Monteverdi CCD-4578 AM/FM, 8-Track, Phono Stereo System

I picked this item up from a local hardware store which occasionally puts out “flea market” type product they acquire when they attend property auctions. This is a Monteverdi CCD-4578 console stereo system. These are the types of full featured stereos I used when growing up. Although this one is one of the older style units (having an 8-Track player instead of cassette), it is in relatively good condition. The only thing that’s wrong with it right now is the turntable. The mechanism probably needs to be rebuilt and lubricated. However, the rest of the system works well. It pulls in FM radio stations like a vacuum cleaner pulls in dirt. The sound is great through the cheap speakers it comes with. It sounds even better with higher quality speakers. Unlike other brands available at the time, this system supports four speakers for that “front/back” room effect. My plans for this system is to rebuild the turntable and put it to use as a home stereo system.

Now that I recently found a means to gather more apps for my Model IV through serial port transfers, I thought I’d break out the hard drive system again. After all, I can gain an entire 5MB of fast, efficient storage. For you “storage space mongers”, that’s five whole MEGABYTES of storage… or the equivalent of 30+ floppy disks!! Not much by today’s standards, but it sure beats swapping disks to do things on the Model IV.

The hard drive system cannot be made to be self-booting. There needs to be a boot disk to transfer the “system” to the hard drive. However, I also needed to have a disk of software tools to partition and format the hard drive. To do that, I found a disk image of hard drive tools on the internet, formatted a blank floppy on the Model IV, and prepared to transfer the files in the disk image to the Model IV.

Once again, I relied on my trusty serial transfer configuration. Previously, I had transferred a terminal program supporting YModem transfers. Like the XModem transfer I talked about in my previous post, YModem also transfers files, but adds the ability to send multiple files at once AND send the filename during the transfer. XModen only did one file at a time and required you to type in the downloaded filename manually. Now you can understand why I like YModem instead, because in effect, I can “push” multiple files in one transfer session.

That all said, I needed to access the files in the disk image on the PC. To do this, I used one of the many available “DMK/DSK” file readers which let you export the contents and individual files in the disk image as PC files. So, I created a folder on my PC to let me manage all of the files I’m exporting and proceeded to export all of the hard drive software tools to that PC folder. Then, I established serial communications between the PC and Model IV and used YModem to transfer the entire lot of files to the blank formatted disk on the Model IV.

Now that I have my hard drive tools on the Model IV, I proceeded to “mount” the hard drive in hopes that I can access a library of exiting files which might have already stored there. No such luck. No matter what I did, or whatever configuration I tried, The TRS-80 DOS kept telling me the “drive appears empty”.

In the end, I decided that there is nothing on the hard drive, so I proceeded to set the entire drive as a single partition. After formatting the drive and checking for bad sectors, I found it quite surprising that after 30+ years, there are no bad sectors on the hard drive. I hope the person who first bought that drive at a whopping $1000 (or more) can relish in the knowledge that his investment (which ultimately cost me only $20) is still working well.

After a few more commands to modify the DOS disk, I can now boot to the hard drive and use it as my main system disk. My next planned activity is to transfer all of the utility and game files I’ve acquired recently to the hard drive so they’ll be in one convenient spot!

Many other classic computer systems have an easy means to transfer programs to/from a PC. This is useful for emulators and those who would like to try original programs found in archives on the Internet on a REAL classic computer. Commodore computers, for example, can have their disk drives connected to a PC using a relatively cheap special cable and write entire disk contents to a real floppy disk. For that matter, real floppies could be backed up to a disk image on a PC. There are many solutions for the latter for TRS-80 computers, but transferring file TO a TRS-80 from a PC isn’t so easy, nor appears to have been readily researched.

As far as I know, there are no other tutorials for this particular TRS-80 file transfer need. There are plenty of solutions for transferring TRS-80 files and programs TO a PC, but not FROM a PC, unless you want to invest monies into hardware solutions that may require you to disassemble your TRS-80 and/or PC to make it work. When the discovery of a TRS-80 DOS command I was not familiar with surfaced during one of my routine online romps around the collector’s scene, the solution to my dilemma came to mind. Read more for all the gory details…

At my disposal were the following items:

• TRS-80 Model IV (w/ RS-232 port)
• Modern PC running windows 7 (and having no serial port)
• USB to Serial adapter
• Laplink cable (for you newbies, Laplink was once a popular file transfer system which moved files through their included null-modem “Laplink cable”)

You may substitute your own cabling solution to connect the two computers together, as long as it’s equivalent to a null-modem cable. The first thing I needed to do was get the two computers talking via the null modem (aka Laplink) cable. To do this, I needed to install and configure my USB to Serial adapter as a low numbered COM port. A lot of times, these devices get assigned a two digit COM number like COM16 or something. I reconfigured the port in the Windows “Device Manager” to set it to COM3. I felt a low COM port number would work best with most terminal communications programs (like we used in the old days).

