Recap – especially the 2 SMD caps – should fix it, if it is not too far gone. It is worth a try.
Otherwise I've build a bunch for many different Macs of ATX adapters. The Gerber files, etc. I found on Github. It is always good to have some ATX adapters around, just for testing.
FYI: I am currently looking into the firmware for the TechStep and based on that I add a few potentially interesting things:
You can use the 128k ROMs (maybe even 256kb ones, TechStep supports up to 8 banks) for any TechStep ROM Pack. They are bank-switched into the address space, additional...
I can confirm that the code is indeed matching a HD44780 (16x4). BTW: It defines 8 custom characters (the up/down/up-down arrow, Apple Logos, etc). So, that should make things easier for you :-)
By looking at the firmware I have hopes that it is a LM041L with a HD44780 controller. That is good and bad: good, because it is well known, bad, because the LM041L seems no longer be available. Modern LCD typically use I2C, but this is clearly not it.
At least the initialization sequence looks...
Very cool project. I have a TechTool (got it when it was more affordable), but recreating it is great.
Can you share the ROM dump from the main CPU? I'd like to look into it.
I just bought spares in the form of a complete SE/30 _without_ the main board for 25 Euro – because many of the mainboards are dead beyond repair, so you can easily get the rest. I do not think it makes sense to modify an SE to become an SE/30.