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Macintosh SE/30 Schematics (modernization effort)

elemenoh

Well-known member
I too have some corrections. These are for the Sound Interface. (I verified these against Apple's Schematics. )

UB11 pin 8 is not connected to anything but it should go to ground.

UB10 and UB11 pin 6 are also floating. These are connected to a series of components that are missing from the schematics as well. The reset/programmer's switches are not present at all.

UB10 Pin 9 is not connected to anything but it should go to the ground.

These schematics have been very helpful in my troubleshooting, but I would greatly appreciate if you could go over the Sound Interface Schematics again and make these corrections. There might be some errors that I missed, so I think this section could use a little more work. Thanks!
The GND connections have been fixed, but would need more info to help with the second issue. I just copied what I saw in the original drawings. If you can provide more detail and another member can help to validate that it's correct, I'm happy to integrate it.

 

elemenoh

Well-known member
@elemenoh Looks like there's a few outstanding improvements over the past few weeks that you haven't incorporated into your GitHub version yet.  Just wondering, putting this out as an idea, would you rather prefer collaborators on your master repo as opposed to forks and pull requests?  It really depends on what you would want to do as a maintainer, which I'm guessing is still all very new to you.  But, point in hand, there are methods you can use to ease keeping the repo up-to-date without needing yourself to be the single gatekeeper to changes.
Sorry I hadn't been paying attention to the thread. It's great to see additional feedback!

I updated the master, but wasn't sure how to deal with merging your fork. Please PM me and we can work on details. I definitely do not want to hold up progress, so let me know what you think would be best to keep things up to date without it getting chaotic.

 

quorten

Well-known member
@elemenoh Great to see you back, looks like you've duplicated the fixes already in my fork.  I'd recommend reverting and I can create a pull request to bring in all my fixes I've applied so far.

 

smiba

Well-known member
@elemenoh Thanks for all the work so far!

Any chance you could export the PDFs so they're searchable? Right now the text is being stored as vectors so PDF readers can't search through them

 

quorten

Well-known member
@smiba Interesting, does that only apply to elemenoh's old copies?  Looking at my generated copies, the PDFs do have searchable text it seems.  Really, the two are supposed to be the same, we're working out getting synced.

 

DrewyNucci

New member
Has this project progressed to the point where replica SE/30 boards are available for purchase? I am very interested in buying one so I might populate the board and upgrade my Mac classic to a Mac se/30… or even just customize a new computer with video out to external monitor. Thank you for any information. Sorry for being such a noob to the community. I am a huge fan and really appreciate all the great work y’all do to make Macs work again!!! Thank you for your help in preserving the best computers ever!!!
 

joshc

Well-known member
I am very interested in buying one so I might populate the board and upgrade my Mac classic to a Mac se/30
Welcome to the forum.

Unfortuntely it's not this simple. The SE/30 board won't work in the Classic chassis/case - the power supply/analog board are different and cannot be swapped between the two.

The reverse engineered boards are really for those who have a donor SE/30 board and SE/30 to use it in. The SE/30 and Classic share some components but there are a couple of unique custom chips on the SE/30 that you won't have with just a Classic board. You'd also need an SE/30 ROM and the SE/30 Video ROM (these have been dumped so you can program new ROMs but its far easier if you just have these to take from a donor SE/30 board).

The reverse engineered SE/30 board is still in testing so it isn't available yet.
 
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DrewyNucci

New member
Do you have a donor SE/30 board? Because if not, you won't have all the components necessary to build an SE/30 board. The SE/30 and Classic share some components but there are a couple of unique custom chips on the SE/30 that you won't have with just a Classic board. You'd also need an SE/30 ROM and the SE/30 Video ROM (these have been dumped so you can program new ROMs but its far easier if you just have these to take from a donor SE/30 board).

The reverse engineered SE/30 board is still in testing so it isn't available yet.
No I don’t have a donor, but I was hoping to get the remade board when it’s available and finding a donor for cheap… I figured it would be easier to find a donor than it would to get a remade board so I was going to use the remade board as a starting point….
 

joshc

Well-known member
@DrewyNucci Sorry, I edited my post while you were replying. So the other thing is that the SE/30 board cannot be fitted to the Classic, the chassis/case are different.

SE/30 boards very rarely come up on their own and when they do they are expensive, it is easier to find a complete SE/30 to buy. Depending on what state its in, you may not even need a donor board.
 

cheesestraws

Well-known member
Welcome to the forum, @DrewyNucci :)

Yes, half the point of the recreated SE/30 board is to allow reuse of good custom components that are currently on bad boards, so you are probably on the right track there. Donor boards vary wildly in price depending on the phase of the moon, so you might be able to get a whole dead machine for cheaper. If so, this will ameliorate the next issue, which is that I don't think the board will fit in a Classic chassis. Modifications may (??) be possible, I'll leave that up for someone else to comment on.

As @joshc says, the recreated board is in progress, but is not yet finished—it is being tested at present as people have time, so worth keeping an eye out for. But please do manage your expectations—upgrading a Classic to an SE/30 sounds like a hairy endeavour that would at the least involve metalwork to the chassis.
 

DrewyNucci

New member
Oh yeah I agree, I’m under no illusion that classic to se/30 isn’t possible, I more meant upgrade my collection from a classic to the se/30… not cram the 30 board into the classic… it would be super interesting to get the board and make a custom power supply (leaving out the circuitry for the crt) and using RGB2HDMI as an external video out and (
) custom 3D print a very minimal stripped down case for the motherboard, a Zip drive and a 3.5 floppy all on the scsi bus… and maybe even leave the rear inputs available to connect external peripherals…. Thy would be a fun project… basically have a “brand new” se/30 that’ll last for years and years yet with a custom case and ability to plug it into any external monitor…. For me that would be a worthy project….

