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Macintosh SE/30 logicboard recreation (thread revival)

robin-fo

Well-known member
just received a dead se30 with dead roughly repaired motherboard.
Any chance to build a new one? what would be the price in the end ?? thanks

After all, I probably payed around or more than CHF 1000 for everything, including CHF 200 for the dead SE/30 and about the same for the JLCPCB order.
 

pgreenland

Well-known member
@techknight Very nice work. If you end up doing another it would be good to get some footage of your chip removal process, especially the processor. And not forgetting that pesky metal plate at the back.

@JAG Did you end up placing an order for some boards? If you did, have you gone for the smd assembly for the passives? If so where are you based? I'm in the market for one :)

I had one, now I've got two dead SE/30 logic boards. Don't worry I didn't kill one, took a gamble on ebay and got a battery bombed one....complete with still oozing battery. It seems I may have enough cadavers now to attempt to make a good one.

From my little look on JLCPCB it appeared that to get 5 boards to my door in the UK with delivery and taxes would set me back about £29 a board, or £25 for an order of 10. For some reason JLCPCB's economy shipping options change between 5 and 10 boards making 10 less competitive than they otherwise would be.

If I was to end up ordering order 5 boards, would anyone in the UK like one?

For an order of 5 we'd be looking at £29 each (based on the quote they just gave me) + postage to wherever you are. Not looking to make any money off @Bolle 's incredible work but would love one of his boards to play with....5 seems a few too many for little 'ol me though.
 

Kay Koba

New member
I'm new here, but for some reason I lost my old account.
I seem to have some friends here😄
Actually I haven't heard from Bolle for a while so I hope he sees this.

We're a distributor of ROM-inator Resarrections, which moved from BMOW, and also sell Spicy O'Clock! which I developed.

After 20 years of SE/30 nightmares... finally woke up. Many thanks to Bolle for his excellent work.
This was put together last Sunday. works very well. It's amazing!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

IMG_3359.jpegIMG_3344.jpeg
 

techknight

Well-known member
@techknight Very nice work. If you end up doing another it would be good to get some footage of your chip removal process, especially the processor. And not forgetting that pesky metal plate at the back.

@JAG Did you end up placing an order for some boards? If you did, have you gone for the smd assembly for the passives? If so where are you based? I'm in the market for one :)

I had one, now I've got two dead SE/30 logic boards. Don't worry I didn't kill one, took a gamble on ebay and got a battery bombed one....complete with still oozing battery. It seems I may have enough cadavers now to attempt to make a good one.

From my little look on JLCPCB it appeared that to get 5 boards to my door in the UK with delivery and taxes would set me back about £29 a board, or £25 for an order of 10. For some reason JLCPCB's economy shipping options change between 5 and 10 boards making 10 less competitive than they otherwise would be.

If I was to end up ordering order 5 boards, would anyone in the UK like one?

For an order of 5 we'd be looking at £29 each (based on the quote they just gave me) + postage to wherever you are. Not looking to make any money off @Bolle 's incredible work but would love one of his boards to play with....5 seems a few too many for little 'ol me though.
Yeah I didn't get any of that footage because I don't have a tripod. So I specifically skipped all of that on purpose.

CPU removal was as easy as just using a heat gun to pull the chip out carefully. You could go at it with a hakko but that would take a while.

The rear metal plate was as easy as sucking out the solder with the desoldering gun while also heating the board with hot air to preheat everything. Also some of the tabs needed bent back on that after the solder was removed and also the same thing with the ADB and serial ports
 

polpo

New member
@JAG if you have any extras I'd definitely be interested in one.

I was about to put in an order myself but saw this thread. A couple things I noticed when going through the order process:

- One of the capacitors is out of stock and needs to be substituted. I found a lot of equivalents on LCSC, so that shouldn't be a problem.
- The diodes on the bottom all needed to be flipped 180 degrees.
Screen Shot 2022-11-01 at 2.32.48 PM.png
 

daanvdl

Well-known member

croissantking

Well-known member
1C3D4943-59FA-40F2-8497-7CC659A19601.jpeg

I’ve finally got my Bolle board assembled to the point it can be tested, but I get no sign of life - totally dead, with black screen.

Feeling rather gutted. My solder work was careful, and the components are either new or off a known working donor board.

Where can I begin with troubleshooting?
 

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Phipli

Well-known member
Print out a picture of the layout and get a pack of coloured pens. Mark off what you've checked and how. I'm a terror for checking the same thing many times.

I would start by checking all the components are in the right way around and that they're the right part. Then I'd inspect every single solder joint.

Does power get to each chip's power pin? Is the ROM OK?
 

