Vintage Computing « Mike's Hobby Blog

Archive for the ‘Vintage Computing’ Category

Mimeo Silk Screen Error and Fix

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

Fixed – extra 22MF 25V legend

The lower 25V 22MF legend in this picture was a feature of the non-NTI Apple 1s. The legend is a duplicate of the one slightly higher up in the image and was removed for NTI series production.

The Mimeo is a NON-NTI clone and is missing this duplicate legend. Note that I had been shipping Mimeos several years before anyone brought this to my attention. Future production Mimeos will have this error rectified.

As can be seen in the image above, I have found a fix for the missing legend for existing Mimeo owners. This is water slide decal that I have printed. If you are a Mimeo owner, I’ll ship you several decals (extras in case you make a mistake) for a shipping and handling charge of $10.00. If you are a Mimeo owner and happen to be ordering kits, PCBs or any other stuff, let me know you want them and I’ll add a few copies of the decal into your shipment for free.

To apply the decal follow the this procedure.

Make sure this area of your PCB is clean

Cut out the decal as close to the printing as you can

Apply a drop of decal setting solution (I use testers brand) to the area where you are going apply the decal

Put the decal in clean water for about a minute. After that time you should be able to begin to slide the decal off the backing paper

Carefully slide the decal off the backing paper into position on the PCB.

Add a bit of decal setting solution to top of the decal

Let dry for 24 hours

If you have a glossy Mimeo, carefully apply a bit to Gloss Cote to protect and seal the decal to the PCB

If you have a matte Mimeo, carefully apply a bit of Dull Cote to protect and seal the decal to the PCB

Note that the decal can removed with Isopropyl Alcohol

Posted in Apple 1, Vintage Computing | 2 Comments »

SCELBI front panels now available

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

I’m now taking orders for custom made reproduction SCELBI 8H front panels.

Price is $65 plus $10 shipping continental USA or $20 international. I am pricing these more as service to SCELBI PCB kit builders than for profit. When I eventually sell most of the 20 that I have made, there may be a small profit in it for me, but it will not be much. Based on my experience, unless you were already set up for making custom front panels, making a single one for yourself would cost at least two to three hundred dollars.

A couple of things to be aware of.

In my opinion, they look very good, but on close inspection you can tell that they are not perfect examples of what many people expect from modern machine made goods.

I will try to ship the best looking examples to first buyers, but even the ones with the most defects look very good.

The screen printed legends are rather fragile and can easily be damaged or rubbed off. I recommend you overcoat with some kind of clear satin spray. I have put 3 light coats of Minwax satin spray lacquer on my personal unit and it looks better than without the overcoat. I would do this myself for all units sold, but this sort of process takes a lot of time and care to get it right and it would make any tweaking or customization by the end user more difficult.

Send an email to:mike@willegal.net if you need more details on ordering.

Posted in 8008, Vintage Computing | Comments Closed

SWYFT card demo posted

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013

check it out at podcast9-22-13.mp4

Posted in Apple II, Vintage Computing | Comments Closed

Progress on SCELBI Front Panels

Friday, September 20th, 2013

We are almost there.

SCELBI Front Panels

I need to reprint the bottom portion of a few that I printed last week. This weeks session went much better. There are a few minor defects in the printing, so I’m not guaranteeing perfection.

The printing is pretty fragile. IPA takes it right off, with almost no effort. I’m going to experiment this weekend with spraying a light coat of clear as a protective overcoat before taking orders.

Regards,
Mike W.

Posted in 8008, Vintage Computing | 3 Comments »

Can you figure out what this person is requesting?

Thursday, September 19th, 2013

Occasionally I get emails with cryptic requests, most often from folks from non-English speaking countries. Some are SPAM, some not. This is one of the most cryptic that I have ever seen. Do you think I should reply and ask for more information?