Once I had the PC and Model IV connected, I needed to test the connection by establishing two-way communications between the two. On the PC, I thought I’d use HyperTerm, but it has not been included by default in Windows 7, unlike earlier versions of Windows. The only way I could get HyperTerm now is if I buy it. Forget that!! Instead, I found and downloaded Tera Term v4.73 (http://ttssh2.sourceforge.jp/). It has the features I need to transfer files directly through the serial connection.

Now that I have the PC side ready to communicate, it’s time to configure the Model IV. The Model IV has a rudimentary means of communication using the Communications Line device (known as *CL), SETCOM (for configuring communications parameters, and COMM (which provides the terminal interface). This procedure was only done on in LDOS, but it should also work with TRSDOS. The following steps need to be done, in order, so that file and data transfers can be initiated.

First, the *CL device needs to be configured by assigning it to a driver. On the Model IV type:

SET *CL COM/DVR  <Enter>

This sets the COM driver to the *CL device. If you get an error like, “Driver not found”, make sure the COM/DVR file is on your TRS-80 DOS disk. Next, the communications parameters need to be configured. NOTE: I tried so many different parameter configurations that I never bothered to check and see what would be the minimum amount of parameters I can get away with. So I may be “over configuring” the communications port with these values. Regardless, the values I used worked fine for me. Type:

SETCOM (BAUD=300,WORD=8,PARITY=NONE,RTS=ON,CTS=ON,DSR=ON)   <Enter>

The SETCOM command allows you to set many of the popular RS-232 communications parameters. Some parameters missing from the above statement might also be important parameters, but are already set as required by default. The command above changes certain default values to the desired ones. After the command is entered, we are left with the following configuration values:

• Baud: 300bps (I’ll explain the slow speed later)
• Word: 8-bit
• Stop Bits: 1
• Parity: None
• RTS/CTS (a form of flow control): ON and ON
• DST/DSR (another form of flow control): ON and ON

I used 300 Baud for one reason; because I spent many evenings enduring failed transfer attempts over several weeks trying to get this procedure perfected!! I tried all sorts of baud rates and other settings, coming close to perfecting a clean transfer of at least ONE useful CMD file which I could successfully run. However, I eventually discovered that the above settings are the most stable. 300 baud is extremely slow, but I only need to run this particular procedure to get one specific file transferred. After that, I can ramp up the communications speed. But I digress, I’ll get to the details in a bit.

Now that the RS-232 port is configured, I needed to run the main communications program, called COMM. The COMM program opens up a terminal interface where you can type and receive text to/from a connected computer. In this case, the PC is that other connected computer. To start the COMM program, type:

COMM *CL   <Enter>

This will launch the terminal program. First, you’ll need to understand how the program operates. After you run COMM, if you launch the terminal program on the PC (I’m using Tera Term) and set the communications parameters to match those set by SETCOM above, everything you type on the Model IV should appear on the PC terminal screen, and vice versa. This is an easy way to test communications. If you cannot see the text you type on the PC appearing on the Model IV, then the transfer process will not work. Please check your configuration before continuing. Also note that there is also no need to clear the screen of the text you’ve typed in to test the connection. Everything involved with transferring data files is done between the moments you start and stop the transfer program, regardless what’s on screen at the time.

My goal in this endeavor was to provide myself with an efficient means of transferring files. Simply using the COMM program isn’t enough, but it’s a starting point to transferring a special program which I found more efficient. The whole purpose of this exercise is to get that special program file onto a TRS-80 formatted floppy. You need to keep the following fact in mind:

The COMM program WILL ALMOST ALWAYS DROP DATA because there is no data checking or checksum capabilities in the program!!

That is the humbling part of the process, and the reason why I worked myself into frustration until I discovered a useable solution. Many of my file transfers would lose characters here and there, but I didn’t realize this for a long time because I had no easy indication of the issue. Characters from CMD files which I’ve tried transferring to the Model IV are in binary format, so I cannot tell if any data has been dropped. All it takes is one character to drop off in the transfer to render a CMD file inoperable. I had only one success in the past few weeks, but that success was not repeatable. I found that I needed to transfer an ASCII file (text file for you newbies) instead. That way, I can spot missing data as it gets transferred, or at least be able to correct the file manually.

The only type of text file which I thought would be useful was a BASIC program. If I find the right BASIC file, I will be able to easily monitor the transfer and check for errors, plus the program will do something useful in regards to performing more efficient file transfers. The BASIC language in LDOS (and perhaps TRSDOS) loads text files to load program content. I found the perfect BASIC program to transfer. It’s a BASIC program which reads from a collection of binary code stored in DATA statements and “builds” a working CMD file on disk. The BASIC program I chose creates a file called XMODEM/CMD on disk. With the XMODEM program, I can replace the COMM program for file transfers. XMODEM is an ancient (by today’s standards) means to transfer files over an RS-232 connection, but is perfect for transferring files from a PC to a TRS-80. XMODEM is also able to manage the transfer of data between two computers by correcting any errors or lost characters which occur. That way, all transfers are perfect copies, even for CMD files.

You can find the BASIC program here: http://www.classiccmp.org/cpmarchives/trs80/Software/Model%204/X/XModem%20v6.2a%20(19xx)(Author%20Unknown)%5bBAS%5d.zip

If you open the archive, you’ll find a file called XMDM2412.BAS inside. Save this file somewhere on your PC. If you’re curious, you can look at the contents of the file in Wordpad or other text editor (it won’t look right in Notepad).

