PB145B’s finds

[PB145B]

I’m so excited about this! I finally got a Rodime 20 plus hard drive to use with my Mac Plus! It was untested but fired right up and booted into System 6.0.4!


Really love the look of it! It matches the Mac perfectly and that Rodime logo on the front is just classic!

I have always considered this to be one of more iconic third-party hard drives for the Macintosh. It seems like they were very common back then.

I do love my BlueSCSI, but there’s just nothing quite like the experience of a genuine stepper motor hard drive!

Oh, and I got a proper 1986-date-coded beige M0100 mouse for this plus also, which you can see in the photo. This is an original beige Plus from 1986 I got at an antique store back in 2016.

Now just need to find a beige M0110A keyboard and it will be complete!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Working Rodime? That’s a miracle.

 

[PB145B]

Working Rodime? That’s a miracle.

Yep, works great and is actually very quiet. It has that signature Rodime “squeak” to it which I love.

I will say though, the Rodime RO652 mechanism used in the 20 Plus drives seems to be among the more reliable Rodimes. I’ve seen a fair few of these still in working condition.

I have an original Apple OEM RO652 also that came from an early SE that fought me pretty good, but it mostly came back to life in the end.

 

[PB145B]

Got myself another M0130 400k external drive. I do love my 400k drives!




It’s in great shape with very little yellowing. Made in the 32nd week of 1985 according to the serial.

Take a look how nasty the old grease was on the mechanism!



This is by far the worst one I have gotten yet! The grease was so hard that no part of the mechanism would even budge, so I had to remove the mechanism, heat it up with a heat gun and then soak it in WD-40 to break it free! I then cleaned it up and oiled it up with 3-in-one oil, which is my go-to lube for these, and is still working great 4 years later on my 512k’s drives.

I’m happy to say once I put it all back together it now hums along perfectly like the day it was made, reading and writing disks just fine!

It actually ejects so well now it will shoot the disk completely out of the drive sometimes!

 

[PB145B]

Got some more cool stuff!

I actually got this a while ago, but I’m just now getting around to showing it.



Another 512k! This started life as a standard 512k, but has been upgraded to “512ke” spec, so it has 128k ROMs and an 800k drive. Came with the keyboard, mouse and programmer switch too! So I can officially crossed the 512k enhanced off of my wanted list now! It’s really cool having the 800k drive on a 512k I must say. And yes, it works fine.

It has this sticker on the back, but the HyperDrive is long gone unfortunately.

No big deal though, as I kind of anticipated that and I didn’t pay any extra because of that. I bought it assuming that it was just a regular 512k with the enhanced upgrade.

Onto the next, got this a few days ago.




Another 400k drive! My third one! But this is the earlier Made in USA one with a “D” at the beginning of the serial, versus the later Made in Japan models with a “Y.” It’s made out of a slightly different plastic than the newer ones. This will be the perfect match to my 128k!

And the old apple sticker is a nice touch, I’m definitely leaving that! Probably been on there since 1984!

The mechanism is completely frozen and I haven’t done anything to it yet. I’m assuming it will probably need the WD-40 and heat treatment that the last one did. Very clean though, so I have good hopes of it working.

And here is another absolutely fantastic find.



A box full AppleTalk/LocalTalk/PhoneNet stuff! Got this for a great price on eBay. And there’s some of the DB-9 boxes in there too so I can finally network my 512s and 128! Super handy for those early Macs that don’t have hard drives.

 

[CC_333]

Working Rodime? That’s a miracle.

My understanding is that Rodime drives weren't super great, but were generally of average quality with okay reliability.

It was the MiniScribe drives that were infamously unreliable, even when new, and very few fully working examples still exist.

c

 

[PB145B]

It was the MiniScribe drives that were infamously unreliable, even when new, and very few fully working examples still exist.

I've got quite a few working Miniscribes still! The 5.25" ones I have found to actually be quite decent. The main issue with the 3.5" ones I have found, like the SCSI 8425S/SA in the SE, is that they are quite prone to stiction, and the only solution unfortunately is to replace the platters! I have actually repaired two MFM 8425 drives so far by swapping the platters. Not easy but totally doable if you are careful not to wreck the heads in the process.

Apparently, the platters have a coating of lubricant on them from the factory, and I guess this drys up with age sometimes and causes the sticion problem.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Apparently, the platters have a coating of lubricant on them from the factory, and I guess this drys up with age sometimes and causes the sticion problem.

Just throw some WD40 on it and you’ll be fine!

 

[PB145B]

Just throw some WD40 on it and you’ll be fine!

Hah! I wish it was that easy! That would actually be really funny to try just to see the disastrous result (on a junk drive of course).

 

[PB145B]

Found another M0110 keyboard and M0100 mouse set for a decent price on eBay!



The keyboard was made in the 31st week of 1984, and the mouse is the earlier “square connector” variant and was made in the 39th week of 1984.

The mouse is pretty worn but it works fine.

The keyboard initially was dead, but removing and cleaning the legs of the encoder chip got it working. Then there were some dead keys to deal with. A few just needed resoldering and two of them I had to disassemble and clean the switches. I’m happy to say it’s fully working now!

And check this out.




A boxed M0100! I was super excited that I won the auction for this. I have never had a boxed early Macintosh peripheral before, so this is super cool for me.

The mouse was made in the 42nd week of 1985. Initially the button did not work, but it turns out one of the solder joints inside was cracked. Reflowing that restored button functionality!

Very pleased with these recent purchases!

 

[PB145B]

Oh darn, I completely forgot to show this! I picked this up about a month ago.





It’s another non-enhanced 512k! I already have one, but I really wanted another as a backup, because that’s one of my favorite machines.

It came untested and very dirty, but after some cleaning, resoldering the usual problem areas on the A/B and repairing a few damaged traces from a leaked battery, it came right back to life!

It also came with the programmer switch, which is super handy to have.

This one, like my other, is also a dealer-upgraded 128k!



It’s a bit older though, made in the 25th week of 1984, versus my other that was made in the 41st week of 1984.

In fact, this is even older than my stock 128k, which was made in the 27th week of 1984! So this is now my oldest Macintosh!

One super cool thing I found inside, is that it has the original 1983 analog board!





Still has that metal shield thing on the top, which I believe was removed because it restricts airflow.

Unfortunately, the battery leaked quite badly and rotted a few traces on the analog board, but that was an easy enough fix.

It also has a pretty early production 400k drive, which is just too cool to me!




Made in February, 1984! That’s just a month after the Macintosh was released!

Needed lots of cleaning and some fresh lubrication, and now it works great! Didn’t need any real repairs. As I have said many times, I just love these Sony 400k drives!

Very happy with this machine for sure!