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haplain's never-ending quest

haplain

Well-known member
Thanks for sharing the facebook link. That's identical to the ones I have (beige). The clear one, with the Macintosh logo, was just a label over the original Profile label. I peeled the Macintosh label back/took it off. The units I have included the power supply, which is internal, and on the right side of the device. The left side has a board to connect with a widget drive. Not included in the original auction, but Al's is sending me the cable from the board to the widget and the 5 pin power supply. I'm hopeful I can get at least two of these working. I wonder if the person on FB's works? I don't have Facebook to ask. Also, he/she would need the correct power supply.

 

olePigeon

Well-known member
The half-size is interesting, but I see why the canceled it.  With the impending release of the Macintosh, the HD20 was better suited unless they could get the size of the drive to around the same size as the external floppy, which at the time would probably have been prohibitively expensive.

 

haplain

Well-known member
Indeed. I've got a prototype 20MB internal HD I'll snap a pic of as well. It was supposedly going to replace the Widget drives.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Never looked into Profile, what's the interconnect, transfer rate, etc? I can't believe the stopgap HD20 KLUGE for the Mac over FDD is faster?

 

CC_333

Well-known member
I don't have Facebook to ask.
Good for you! They're still tracking you, but at least you aren't making it easy for them.

Even if you browse an FB page as a guest, they install tracking cookies and stuff so they can analyze you.

c

 

haplain

Well-known member
So I was able to work out a deal on that W.A.L.T. The seller was really cool. I've never seen one in this color before. After some poking around I realized a PB 140 charger would work to start it up. That being said, I cleaned it up and bit and plugged it in. It turns on... sadly the hard drive is being rude. It spins up and seeks but doesn't load anything. The person I bought it from said he didn't erase it or anything. Do you have any suggestions?

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Carboy7

Well-known member
What a funny little prototype, HDI ports and all. Would you be able to boot from regular PowerBook HDD, or would some modification be required? I suppose that the stylus likely wouldn't work without the WALT programs on the HDD.

 

haplain

Well-known member
I think I would be able to get it to boot from another hard drive the issue is the touch software drivers wouldn't work... I'm assuming. 

 

bibilit

Well-known member
The Logic Board looks like a Powerbook 100's one (probably is) screen don't remember but can also be issued from the same range.

Concerning the hard drive, there is a trick to make those work again (removing the top cover and using some glue to cover a small hole in the arm bumper)

 

EvilCapitalist

Well-known member
So I was able to work out a deal on that W.A.L.T.  The seller was really cool.  I've never seen one in this color before.
Is it an earlier prototype than the others you've come across?  It certainly doesn't look ready for primetime the way things are literally taped, glued, and/or soldered anywhere they'd fit inside the case.

 

bibilit

Well-known member
Here it is



This is for the 40 Mb hard drive, the 20 Mb is different, but procedure is more or less the same.

 
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haplain

Well-known member
Well guys, thanks or your help again! I serious appreciate you all very much and your deep knowledge/expertise. I can now safely say two things:

1) I got the HD working!

2) I have the only working W.A.L.T. in the world. It's really a goofy piece of hardware.

BUT

I cannot seem to figure out a way to back this thing up. It does have the 30 (I think) pin SCSI connector but I'm struggling with this. I don't want to mess with it too much until I can figure out a way to back it up. The software is too special to loose forever.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
FABULOUS! :approve: Literally a thing of fables.

A couple of things come to mind:

Install the drive in another Mac to image it, but that can be complicated by SCSI Voodoo. Especially if you haven't got the right hardware to do that.

I think the easiest thing to do might be to install it in a PowerBook that's set up ahead of time for SCSI Disk Mode. You don't need a Mac OS in that case, works with an uninitialized drive for OS installs. So long as the PRAM settings stay in place,  with the disk mode cable installed it should come up at whatever ID you set before swapping the drives. You can Image it while it's mounted as a Mac volume on the target machine.

YMMV, get lots of feedback here before trying it. [:)]

 

nglevin

Well-known member
If you are in the Bay Area, and it looks like you might be based on your website, I would contact the Internet Archive during their normal business hours.

They should be able to get you in touch with the right people to preserve that software. I consider this important enough that it should be on their radar.

 

bibilit

Well-known member
The easiest way will be using the HDI 30 connector on the back and imaging the hard drive on any other removable hardware (HD, Jaz, Zip....)
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bibilit

Well-known member
BTW, i will replace capacitors in those boards, many capacitors looks bad (LB and LCD area)

The funny thing about this WALT is that they have used many components from the Powerbook 100, including the small modem cover which is found in the battery area, here is taped on one side and hold by a screw in the other side, while is just slided in the two battery prongs in the 100.
 

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
The easiest way will be using the HDI 30 connector on the back and imaging the hard drive on any other removable hardware (HD, Jaz, Zip....)
I was thinking hardware/firmware/software might not be set up to use the HDI30 port at this point of development. But that's probably silly, it does look like a regular PB100 production board. Does it boot into a full, standard OS? Which one?

 
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