Now back to the COMM program…

Navigating around the COMM program is a bit archaic. All commands in the COMM program involve selecting a function, then either  setting its value, or turning that function on or off. Get used to using the <CLEAR> key on the Model IV. In the COMM program, the <CLEAR> key acts like a CTRL or ALT key on a PC as it’s used in combination with another key. With the COMM program running, and the XMDM2412.BAS file ready on the PC, we need to start the file receive process on the Model IV. All keypresses in the following steps will be indicated in angle brackets “<>”, and combination keypresses will be separated by a “+” symbol, which means, press and hold the first key then press the next key, etc.

To capture data in COMM, we need to initialize the “File Receive” function. Press the following key sequences:

<CLEAR>+<6>
<CLEAR>+<9>

You will be prompted for a filename. Enter

XMDM2412/BAS:1

followed by <ENTER>. The TRS-80 uses a slash “/” symbol like the PC uses a period “.” to separate the filename from the file type. The “:1″ portion of the name above tells COMM to save this file on the disk in Drive 1. If you’re working on a single disk system, or have more than two disk drives on your Model IV, change the number after the colon to whatever drive number you are using.

Next, the “File Receive” function needs to be “opened” so that it will start capturing data sent to it by the PC. To start the capture process, press:

<CLEAR>+<6>
<CLEAR>+<:>

At this point, all data coming from the PC will be captured, so try not to type any text on the PC until the file transfer is completed. To start the file transfer, go to the PC (you have Tera Term running already, right?) and choose Send File… under the File menu. Find the XMDM2412.BAS file you extracted earlier and send it. Look at the TRS-80. You should now see the file contents appear on the screen. You may notice why I recommended 300 Baud for the transfer. First, it doesn’t take too long for this file to transfer, plus, the transfer goes slow enough that you may see indications of dropped characters. If you’re familiar with the structure of a BASIC program, you should spot dropped characters quite easily. This file being transferred has many numbered lines of text. There are also many DATA statements in the file. Other than a few of them, these DATA statements are all the same length. You will notice if characters get dropped because the DATA statements suddenly don’t line up anymore.

I want to step aside for a moment and mention a quirk (or bug) I’ve discovered at this point in the process. This may not happen to you, but I found that it is completely repeatable with my system setup. If, during the transfer of this file, you find your disk drive occasionally turning on and off, I guarantee you will be missing data. Even at 300 Baud, the disk writing process interrupts some of the data being transferred. What’s happening is, the transfer is being saved directly to disk. This is a bug in the process because at this point, we did not yet turn on the “dump to disk” process which saves the transferred file contents to disk. We only turned on the capture process which is only supposed to transfer to memory. I found this bug occurs ONLY during the first transfer I perform each time I run the COMM program. As long as I stay in the COMM program all subsequent transfers behave as expected and go right to memory as they are being captured. This is important to keep in mind. The solution to this “bug” is easy; once all the following steps have been completed, simply restart the capture process again, starting with initializing the “Data Receive” function mentioned earlier in this tutorial.

Now back to the transfer process…

After the file completely transfers, you’ll need to turn off the capture process on the TRS-80 by pressing:

<CLEAR>+<6>
<CLEAR>+<->

Then, you need to save the capture buffer to disk by pressing:

<CLEAR>+<7>
<CLEAR>+<:>

and finally, close the capture file by pressing:

<CLEAR>+<6>
<CLEAR>+<0>

As mentioned before, if your computer started running the disk drive DURING the transfer, you’ll need to go back and repeat the steps to ensure a clean file transfer. There should be no disk activity on the TRS-80 while the file is being transferred. The disk should only run when you first create the capture filename on the TRS-80 and when you save/close the capture buffer.

You are now done with the file transfer. You can exit the COMM program by pressing:

<CLEAR>+<SHIFT>+<=>

Back at the TRS-80 DOS prompt, type:

DIR :1   <Enter>

to see if the file you transferred is there. I will continue to use “:1″ in my examples throughout this tutorial. Substitute the appropriate drive number after the “:” above if you used a different disk drive. If the file XMDM2412/BAS doesn’t exist, you can try transferring it again by repeating the steps above, starting with running the COMM program.

Next, we need to run the BASIC program file we transferred. Type:

BASIC XMDM2412/BAS:1   <Enter>

This will load and run the BASIC program. If all is successful, you’ll see a bunch of “<DATA>” text on the screen while the disk drive is operating, then ending with two checksum numbers on the screen when done. If these checksum numbers match, everything was a success. Take a look at your disk directory again:

DIR :1   <Enter>

you should see a program called

XMODEM/CMD

From now on, the COMM program is unnecessary. You’ll still need to use the SET and SETCOM programs to initiate the RS-232 port after restarting your computer, but you’ll be able to substitute higher Baud rates now (I’ve tested speeds up to 9600).

