Mk.558
Well-known member
There are a few options for docks for PowerBook Duos.
The first, is the regular Duo Dock or Duo Dock II. The second, which is probably the most common, is the official Apple MiniDock. It's a decent dock, has enough ports to make it comparable to a LC series machine or a regular PowerBook.
But there are three docks that are The Ones To Have: 1) Newer Technologies UltraDock 16sce; 2) eMachines EtherDock; 3) the NewerTech MicroDock with Ethernet. The UltraDock is what we'll look at today; the EtherDock apparently won't work with the Duo 280 and the 2300c; and the MicroDock is basically like the floppy microdock except it has Ethernet and I think it has ADB as well. All three are somewhat hard to find.
The unit has a reset button, power input, ADB, 25-pin "Macintosh size" SCSI port (Apple tied all the ground pins together, which is why it's not 50 pins, like it is supposed to be), PowerBook floppy connector (HDI-20), Macintosh display out to a maximum of 1024x768 pixels, stereo out, and RJ-45 10BASE-T Ethernet. Overall, it's a good dock to have, if you are a passionate Duo collector. It doesn't block the "Modem/Printer" serial port nor the built-in 14.4Kbps modem, if equipped. I believe it has 1MiB of VRAM onboard, or it could be 768KiB.
Target Disk Mode is activated in the UltraDock control panel, along with a few other features like disabling the internal display (requires a restart, and if you undock without setting it back, you'll be stuck with no video). Here's a glimpse of the control panel (the focus on the screenshot was not on the UltraDock panel, it was just a generic screenshot for 7.6.1 under greyscale):
Annoyingly, there is a prompt from the Ethernet software that comes with the UltraDock if the Ethernet plug is disconnected just after a fresh boot. Also I discovered that with a Duo 230 display on a 2300c motherboard, the first cold boot (with no power connected and the battery toasted) with a dead PRAM battery will cause the 230 display to display nothing until it is restart again. So I would start it up, let it get to the Finder (all with a black screen) and then shut it down with the Power button, then reboot it. Another computer that doesn't do so well with a bad PRAM battery -- but the 2300c display works fine.
At one point in time, I had two UltraDocks. Let's have a look at them. We'll start by looking at the profile of a standard Apple MiniDock:
The MiniDock elevates the back by about ten degrees. (Okay I didn't measure it...but it's about ten or fifteen degrees.) The UltraDock does the same:
Now here we have a couple of images showing them together (Duo 2300cTB in the background):
Here are two UltraDocks, side by side of the innards therein:
EMI shield removed:
Curiously, when I opened them up, one has a regular EMI shield surrounding the main board, while the other relies on a coat of anti-EMI material on the inside of the shell. It's probably applied with thermal spraying. Here's the detail of the latter:
Notice the large cavity underneath the main board. It's actually quite roomy inside there. One of our comrades, Bunsen I believe, has been reported to stuff a Ethernet to WiFi adapter along with a lithium-polymer battery down there. Neat.
Back to board images:
Is it a good dock? Yes. How much are they worth? About 50 to 60 dollars. Better than the standard MiniDock? Absolutely. Unlike the MiniDock the UltraDock cannot be ejected when the machine is put to sleep -- has to be shut down to safely remove.
The other is the Newer Technologies MicroDock, which I have only seen one for sale on LEMSwap (might have an ADB plug as well). Should use the same driver diskette because the Installer does let you choose between MicroDock and UltraDock series. Never seen an image of one, but that obscure Japanese website on Duo Docks might have a photo of one. There's also an eMachines NetDock.
I have also heard of the eMachines Presenter which has just ADB and Macintosh display out -- probably not worth much. The original price for a UltraDock 16sc (no Ethernet) was $449 back in the day and $499 for the 16sce (with Ethernet): source here: http://www.smalldog.com/kibbles/9/.
All the docks you see here have found their way to two members here. I can't say who but they know who they are.
Still, if all you need to do with your Duo is networking, you could do fine with pseudo-PPP dialup, terminal file transfers or just a AFP bridge.
