setup with no large projects required in order to prepare a hands on exhibit.  So I decided on the topic of "Laptop Evolution: 1988 to 1999".  I prepared 8 laptops to bring down and show off, but because of demo gremlins, I ended up with 6 working computers, then when the Mac Portable's HDD died, I was down to 5 computers on the demo table.

This year for the first time some of my family members expressed interest in tagging along for the roadtrip to Chicago and this made the event more fun for me.  One of my daughters is selling Retro-Computer themed art made out of e-waste.  She almost sold out at the show, but a few items are left on her etsy shop here...
Burbots

Here is what the booth setup looked like...

From left to right on the top of the table; my daughters art, then my interactive display.  Down below on the floor I setup computers that I'd repaired and that were for sale.  I only brought home 3 of the 9 computers I brought to sell, so I was quite happy with that result.

So far the only coverage I've seen online of the event that showed my booth was this video from Chris DeHut.  Chris is absolutely right about the screens, I wanted folks to experience how great the keyboards where and how poor the screens were.  Everyone knows about Moore's law and those of us who are old enough remember when our computers were doubling in speed every time we replaced them but there were a few cool things about the old hardware, including the amazing keyboards and the creative form factors that we used to have before all laptops started looking the same.

I unloaded about 8 parts machines or project machines onto the Free Pile.  This year the Free Pile was a happening place and I don't think anything that I put out there sat for more than a few hours.  The only thing I got off the free pile was a diskette holder for 5 1/4" disks, but since one of my goals for the event was to come home with less material than I left with, I was OK with that.

The only complete "new to me" computer that I brought home was a Sun Ultra 5 machine that I had been offered by a generous donor who is downsizing their collection.  I'm very happy to have this machine and it comes with a special surprise, but I will save that for a future bLog article.

As always, the highlight of the festival is the conversations.  I had many conversations with people I already knew from here in Minnesota or from YouTube but I also met many interesting people, some of who walked into the show because they were in the hotel for a different conference.  I heard many interesting stories from people about their experiences with computers and that is really what makes the show so much fun.  Here's a few of the stickers and cards that I collected, my daughter had an even larger collection...

The new show venue was excellent.  It was so much less stressful not having to worry about the power situation and having space for people to stand and talk and also move around instead of being crapped into tight aisles.  This also helps with the interactive exhibits because people don't feel like they had to move on immediately if they don't want too.  The hotel rooms were a bit more expensive, but I feel that the venue was so much nicer that it was a small price to pay and I would be happy if the organizers could get us back into the same venue next year.

Thanks so much too the organizers of the VCF Midwest event, your efforts are very much appreciated!  This event remains the highlight of the year for me in the retro computing hobby, and the people and ideas that I see at the show will inspire projects and conversations that will continue throughout the year.