To transfer files from your PC with XMODEM, use the Transfer / XMODEM / Send menu item under the Tera Term File menu on the PC. You will be prompted for a filename. Choose a TRS-80 file to transfer and send it. The XMODEM transfer on the PC will now wait for the TRS-80 to initiate the receive side of the transfer. Note the filename you picked on the PC. You will type it in on the TRS-80. For example, if you chose OMNITERM.CMD on the PC, you would type the following on the TRS-80 to initiate the XMODEM receive process:

XMODEM R OMNITERM/CMD:1   <Enter>

This will start a receive (“R”) process to transfer the file OMNITERM/CMD (remember the slash) to drive “:1″. Depending on the size of the file, the transfer will pause on occasion while data is saved to disk. This is OK because XMODEM transfers support a waiting period AND error correction while data is being written to disk. The COMM program lacked these important features.

One thing to note is that TRS-80 emulator files often come in DSK or DMK format. These are “disk images” for use on an emulator. You cannot transfer these types of files to a TRS-80 using these means and expect them to work properly. You’ll need to use a program which extracts the files from the disk image on your PC, THEN transfer them individually to a blank formatted disk on the TRS-80. If someone knows how to handle entire disk images directly on a TRS-80, please let me know!

Using the above process, I have transferred many CMD and BAS files, games, and utilities to real TRS-80 formatted disks. My Model IV is now a useful exhibit in my collection of classic computers!!

I hope these instructions will help others get better use out of their TRS-80 computers.

Enter the Man Cave. In particular, my Man Cave. A portion of my basement has been set aside for a workshop area. The previous homeowner (or his son) did computer repair in this area of the basement. There was already a homemade workbench installed which I soon turned into a workbench for hobby electronics work. Everything else got stored away in boxes and containers, or placed haphazardly on a variety of shelving systems (as depicted in the Before picture). A collection can easily get out of hand if there isn’t a direct purpose or placement for the items in the collection.

I do like to use what I have from time to time and try to integrate it into my Man Cave and give it a purpose again, if possible. As you can see in the Before picture, I have a variety of items in my collection. I have many other items in storage containers outside of the camera view. What I lacked is an integration of items in my collection which are able to be put to use. I have a collection of vintage audio and video equipment, such as a record player, 8-Track, laserdisc player and a Selectavision player. Until recently, I had those items stored away, making them difficult to enjoy. I also needed an area to do some troubleshooting and repair of the items, if needed. My electronics workbench was too small for some of the items to fit easily. I needed to expand my workbench area.

My first attempt at expanding my workbench, done last summer, is off to the left of the camera view. I built a basic wooden workbench, four feet wide and 30 inches deep, across the room from the original workbench. On top of it, I mounted a set of modular shelves and immediately loaded up those shelves with vintage Commodore computer systems and various accessories. Now I had a place to work with my Commodore Amiga and SX-64.

Before long, the new workbench started to get cluttered. I was running out of space again because I didn’t address my needs as effectively as I could when I built it. However, I liked having my Commodore computers readily accessible. The answer was to build another workbench. But first, I had to overcome my apprehension over what I needed to do first, having to completely tear down the shelving set I have against the wall and effectively rewiring the network of cables I have running through it.

Man Cave Workbench - Before

Contained in this photo: TRS-80 Model IV Floppy disc cases Macintosh Classic (the late 80′s re-issue) Shortwave Transceiver (top left) Couple of older PC compatibles (center) 2-Meter transceiver (upper right) Record turntable Tuner/receiver (bottom right) 8-Track (bottom right) 2-XL (bottom right) Assorted shelving and surfaces Disarray (everywhere)

There is a lot of “stuff” in the picture. The original workbench can be seen on the right edge of the picture. You can see how crowded that is getting. I have a series of additional parts drawers across the top edge of that workbench, used for repairs and hobby electronics.

It took about four hours to completely tear down that wall of stuff to make way for my newest workbench addition. I basically planned on bridging the two opposing workbenches together with a seven foot wide, 30″ deep, wooden workbench. The workbench was easy enough to build, although I wasn’t able to keep all three workbenches level with each other (poor planning on the previous workbench addition). What I gained with my effort is better use of the available space as you can see in the After picture.

Man Cave Workbench - After

Contained in this photo: TRS-80 Model IVTuner/Receiver 8-Track Player Macintosh Classic (the late 80′s re-issue) Assorted “small parts” storage bins (reduces clutter) Laserdisc player Selectavision player VCR Modern PC running Windows 7 Adequate under-bench storage Additional shelf space (the primary goal!!)

As you can see, I have more space to work with. There is room on the shelf for other electronic equipment. I simply have to decide on what I want to put there. The computer flatscreen on the right collapses on the computer base and can slide under the shelf behind it if additional bench space is needed temporarily. The two big PC’s in the before picture have new homes. One is stored below the workbench and the other on the shelving of the workbench I built last year. The metal shelving on the new workbench is the same floor to ceiling shelving shown in the Before picture. It is modular and can be rebuilt as two shorter shelving systems. I left space in the middle of this workbench for two reasons. It gives me a place to mount the parts bins and also gives me an area to pull items out from my collection and place them in an area where I can work with them for a while. Currently the Macintosh Classic is in that space. If I want to work on something else, I can store the Macintosh away and set up something different. I might dig out my TI-99/4A next. I have several Peripheral Expansion Boxes for it which I bought over 15 years ago at a yard sale, but didn’t have the time or place to set them up (EVER) and try them out, until now.