The first, is the regular Duo Dock or Duo Dock II. The second, which is probably the most common, is the official Apple MiniDock. It's a decent dock, has enough ports to make it comparable to a LC series machine or a regular PowerBook.
But there are three docks that are The Ones To Have: 1) Newer Technologies UltraDock 16sce; 2) eMachines EtherDock; 3) the NewerTech MicroDock with Ethernet. The UltraDock is what we'll look at today; the EtherDock apparently won't work with the Duo 280 and the 2300c; and the MicroDock is basically like the floppy microdock except it has Ethernet and I think it has ADB as well. All three are somewhat hard to find.
The unit has a reset button, power input, ADB, 25-pin "Macintosh size" SCSI port (Apple tied all the ground pins together, which is why it's not 50 pins, like it is supposed to be), PowerBook floppy connector (HDI-20), Macintosh display out to a maximum of 1024x768 pixels, stereo out, and RJ-45 10BASE-T Ethernet. Overall, it's a good dock to have, if you are a passionate Duo collector. It doesn't block the "Modem/Printer" serial port nor the built-in 14.4Kbps modem, if equipped. I believe it has 1MiB of VRAM onboard, or it could be 768KiB.
Target Disk Mode is activated in the UltraDock control panel, along with a few other features like disabling the internal display (requires a restart, and if you undock without setting it back, you'll be stuck with no video). Here's a glimpse of the control panel (the focus on the screenshot was not on the UltraDock panel, it was just a generic screenshot for 7.6.1 under greyscale):
Annoyingly, there is a prompt from the Ethernet software that comes with the UltraDock if the Ethernet plug is disconnected just after a fresh boot. Also I discovered that with a Duo 230 display on a 2300c motherboard, the first cold boot (with no power connected and the battery toasted) with a dead PRAM battery will cause the 230 display to display nothing until it is restart again. So I would start it up, let it get to the Finder (all with a black screen) and then shut it down with the Power button, then reboot it. Another computer that doesn't do so well with a bad PRAM battery -- but the 2300c display works fine.
At one point in time, I had two UltraDocks. Let's have a look at them. We'll start by looking at the profile of a standard Apple MiniDock:
The MiniDock elevates the back by about ten degrees. (Okay I didn't measure it...but it's about ten or fifteen degrees.) The UltraDock does the same:
Now here we have a couple of images showing them together (Duo 2300cTB in the background):
Here are two UltraDocks, side by side of the innards therein:
EMI shield removed:
Curiously, when I opened them up, one has a regular EMI shield surrounding the main board, while the other relies on a coat of anti-EMI material on the inside of the shell. It's probably applied with thermal spraying. Here's the detail of the latter:
Notice the large cavity underneath the main board. It's actually quite roomy inside there. One of our comrades, Bunsen I believe, has been reported to stuff a Ethernet to WiFi adapter along with a lithium-polymer battery down there. Neat.
Back to board images:
Is it a good dock? Yes. How much are they worth? About 50 to 60 dollars. Better than the standard MiniDock? Absolutely. Unlike the MiniDock the UltraDock cannot be ejected when the machine is put to sleep -- has to be shut down to safely remove.
The other is the Newer Technologies MicroDock, which I have only seen one for sale on LEMSwap (might have an ADB plug as well). Should use the same driver diskette because the Installer does let you choose between MicroDock and UltraDock series. Never seen an image of one, but that obscure Japanese website on Duo Docks might have a photo of one. There's also an eMachines NetDock.
I have also heard of the eMachines Presenter which has just ADB and Macintosh display out -- probably not worth much. The original price for a UltraDock 16sc (no Ethernet) was $449 back in the day and $499 for the 16sce (with Ethernet): source here: http://www.smalldog.com/kibbles/9/.
All the docks you see here have found their way to two members here. I can't say who but they know who they are.
Still, if all you need to do with your Duo is networking, you could do fine with pseudo-PPP dialup, terminal file transfers or just a AFP bridge.
