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Full recap of my new SE/30 (with many pictures)

68krazy

Well-known member
Hello everyone,

A year ago, I picked up an SE/30.  It's still a work in progress, but I've gotten far enough along with it that I think it merits a post.

Here is the SE/30 as received.  I found it on Craigslist and had to drive a couple hours for it — figured the drive was worth it because the machine was functional and the yellowing on it minimal.  It belonged to an older gentleman who had a lot of old compacts, but was getting rid of them because he was retiring and moving to another state.  He included a mouse and a IIGS keyboard:

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After the drive home, I took the SE/30 apart, inspected the insides, played with it for a few hours.  It was completely original, with a 40mb Quantum drive and 8mb of RAM.  Inside was very clean with very little dust, no yellowing of the glue on the flyback or the white plastic cover that goes behind the analog board.  The CRT is also very bright and clear, which leads me to believe I lucked out and got a low hours unit.  :)

All was not well, however.  A few hours into playing with it, the system froze and then stopped recognizing SCSI devices.  I decided a recap of the motherboard was necessary.  Here it is after a thorough wash, new tantalums and a new Tadiran: 

IMG_3752.JPG

After this picture was taken, I also replaced UE8 with a brand new TI 74LS66 as a preventative measure.

The system worked well after the new motherboard caps.  I played with it for a month or two, but then it got put away for almost a year.  I moved away for school, had a brutal first quarter there.  Not a whole lot of time to play with the SE/30 (or anything, really).  This week, I finally had time to finish the recap.  The first order of business was to take the thing completely apart and give everything a wipedown.

IMG_7135.JPG

I then recapped the power supply.  This SE/30 has the Sony CR-44.  The original filter capacitor on it is of an odd size, rating, and lead spacing.  Replacing it took a bit of bodging.  I had to order a filter cap with a slightly different rating and a completely different lead spacing.  Here is the spot where the old filter cap sat, with the PCB drilled out to take the new filter cap:

IMG_8182.JPG

Original capacitor, left: weird leads, 400v 620uf.  Replacement capacitor, right: 10mm leads, 420v, 680uf.

IMG_7182.JPG

The bodge worked well:

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After that, the rest of the capacitor replacement was straightforward.  Here it is with all new 105c caps (mostly Nichicon, a few Panasonic):

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Analog board was very straightforward.  Here it is before:

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Here it is after, with all new 105c caps and a brand new Noctua.  In this picture, the fan was mounted too far forward.  I realized my error and fixed it later when putting the machine back together.

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Here it is, all put back together after the recap.  It came with the splash screen already installed.  I thought it was cheesy at first, but it grew on me and I have decided to leave it.

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And here is the desktop.  I didn't name the computer "Big Bob," it came that way.  I think it's kind of funny and I've decided to leave it.

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There are a few things left to do.  The IIGS keyboard is glorious (fully mechanical), but very dirty and yellowed.  I will take it apart to clean soon, and am thinking about retrobriting it.  The original Quantum HDD is still kicking, but I don't trust it and I will probably replace it with a SCSI2SD soon.  The floppy drive also needs servicing.  I want to take it apart, regrease it, and replace the plastic gear that is notorious for breaking on these.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions and questions are very welcome  :)

 
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Boctor

Well-known member
I wonder if the computer's name, "Big Bob," was picked in reference to the character from Hey Arnold! That's going to leave me thinking for a while.

 

68krazy

Well-known member
Trash80, I don't have a parts list.  It was all mostly Nichicon 105c low ESR capacitors from Digi-Key, with a few Panasonic for the sizes I couldn't find Nichicon in.

Boctor, I never watched Hey Arnold!, but I'll look into that.

Today I took the mouse and IIGS keyboard apart for a cleaning.  It still needs retr0bright, but it's looking much better now:

IMG_5868.JPG

 

Themk

Well-known member
Very cool to see your pics! I am plqnning on doing my recap very soon. I am out of the country ATM, but when I get home I think Ill have a re-cap project waiting on my workbench! I'll be sure to share my expiriences too! I'm using Tantalum capacitors, from trag here.

Nice IIgs keyboard, does yours use ALPS or SMK switches? I have SMK, with ALPS keycaps. The IIgs keyboard is my favorite, the keycaps I like, its mechanical yet compact. Very nice!

 
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68krazy

Well-known member
I've got orange Alps switches in mine, not sure who made the keycaps.

It's a great keyboard!  I would have never thought to look for one, I just got lucky that it came with the SE/30.  It's very satisfying to type on and takes little desk space.  Would definitely recommend for use with a compact.

 

Themk

Well-known member
The SMK switches and the ALPS switches are a different mechanism. I really like the feel of the SMK switches. The Deskthority Wiki has some good information regarding the differences between the two boards. As you can tell I have sort of a franken keyboard- but I think it is the best combination! I get SMK switches, with what I feel are surperior keycaps!