Microvision Handheld Game System

Forget your Nintendo DS, DSi, 3DS, or one of the many variations of cartridge based games in the past 30+ years. None of them are as innovative as Milton Bradley’s original cartridge based system, called Microvision.

My first experience with the Microvision was a few days after Christmas in 1980 or ’81. I had some spending money leftover from my holiday cash gifts and came across a discount toys bin at JCPenney. In this bin was a heavily discounted Microvision game system, so I bought it. It was one of the few LCD based electronic games available at the time, in a world where LED (red blip) games were dominant.

I played this game constantly. It uses a 9-volt battery (or two of them, depending on the manufacture date of the game unit), and I would go through batteries rather quickly. The base unit comes with the Blockbuster cartridge, which is basically a “breakout” type game where you bounce a ball off of a moving paddle and knock out blocks in a wall until you clear them all away. Unfortunately, when I bought mine, I could hardly afford to buy any additional games. Many of them were cleared out with no new inventory expected. Besides, I was a teenager with a very limited income. I would always find “something else” to spend my money on. Regardless, I got plenty of use out of the game I had. It kept me entertained on long trips in the car while on family vacations while others were still playing street sign bingo from the backseat.

The Microvision game is fairly sizable, being about a foot long and four inches wide. The cartridge games used in it are as wide and nearly as long. There is a 16×16 pixel LCD display, approximately two inches square, where each game screen is shown. All games are played with a combination of buttons, and a spinner (AKA paddle) control with about a 270 degree range of motion. The buttons are basically cutouts in the cartridge case which pass through to a 3×4 soft button matrix built into the game system body. When you change game cartridges, the buttons available to the game vary by name and position.

Another thing that changes with each game cartridge is the programming. Not unlike modern handheld game systems with interchangeable cartridges, or ROMS, the Microvision had its game programming stored on a silicon chip embedded in the game cartridge case. However, perhaps due to limiting technology at the time, a Microvision game cartridge not only contained the game code, but it was contained within its own microprocessor. The Microvision system body was not much more than a completely self contained peripheral system. It housed the LCD display, power source, power switch, button matrix, speaker, and spinner control.

Technology of the day allowed many electronics companies to build microprocessor controlled devices using a system developed by Texas Instruments known as the TMS1000 series of microprocessors. Although the TMS1000 can be the subject of of an entirely new blog post, in a nutshell, the TMS1000 system allowed companies to develop microprocessor software code and have Texas Instruments create a custom microprocessor with the programming code permanently etched on the silicon. The TMS1000 was used in many consumer devices at the time, such as calculators, printers, and other popular electronic toys.

Closeup of LCD

Gameplay on the Microvision was simple, but it could be challenging. Some games require you use your imagination to visualize the action on such a minimal LCD matrix. The pack-in game, Blockbuster, was a familiar sight to gamers of the day. Just like Tetris was quite common to those who saw the Nintendo GameBoy when it first went on the market, Blockbuster was a very recognizable game which also happened to work quite well with the simple screen matrix.

The sound of the games are NOT going to blow you away, even compared to the revolutionary portable cassette (Walkman) units of the day. Sounds were nothing more than simple square wave tones, much like the sound of the early IBM computers before Ad-Lib and Soundblaster cards came around. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, “that’s all we had for sound and we LOVED it!!”

There were only a handful of games made for the Microvision for release in the USA. These games are: Alien Raiders Baseball Block Buster Bowling Connect Four Cosmic Hunter Mindbuster Pinball Sea Duel Star Trek: Phaser Strike Vegas Slots Eventually, the Star Trek: Phaser Strike game was renamed to Phaser Strike due to trademark issues.

Typical Game Cartridge Box Typical Boxed Cartridge Configuration

Microvision LCD Screen Rot

From a collector’s standpoint, these systems and games are becoming more difficult to find in working order. Visually, the most prominent defect found on many used units is the LCD screen itself. The build quality of the LCD screen was poor. If the system wasn’t stored in a “controlled” environment, free of radical temperature changes over the years, the screen will “rot.” A “controlled” environment would simply be a home or somewhere where the temperature and/or humidity is suitable for humans throughout the year, like in a bedroom closet or something. Screen rot typically manifests itself as darkened pixels, but could look like a completely normal LCD display which is barely able to produce a noticeable image.

The game cartridges can also be found in a defective state, but hardly noticeable until the game is inserted and played. The TMS1000 chips are highly sensitive to static damage. You know how winter (or even desert) air in many areas is prone to being “dry” and the low humidity may cause a phenomenon where every doorknob you touch seems to give you a static shock from all of the moving around you do? The same static build-up can destroy a game chip. You don’t even need to see the spark to destroy it either. As long as the conditions are just right, handling the contacts on the game cartridge can cause a destructive static discharge. Visually, nothing would “look” wrong with the game. It’s only when you try to play the game and it fails to work will you know that it may have been damaged by static.