Subject: Prom provramming
Date: September 19, 2013 9:01:34 AM EDT
To: mike@willegal.net

First of all i admire people like you that release that what they know to the people in the word
I search the prom code that can programming into the ptom that started the screen monitior opporation.
If you tell me when if it possible to get this i will thank you

Have is nice day
name removed
If it is cost mony tell me

Posted in Misc Stuff, Vintage Computing | 6 Comments »

SCELBI Front Panel Installed – new images

Wednesday, September 11th, 2013

I found a digicam and was able to take these photos.

SCELBI Front Panel Natural Lighting

Front Panel – flash lighting

This panel has more scratches than most of them. Installed and in normal lighting it takes close inspection to reveal them. It is good enough that I’m going to use this panel on my “exhibition” SCELBI.

Within the next week, I should be able to screen print the rest of the panels, figure out the best way to ship, and set a price.

Posted in 8008, Vintage Computing | 2 Comments »

First Front Panel Screen Printed

Sunday, September 8th, 2013

Unfortunately I can’t find a decent camera, so this is a poor iPad shot. There are some small defects and a bit unevenness in the printing, but the overall appearance is good. I think I can improve the unevenness by using more “ink” during the “production” run.

Trial Front Panel

Front Panel II

I have a jig made, so I can print the rest once I properly mount this trial unit and do a bit of checking on the how well the paint adheres to the anodized aluminum.

Compare to some of the images at www.scelbi.com

Posted in 8008, Vintage Computing | Comments Closed

Apple 1 Microchess Running

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013

This is something that I had intentions of getting going for a long time and finally succeeded.

Microchess in emulation

I just added an Apple 1/Ipod compatible AIFF file of the version of Microchess that was available on the applefritter website. I also took the trouble to figure out the user interface, which was not obvious.

check it out on my Apple 1 software page:
http://www.willegal.net/appleii/apple1-software.htm

Posted in Apple 1, Vintage Computing | Comments Closed

Initial SUPERPROTO to Swyft Card Conversion Instructions Posted

Monday, September 2nd, 2013

http://willegal.net/superproto/index.php?title=Swyft_Card

For those of you without soldering/rework skills, depending upon interest, I may do a run of reproductions, but it’s not going to happen for quite a while as I have too many projects already in the works.

I’ll try to find time to do a video blog of a Swyft card in operation, but don’t know when I’ll find time, might be today, might be three months from now.

Posted in A2 Proto Board, Apple II, Vintage Computing | Comments Closed

SUPERPROTO converted into Jeff Raskin’s Apple IIe Swyft Card

Tuesday, August 27th, 2013

I just finished turning one of my SUPERPROTO prototyping cards into a Swyft card. If you don’t know what a Swyft card is, Jeff Raskin was working on a low cost “appliance” computer called the Macintosh at Apple. Steve Jobs took over the project and moved the project in a quite different direction. Jeff left Apple and founded a company called “Information Appliance”. The first product was the Swyft card that plugged into an Apple IIe and ran his software. The software was an integrated word processor and calculator, which had access to Applesoft and included a few other printing and communications capabilities. Later they came out with the Swyft computer which was later licensed to Canon – which called it the Canon Cat. I didn’t explore functionality that much, but the software looks pretty clever, despite the lack of a GUI.

Once I get the rework instructions up on my SUPERPROTO Wiki, I’ll offer SUPERPROTO swyft card kits, with the components necessary to build your own SWYFT card, including preprogrammed GAL and EEPROM at the usual SUPERPROTO price of $65. The conversion of a SUPERPROTO to SWYFT card does require good soldering/rework skills, as you have to cut some traces and solder a few wires directly to pins on the back of the card. If there is enough interest, I could possibly make dedicated reproduction swyft cards.

SUPERPROTO/SWYFT Card

By the way, this was another one of those projects, where I didn’t have to buy a single part, everything needed was on hand, either part of an existing kit or in my spares bins.

Posted in A2 Proto Board, Apple II, Vintage Computing | 7 Comments »

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