Curious find in a Mac Plus

[mikepick]

I bought a Mac Plus from a guy a few months back for $50 - which might seem like a lot, except it came with a Lacie ZFP 50MB HDD, one of the original beige carry bags, and a bunch of original 800K software floppies, like a full 7.1 install set and Microsoft Excel disks.

But enough of that. I opened up the Plus to clean it yesterday, because it's been acting flaky, and discovered some oddities in the innards - a fan had been added, and there is a paper layer above the logic board with a Radius logo on it. Also, the logic board has a couple of rubber risers stuck on two of the chips, but otherwise doesn't seem altered in any way.

Anyone encounter this kind of thing before, or know more about the Radius cards? I'm presuming it had one installed at one point.

I'm thinking about removing the fan and the paper to help with airflow, any opinions? It's kind of neat but I suspect having more air getting on the logic board might help with flakiness.

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Just paper? The Radius VidCard is missing? Is there a connector in the battery compartment cover with wires trailing down toward the paper?

The "paper" looks suspiciously like an air dam covering something very interesting, the fan appears to be suckin' air out of the MoBo space and blowing it up toward the vents where it belongs, it's a feature, not a problem. More piccies from more angles?

If it's a VidCard or Accelerator clipped onto the CPU, you'll need to pry the chassis retaining clips (slides for a stock MoBo) apart to get it out for taking pics

[MacJunky]

It looks like he already has the board out in that pic. but yea, you need more pictures if you are gonna talk about things like this.

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

You're right, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but that's the rug pattern showing through the access slot for the AB Cable Connection.

That is one slick cooling system, I wonder if thy notched out the chassis to make the rectangular hole the fan covers a full square. I'd LOVE to see a shot of that bracket holding the fan and the paper air dam. I'm wondering if it bends down over the right edge of the chassis to block the right side vents somewhat. That'd have the fan accelerating an increased airflow across the MoBo and Radius Card from the left side vents, that's the way I'd do it for cooling something pretty warm . . .
. . . I'm thinking that there may have been a Mac Plus version of the Radius 16 in there.

edit:

Second hit! I just googled: "radius 16" accelerator "mac plus"

Googling this kinda stuff only to find myself is beginning to make me feel like the Worm Ouroboros munching on eight year old tail!

[mikepick]

Not sure how slick the cooling system was/is, it's a bit hackish as it seems that many addons were for the Macs prior to the SE.

Here's some more pics: sadly, I wish it were a happy ending with the Radius card in place, but it must have been pulled.

You can see the rubber bumpers on the chips on the logic board, and also rubber bumpers on the underside of the metal chassis. The fan has an additional metal bracket to mount to the frame.

The fan wasn't hooked up, but it has a two-prong jumper like connector, and you can see another connector coming from the power connector - I suspect there must have been power passing through the card. The paper baffle is pictured here too.

The fan mount used two screws to attach itself through the coin-sied holes in the back of the metal chassis.

I think I'm going to keep the paper and fan out of the system now just to clear the airflow, but I guess I can always ad it back and power it if it has heat problems.

[LCGuy]

Shame - apart from the fan and the paper backing, it just looks like a regular Plus to me.

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Not sure how slick the cooling system was/is . . .

Color that VERY slick, like all Radius Products. After all, the company was founded by the very best of the engineers from the Macintosh Team.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/radius-inc-history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radius_%28computer%29

. . . it's a bit hackish as it seems that many addons were for the Macs prior to the SE.

That upgrades were available at all took the likes of Burrell Smith to create those product of the year "hackish upgrades."

< mode = skip to conclusion if you think the 128k was in any way a usable, viable product right out of the box >

The Jobsian "Closed, perfect just the way he wanted it box, and don't you dare touch it or you'll void the warranty" flavor of "Designer Wannabe Dementia" finally ended when he got the boot and the SE and Mac II were released with built-in upgrade slots and cooing/power budgets approaching sanity. Jobs was certainly a genius, but a real engineer or designer he wasn't, despite that, he did simply amazing things over the course of his all too short lifetime. Three generations of self-destructing MoBo Oven Digital Appliances notwithstanding, two generations if you count the 512k/800k Floppy as the first and relegate the 128k to the public Beta Hardware Release that it really was, the Mac was his baby and turned out well as a grownup, but, oh that nasty adolescence! The story of Radius curiously mirrors the fortunes of Apple during that period of adolescence and The Steve's exile.

Desktop Publishing pulled the punch drunk Mac off its knees at the ropes and back into the ring for another chance. Radius products played a VERY large role in making DTP workable on a platform that was wholly unsuitable in terms of hardware, but visionary and perfect for the task in terms of its Graphical User Interface, WYSIWYG, albeit miniscule, Display and LaserWriter proofing for LinoTronic output.

< jump back in here to test the above question about product viability >

Pull the 5V you need to run the fan off the AB or the Floppy Connector on the MoBo to do a temperature test of the Plus with the fan running and air dam in place and then test it without. Dollars to doughnuts you'll see a marked increase of ambient temperature inside the case without the fan and air dam.

[mcdermd]

I have a Mac Plus with a Radius 16 Accelerator in it but it has no paper cover or fan at all:





Could the Plus in this thread have had the actual accelerator pulled while mine never had the extra components installed :?

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Absolutely, If yours had a System Saver on it when the Radius distributor installed those boards, the fan/air dam may have been been deemed unnecessary and could have been left out of the mix. If the cards were installed by an end user who wanted a fast, silent computer (high temperature oven) and left them out . . .

Did your Plus come with a side of FPD? That was one POWERHOUSE of a DTP workstation back in the day!

[mikepick]

@mcdermd maybe I should send you the fan assembly and paper baffle.

I should say, I mean hack-ish in the best way - given how they limited the ability to upgrade these machines from the get-go, it's amazing to see what kind of incredibly expensive upgrades were able to be produced.

In the good news category, the Plus now seems to be running well after cleaning. The test will be when I hook up the SCSI devices on it again.

[mcdermd]

Did your Plus come with a side of FPD?

How I wish. No FPDs yet.

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

You've already got most of what I don't have and want, but at least there's one thing we still have in common that we both want and lack!

. . . of course you're bound to source a lot of three different models at once for the price of gas before too long . . .
. . . what the heck is in the water out there?