If you are looking to add a Microvision to your collection, eBay is a good place to buy systems. They appear every once in a while. You’ll tend to find more cartridges on eBay than the handheld unit itself. If you don’t trust the look of the LCD display on any of the pictures in the auctions, I recommend you verify the status of the display with the seller, maybe even ask for close-up pictures of a game in action. Rarely will you find a screen with just single pixels “missing.” Typically, if there is damage to the display, either it’s rotted and you’ll see dark splotches, or you’ll see one or more entire rows or columns of dots missing. As far as games, you can only trust the seller has personally tested them and is telling the truth about their operation.

The first magazine, Time Design, was a very popular five volume (26 issues) magazine, according to worldofspectrum.org. I only have 15 out of the known 26 issues and Best Of editions on hand, but they are an interesting read and reminiscent of the old independent style computing rags available for all 8-bit platforms of the day. To get a feel for the content layout, you can view seven issues online as scanned pages at http://wos.meulie.net/pub/spectrum/magazines/TimeDesigns/

Synchro-sette was less popular out of the two sets of magazines I have in my collection. This is probably due to the fact that it was part magazine/part cassette. In those days, some magazines included recorded media which contained loadable code to go with the programs described in each issue. This saved the user much time in typing the programs in for themselves. However, these kinds of magazines were far more costly due the media costs and therefore were less popular. Many people, like myself, preferred to spend our monies on other computer gear and were content enough to type the programs in ourselves. It is my understanding that this magazine did not have a “no-cassette” option, therefore you were required to pay the huge (for the time) subscription price to get the magazine. This could have lead to the relative obscurity of the magazine. I do not have the entire collection of Synchro-Sette (I have 19 of 26 issues) nor am I lucky enough to have ANY of the cassettes. It’s a shame though. I don’t think I have ANY Timex/Sinclair cassette software in my collection. It would be cool to watch my TS1000 flicker the screen once again while waiting for one of these magazine cassettes to load. 13 cassettes were produced throughout the entire publication run.

After thumbing through several issues of the magazine, I was surprised the magazine lasted as long as it did. I found it to be rather lacking in content. Maybe if I had the cassettes, I’d think more highly about it. According to this old ClassicCmp.org Mailing List post, my first impression of the magazine may have been the right one.

Time Designs	Synchro-Sette
My collection of Time Design Timex Sinclair magazines	My collection of Syncro-Sette Timex Sinclair magazines
Inside the pages of the Nov/Dec 1985 Time Designs magazine	Close-up of part of my Syncro-Sette magazine collection

When I look at what other people are doing with their retro, classic, or vintage websites, I have no choice but to admire their ability to act on their passion for their hobbies. A passion which I feel I also have, but which I have lacked the motivation to follow through with.

It’s not as easy as it looks… Trust me!

I can come up with many reasons (excuses if you will) to explain why I have not kept up on this website. Many of them are due to life’s priorities such as home, family, and work, but I do have my share of free time which I have used to focus on other things which were, quite frankly, less important than my hobbies. All in all, I always felt like a 27 hour day would be better for me to have the time I need to do everything I want to do.

So my New Year’s Resolution to all, if not only to myself, is to follow through with my hobbies and passion by remembering, admiring, and reminiscing about all of the electronic technology I became familiar with during my life. When I come across something from the past, either from my own collection or from a rare flea market find, I’ll blog about my experiences with the item and share any memories I may have of using it when growing up.

If anything, my blog posts would hopefully trigger similar recollections from you, the reader. By all means, feel free to join in the conversations.

Happy New Year, 2012!!

The event took place in the parking lot at The Henry Ford museum. Parking for the event was at lots across the street from the museum. The parking staff volunteers were extremely friendly, and I actually felt as if I was individually welcomed, as opposed to being another “head in the crowd.” I initially expected a friendly environment, due to the nature of the event, before arriving and I was not disappointed.

I do want to note one minor issue at this point. Upon entering the grounds, I was holding passes to get in. There was a line for pass holders and a line for those needing to buy tickets. Since food and drinks were bought using a coupon system, I was told that if I wanted to purchase food and drink, I cannot use the pass holder’s line because I needed to purchase my food coupons in the tickets line. So, I waited in the tickets line (as the pass holder’s line moved much more swiftly).Nobody told me that there are several locations in the event where I could buy food/drink tickets. Had I been told that, I could have entered the grounds much sooner using my passes. A little note for future event operations personnel, please don’t misdirect attendees so unnecessarily. All it does is delay the enjoyment of the experience.

QR Code used at the event to download Maker Faire:Detroit smartphone app

Eventually, I got in.

After passing a small tent containing a handful of replica classic vehicles, including one with a Benz Motorwagen Engine in it, along with those made in later decades to resemble original vehicles, I ended up face to face with the driver of an electric couch. I don’t know what startled me more at first, the fact that the couch is moving along almost on its own, or that it was such a gaudy 70′s color. I realized that it’s probably best to perform these kind of modifications on an older (the term “older” being a much understated term) style couch than to mess up the spouse’s fine living room furniture. I then turned to my son and said, “This is what Maker Faire is all about.”