Cam

Well-known member
Check that any parts with polarity are in the correct way around and there are no solder bridges.
Then check the voltage supplies and ground rails to make sure they are working as expected.
If all that checks out OK, I'd move on to checking that the clock signal on all the chips is working / correct.
Maybe take the all the SIMM packages out of the sockets while you do the testing to protect them?
 

Bolle

Well-known member
You did populate all the inductors at the bottom of the board? A lot of things on the board won't be powered if those are not there.
 

croissantking

Well-known member
You did populate all the inductors at the bottom of the board? A lot of things on the board won't be powered if those are not there.
Did not touch the bottom as it’s pre-populated. I see a few empty pads around with the marking Lxx. Is this my problem? Did I fail to RTFM?
 

WillJac

Well-known member
Hello all. I have completed board transfer and I am using the 4 DIP sockets for the rom. No good 64 pin SIMM found. I notice on the bottom of the board by the rom sockets there is a section that looks like a jumper or a bridge point to be made on both ends of the 4 sockets. Is there anything special needed to be done to use the DIP rom sockets and what are these points for?

Also what is the speaker pads there for and on the other side the PFW - ADB.PWR part for? I can't find anything documented on this.
 

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croissantking

Well-known member
Hello all. I have completed board transfer and I am using the 4 DIP sockets for the rom. No good 64 pin SIMM found. I notice on the bottom of the board by the rom sockets there is a section that looks like a jumper or a bridge point to be made on both ends of the 4 sockets. Is there anything special needed to be done to use the DIP rom sockets and what are these points for?

Also what is the speaker pads there for and on the other side the PFW - ADB.PWR part for? I can't find anything documented on this.
I know the speaker pads are there in case you want to use the internal speaker without the 3.5mm jack soldered in. On the original board, you won’t get any sound, but on the Bolle board you can bridge those pads and it completes the circuit.
 

croissantking

Well-known member
You did populate all the inductors at the bottom of the board? A lot of things on the board won't be powered if those are not there.
Well, I soldered in all of the inductors. I was sure this would solve my problem, but it didn’t. No signs of life. Will proceed to follow @Phipli and @Cam s’ advice.

I managed to completely break the end off one of my brand new SIMM sockets bought from Exxos Store. I guess they must be NOS because the plastic is as brittle as can be. I assumed I could be a bit rough and ready with them but no. So all in all, not a very good day. Maybe I’ll have more luck tomorrow.
 

WillJac

Well-known member
Hello all. I have completed board transfer and I am using the 4 DIP sockets for the rom. No good 64 pin SIMM found. I notice on the bottom of the board by the rom sockets there is a section that looks like a jumper or a bridge point to be made on both ends of the 4 sockets. Is there anything special needed to be done to use the DIP rom sockets and what are these points for?

Also what is the speaker pads there for and on the other side the PFW - ADB.PWR part for? I can't find anything documented on this.
A reply to my own message:

I ended up removing the rom sockets and installed a 64pin Simm that I borrowed from another board. Doing this change, the board now works. I have not done major testing yet but it chimes, boots and runs OS, boots from blueSCSI internal and external.

The issue I am having is the reset button will black out the screen, chime and come right back to the screen it had before but locked up. Anyone know of this issue or what it could be to solve it?
 

WillJac

Well-known member
Well, I soldered in all of the inductors. I was sure this would solve my problem, but it didn’t. No signs of life. Will proceed to follow @Phipli and @Cam s’ advice.

I managed to completely break the end off one of my brand new SIMM sockets bought from Exxos Store. I guess they must be NOS because the plastic is as brittle as can be. I assumed I could be a bit rough and ready with them but no. So all in all, not a very good day. Maybe I’ll have more luck tomorrow.
I bought some ram simms also single and putting in the ram, I broke 2 of them. Brittle plastic I would say. Now I am very careful putting in and removing the ram.
 

Cam

Well-known member
A reply to my own message:

I ended up removing the rom sockets and installed a 64pin Simm that I borrowed from another board. Doing this change, the board now works. I have not done major testing yet but it chimes, boots and runs OS, boots from blueSCSI internal and external.

The issue I am having is the reset button will black out the screen, chime and come right back to the screen it had before but locked up. Anyone know of this issue or what it could be to solve it?
Excellent! I don't have SE/30 schematics, but take a look at the solder joints / continuity of the ROM v.s. the SIMM sockets. I would think the connectivity of the two methods is the same (or pick up another 64 Pin SIMM and call it a day).

Does the reset occur when the reset line is held high or low (again, no schematics and haven't been able to afford even a battery bombed board) on the SE/30? I'd hook an oscilloscope up and chase down where the opposite of the expected behaviour occurs, as it sounds like something is resetting, but not coming completely back from that state?

Edit: Sorry just realized you said the machine comes back with the same display showing as before the reset. This strikes me as a video RAM issue (not getting the reset ). Maybe check the reset is being sent to all the RAM?
 
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