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Freecycle stuff...

wally

Well-known member
Recent Freecycle liberations:

From a local graphic artist who upgraded to Mac OS X and was donating her old Mac stuff: an Epson Expression 636 color scanner (SCSI interface) and a LaCie electron21 (20 inch usable) nice color monitor (heavy, really heavy at 77lbs/35Kg). Getting the monitor from the back of my truck into the house and onto the tabletop alone was a bit of a struggle, but no damage.

Both of these I connected to my PMG4-400 currently running 10.3.9. The scanner I have working only when I boot Mac OS 9. The monitor has become the main monitor on my primary system.

From the estate of a local Mac enthusiast: two Freecycle SE/30 PDS video cards, both in unknown condition, in metallic static shield bags-

Micron Technology Inc. Xceed SE/306-48, with the single on board socket connector and cable out to the rear external monitor DB15 bulkhead/switch plate.

Micron Technology, Inc. P6D-900053 9246/500505 serial 2564. I believe this is the Color 30 Xceed card. Two onboard socket connectors, with a short cable from one going to a single DB15 external monitor bulkhead, no switch. I did not get the five headed internal cable. I did get one homebrew SE/30 CRT mount adapter board. Perhaps the former owner had not got around to homebrewing the cable, or it has been misplaced. I did get a collection of heavy ferrite sleeves that are suitable for common mode suppression on the cable harness along with the video boards.

Had I not been previously reading 68kmla I would not have appreciated these items and their application amidst a pile of more conventional NuBus boards being offered. Thanks, 68kmla contributors!

Since the 68kmla site was down at the time I did some research and found the patent for the Color30-SE/30 grayscale application. The US patent number is 5,307,083 and it is most easily downloaded from http://www.pat2pdf.org/

The patent appears to have the needed cable pinouts on sheet 3. I haven't done much with my three SE/30's recently, but this could change.

 

TylerEss

Well-known member
You got two XCEED boards "from the estate of..."?

Are you sure you didn't murder them for their PDS cards? ;-)

 

wally

Well-known member
You got two XCEED boards "from the estate of..."?
Are you sure you didn't murder them for their PDS cards? ;-)
[:D] ]'> ...well, it seems this guy was a heavy smoker, and it probably got to him. Anyway his sister inherits the house, cleans out the garage, and posts a freecycle ad that she has lots of misc. vintage mac stuff...

So I go over for a look, hmmm, monochrome Mac II video board, Mac IIci cache board, Mac II color video board, Asante Ethernet...wait a moment, what are these! Hmmm, Micron, I was just reading something about grayscale,.... [:O] ]'> are these what I think they are? [8)] ]'> [:p] ]'> [:D] ]'>

 

iMac600

Well-known member
Not more midnight illegal covert ops... I thought those finished when someone "snuck in and stole our database". ;)

That's one fine haul from Freecycle there, especially the Xceed cards.

 

003

Well-known member
That is indeed the grayscale setup you've got there. But it won't do you much good if you don't have the special cable for it, which is not included in the pictures. If you don't have it, hunt down the SE/30 those cards came from -- it's probably still inside of it.

 

003

Well-known member
I would personally say no, judging by mine. But then again, I can't solder worth a damn, so take that with a grain of salt. If I have time I will disassemble my SE/30 and take some pictures of the cable.

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
My worst fear is to find a great upgrade rarity and not being able to use it because I am missing some obscure but simple part. Second would be having it all but not having drivers.

 

wally

Well-known member
Well, so far the previous owner's sister has not discovered the cable, the Mac SE/30, or more Mac stuff. The only cable description that I have is sheet 3 of the patent, and this is of unknown applicability. I notice that the consecutively numbered patent connector designators do not match the SE/30 silkscreen connector markings, but that the number of pins per connector looks plausible. Any photos and or links to cable info would be helpful. If the wires are color coded, photos of the rear of each connector showing what color goes to which pin insertion position would help me avoid a wiring mishap. It would be bad to get any of wires, and especially the high voltage rails, misconnected!

 

wally

Well-known member
I installed both Xceed boards and tested them driving external color monitors. Both boards work fine. I am using the Monitor XCEED 2.01 control panel only at this time and have not got into adjusting color gamma. I posted one more picture showing the first test results at



 

003

Well-known member
You got two of the Xceed video cards? Do they both have the grayscale adapter hookup?

 

wally

Well-known member
You got two of the Xceed video cards? Do they both have the grayscale adapter hookup?
Only one (the color 30) has the extra board connector for the grayscale hookup, but both include the connection to external monitor hookup that I tested today. See my first post for the exact board numbers.

 
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