Got a Lisa 2/10 on the way and have some questions....

[Corey986]

So I have a Lisa 2/10 that should arrive any day now.  Since it's a 2/10 I don't have to worry about the battery leaking, but what do I need to check/change before I attempt the 1st power on?   I know it's a good idea to replace the X2 safety caps in the power supply as I have heard they will generally go pop.   Should I also replace all the electrolytic in the supply?  Since it's a switching supply, I assume a Variac won't work. Should I check the voltages at the Widget drive power connector?  

I am going to assume the Widget is dead or near the end of it's life, so I ordered a CF Card replacement from vintagemicro.  

Thanks for any advice,

Cheers,

Corey

 

[stepleton]

Did the seller say that it worked?

If so, I might just try turning it on, first with the Widget unplugged. (Unplug both cables.)

You will need to replace the electrolytics soon (particularly in the PSU and on the Video Board), but I would not expect there to be too much harm in turning it on now if it's been on recently.

 

[Corey986]

Do you happen to have a caps list for the electrolytics on video board and psu?

BTW, The Lisa hasn’t been powered on in years.   So I expect to treat it like it hasn’t been powered on since the 80’s. 

Cheers,

Corey

 

[stepleton]

I'm afraid what I've got is not particularly useful. When I did my last big recapping round, I ordered caps for multiple devices---Lisas, my NeXTs, printers, the ProFiles, and so on. I don't think I could look at my old orders and distinguish which caps were for which machines. Sorry about that.

You may find in any case that the caps in your machines are not the same as the ones in mine. If you look at the revision history on this Video Board schematic:

http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/apple/lisa/hardware/050-4012-E_Video.pdf

you'll see that some revisions involve adding, removing, or changing capacitors. Furthermore, the selection available to me in the UK may not be the same as what you can order where you are. It may be best to make your own list. It's not too hard; for best results, though, take note of the product series identifiers on the caps (e.g. "SME", "LXF", "LXA" for Chemi-Con caps) and try to find the modern equivalent of the same product lines: for example, "SXE" is a low-impedance cap for which "LXV" is a current Chemi-Con replacement. Look for "group charts" like this one to see how different cap product lines are specialised:

http://www.chemi-con.co.jp/e/catalog/pdf/al-e/al-sepa-e/001-guide/al-groupchart-e-171001.pdf

and you may also be able to find type replacement guides like the one on page 17 of this catalogue:

http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/420/al-all-e1001o-150101-531238.pdf

Of course Apple didn't just use Chemi-Con---you will also find Nichicon, Rubycon, and Panasonic caps---maybe a few others too. Your replacements should still stick to brands known for their quality. You may already know all of this, but even if you do, I guess it might be nice to spell it out for other readers.

For the video board, if recapping doesn't fix certain video problems, you may also want to replace the potentiometers at the top of the video board.

Since your Lisa hasn't been used for a long time, I would recommend trying to test the power supply outside of the computer. You will need some beefy power resistors to accomplish this---not large in value, but large in the sense that they can dissipate a lot of power. Here is how I tested my 2/5 and 2/10 Lisa PSUs:

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/30781-apple-lisa-doesnt-boot-need-help-troubleshooting/&tab=comments#comment-335026

(I actually wound up using underspec'd power resistors, only keeping the PSU on for a short amount of time. They got extremely hot! I don't recommend this.)

If the PSU seems to be generating good voltages, then whack it back into the computer and see if it goes. (With the Widget unplugged, that is.)

If you go to the trouble of getting ready to test the PSU, you may as well recap it beforehand anyway, I think.