I was in Zone 5, for those who are following along on the Maker Faire:Detroit smartphone app. Not to be outdone, one could find a self-propelled La-Z-Boy recliner, with umbrella, along with a large, mobile chocolate cupcake, sure to antagonize any dieter who also attended the Faire to get their mind off of snacks for the day.

Self Propelled Couch

The "I Rock" - Z!!

Snacks To-Go

We didn’t get to visit and spend time at all of the exhibits. I wanted to, but I also wanted my son to do the exploring for the both of us, so we mainly went where he wanted to go. As such, we did not attend any of the How-To events going on nor participate in a number of hands-on activities. Apparently, there was a wristband system in place where you were allowed a wristband which color coded you (or mainly, your children) based on acceptable level of risk. Certain events had a higher risk of injury and those with the wrong color wristbands would not be allowed to perform that activity. The line to get wristbands was quite long when we got to the tent, so we opted not to get a wristband and take our chanced being entertained by everything else that was there.

"Moore's Law aftermath" or "Resemblance of my basement"

Johnny Number 5 - "No disassemble!!"

One table, which did not require wristbands, was a table full of electronic  equipment (Zone 6). I don’t mean test equipment, I mean consumer and business goods like printers, music players, etc. The “junk” on the table was destined to be torn apart by anyone who had the desire to do so. If you were the kind of person whose Mother would always yell at you for trying to take apart your toys, this was YOUR exhibit. The vendors would give you a choice of the remaining items to choose from, hand you tools (yes, even without the safety wristbands), and let you proceed to disassemble the item (much to the chagrin of Johnny 5).

I only stayed at Maker Fair for one day. I asked the table vendors what is to be done with the parts people remove and they said that they will attempt to build something from them. I just wish I had a chance to see what was done with the parts. More importantly, I hope it helped event visitors come up with creative ways to re-purpose old tech gear instead of simply throwing it away.

The concept of DIY and “making” something isn’t just for electronic items. There are also many facets of DIY available for the home and garage. There were tents and exhibits demonstrating weaving, sewing, or looming skills of some kind. To be honest, I don’t know to what extent they were demonstrating such skills, my son and I were not really interested in it. We did get a glance in passing though.

Homemade Flywheel Engine

One exhibit I thought was interesting had the old Flywheel and Hit and Miss homemade engines which were being demonstrated (also in Zone 6). By homemade, I mean that old components were re-purposed into engine components. The engine shown here was apparently created using components of a steam system. I hope I got that fact completely correct. These engines, although very cool in their simplicity, were also very loud. I had some difficulty understanding what the engine owner was describing.

Zone 4 is where most of the hands-on activities and sessions were taking place. Oddly enough, this is one of the areas my son and I spent the least amount of time. The activities covered many facets of DIY from learning to solder, to basic arts and crafts. None of these interested my son. Then again, he’s a little like me, preferring to learn on my own rather than in a learning environment. We both get more satisfaction from figuring things out on our own. Therefore, there is little for me to report on Zone 4 activities, other than making sure we bought a marshmallow shooter kit before leaving for the day.

Mousetrap!!

Zone 3 contained one of the biggest exhibits. It is also the one we were expecting to witness when we got to the Maker Faire event; the lifesized Mouse Trap. A massive mesh of safe dropping metal reminiscent of everyone’s favorite board game and Rube Goldberg machine. Although every component of the Mouse Trap game wasn’t represented, this exhibit shows what can be done with some ingenuity and lots of metal. It doesn’t take long for the entire contraption to complete its run from start to finish. There was a fair amount of showmanship with women in mice costumes before the final event. The contraption’s run ended with a 600 lb. safe dropping onto the bed of a small pick-up truck. To give you an idea of the impact force, I must have been standing about 50 ft. away from the truck and could feel the ground “thud” under my feet.

Elsewhere in Zone 3 were solar energy exhibits, Lost Arts (which I think involved soap and candlemaking, etc. I did not go to those exhibits), and some “Locally Grown” feature exhibits. I didn’t spend too much time in Zone 3. Many of those exhibits did not interest me, besides the solar exhibit, but I’m versed well enough on that topic from consulting my Dad on installing solar energy systems at his house.

Zone 2 had the MakerShed retail tent. I spent a considerable amount of time in here, looking for kits and parts to work on more project ideas. In the end, I didn’t buy anything for myself, not wanting to commit vacation monies toward something I could simply order online. I did however get my Son a solar toys kit. For most of the duration on the seven hour drive back home, I had various solar powered toys operating on the dash of my car. I also picked up a discounted subscription to Make Magazine, since they were offering it for only $20 at the time.

We got lunch while we were in Zone 2. The big cafeteria tent was located here. After waiting for a bit in the very LONG main course line (hot dogs and sausages), we decided to go to the “snacks” line, which was considerably shorter. There was suitable sustenance at the snack tent. I got a surprisingly tasty tossed salad along with a strawberry shortcake dessert. Since my Son is at that stage of growth where he eats like a bird, a heaping plate of nachos with cheese was all that was needed to satisfy his hunger.

