Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[CitroJim]

Excellent Zel At least the car is kept mobile and usable whilst you acquire a new latch...

Hope that window winding problem is not going to prove difficult...

[Hell Razor5543]

This might interest you, Zel. The BBC Breakfast has an item on the North West Computer Museum, with equipment visitors can get to use. Here is a link to the museum.

https://www.nwcomputermuseum.org.uk/

[Dormouse]

Not a straight swap then. At least you don't have to fight with the Driver's Door for a while. And, bonus, you get to play with window winder cables as well! It will be better weather when you go back in.

[Zelandeth]

This might interest you, Zel. The BBC Breakfast has an item on the North West Computer Museum, with equipment visitors can get to use. Here is a link to the museum.

https://www.nwcomputermuseum.org.uk/

Seen a few mentions of this recently, definitely something I'll need to investigate in due course.

The capacitors I'd been waiting on for the T5200 arrived, so these were evicted from the HT supply.

Getting the wiring loom crammed back into the correct routing through the hinge so I could get the cover back on this compartment was an absolute nightmare...

We got there in the end though.

On test, looks good...

...For about five minutes. Then started fading out exactly like it did before. Bother.

I made an absolute rookie mistake didn't I? Got far too focused on what I was looking at and missed the obvious. Yes, the HT supply here is derived in an external unit, but that's not the only thing handling it is it? No, of course there's going to be some significant additional processing involved isn't there? Like an additional PCB in the display itself? Oh, like this one?

Idiot.

Oh look, another nine capacitors. Five ratings...a total of one of which I had in stock, figures.

Oh well...in goes another order to CPC.

That previous order also contained the ones I had been waiting for to recap the Apple II power supply as well.

Really simple one this.

It's astonishing how much smaller the new capacitors are than the old ones.

With the machine back together, our fault sadly is still present. It will run absolutely fine for 10-15 minutes before becoming very unstable. Either locking up, or randomly dropping out to the kernel monitor while trying to load software. I had also replaced the one electrolytic decoupling capacitor on the motherboard, a couple on the language card and the disk interface card. The tantalum bead caps I've left alone - those I've always found either work fine or just present a dead short, usually soon after being awoken from a long slumber.

My guess here is that we've got an IC somewhere that's acting up, most likely memory, when warm. Sadly fault finding at that level will need to wait until we're back from Scotiacon - I'm just not going to have time before we leave.

I have managed to actually get software loaded on the QL for the first time though. The vDrive isn't the most intuitive thing to use (especially given the command syntax on the QL is a little strange), but I've now got it behaving well enough for some technical demonstrations at least.

I'd never felt quite such an achievement at getting a word processor running before!

I have to admit to being really impressed with the display. It's really sharp and has really vivid colours, would have looked absolutely great on a proper RGB CRT display back in the day.

In other news, the Renault has been out and about a couple of times over the last couple of days.

Not as though my cars are easy to spot out and about or anything.

Today she was out again on a recycling centre run. It's quite astonishing how much you can fit into this car when the seats are down.

No cars on my fleet get a free spot on this fleet, though admittedly I would rather have been using the Caddy for a job like this. However our local council have deemed it to be a commercial vehicle, so that's not happening. This was just an old mattress and mostly cardboard though, no dirty waste or anything that was likely to damage the interior. I'd not even consider shifting anything dirty or likely to damage anything like garden waste.

I do need to properly check the battery though. It's still struggling a bit it sounds like. It's a basic Halfords one and from the photos I've seen it's been in there since 2017, the car hasn't been in regular use since then so I'm sure it's been run flat at least a couple of times. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this one was past it's best.

[CitroJim]

Now you know why I won't go anywhere near modern electronics Zel, especially computers... I'm not made of sufficiently strong stuff!

The prevailing rules for using our tips are totally bonkers... Being unable to take a privately owned van (or a small trailer) to them is well beyond sensible but then, when did MK council ever display a mote of sense or competence in any area?

