Early Mac LC proto?

[olePigeon]

@zackl I have the exact same setup.

 

[zackl]

@zackl I have the exact same setup.  & @NickNick

Here's my setup along with my true time-suck: collecting 68k games in original packages

 

[SE30_Neal]

That clear one is awesome, nice prototype! 

I noticed a few of you said the LC is you’re favourite mac? Why’s that! Interesting as I’ve just acquired an LC II. I’ve not had the chance to look at it properly yet, cleaned the motherboard from a little goo (not a lot mind) and luckily no battery problem which was a nice surprise, i cleaned up and retrobrited the case, cleaned floppy drive yesterday but as yet not looked at the power supply or tried turning it on. I brought it as i wanted another Apple keyboard II for my se/30 as I don’t like the extended keyboards, the keyboards are going for approx £40 on eBay at the moment and this LCII I brought came with an external scsi cd-300 cd-rom, style writer II printer, keyboard II, an early abd mouse and a 12 inch acorn monitor all for £30 but was sold as not working. Thought I’d try to get it working the sell it on eBay as I already have a working 6200cd with os 8.6 i use to get online and download software for my se/30 and play some 640x480 games. Also have a slightly dodgy keyboard that require some attention at the mo so I wasn’t even contemplating keeping the LC, is that a mistake? Should i keep it

 

[bibilit]

The LC is a nice machine, didn't want one in the first place, have a few right now.

 

[North Hedge Ned]

Strangely enough, it looks like there's a second floppy port on the motherboard despite there being no case opening for another disk drive.  

Even more strange , EveilCapitalist, is that that second floppy port would work!  I did this experiment years ago by attaching a second floppy to that unit and knocking out the faceplate - taking the space where the HD would normally go.  I also left the HDD connected.  So my hacked LC had a floppy hanging out of the side, and I was able to copy floppy to floppy with it, and even run games two floppies at a time to avoid the need to swap disks all of the time.  Kind of an impractical build, but a successful proof of concept nonetheless.  Now, to find that unit among my boxes of goodies.....

 

[SE30_Neal]

I thought early LCs had duel floppy's so could you not buy an old lc case so you  don’t  have to dangle floppy out the side? Nice mode though

 

[unity]

Even more strange , EveilCapitalist, is that that second floppy port would work!  I did this experiment years ago by attaching a second floppy to that unit and knocking out the faceplate - taking the space where the HD would normally go.  I also left the HDD connected.  So my hacked LC had a floppy hanging out of the side, and I was able to copy floppy to floppy with it, and even run games two floppies at a time to avoid the need to swap disks all of the time.  Kind of an impractical build, but a successful proof of concept nonetheless.  Now, to find that unit among my boxes of goodies.....

Thats not strange, thats by design. His post was referring to the fact that the case lacked a second floppy opening even though the mobo had dual connectors. Implies the LC was not originally meant to have two floppies. Or it means this is in fact a later case design for single manual-inject setup with an earlier motherboard.

 

[Cory5412]

I don't know if any shipped this way, but, yes, the original LC had room for two floppies, and two diskette openings. They probably shifted gears on that one because 1990 and system 7 was the point at which it would've looked *too* outmoded to ship a floppy-only system.

It wouldn't surprise me (I haven't owned one in 20 years, and I had that for a grand ol' couple days) if the LCII kept the LC's second FDC, with the literal only change to the board being the '030 CPU. It would have been easier to just do that than actually build a new board.

 

[olePigeon]

2 floppy version was available as the extra low-cost variant for education.  The idea is that you could install a HDD later when they were more affordable, or reuse HDDs from other machines that were being put to pasture.

 

[SE30_Neal]

The early lc’s did have a blanking plate didn’t they like the se so could easily add a floppy i did a hdd fill that space?

 

[Dog Cow]

did a hdd fill that space?

Yes.

 

[SE30_Neal]

Ah all makes sense now thx dog cow

 

[North Hedge Ned]

Yep, this is an LC prototype

This is not a definitive photo comparison between proto and production, as I think there is one other proto board in between these.  I have two LC proto's that have the reset button (where the production does not), but the config of VRAM and RAM and VSLU of what is the production board pictured on the right.  Likely there were several board revisions prior to release.  Just filling in the gaps

 

[zackl]

This is not a definitive photo comparison between proto and production, as I think there is one other proto board in between these.  I have two LC proto's that have the reset button (where the production does not), but the config of VRAM and RAM and VSLU of what is the production board pictured on the right.  Likely there were several board revisions prior to release.  Just filling in the gaps

That is amazing, thanks for sharing. 

How did you find your two protos?

 

[bibilit]

I have the same Logic Board, with those stickers, reset switch and big capacitor.

Of course the casing has not the orange sticker and mine has the model name.

 

[North Hedge Ned]

That is amazing, thanks for sharing. 

How did you find your two protos?

I have had these things for years.  Mine came from the warehouse clear out from Apple Canada.  I worked there in the late 90's.  They were clearing out all kinds of stuff, and I decided to grab it all (for a fair lot price) in hopes of one day making a museum.  Life happened, so the museum did not.  Now I have the need to sell it all off as it is taking up so much room - so there are these and a few other goodies that I didn't even know that I had really, until now when I really get a good look at them.  Both power supplies are shot on these things, but using my working one from my LCIII, one unit work flawlessly, booting off an 80MB drive into SSW 6.01, I think it is.  The other, the one with the confidential markings on the chips, boots to a flashing ? and the 40SC HD does not boot.  Also, too a strange whistling sound like old radio frequency changing.  The battery is totally corroded away too.  Might be something up as a result of that too.  Will keep plugging along on these and the rest of my collection.

If you're interested, I have just started a blog that will detail each unit as I discover what they are - http://techcollector.northhedge.com/blog

 

[Scott Baret]

A few second floppy notes:

1. The LC II lacks the connector for the second floppy but it looks like most of the framework for it is there. Other than the 030, extra RAM, and lack of second floppy connector, the most notable change on the LC II board is the fact there are pin connectors for the fan and speaker (though it can still accept the assembly from the original LC).

2. There were single floppy LC IIs sold to schools at bargain prices. I believe they also sold an LC I this way.

3. There was indeed a blanking plate there. Look at an LC versus an LC II and you'll see it. It's similar to the ones on the SE and big-box Mac II, but unlike the SE, it lacks the LED cutout. 

4. Can anyone with a IIe-Card equipped dual floppy LC handy confirm if the Apple II card sees the second internal floppy as a second 3.5" drive? I could always mod one of my spare LCs into one if need be to test, but if someone has one around or has tried, let me know.

 

[bibilit]

The sound coming from the speakers is related to capacitors problem. 

 

[netfreak]

I picked up a bunch of LCs recently and one seems to be a very early board:



The very large capacitor and reset switch were odd as the rest of them weren't like this. The case it was in is otherwise a normal production LC.

 

[olePigeon]

My LC is like that, too.  I think it's just an early board.