Motorola Marco now working!

[MOS8_030]

My Newton clone lives again!

Well, I spoke too soon when I replied in to the Newton documentary thread when I said my Marco didn't work.

My problem was lack of patience...

Long story not-so-short, about 15 years ago I was given this Marco. It came with no power supply, nothing except the Marco carrying case.

At the time I tried a regular Newton PS but that didn't work and since I had no documentation and couldn't find any info about the Marco specs, it's

been in the box with the rest of the Newton stuff.

So recently when I got out my Newton stuff I thought I'd give the Marco another shot.

After doing some googling I found possibly the only detailed reference to the Motorola Marco on the web and I finally found the information about the Marco PS.

(Bless you Newtman!)

So I googled the Motorola PN and lo and behold there is exactly one Marco power supply for sale on ebay for a very reasonable price!

So I get the power supply, new backup battery, and Marco still no boot. Darn. Oh well.

Flash forward a few weeks to today and after I posted about the Marco I thought I'd give it another shot.

After about 10 mins on the charger and a hard reset I get the chime and Marco is alive!

The problem was the first time I tried the PS I didn't give the Marco any time to charge the (long) dead battery.

Anyway, the red & green lights are Marco searching in vain for the long gone ARDIS network.

(The dark line on the screen is from the camera shutter sync)

Anyway,

Oh, and I found the battery pack for my Messagepad too.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

This is awesome. I've read about a few of the non-Apple Newton OS devices, but never seen one. 

 

[Alex]

I found possibly the only detailed reference to the Motorola Marco on the web

Share the link please. I have one of these lovely devices and a manual would be nice to have.

 

[MOS8_030]

Share the link please. I have one of these lovely devices and a manual would be nice to have.

No manual here but this is the most info I have found.

http://newton.plumbrook.com/marco/

I have no manual either, only an extra stylus, spare (dead) battery, and case.

 

[AppleNewtonFan]

Hi MOS8_030,

I have Marco, but I can't boot it up. I don't have original power adapter, but I have original dock for charging battery. I just used 12V 900mA 3rd party charger, but I still can't boot Marco. When I use this power adapter with dock, the red light blinking. I'm not sure what it is mean. Any suggestions what I could try to bott this device? How did you manage to make 'hard reset'?

 

[PB145B]

That is just too cool!

 

[MOS8_030]

Hi MOS8_030,

I have Marco, but I can't boot it up. I don't have original power adapter, but I have original dock for charging battery. I just used 12V 900mA 3rd party charger, but I still can't boot Marco. When I use this power adapter with dock, the red light blinking. I'm not sure what it is mean. Any suggestions what I could try to boot this device? How did you manage to make 'hard reset'?

Howdy! Sorry for the late reply, I just saw your post.

Here's where the reset button is located.

http://newton.plumbrook.com/marco/device/dtour/page13.html

Also you should replace the LI battery. It's located under the Motorola logo on the back. (The logo is a cover that twists to release.)

The red light on the dock is probably indicating it's trying to charge or that the battery is bad.

I would try "charging" your bad battery for a while then connect the battery and the power supply to the Marco and try a reset to see it if it boots.

I have two batteries and only one will work with my Marco, the other is completely dead. The Marco needs a battery that will take *some* small bit of charge.

Getting replacement cells for the battery pack would be easy, opening the case not so much...

Maybe someday the user manual for the Marco will get uploaded to the internet.

 

[jsmartinson]

How can I get a battery? I have everything else including the elusive users guide. Neither batter works.

 

[Alex]

Would you be so kind to scan the manual. It is ring bound so scanning it should be easier than a spine bound book. If you manage to scan at 300ppi please upload it to the internet archive. Your consideration is appreciated.

 

[MOS8_030]

How can I get a battery? I have everything else including the elusive users guide. Neither battery works.

Howdy!

Nice rig! I've never seen the battery dock before.

Yes, please scan that manual if you can!

As far as the battery, I'm afraid they would have to be rebuilt using new cells. (NiCD)

That would require carefully cracking open the battery case and soldering in new cells.

I have not tried this with my batteries.

 

[jsmartinson]

will scan and post the users guide as soon as possible.

 

[jsmartinson]

By the way, I am selling everything together on eBay: http://ebay.us/ZdrjEZ?cmpnId=5338273189

 

[AppleNewtonFan]

How can I get a battery? I have everything else including the elusive users guide. Neither batter works.

View attachment 31240

View attachment 31241

Hi, is that unit operational? Is it working on power adapter? I wish to buy this set.

 

[jsmartinson]

I took photos of the Marco User's Guide and posted them here for download. The download is good until February 29. Since I have the item for sale and it us likely to sell, this is the best I can do. Perhaps someone else can organize it into a PDF so it is easier to read.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0PZjfsPqC3xLAWirfXniOfqGg#Home

 

[Alex]

I took photos of the Marco User's Guide and posted them here for download.

Thank you VERY much for taking the time to put this together. I will do what I can to improve the manual, straightening pages and the like and get this on the internet archive (archive.org). Thanks again and good luck with the sale. 

 

[MOS8_030]

Indeed, thank you for taking the time to provide a visual record of the manual.

 

[Alex]

I've already converted the images to TIFF but each one has to be straightened one by one. Does anyone know the old site for the Motorola Marco, I can scrape the waybackmachine if I have some sites. Maybe it's on the manual, I will need to check but feel free to post the old site address here in case.

 

[MOS8_030]

Here's the only thing I Marco-related I could find.

https://web.archive.org/web/19970605055303/http://www.mot.com/MIMS/WDG/SWarchive.html

I suspect that most of the Marco info that may have been on Motorola's web site back then pre-dates when the internet archive started.

 

[Alex]

ok, I am not going to restrict the download to file types and I will go to 2003. I will report back with anything relevant. If the manual is there in PDF, I will move it to the internet archive straight away. I am doing the entire domain mot.com. 100,000+ files coming down but that's ok, whatever is irrelevant will get trashed and I will do a more narrow download after the fact.