Lead on some older hardware

[beachycove]

I am told that later in the week I am going to be given a (dead screen) Mac Plus, a matching external HD, a IIfx in a Mac II case, a wide carriage ImageWriter printer, an early 21" monitor with its matching Nubus card, along with a large quantity ($40,000 in original prices paid, the fellow tells me) of 68k software. I may not take the monitor, as I have a condition called "Large CRT Fatigue" at the moment, but we'll see.

I had vowed recently to cut back, or to keep myself to PowerBooks, as I have something like 60 machines of one sort and another in various corners of the house, most of them working splendidly; I scarcely need more. But I really could not resist this offer, especially as the chap giving it away was about to chuck it all in the trash: moving, and needing it out, he could not think what to do with it all. Well, I've lots of storage.

What I don't have, though, is an ImageWriter, so a rare-ish wide carriage one is an interesting find. Nubus cards are always fun; I gather that this one connects to the monitor by BNC or some such. The IIfx will be a worthy companion for my IIci in System 6-land. Software, especially boxed with manuals (I hope), I REALLY like. I really, really like them when they're Claris titles I don't have. Will report on this in due course.

The Plus, however, is new territory for me. Despite longtime Macintosh usage, I have, in fact, no experience of working on anything as old as the Plus, so I may want to pick some brains through the next few months.

These conquests will for the moment, however, have to go into a "to do" pile, as there are some house renovations awaiting. My missus wants the ensuite bathroom gutted, a Velux window put in, etc. And I've just bought a 30 year-old sailboat that needs some TLC before the frost comes....

Lucky thing it's a long winter once the frost does come.

 

[Osgeld]

an early 21" monitor with its matching Nubus card,

Altho thats a cool score, ouch ... I snagged a early 21" hp monitor (with bnc's on the back) and the thing was so heavy it bowed the top of my computer cart ... and thats old school, 1 inch thick mdf spanning a grand total of 2 foot, I had to take it back

 

[Unknown_K]

I have a Supermac STD-979o (Sony GDM-1950) that is listed as a 19" monitor (I think it is 21" with 19 viewable) and the only place I could put it without it crushing something was a heavy duty TV shelf made for 27" CRT TV's.

 

[beachycove]

I can report back that I what I collected today was more limited than originally anticipated, as the chap decided that he would keep most of his collection. The software I had hoped for was, however, all still boxed, with manuals - mostly games. He's going to hand it on to a family member, which is fair enough.

What I did get, however, was:

1. The IIfx in a Mac II case, with, I am told, 8 MB of RAM. It will not turn on (does it need a working battery?), but apart from dust and a good clean, is in tolerably good shape. No time to test more fully or to tinker tonight. Two older Nubus cards were inside: a Relax Technology Nubus card which drove the 19" monitor that I mentioned a couple of days ago (but did not take), and a Mass Micro Systems Quickimage 24, which was a high end video frame capture card c. 1990. It has s-video input, among other things, and is (I gather from Googling) capable of display on a TV via s-video. (We all yawn today, but in 1990, that one bit of Nubus gear would have set you back about $1000.)

2. A two button Kensington Turbo TrackBall. Nice, clean condition, which is good, as my existing Kensington four button TrackBall looks like crap as far as the plastics go.

3. A Mac Plus with 4MB in pretty darned good shape plastics-wise, i.e., largely un-yellowed. Platinum, not beige. It came with a new service part DB9 Mouse that we unearthed for the purpose, but - alas! - no keyboard. The Plus was offered to me as a machine with a dead monitor. I turned it on, adjusted the brightness knob at the bottom left, and - lo and behold - it works perfectly, sound and all. Now I just need a keyboard. I was unable to add the matching external scsi drive to the list, though I would have loved to do so; however, the chap decided to hold onto it for the one older Mac he was keeping, a 6360. Apparently there was a 1GB drive in the case, which originally had held a 20 or 40 MB drive or some such.

4. A Kensington System Saver in really excellent condition. This came attached to the Mac Plus.

5. An ADB keyboard, but we will not get too excited about that.

Apart from the obvious, is any of this of special interest? In particular, is the Kensington System Saver something to love, honour and cherish as long as we both shall live? And, does anyone have a working Plus keyboard going spare?

 

[beachycove]

Gott im Himmel! It's not worth real money, is it? And mine looks almost new.

 

[beachycove]

The donor has found the keyboard, which I can collect tomorrow. There is ein Gott im Himmel, evidently.

 

[H3NRY]

The II and IIfx do need a working battery. In these old machines, the battery actually closes a relay in the power supply to turn 'em on.

A Kensington or other fan will do a lot to prolong the life of an early Mac's analog board. The cooler things are, the longer they last, and for any system cooled by convection, parts run really hot. Cool air don't rise.

 

[equill]

Gott im Himmel! It's not worth real money, is it? And mine looks almost new.

That seller's pricing policy has attracted comment before. In the new-look comments-allowable regimen the comment cannot be repeated. The pic doesn't allow much confidence that anything has changed in the seller's emporium, however.

de

 

[beachycove]

My Seele being thus comforted, I shall no longer be tempted to sell the thing.