jmacz journey

[jmacz]

I believe the two blue parts wired to the board are the thermal sensors allowing the board to make decisions based on the temp? The tube thing in your second picture is the fuse (thermal fuse). The prebuilt battery pack had the thermal fuse, but doesn't have the thermal sensors.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

So basically - which of those two parts do I need to install if I'm using one of the packs you linked? I know obviously I need the ribbon board but of the two others?

 

[jmacz]

So basically - which of those two parts do I need to install if I'm using one of the packs you linked? I know obviously I need the ribbon board but of the two others?

You will need the following intact and working:

• EMMboard (a working apple chip on that board is the most important part until someone reverse engineers it)
• Blue thermal sensors (I'm sure you can find working replacements but I have not looked)
• Outer case (until I get around to modeling one for 3d printing)
• Outer case cap (the part that has the springy switch) - otherwise the battery won't stay inside the compartment and contact the internal pads
• Contact pad assembly (the 4 copper plates that allow contact between the laptop and battery)

Parts that are replaceable from my experience:

• Ribbon wiring - you can just replace with regular wire, you can follow where the originals went
• Memory on the EMMboard - replacement module listed a few posts earlier

Regarding the thermal fuse, most pre-built packs should have it inside as a safety measure, so you should not need the stock thermal fuse (the arrowed tube looking thing -- looks like a firework). The one I linked had one, I know because I removed most of the outer plastic wrap holding the cells together to provide additional clearance and saw it attached to the red lead.

Software:

• Lind Intelligent Battery Utility System - did a better job correcting errors for me, available on Macintosh Garden
• EMMpathy - provides more data once your battery is working to let you know what's going on - available on Macintosh Garden

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I should have all that which is good. I think my plan is a good one in that case - one custom built pack welded by me, one with the pre-built pack you linked.

My EMMs should all be good. My EMMs all came online and were working perfectly prior to gutting the batteries. They'd still keep the computer alive in sleep mode as well. I used all three of the utils around for these batteries, and while they found some errors, they all corrected just fine and the EMMs tested good in both packs. Let's hope that they're still good. I think I'm gonna go out and buy the pre-built pack soon and get one battery running again. Thank you for your help!

 

[jmacz]

Finally got around to building my design 68 keyboard (ANSI). Went together really easily and quickly!



The boards from JLCPCB worked great and without issues. I opted for Strawberry switches as I thought it would be closer to my normal topre switches in my happy hacking keyboard. They weren't but still good and I'm happy with them.



The above is a comparison between my HHKB and the new design 68 keyboard. Also you can see the holes I had to cut to accommodate the ADB cable as well as the ADB passthrough port. Wasn't perfect but not horrible by any means. I had to make the hole for the passthrough fairly large to accommodate the ADB end connectors I have.

Finally, with the keycaps installed:



The ambient lighting is making the keyboard look cream, but it's actually white. The Mac smiley is the power button.

Thanks @demik! Was easy to follow your instructions!

FYI, I have 3 extra PCB boards.

 

[demik]

MacPlus is finally finished. Upgraded to 4MB, floppy drives (internal and external) cleaned, rust removed from rear ports, internal bracket on the motherboard, and corrosion removed from the battery connectors. Also the battery door was missing so 3d printed one.

View attachment 67201

That does look really clean. What battery door file model did you use ? There is a few around but the tab always break for me

View attachment 67355

The above is a comparison between my HHKB and the new design 68 keyboard. Also you can see the holes I had to cut to accommodate the ADB cable as well as the ADB passthrough port. Wasn't perfect but not horrible by any means. I had to make the hole for the passthrough fairly large to accommodate the ADB end connectors I have.

Finally, with the keycaps installed:

View attachment 67356

That does look really good. I think @joshc was looking at theses keycaps as well. You are also better than me at cutting things straight. The square ADB hole looks nice

 

[jmacz]

You are also better than me at cutting things straight. The square ADB hole looks nice

I used a dremel to get part of the way there. Then used an exacto blade to cut away the rest including the corners. It’s not perfectly straight but close enough.

 

[obsolete]

FYI, I have 3 extra PCB boards.

I'm interested! I've been wanting to build one of these. Please send me a PM and let me know how much you'd like for a board.

 

[jmacz]

I'm interested! I've been wanting to build one of these. Please send me a PM and let me know how much you'd like for a board.

I'm just charging cost + shipping. Will send you a PM.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

@jmacz - my pack arrived but I just can’t get it to fit. Stripped back the coating as you said, but it just doesn’t clear and I’m not entirely sure why.

What here am I missing?

 

[jmacz]

Not sure if you did this yet, but you will need to use a dremel to grind away all the raised parts on the floors of the case, as well as the stuff on the walls that take up space. It’s going to be a tight fit, I had less than 1mm of total clearance with the side walls. I will try to draw a diagram when I get home.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I’ve made some progress since that post. I don’t have a dremel unfortunately but I did cut away some of that stuff and it’s a better fit now but still not perfect. I think it might be just enough to work, but it does want to pop open really bad. I think I’m gonna wire it up first and see.

 

[jmacz]

Yeah it was very tight. But I think that’s going to be true with any AA battery since there wasn’t that much stuff adding space on that pack. The rest of the plastic in the stock case was specifically designed for their layout so I cut that all away.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I just got it to fit even better by flipping the pack around inside. One of the wires off the battery was interfering with one of those jutting out parts on the bottom of the plastic case, flipping it around solved that. I’m gonna wire it up now and then see if it works!
One complication is that much like your first design, my charger adapter would fry the battery. I have an original supply with VMAIN that goes dead after about 10 minutes, but with a stable VBATT so I guess I’m gonna have to use that to charge until I rewrite by adapter to support a second supply haha.

 

[jmacz]

Cool, good luck! Both of my batteries have been doing well, same for the new PRAM battery I wired up. And the new charger with dual supplies is also doing well using the custom 3d printed charging connector.

Just need to get around to examining the sleep issue more and understand it. Need to look at the scsi2sd/zuluscsi code base to see how it handles the spin down/up functionality.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

So it isn’t recognizing the battery. I highly suspect the contacts aren’t connecting properly due to the wonky fit of the two halves of the battery, but the problem is that I have no good way of telling if it’s a connection issue, a battery issue, or a computer issue.
I only get about 3-5 minutes to figure this out until VMAIN on my OEM supply conks out on me…
I’m thinking I’ve gotta disconnect the vbatt wires from my adapter to power the laptop. My battery is showing 10V off the contacts so it should have enough power to run the laptop.

 

[jmacz]

It could easily be the fit. One thing I did was used wires directly from the EMMboard to the spring connectors handle the laptop using alligator clips to test the battery was working properly before putting it all back together in the case.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

New development, the battery works but the computer doesn’t think it has one installed.
I unplugged it while on and it stayed on, then popped up the no reserve power remains message and went to sleep mode. I forced the system to freeze so that pop up wouldn’t show up, and it stayed running off the battery for a few minutes then died. But the computer doesn’t see the EMM at all clearly. Tried all three of the software utilities for these and none could see it.
Don’t think it’s an issue with the ribbons since I get voltage off the battery and the laptop runs off it.
Fun problem this is!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I also re wired my adapter to disconnect VBATT so I can boot the computer and test the battery. But I still can’t run off AC power and charge at the same time.
This EMM worked and tested good in all utilities before I rebuilt the battery.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I just tried in my PowerBook 540 (which the batteries actually came out, was testing in my 540c before) and the same thing happens. I wonder if the time sitting with no cells connected killed my EMM.