I got a first fun of the Mac Plus (I think) repro boards that was recently completed. I have a hold board numbers #8 of #20…. But I’ve always wanted a completely maxed out se/30 with accelerators and 128mb ram…. Itll be a fun weekend project over a few months to get it right when everything is ready…

p.s. does anyone know if there are any rgb2hdmi’s for sale anywhere or if they’re even being made anymore? I obviously really want one.
Welcome to the forum, @DrewyNucci :)

Yes, half the point of the recreated SE/30 board is to allow reuse of good custom components that are currently on bad boards, so you are probably on the right track there. Donor boards vary wildly in price depending on the phase of the moon, so you might be able to get a whole dead machine for cheaper. If so, this will ameliorate the next issue, which is that I don't think the board will fit in a Classic chassis. Modifications may (??) be possible, I'll leave that up for someone else to comment on.

As @joshc says, the recreated board is in progress, but is not yet finished—it is being tested at present as people have time, so worth keeping an eye out for. But please do manage your expectations—upgrading a Classic to an SE/30 sounds like a hairy endeavour that would at the least involve metalwork to the chassis
 

max1zzz

Well-known member
I think production of rgb2hdmi is still on pause, unfortunately.
The boards are pretty easy to build up, one chip, a handful of passives, a few buttons and some connectors. PCB's only cost $2 from JLCPCB

If anyone is really desperate for one let me know, I have a few PCB's left from assembling mine
 

DrewyNucci

New member
This all sounds pretty doable, actually. I'd suggest creating another thread for the project if you want feedback and ideas? I think production of rgb2hdmi is still on pause, unfortunately.
Cool, good idea, thanks for the advice… hopefully bu the time the repro board comes out I can get my hands on a rgbhmi… until then thanks again for the advice and ideas!
 

chillin

Well-known member
This thread is a great read that ends like a book in which someone tore out the last chapter. What happened with the SE/30 logic board redesign?

I saw the unpopulated SE logic boards for sale. As impressive as that project's result is, I don't understand why, to begin with, that effort was made. First of all, it is easier and less expensive to find an SE than an SE/30. Secondly, the upgrade path for an SE is a piece of chassis, a new faceplate (optional), and an SE/30 logic board. Finally, the SE/30 runs all of the software the SE runs, and a lot more software a stock SE can't run. Out of the things that escaped these forums and reached the public at large, the SE logic board recreation is the only one that has me scratching my head, while I want all the other things for myself.

My favorite feature of the SE/30, besides it being so attractive, is that it runs A/UX, NetBSD and Debian. So whatever is done in re-creation and improvement, I'd appreciate it not breaking that functionality.

Onboard ethernet would be very nice. If the CPU & clock is improved, why not 100BaseT?

Also, may I humbly suggest, if it could fit, faster fast SCSI... or why not, say, Ultra2 SCSI? Anything done to increase the storage bandwidth would be keen.

I'm sorry about my SE negativity back there. But whomevers are working on the SE/30 logic board re-creation, please, please continue.
 

Daniël

Well-known member
This thread is a great read that ends like a book in which someone tore out the last chapter. What happened with the SE/30 logic board redesign?

I saw the unpopulated SE logic boards for sale. As impressive as that project's result is, I don't understand why, to begin with, that effort was made. First of all, it is easier and less expensive to find an SE than an SE/30. Secondly, the upgrade path for an SE is a piece of chassis, a new faceplate (optional), and an SE/30 logic board. Finally, the SE/30 runs all of the software the SE runs, and a lot more software a stock SE can't run. Out of the things that escaped these forums and reached the public at large, the SE logic board recreation is the only one that has me scratching my head, while I want all the other things for myself.

My favorite feature of the SE/30, besides it being so attractive, is that it runs A/UX, NetBSD and Debian. So whatever is done in re-creation and improvement, I'd appreciate it not breaking that functionality.

Onboard ethernet would be very nice. If the CPU & clock is improved, why not 100BaseT?

Also, may I humbly suggest, if it could fit, faster fast SCSI... or why not, say, Ultra2 SCSI? Anything done to increase the storage bandwidth would be keen.

I'm sorry about my SE negativity back there. But whomevers are working on the SE/30 logic board re-creation, please, please continue.

Bolle designed a SE/30 logic board replica, which is still undergoing some testing, but was mostly operational last I heard. Unfortunately, due to 68kMLA's previous forum software not doing what it should (and in a way that backup testing could not detect), posts from February up to the "crash" last summer are gone to time, including the thread on said logic board replica.
 

chillin

Well-known member
Ouch. I saw it mentioned, so I found and skimmed though the crash post-mortem thread earler to see what happened. It explained why my very old login was extirpated. But I gained an appreciation for forum sysadmins and dbadmins. I thought it was like webmastering, which I hate doing for anything more than my personal apache2 server. But it's much more complex. Hopefully, Bolle has his own archives and the work continues.
 

Daniël

Well-known member
Ouch. I saw it mentioned, so I found and skimmed though the crash post-mortem thread earler to see what happened. It explained why my very old login was extirpated. But I gained an appreciation for forum sysadmins and dbadmins. I thought it was like webmastering, which I hate doing for anything more than my personal apache2 server. But it's much more complex. Hopefully, Bolle has his own archives and the work continues.

Your account was more likely to have been lost in the great hard drive crash of 2008. No user accounts prior to February were lost in the Invision corruption.
 
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