[Zelandeth]

Now you know why I won't go anywhere near modern electronics Zel, especially computers... I'm not made of sufficiently strong stuff!

The prevailing rules for using our tips are totally bonkers... Being unable to take a privately owned van (or a small trailer) to them is well beyond sensible but then, when did MK council ever display a mote of sense or competence in any area?

Indeed. See also making the entire queue have to back up when they refused me entry with the Caddy the first time, so I could do a 72 point turn to leave...rather than letting me drive the extra six feet forward into the site and then just turn around.

They'll also come after your head if you're not out even a second outside your alloted slot. Which is always a good game as they keep moving things!

Then they wonder why our area has a massive fly tipping problem...I can't see any correlation here at all. Nope...pure coincidence. Must be.

[myglaren]

I need to go to ours. Stuff living at the foot of the stairs since last year.
We do have to book a slot but can be up to half an hour late turning up and they don't care how long anyone takes, no-one wants to be there any longer than they have to.
The blokes that work there are all very friendly and helpful.

[Dormouse]

Our Local tips all now allow Small Car based Commercial Style vans but not Campervans! Like I am going to ram Pint Pot full of Crap! They abandoned time slots though and opted for a maximum of 3 visits per week.
Campervans and "other" Commercial Vehicles are only allowed at 2 sites in Fife ( the last time I looked well before Xmas ).
I once arrived at one of these large "commercial" sites with my Garden Trailer full of earth and rubble - these 2 sites were the only ones allowing trailers at the time - only to be told I should have gone to the site local to me as I just had garden soil. They even wanted me to try and turn round at the gate and leave! And there was a queue behind me - that would have been fun, not! I had booked on the Council Website and this was my only option offered in the Bookings and I had it confirmed by email. I refused to turn round and was eventually allowed inside, but only to turn round and leave. There followed an exchange of emails with the Council, I got another booking - which worked perfectly. But I never got an apology for the humiliation and wrong exclusion. Funnily enough, the rules on small trailers to all sites changed within 2 weeks!!!!! Jobsworths!!!!!

[Zelandeth]

Today was the annual pilgrimage up to Glasgow for Scotiacon that's running over this weekend.

Had just a *little* but of cargo in tow. Which is one of the reasons I find this thing so useful.



Six hours later Glasgow was achieved.

.

I still can't quite put my finger on how this little car...van...I still never know whether to call it a car or a van, which is why I usually end up referring to it as "the Caddy"...does so well as a long distance cruiser.

It's not *especially* comfortable, but never actually seems to get uncomfortable. It's not particularly quiet, but never gets too tiresome, and the slight exhaust drone is mainly due to the wheelchair conversion having messed with the factory silencer configuration. However it just somehow manages to hack away at the miles with a ruthless efficiency in a way that presents an uncannily low stress experience. It has absolutely no business being so good over long distances as it is.

Now unpacking that lot...that took a while. Turns out our room is on the ninth floor...and even though the event doesn't start until midday tomorrow, we've already pretty much taken over the whole hotel and there were significant queues at the three lifts. We arrived at about half past four...I think it was just before seven we got the last couple of things out the car and into the room.

Who was it who decided it would be a smart idea to run a vintage technology panel here again? Oh...yeah...that was me.

Oh well, at least I'll have a trolley at my disposal on Saturday morning.

Was glad to see our old friend has made her usual appearance.



I love this shonky old beast.



Shonky but we'll loved by the owners. Not loved by anyone who cuts it up in traffic. There is a genuine US train horn hidden under there, and it's absolutely impossible to convey quite how alarmingly loud that is in words. Apparently resisting the lure of that particular little red button is a major challenge for any passengers in the cab for the first time.

Tomorrow I've got a few last bits of prep to do for my panel (basically just chucking a few disk images onto SD cards for the C64 and Electron), but at this point I'm basically in a position of "I'm as prepared as I'm going to get." Or "Resigned to my fate." Not quite sure which is the most true at this point. Watch this space I guess! I've made it clear to everyone involved that this is very much a proof of concept this year, if it's well received my plan will be to come back next year or the year with improvements based on the feedback I get.

