New Portable, New Project

[just.in.time]

Today I was fortunate enough to pick up a demonstration unit Portable in absolutely amazing condition from a physical standpoint.  Literally, not even dirt in the 3 grooves of the ring that holds the trackball in place.

Given it is a pre-production demonstration unit, I assume it is the non-backlit model.

In typical Portable fashion, it didn't want to turn on.  It would flicker like it wanted to and show a sad mac for less than half a second before power cycling endlessly, with the hard drive and floppy drive making repeated spin-up sounds (luckily no clicking was immediately noticeable).

I removed the main battery and replaced the 9V battery.  Tried starting again.  The display would stay on just long enough now to see the error codes appeared to be random.

Removed power at this point.  It was actually still trying to spin the drive and power the display from the 9V alone, impressive (the 9V turned into an 8V in the span of 1 minute  ).  Removed the 9V as well.  Turns out you are NOT supposed to try running the portable with the main battery removed.  Oops.  Only tried for a minute with the stock power adapter, hopefully nothing got burned up.

I know it definitely needs a new main battery... and probably another 9V since it pushed through the one I had just put in.  As of today, what is the recommended battery rebuild/replacement method?  Rebuild the original battery, or replace with an EXIT sign battery?  Please feel free to drop links to sources (amazon, batteries plus, etc) of whatever battery you believe to be the best.

I expect that there is at best a 1% chance that the caps are still functioning within spec.  At any rate, I'd like to replace the battery and if the Portable still can't run (which I fully expect it to fail), I will look into recapping.

Finally, time to identify what some of the cards are installed in the back of my portable.  I'm guessing a 1mb RAM expansion board (to hopefully give me 2mb of RAM total), and the dialup modem board.  Let me know what you think based off the photos:



Neat extra, Apple/Sony branded charger... not sure if normal or unique, but definitely different from my old 100 series charger I owned years ago:

 

[just.in.time]

I was reading some other forums here, and I saw this battery mentioned:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UPG-6V-5AH-UB645-Replacement-for-UPS-Battery-for-APC-AP200-/381422205586?hash=item58ce88fa92

That was an old conversation, so I'm not sure that is still a recomended part.  If so, the price is very nice.  I just don't see how that would connect up to the posts used by the old battery.

 

[tjjq44]

First thing to do: replace all those old leaking smd caps!!!!!!! For the battery, even if any 6v "lead acid" will do the job, this one fits the battery case perfectly:

 

[bibilit]

I have being using a Panasonic battery inside the original casing, done it twice, no modification done to the original casing.

http://www.all-batteries.fr/batterie-plomb-agm-lc-r064r5p-6v-4-5ah-t1-amp6437.html

This is the reference i have used, probably more or less the same specs as yours, but  Panasonic is a nice brand and i wanted something i can trust.

I will not try to fire it again without replacing the capacitors, the Portable is very prone to cap leakage and your problems are probably due to those.

The charger looks like a prototype to me, the smooth casing is a sign.

 

[techknight]

Dont run these without recapping or this board will be at my doorstep. Guaranteed. 

You NEED a GOOD battery, you also NEED to recap the power supply. 

AND, YOU NEED TO CLEAN AND RECAP THE LOGIC BOARD! NO EXCEPTIONS!

You will destroy the Hybrid otherwise, and well at that point its game over. Since you have already attempted the power up, Its a 50/50 shot if the Hybrid isn't already damaged. It is a KNOWN ISSUE. Bad Hybrid ICs will cause the machine to get stuck in random states, saying its charging when its not, or not charging when it is, or not being able to turn on the unit at all without fiddling with it over and over again. And if the charger is removed, the battery level meter rapidly tanks and system shuts off. 

Oh... And... your hard drive is also junk! I can see the gasket turned into a yellow slime. Common. 2 things, Either remove the PCB from it and use one pulled from a Classic or something, or throw it all out and replace it with an Adapter, and SCSI2SD. 

