Offering of my services to the 68kmla community

[phreakout]

Hey, everybody! I just wanted to let you know that I am taking clients who would like to have their SE/30 logic boards recapped. I have all the tools I need to get the job done in a semi-professional way. If you are interested, or have other model boards in need of soldering, desoldering, replacements of parts, etc., send me a PM and I'll give you my rate for this type of work.

Moderators and almighty leaders above: Feel free to move this to another area if you feel it needs to. I am just throwing this out to see that my work helps keep the retro Macs in operation.

Thanks!

73s de Phreakout.

[Bunsen]

What would you charge to recap an SE/30 and replace the '030 with a socket? I have the socket.

[sambapati87]

Can you re-cap a Classic II board? If so, what's the cost including shipping and the caps from 43201?

Thanks!

[phreakout]

Okay. I guess it's time for me to update this topic.

"How much do I charge?"

Currently, I charge $10 USD per hour at about 2 to 3 hours. If you have an SE or SE/30 that needs recapping, Ill need an additional 24 hours so that I can do a "smoke" test and additional stress tests to make sure everything works great before sending back out. All other models and/or equipment needing recapping will be recapped without any additional test periods, as I don't have any spare copies kicking around here at home. I will never charge you for the 24 hour period; that's my promise.

"Where do I get the replacement parts from?"

My recommendation is to try 68kmla member Trag for the SE/30 recap kit he sells. Other places you can try are Mouser, Digikey, Radio Shack (although not always) and any other suppliers online for electronic components. I don't know if this is 100 percent accurate or not, but usually Macintoshes built before the SE/30 will use "lead through board" components. I think starting with the SE/30 and on forward, Apple decided to switch to "SMTs" or surface mount components for the advantage of real estate on the circuit boards. You can put 2 or 3 SMT resistors in the same spot where only one lead through board resistor can reside. Plus SMTs have the advantage of their contacts on one side of the board rather than poking through to the bottom side.

"Where are you located?"

I'm located in Northern Michigan, in the Traverse City area.

73s de Phreakout.

[JDW]

Based on this price estimate, my guess is that it will cost no less than $20 (since I have never done such a job in less than two hours), plus the cost of return shipping.

Assuming it takes 4 hours total (which is more than it takes me), that would be $40. One must then add $10 for Trag's replacement cap kit (which only includes shipping if you are within the USA). If return shipping is then $10, the total would come to $60 (for those of you in the US). In my experienced opinion, that is a fair price for a 100% complete recap job, professionally done, that includes the replacement of all caps, including the two electrolytic axial caps.

[phreakout]

Thank you, JDW.

Basically, $10 plus $20 plus the shipping cost to send it to me, which usually runs around $10 to $20 USD for those sending in the U.S. For international, it will be only more expensive for the shipping cost. So for about $40 to $60 USD, you'll get a repaired board back in your hands. Don't worry about the return shipping from me to you; I'll take care of that.

73s de Phreakout.

[phreakout]

Can you re-cap a Classic II board? If so, what's the cost including shipping and the caps from 43201?

Thanks!

If you send the logic board via United States Postal Service, it is the least expensive at around $7.10; that's excluding insurance and delivery confirmation. The boards usually will weigh in at about 3 pounds each, which is why the price comes to that.

If you can, could you inquire to the forum's vast experts as to which caps I need to do for an effective repair, instead of guessing the whole time? Or would you rather I replace all of the caps that could be the culprit?

73s de Phreakout.

[Unknown_K]

If you are going to bother shipping boards out and back and paying for work to be done you should replace all the aluminum analytic SMT capacitors on the motherboard. They are all the same age and have the same time usage so they are all going bad. SMT tantalums are easy to spot since they fail shorted (and some tend to explode). Axial eletrolytics tend to be large and last longer, you realy need an in circuit capacitor tester (ESR meter) to see if they need replaced. You need to know some troubleshooting skills to figure out if the MB is the problem or if the power section needs work instead. Then you need to worry has the leaking killed anything else on the board, in that case finding a replacement board is cheaper.