 

Themk

Well-known member
Would definitely recommend for use with a compact.
Can't agree with you more! It is a shame that Apple didn't use this keyboard with anything other than the IIgs. I see a lot of people with this keyboard, very similiar layout, same footprint, but unlike the IIgs keyboard it isn't mechanical! Considering that I believe the IIgs keyboard was only sold with the IIgs, I think it is probably one of the less common types of keyboards, and sad that not every IIgs owner gets to have one!
Oh and by the way, the M0116 keyboard has the same layout as the IIgs keyboard, yet it takes up too much space, and has ugly Macintosh style keycaps.

 
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clh333

Active member
I am new to Macs so I decided to acquire a basket-case to practice with.  I disassembled the chassis to its components and began with recapping the power supply.  I came to the same problem 68krazy had with finding a replacement for the 620uF 400V cap on the inlet side of the supply:  Many were too tall for the case and all had "snap-in" leads. 

Someone on the VCF suggested drilling the board - apparently saw this thread - but I took a different tack.  I found a 35x35mm replacement from DigiKey and soldered modified spade terminals to the leads.  I was able to position them so they fit the original slots and there is more meat on the electrical path.

Pics and a parts list for the Sony power supply attached.

-CH-

SE_PS_5.jpg

Sony PS Caps List.jpg

 

james_w

Well-known member
Great job!

I've still not gotten around to recapping any of my compact's analogue boards... 

 

68krazy

Well-known member
I just installed a SCSI2SD and a 1GB industrial SLC card.  I've been doing a lot of writing on this machine lately, including stuff for school, and I didn't trust an old mechanical hard drive with actual work.

IMG_5066.JPG

It's mounted using joethezombie's excellent SCSI2SD Universal Mount.  I had it printed out of blue PLA at an engineering lab at school.

 
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james_w

Well-known member
Oh very nice! Also the IIGS keyboard has got to be my favourite ADB keyboard - total gold dust too!

 

68krazy

Well-known member
I got a few peripherals in today that I'm really excited about!  The first is a USB Wombat from Big Mess O' Wires:

IMG_1322.JPG

I have an AlphaSmart 3000 that I really like to write on, but no way to send writing from the AlphaSmart to the SE/30.  There is a very hard-to-find ADB cable for it, but I figured that the USB Wombat was a better solution!  I can also plug in a wireless optical mouse, which would be nice.  I have no plans to stop using the glorious IIgs keyboard though!  Since the SE/30 has two ADB inputs, I can have that on one input and USB wombat on the other   [8D]

Next is a SCSI2SD for external use, along with a 3D-printed enclosure:

IMG_1323.JPG

When I bought the SCSI2SD to replace the mechanical hard drive, I bought the external DB25-to-50-pin adapter to transfer my files.  I was so impressed with how the SCSI2SD behaved as an external device, that I had to buy a second one and an enclosure to go with it.  Now I can transfer word documents to my modern computer (MacBook Pro) using an SD card, faster and more reliable than the USB floppy drive I was using!

Here's the Big Pile O' Peripherals next to the SE/30 now:

IMG_1326.JPG

I also replaced the capacitors in the IIgs keyboard and ADB mouse.  You can never be too thorough with caps!  I retr0brighted the mouse and keyboard too, so now the setup on my desk looks much, much nicer.

This system is nearing completion!  I'm just waiting on some RAM from eBay and have a loose solder joint on the analog board (see this thread) to take care of.  Then I'd like to grease and recap the floppy drive, and the SE/30 will officially be done.

 
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james_w

Well-known member
Sounds like you're making great progress! :D

I need to get me some of those external SCSI2SD cases!

 

68krazy

Well-known member
Thank you!  Progress has been slow on this machine (I've had it for almost a year and a half now) so I'm glad to see the project wrapping up.

Got the RAM in today:

IMG_1332.JPG

Settled on 32MB, I think that's a good amount for this machine.  Any more than that feels unnecessary to me.

 

reallyrandy

Well-known member
Do you have a copy of the stl files for the scsi2sd case? I found this one, it looks similar. I'd love to get the parts to make the one like you have there.

 

68krazy

Well-known member
reallyrandy, I bought the enclosure pre-printed off eBay.  I'm not sure if it is the same as this one, but they look very similar if not identical to me.

 

68krazy

Well-known member
Three updates on this machine:
 
Update one: the screen flickering issue has been resolved!  It turns out that there were bad solder joints on the CRT neck board.
 
Update two: I picked up a IIsi Radius Pivot card that I will eventually use to drive a small external color display.  These are available on eBay incredibly cheap.  They are fully compatible with the SE/30, but do not physically fit.  I will put the card away for now, and sometime in the next year or so I will figure out how I want to install this.
 
Update three: I just can't get enough of the BMOW USB Wombat!  I've got a nice Logitech wireless optical mouse connected.  With that and the IIgs keyboard, I think it just doesn't get any better in terms of input devices.

Quick YouTube video of the Wombat: https://youtu.be/SIulu1bVK28

 
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