 

[Juror22]

Please listen to techknight's recommendations.

There was a time that the first thing you did with a new acquisition was to fire it up, but those days are gone for certain machines (your portable included). Anytime that these machines are rescued, they should be recapped FIRST (including a cleanup of the cap residue), then, you should look towards applying power (from the correct and tested adapter) and sorting out issues.  Due to the variation in how machines have been configured, used and stored, there may be some that will start up without apparent issue, but since you can do damage to the IC's just by the attempt, it is not worth it.

Think of it as getting a forty-plus-year-old muscle car out of a barn, chunking in a new battery and attempting to fire it up.  Yeah, it might start and if it does, it was fun to hear it start up, but you just damaged the engine pretty severely by not going through the correct process of resurrecting it.  Chances are it won't start again until you have put a lot of cash into rebuilding/replacing the motor.

It is not the news that anyone wants to hear, but it is based on extensive experience with these machines, by the users of this forum.  I lost my first portable that way, and I don't want to see another have to repeat my mistakes of a few years back, when there is now so much good information about how to properly care for these machines.

Now that I have that out of the way - Nice looking machine, congratulations on getting it, hopefully the memory card is more than 1 MB (it looks like more to me), but that early on, its hard to say what was available.

 

[tjjq44]

It is the 1Mb card, with 32 "256 kbits" chips, as many as on the logic board

 

[techknight]

Yeap, at least it came with a good RAM card! 

Lets just hope we can get this guy running. Not many of them out there. 

Speaking of which, I got a Hybrid I gotta suck off today with my Hakko, and change it. its physically cracked. 

 

[just.in.time]

Okay, so no more power until recapping. Any way to visually inspect if this hybrid IC is damaged?

Techknight, assuming the hybrid isn't damaged, would you be willing to help me with recapping/reconditioning the logic board? Sounds like you are the Portable master from the threads I have read.

If the hybrid is dead, is that a cheap fix or did I kill the portable?

In either case, techknight, how much would you charge to help me make it live again? You can PM me or message back here.

 

[360alaska]

I make these:http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-2016-Macintosh-Portable-Battery-/311658989653?hash=item489052c855:g:f5UAAOSwbsBXjFAB

 

[techknight]

First line of duty would get the logic board restored and tested. That has to work before anything else.  As far as knowing whether the Hybrid is damaged or not, There is no way to know easily, I have to put it under intense scrutiny with my test equipment and monitor its operation. 

Several things take place, The window comparator for the Latch-In, and Latch-Out conditions get checked, it cant be noisy or float, or unresposive. The voltage regulation needs to snap in at 5.2V with an input voltage of 5.9V+, And the charging circuit needs to engage and put the DC voltage directly to the battery terminals within 2 seconds of power being applied, and the opposite side of the latch-amp does this, powered by an internal sample-n-hold. Lots of things to do!

#2: Get a new battery. Either rebuild the one you have, or go with 360alaska's solution, which I actually like

#3: Take care of the pretty sure to be defective HDD. Either use an adapter with another HDD/SD, or fix the existing one by stealing the mechanics of a matching one. 

 

[just.in.time]

Okay, replying back in order here:

360alaska:  I really like that battery you have for sale.  How fast have they been selling off?  I'd like to pick one up after getting this board recapped, if it is fixable.  I just don't want to get stuck with a paperweight battery if my Portable will never run again if I order the battery prior to repairing the board.  Also, how servicable is your battery?  Is it something that I can rebuild myself in 8-10 years when it is spent?  Doesn't matter either way, just curious.  I like that it is a drop in unit with the posts already lined up.  If the logic board can be repaired, I will be buying one of your batteries.

Techknight: In the order of your numbering;

#1 how much would you charge to wash/recap the board and inspect the hybrid chip?  When I was testing the unit last night, it would not turn on without the battery door in place, so it is at a bare minimum still semi functional, fingers crossed it is 100% good.