Our lunch tent happened to have some entertainment running while we were eating. It was a sullen, two person band whose name I did not determine, as if I would ever buy an album from them anyway. I’m not saying that they weren’t a “good” band. I just wasn’t fond of what they were playing. From the gist of the talking they did between songs, I understand that all their instruments are homemade; including the Theremin that was sitting at a table beside them. Mainly, their instruments were homemade “guitar like” devices, along with whatever vocal harmonies they could belt out, all in sort of a medieval folk rock style (think 60′s, peace, love). There might have been some other instruments of the Felis catus variety which I could not see because some of the sounds coming from their end of the tent (opposite from where I was sitting) resembled the sound of someone stepping on cat tails. Live cats, that is… That observation was originally not my own, but a paraphrase of what I heard from a nearby patron. I just happen to agree with his statement. While I wholly appreciate the effort this band put into their presentation, along with the understanding that their homemade instruments reflects the spirit of the Maker Faire event, I just want to say what ultimately turned me off in the end. Note to band: Maker Faire is attended by both CHILDREN and adults alike. Please refrain from somber, detailed lyrics describing Vikings raping and pillaging small villages. This is NOT the forum to be singing about their plight!

This is the end of Part 1 of my Maker Faire:Detroit summary. The second and final part will be posted in the near future….

Bear in mind, I’m not bashing Radio Shack. It’s just that I wish they didn’t turn into the run-of-the-mill consumer electronics store that they became. I’m hopeful that there is change on the horizon, as I’m beginning to see more hobbyist components on their shelves… or in those drawers. Hopefully, that trend will continue for all of the future generations of electronic engineers. Right now, almost every electronics component I buy is mail ordered (via the Internet). Until a local source moves in, I must accept the idea that I may need to wait a couple days for my parts.

That aside, I was also enlightened by what is considered to be a paradigm shift in the hobby. I formally got into the hobby in 1977, on Halloween to be exact. Here I was, a young’en jumping in during a rise in the popularity of hobbyist grade integrated circuits. Before this time, transistors and vacuum tubes were dominant. So, I suppose the seasoned hobbyists at the time may have felt the way I do now… a little out of touch with the present. What constitutes “out of touch”? Not necessarily an inability to comprehend modern technology, but not readily being able to accept the changes in modern technology.

I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of designing circuits (mostly digital) and getting them to run using basic building blocks such as 74XX or 40XX IC logic. These days, one of the basic building blocks is microprocessor technology (PIC, ATMel, Freescale, etc.). At first, I wondered where all the fun is in that. Where is the design challenge? In pondering that question, I’ve eventually learned to accept the hobby’s new basic building blocks and can now readily guide my son into the world of microprocessors. As I mentioned earlier, it’s not for being able to understand the technology, it’s for being able to accept it as the norm. All I needed to do was remember way back when and realize that those seasoned hobbyists building transistor only circuits in the 1970′s probably had to learn to accept integrated circuits and simply move on with them.

Overall, I find microprocessors a wonderful basic building block. As a computer programmer by trade, I was able to segue into microprocessors with ease. I’m basically shifting hardware based knowledge to a software based platform and adding a few supporting electronic components into the mix. The projects are still quite challenging and I will still be able to train my son and answer any questions he may have about the hobby.

Do you agree in this paradigm shift? Do you have any anecdotes of your own to share with others. If so, please comment on this article using the link below.

This is but one of the amazing facts brought to light in the Historically Brewed newsletter series created by David Greelish. Along with interesting facts about the history of computers, there are articles on computer systems from a collector’s perspective. These include the opportunity to relive the days gone by when our Fathers, Grandfathers, or even ourselves were struggling to become a master in the fast-growing personal computer movement. Another interesting “feature” in the Historically Brewed newsletters are the peppered in vintage ads which adds a classic touch to the publication. After all, where else can you find more information about Nervine tablets to remedy your nervousness.

The Historically Brewed newsletter is published no more. However, the editor and author is considering compiling a book with the entire collection of newsletters, along with some of his personal anecdotes, into one collectable book. According to David, all nine original issues, along with an unprinted tenth edition, will be published together with his own story as a member of the vintage computer “elite” who once owned or purchased a computing apparatus during the early days of personal computing.

As I look over my shoulder at a number of bound volumes of Popular Electronics magazines on my bookshelf, I find David’s idea a refreshing one. The Popular Electronics books I have came from a public library where several editions of the original magazine were bound together as one book. This makes for an easy way to own and reference physical copies of out of print publications. From a hobbyist and collector standpoint, I would appreciate it if other publishers would have done the same thing with theirs, or at least made available to the public what was once offered to libraries.

I feel the Historically Brewed book would make a fine addition to the serious collector or computer historian. It may not contain every point of view from industry players and experts from the era, but it does symbolize a period of time in the personal side of computing. For without the personal aspect, “personal” computing would have never existed.

To find out more about The Complete Historically Brewed book, or to donate to the effort, please visit the KickStarter project at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dgreelish/bring-a-great-computer-history-zine-back-to-a-new