Macintosh SE M5010 - Restoration

[GreenBar0n]

The cheese wheels of impending doom, are finally gone.



Big thanks to @Fred1212 for recommending the Betterbit eject gears, they are really good. Indistinguishable from the original in both fit and mesh. $5.75 for (2) with free delivery. Super fast shipping.

800K #2 operates much better without all the extra grease that I used on #1. Going to go back and remove the excessive grease from 800K #1, and then see if I can make a soft vinyl washer, out of a 5 1/4" floppy skin.

The SE Tour disc will be here shortly I hope, and then I can see if these will actually load data after all of that.

 

[Fred1212]

Well done

 

[GreenBar0n]

Out of (7) bad Alps switches, I could only repair (2).

It looks as if someone spilled a drink in this keyboard at one point, and didn't immediately open it and clean it out.

There were also broken pieces of the lower case plastic floating inside, so this may have been dropped hard at some point.

All of the completely dead switch contacts had the same oxidation, then eventual surface wear, and an early death.






No amount of bending the contacts would fix these. Ordered some Alps clone replacements from Germany.

 

[GreenBar0n]

Got the PRAM holder in.

 

[LaPorta]

Nice. I prefer original PRAM batteries in holders as well. Looking at the Tamiya color cans and the green mat, do you also build models?

 

[GreenBar0n]

I dug out my - what are said to be vintage now - original RC10 and RC10 GT cars, last year around this time, and have since gotten carried away with restoring those, and building newer ones too. There are a few too many more than this. The Tamiya Sand Scorcher is about to get a 3D printed VW motor back there, with dual webers, needs the vintage decals put on still.


Just got a cheap airbrush setup, about to try my hand at that.

Are you a modeler or RC builder, @LaPorta ?

 

[LaPorta]

Models…very slowly now as kids and other projects take time. I just finished a Camaro model not long ago. Now I’m back to the computers!

 

[Cory5412]

Hey welcome in! It looks like you've managed to make some great progress with this machine, that's so great to see!

Coming in to someone's thread, just to say they're doing it wrong, isn't going to go easy.

Continuing on the "let's slow our roll a little bit" theme: It's real tough to read tone online so it's probably better to give people the benefit of the doubt and they presume and want only the best for you, and/or are excited to share knowledge they aren't sure if you have. Especially as such a new member to the community and because people posting here are doing so from all around the world with different language and cultural experience.

And, we can't presume everyone's experience with physical electronics and restoration work - there's someone out there for whom "hey just as a heads up don't turn that on laying bare on a metal surface" is going to be genuinely hardware-saving advice.

Thanks for your understanding, hanging out, and sharing your progress on this machine!

 

[GreenBar0n]

Thank you for the welcome,I do appreciate it. This is a great site, and I'm glad to have found it.

To the point of tone, and etiquette: I'm a participant in many other forums, over many years, and I see some familiar behavior across them all. If you're going to post in someone's thread, it's worth reviewing the entire thread to see what their skill level is, and not just make assumptions, or generalizations about their methodology. I'm new here, but not new to electronics, or computers in general.

Asking questions is another good way to find out if the person knows what they're doing, or requires assistance, if that's really the intended purpose behind the comment.

All of these 3.5" drives can sit flat on any surface and not touch, the engineers who designed them made certain of that. Here's where the harddrive sat for many decades, flat on that steel plate.


The floppy cables in the SE are too short to test the drives out of the chassis, so I had to put the floppies high enough to reach the cable. I don't honestly believe my practices are a danger to myself, or others, but as I said in the post that got this all stirred up "You are welcome to do what you think is best, for you, but don't expect everyone else to agree". I don't expect anyone to agree, and am not suggesting anyone do what I do.

The 800K floppies are in good working order, I even found the missing soft vinyl washer. I'm still going to see if a replacement washer can be made out of a 5 1/4" floppy, I've read that it's possible, and it might help someone else in the future.

 

[Fred1212]

You can hang the floppy out the back of the chassis to test it, its upside down but will still work

 

[GreenBar0n]

I was very fortunate to have located a new badge for the SE, huge thanks to @Juror22 for sending me the nicest badge I could imagine!


Put the washer that went missing - and was then found - back on the 800K floppy drive, and tested both drives with a Tour SE floppy from ebay. Both drives work like new.


Got the BlueSCSI mounted to the HDD tray.


Taped the LED to secure it and protect it from shorts, and left it floating in the bezel, the green LED activity can be seen from outside the case.

Going to do another peroxide treatment to the rear case half, and wait for the Alps switches.

 

[joshc]

That is indeed a lovely badge!

I still think the SE is a great looking machine.

 

[GreenBar0n]

I haven't abandoned this project, still waiting on the Alps clone switches. I had thought they were coming from Germany, but they're coming from the UK (untracked), so it's a bit of a mystery when - or if - they will arrive. Couldn't find a closer two-pin Alps clone match, to the salmon colored switches that are in this M0115 Extended KB.

Thinking about recapping the Analog board while I wait. I have the fresh caps.

If the Alps switches aren't here by this Saturday, I'll recap the Analog board this weekend.

 

[GreenBar0n]

Went to the mailbox today, and found a special delivery from @Juror22, it's pieces of the outer jacket layer of a 5 1/4" floppy. Thanks so much!!



The soft vinyl washers found on the 800K floppy drive, measure at 0.30mm thick.



The floppy jacket measures 0.33mm, and is soft and with the right flexibility.


I believe the floppy jacket would work as the missing washer if it was cut to 8mm OD, and 2.6mm ID.


I found that floppy outer jacket tip while searching elsewhere, for a long while, can't remember where I got that or who to credit for the idea, but hopefully this can help someone else on the search. This is proof it could work.


Also got the Alps switches. Somehow I only ordered (2), need another (5) at least. Going to read more carefully next time, and order more.

Here's what's inside the Alps clone switch. Orig. salmon on the left, clone on the right.


Will rebuild the salmon with the new internals, and wait for more.

Going to recap the analog board this weekend. We'll see if I make a perfectly working SE, broken. It can happen, I'll tread lightly around the rasters and litz wire.

 

[GreenBar0n]

Analog board cleared of old caps and glue.




New caps in.




Tricky spot with NP film cap.





Is it really necessary to hot glue the caps in there?

 

[GreenBar0n]

If the factory glued them, I might as well too. All I had was this yellow glue.






Those caps aren't going anywhere, on there good now. Will reassemble and test.

 

[marchie]

Got the PRAM holder in.
View attachment 79191

View attachment 79192

View attachment 79193

So..I have an SE with soldered in PRAM battery. I’m going to clip it out and solder in a MacBatt to get away from the lithium potential leak. Why did you choose the battery and holdrr?

 

[LaPorta]

So..I have an SE with soldered in PRAM battery. I’m going to clip it out and solder in a MacBatt to get away from the lithium potential leak. Why did you choose the battery and holdrr?

I do that as well, as I like the late-style "factory" style. Most of my machines I want to appear as original as possible.

 

[GreenBar0n]

I do that as well, as I like the late-style "factory" style. Most of my machines I want to appear as original as possible.

Quite right, thanks for that!

 

[GreenBar0n]

Popped a Vishay axial cap, had a hot polyester confetti party.


Axial caps can be deceiving, they have arrows on them that label the flow, cathode bands, chamfered ends. Which end is positive? Be careful when consulting Digi-Key:


Vishay have the chamfer and banded cathode, the chamfered end is +.


Ordered C18 and C11 again, the axial caps that were installed backwards, only C18 popped, but placing a cap in backwards will damage it.

Still waiting on another (3) Alps switches too.