[trag]

Can you re-cap a Classic II board?

If you can, could you inquire to the forum's vast experts as to which caps I need to do for an effective repair, instead of guessing the whole time? Or would you rather I replace all of the caps that could be the culprit?

Folks who have ordered caps for the Classic II board have ordered three 47uF, two 1uF and between eight and eleven 10uF capacitors. In 4seasonphoto's thread about Classic II rebuilding he mentions that he's found different numbers on different boards, but thinks one of his boards had thirteen 10uF caps on it.

The three 47uF and two 1uF seems pretty definite. It's the number of 10uF caps which is a bit mysterious.

The best bet is always for the owner of the board to count them...

[phreakout]

Ladies and Gentleman:

For those in need of recapping your SE/30 logic boards due to Simasimac symptoms, I can still commit myself to doing the work. Unfortunately, due to a sudden problem recently with the analog board and/or power supply unit on mine, I will only be able to replace the caps, or any other part for that matter, without a 24 hour testing until the issue(s) are resolved. I will just let you know when I'm done with your board and send it back to you. Then you can pay me after letting me know how it is working. Or unless someone is willing to part with a spare working/non-working SE/30, PM me and we'll talk.

Thank you for understanding. I'll let everyone know once things are back to normal; then I'll reinstitute the 24-hour period.

Best Regards,

Phreakout.

[TheNixer]

Would anyone be willing to work on cap replacement on Mac Plus analog boards? If not I may just have to teach myself how to fix these things and start a service of my own. I love my Mac Plus when I can get video out of it.

[trag]

Would anyone be willing to work on cap replacement on Mac Plus analog boards? If not I may just have to teach myself how to fix these things and start a service of my own. I love my Mac Plus when I can get video out of it.

If you're getting intermittent video out of your Mac Plus, check/resolder pin 1 on analog board end of the cable which connects the logic board to the analog board. That cable carries the video signal and that solder joint is notorious for failing.

The typical symptom is a Mac whose video goes to a single dot in the center of the screen and a whack to the left side of the Mac restores video.

[phreakout]

My sincere apologies to you all if I haven't been getting back to you in a timely manner about shipping costs for sending work to me. Things are, as usual, hectic yet not too busy where I'm at. The clientelle has amazingly increased over the past 10 months and the word is still spreading! I hope that my consulting, as a business, will benefit us all.

I hope everyone has had a pleasant holiday season and wish for more positives in 2010. If you need my technical expertise, feel free to send me a PM and I'll help out the best I can.

Thank you and Best Regards,

Phreakout aka Joe.

[Quadraman]

Can you re-cap a Classic II board? If so, what's the cost including shipping and the caps from 43201?

Thanks!

If you send the logic board via United States Postal Service, it is the least expensive at around $7.10; that's excluding insurance and delivery confirmation. The boards usually will weigh in at about 3 pounds each, which is why the price comes to that.

If you can, could you inquire to the forum's vast experts as to which caps I need to do for an effective repair, instead of guessing the whole time? Or would you rather I replace all of the caps that could be the culprit?

73s de Phreakout.

If you're going to do a recap job, don't waste your time picking and choosing which ones are actually bad. If one is leaking, odds are they will all be leaking soon and the problem will come back. If you want to build a good rep for your repair work, having customers come down with the same issue they sent it to you for a short time later isn't going to do you any favors. Replace all of them while you have the board in your hands the first time even if they test good.

Just curious, can you also do the checkerboard video fix on an SE? I just got one with that problem.

[JDW]

They pretty much are all bad. This has been true in my own experience and one can also come to that conclusion logically when reflecting upon how many years ago the boards were made.

Simply put, if you don't replace all the caps, you might as well not replace anything at all. Seriously. Don't start a job unless you can do it properly.