#2 360alaska's solution is one of my favorites that I have seen in the past day of browsing forums on how to rebuild/restore the portable battery.  If we can get the board to live again and he has one in stock at that time, I will be picking one up.

#3 Reinspecting the hard drive, it does appear you are correct.  It is gummy for sure around that seal.  When I go to take apart the entire thing to remove the logic board I will set the hard drive aside and rebuild with just the floppy drive for now.  6.0.8 and some small apps can run easily from a floppy disk.  I also have an external SCSI Zip drive that I can use to boot with.  Will the Portable's SCSI system run with the internal hard drive unplugged and termination set at the SCSI Zip drive, or does it require the hard drive as part of its chain?  When the next batch of SCSI2SD adapters arrive I plan on picking up several.  After I have those in hand I will pick up an adapter to make the Portable's internal SCSI compatible with the standard 50pin used on the SCSI2SD adapter.  But this step is purely a stretch goal, in the mean time the floppy drive will service just fine... assuming it still works  :-/

 

[techknight]

Well if you have an external disk drive, youll be perfectly fine there. Or even a floppy Emu in HD20 mode. 

The portable will boot off of an HD20, so you can do HD20 emulation on a floppy emu, IF you have one. 

 

[techknight]

Techknight: In the order of your numbering;

#1 how much would you charge to wash/recap the board and inspect the hybrid chip?  When I was testing the unit last night, it would not turn on without the battery door in place, so it is at a bare minimum still semi functional, fingers crossed it is 100% good.

Youll have to shoot me a PM about that. 

 

[just.in.time]

Unfortunately I don't have a Floppy Emu, or the HD20.  However, between the SCSI Zip 100 drive and a stack of disks, as well as an ancient SCSI Apple 20mb external hard drive, I should be okay in the short term/for testing purposes if the SCSI controller is willing to play ball without the internal hard drive plugged in.

 

[techknight]

The internal HDD is not necessary to be present. However, it does limit the portability a bit. But the thing in general was never "really" portable, now was it? haha. 

 

[just.in.time]

lol this thing is portable in the way that you could take it to the library to set up for a few hours of research, not so much in the way of using it on an airplane tray table.  Shame really, considering the stellar battery runtime between charges on a good battery.

Again, long term (8 to 12 week goal) is to get it set up with a SCSI2SD adapter.  That, with new capacitors in place should keep it good for another 20 years, main battery aside.  With a fresh main battery today and proper care, I think 8 years is definitely doable, with anything beyond that as bonus time.  Well cared for deep cycle lead acid batteries actually have quite the lifespan.

I'm guessing that replacing the mechanical part of this hard drive with another one will leave me with hard drive issues in the near future as all drives that could have used this Conner circuit board have to be well past 20 years already.  I'm actually about to start the process of migrating away from all my SCSI hard drives.  They are just getting too expensive to be cost effective when compared to paying a slight bit more for an SD or CF adapter of some sort that is typically faster, quieter, easier on PSU, and will outlast the replacement (already old) hard drive by decades.

 

[just.in.time]

Small, but good, update on this Portable.  Knowing that the hard drive was ever slowly oozing liquidized rubber goo, I decided that today I would remove it from the Portable to prevent further damage.

Luckily, it appears that the Portable had been stored standing up in its case as all the goo from the hard drive had collected on the back panel that covers the battery, hard drive, expansion slots, etc, as well as in the bay that holds the hard drive and floppy drive.  I haven't done a complete take apart yet, but at first pass it looks like none of that goo made its way to the logic board below  Small victories.  

No more power on attempts have been made.  In roughly 2 to 4 weeks I'll be sending the logic board over to maccaps/uniserver for washing and recapping.  If it comes back and is still no go, I will have to reach out to you Techknight.  Also hoping to pick up one of 360alaska's batteries from eBay in that same time frame.

 

[just.in.time]

Also, do these power supplies have any caps that are known to go bad, or are they pretty reliable?