[CitroJim]

Enjoy Scotiacon Zel

Loving the ratty old DAF!

[Dormouse]

For those of you interested.

[Zelandeth]

2010: Oh don't be silly. Running a furry convention in Scotland is a stupid idea. Nobody will ever go to them.

2011: Scotiacon first opens its doors at a little hotel in Inverness. About 50 attendees.

2013: We moved to the Mercure hotel in Livingston, making it a lot easier to get to, and the date moved to a less summer-holiday clashing point in November. Attendance quickly jumped into three figures.

2015: My first year there, 152 attendees.

2022 (was meant to be 21, but you know...the whole world stopping for a year thing): We move to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow, having thoroughly outgrown our previous venue - 532 attendees (and just over £11 grand raised for the charity).

The hope among the staff "We should have at least a few year's breathing room before you fill this venue and we have to panic again!"

This year: Standing room only in the opening ceremony.



Exact numbers will have to wait till we're told at the end of the convention, but we must be very close to cracking four figures. That room has a rated capacity of 800 people, and by no means everyone was there.

Have got pretty much everything lined up for my event in the morning - first load of stuff is ready in the trolley and second is organised. Hoping I can get everything down there in three trips as the lifts are something of a choke point.



Really wish I'd had that thing handy when I was getting everything out of the car...

[Dormouse]

Best of luck. A lie down in quiet corner beckons later.

[Zelandeth]

Best of luck. A lie down in quiet corner beckons later.

Aye, too right!

Firstly my ears (and the rest of me) are buzzing following this year's performance from Drums 'n' Roses. Which was precisely as good as the last one.



The other half of the room behind me was precisely as full and as energetic.

Apparently we've already booked them for next year. If their concert is going to become a traditional event here I certainly won't be complaining.

The computing panel definitely went down well. Definitely learned lessons for any future events, but I fully expected that. Setup took a little longer than expected - not helped by the horrendously slow lifts. This was further exacerbated by suddenly being landed with half a dozen volunteers to help. While I appreciate the sentiment - this was actually more of a hindrance than a help I reckon. Especially as most of them were significantly younger than the systems in question so didn't really know what they were doing. I had separate bags with all the necessary cables etc for each system, so reckon I could have got it down to a minute or two per system - trying to wrangle the helpers and answer questions easily tripled that as it suddenly meant I no longer knew where everything was.

Next year everything will be boxed up *with* the respective systems, with labels added to ports assist with assembly if someone who isn't familiar with the systems are putting things together.

I'll probably pare down the selection slightly as well as I did have a bit of duplication and didn't have room for everything. Plus I know I ran out of prep time, so didn't have the information sheets and such to go with everything.

In my head I'd pictured maybe a couple of tens of people popping their heads in. Reality was the room was packed pretty much the moment the doors opened (while I was still trying to get things set up!), and while it did get slightly less manic it remained busy through the whole three hours we were running (was originally scheduled for an hour). Reckon we must have seen at least a couple of hundred people through the door.

I was really blown away by the level of interest. So definitely reckon I'll be putting forward the idea of a version 2.0 for next year. The gent I was sharing the room with has a more modern arcade running through the weekend. Next year we're going to try to coordinate a bit more given the amount of overlap between our events. Huge thanks to them for letting me use their monitors too as that saved me at least one trip from one side of the hotel to the other plus 8-floor lift wait.

I don't have any decent photos myself as I spent most of the time running around like a headless chicken, hoping some will pop up over the next couple of days though.

Thankfully someone else figured out how to get software loaded onto the Electron - I managed to totally forget between trying out the SD card adapter a couple of days ago and when I set it up. However I turned around and there was suddenly a game up and running, so that made my life easier.



Jet Set Willy on the Spectrum was unsurprisingly a hit among everyone.



I had planned to move that projector way further from that wall to enlarge the image but never got that far through setup!

Absolutely knackered now... hopefully will sleep well tonight now.

[CitroJim]

Excellent!