[phreakout]

To address JDW and Quadraman's concerns, yes I do replace ALL of the caps or parts documented and suggested for being replaced; I leave no stone unturned. And I return to you all the original parts I swap out in a nice small plastic bag.

Quadraman: Regarding your SE's checkerboard problem, I can take a look at it and replace parts when needed. I have a spare SE logic board that I'm using for salvaging parts. The only thing wrong with it were dead ADB ports. Which is why I upgraded to an SE/30 logic board and deemed that SE LB for parts salvage only.

Best Regards,

Joe aka Phreakout.

[ppuskari]

Any chance you work on IIFX motherboards that the idiot previous owners left to battery decay? I know there is at least one pad gone there and who knows what else. but the boards are relatively clean other than the battery area....

I never go around to learning proper soldering technique...Maybe I should learn that after all these years.. hmmm

[trag]

Any chance you work on IIFX motherboards that the idiot previous owners left to battery decay? I know there is at least one pad gone there and who knows what else. but the boards are relatively clean other than the battery area....

I never go around to learning proper soldering technique...Maybe I should learn that after all these years.. hmmm

I'm not in a position time-wise to help you with the IIfx board (hope Phreakout PM'ed you). However, I thought I'd mention that Digi-Key has the plastic battery holder for the 1/2AA battery. It's been a month or so since I looked it up but it was in the $2 neighborhood. Maybe $1.25, maybe $3... So if the board is repairable, the battery holder is available...

I also have a small supply of battery holders I found in my parts mound. So, if one is ordering capacitors from me (see thread in Trading Post) one can add a battery holder to the order for $2. One of these days I'll add that option to the actual posting over in Trading Post. But you're not a likely customer for my capacitors (unless you also have an SE/30 or such) because the IIfx's I've seen all have beautiful tantalum capacitors installed at the factory.

Jeff Walther

[ppuskari]

I suppose that might make me fire up the se/30 in the garage.. I really need to bring all my macs inside the basement... I had a climate controlled storage area that I recently quit using and everything there is now in my half of the garage.. It's very cold out there, but at least out of the weather. But still can't be good for the few macs still out there. The SE/30 I have I THINK fired up, but it didn't have a hard drive or floppy drive in the case, and at the time I didn't have time to fully restore it. So I might have to take you up on a cap set yet.

Yes the 2 IIFX units I have plus the spare motherboard (All with various defects) at least have tantalum capacitors like you say. One day I'll get working machine. One of the units has busted sim holder too..

Thanks for the info and offer on the battery holder.

[phreakout]

Not sure if I mentioned, but I'm willing to give any logic board a shot, not just SE/30s. If you have IIfx or different with caps needing replacing, I'll give it my best. PM me and we'll talk. Oh, and btw, I fixed my power supply problem, too. Forgot to post an update about that.

73s de Phreakout.

[phreakout]

Oh, I forgot to mention payments. I do accept personal check, cash, and money orders. Sadly, I don't accept PayPal, as I have and never will trust them again with my life. Also, I am not set up to take credit card transactions. Until then, you'll need to choose any of the first three types of transactions. You can mail them to the same address you sent the logic boards to.

73s de Phreakout.

[Mars478]

What happened with you and paypal?

[phreakout]

Long story short, someone got into my account and stole money. It was found to be hacked. Luckily it wasn't tethered to my personal checking account or I'd be screwed. That plus many other horror stories I've heard in the past.

PayPal's a nice idea, but realistically they suck when it comes to security during transactions and follow-up when money is stolen. They would rather not admit their problems and treat me like a statistic.

73s de Phreakout.

[phreakout]

Sorry to keep bumping this up. Can the moderators or site admins please make this a sticky in the Classic Macs area? Thank you.

73s de Phreakout.

[JDW]

Bunsen has not only participated in this thread, but he is also in the Global Moderators Group. So if anyone has the power to make this a sticky, it should be him.