Exhibited Alto at VCF West, finished reading U of M card decks

FINISHED READING CARD DECKS FOR UNIV OF MICHIGAN RESEARCHER

I used my setup to begin reading the remainder of the six boxes of card decks from research conducted in 1970 and punched from the MTS timesharing system at UofM. I had some balky behavior for a time until I corrected a loose connection and tightened the power supply wiring. 

Documation reader, interface electronics behind and PC capturing card images on right

ALTO EXHIBITION AND DEMONSTRATION AT VINTAGE COMPUTER FESTIVAL WEST

We brought the Alto to the Vintage Computer Festival West 2017 event at CHM over the past weekend. It took a few hours to load three cars, drive over, unload and set up in the festival exhibit area. Luck smiled on us - everything worked just fine for the two days of the show. 

Our Alto in our exhibit area, just before teardown at the end of the show

I was also committed to two panels to take place at the event. One concerned restoration of older equipment at the CHM, covering the 1620, PDP-1 and 1401 systems. The other was a presentation of our restoration of the Xerox Alto and a live demonstration. 

This did require us to haul the machine up onto stage and use a camera to show the screen image on the projector for viewing by the audience. We had a few gremlins interfere but overall it was a success. 

We also had the fortune to meet with and listen to the panel of original Xerox PARC researchers who went on after us. They shared stories of their time building and working with the Alto, plus answering audience questions. 

TEKTRONIX 7854 SCOPE RESTORATION

The custom IC that switches the horizontal signals and manages blanking during digital display intervals is now in my hand, having arrived from Rhodes a few days ago. Soon it will be back in the scope and I can check whether the problems went away.