Questions about getting started with a Mac Plus

[HoofedEar]

Hello everyone,

I've recently become the proud owner of a great condition Macintosh Plus (boots to screen waiting for disk) and I ordered some parts and peripherals for it after scouring various forums and YouTube videos:

• Recap kit from Console5
• Solid Tantalum cap kit from Console5
• ZuluSCSI Mini from Rabbit Hole Computing
• M0110 keyboard and M0100 mouse
• Right angle SCSI adapter

This is the first 68k Macintosh I've ever owned, and I've always wanted one so I want to take great care of it and make it last as long as possible.
Essentially my goal with this computer is to make it as robust as possible with the newer caps, and I heard that the solid tantalum ones are great for long term use. I opted for the M0110 since it's smaller than the keyboard that originally came with the Plus. I do have some questions about getting started with this machine:

• Would it be beneficial for me go through replacing all the caps that both kits I purchased provide, despite the (seemingly) working condition its in? Or should I inspect and replace only components that are recommended and/or are needed (such as caps about to burst)
• I've heard talk about a mod that will allow for the external SCSI port to provide power to the ZuluSCSI. I saw a few videos where it was a very simple diode, but I've also heard that it could be potentially harmful to the machine or the ZuluSCSI? I'd like for the port to independently power the ZuluSCSI to keep the required power cord count to 1. Is this mod safe for the machine or peripherals?
• The only other device I've soldered was a mechanical keyboard kit that I purchased a few years ago. I have a 60w digital soldering kit that has some lead-free solder. Is this sufficient for any soldering I'll need to do with this computer?

Thanks for any help you can provide! I'll be sure to post photos of the computer in this thread too, it's in great cosmetic condition! And I admittedly probably paid more for it than I should have lol

 

[Phipli]

• Recap kit from Console5
• Solid Tantalum cap kit from Console5

This is a little unexpected - the Mac Plus rarely needs recapping, and I'm surprised that they sold a tantalum kit for the Plus - are you sure the kit wasn't for another machine? Do you have a link?

After spending the money this probably isn't what you want to hear, but I suggest putting the kits in a drawer for the future and just using the Plus. Revisit the capacitor kits if the Plus ever starts playing up. The reason for this is that they are old enough that they use a different type of capacitor that have a much better life, and they have been rarely (not never) failing.

• ZuluSCSI Mini from Rabbit Hole Computing
• M0110 keyboard and M0100 mouse
• Right angle SCSI adapter

These all sound good The plus originally came with the M0110A, which has a numeric pad, but I believe either will work.

I've heard talk about a mod that will allow for the external SCSI port to provide power to the ZuluSCSI. I saw a few videos where it was a very simple diode, but I've also heard that it could be potentially harmful to the machine or the ZuluSCSI? I'd like for the port to independently power the ZuluSCSI to keep the required power cord count to 1. Is this mod safe for the machine or peripherals?

I'd just use USB to power it myself, although the diode mod wouldn't be difficult. I've never bothered doing it to my Plus. If you do want to do it, there will be details on this forum, or someone can probably talk you through it (but a search will find the last time someone talked through it).

The only other device I've soldered was a mechanical keyboard kit that I purchased a few years ago. I have a 60w digital soldering kit that has some lead-free solder. Is this sufficient for any soldering I'll need to do with this computer?

Yes the diode is arguably the only thing needed and that would be fairly easy soldering. But... whether it is needed at all is another reason that very little soldering experience is required
Looking forward to seeing it up and running. They're nice little machines.

I should fetch mine out.

One thing - Check how much RAM it has, it is easy and cheap to bump them to the maximum 4MB if it doesn't already have 4MB. Useful for running software from later in the Plus' lifetime, and newer OSes for compatibility if needed.

Good luck

 

[HoofedEar]

This is a little unexpected - the Mac Plus rarely needs recapping, and I'm surprised that they sold a tantalum kit for the Plus - are you sure the kit wasn't for another machine? Do you have a link?

Here's the link for the tantalum kit! https://console5.com/store/macintosh-plus-axial-solid-tantalum-main-pcb-cap-kit.html

After spending the money this probably isn't what you want to hear, but I suggest putting the kits in a drawer for the future and just using the Plus. Revisit the capacitor kits if the Plus ever starts playing up. The reason for this is that they are old enough that they use a different type of capacitor that have a much better life, and they have been rarely (not never) failing.

I'm actually relieved by that! I purchased them as a precautionary measure, so it's good to know that the Mac Plus was made during a time of more reliable components haha. My plan is to boot it up with the ZuluSCSI once the keyboard has arrived (mouse arrives later) and make sure it's truly healthy!

I'd just use USB to power it myself, although the diode mod wouldn't be difficult. I've never bothered doing it to my Plus. If you do want to do it, there will be details on this forum, or someone can probably talk you through it (but a search will find the last time someone talked through it).

Yeah I'm thinking of waiting to find out more about the condition of the computer before deciding to do the diode modification. Glad to know that it's straightforward!

One thing - Check how much RAM it has, it is easy and cheap to bump them to the maximum 4MB if it doesn't already have 4MB. Useful for running software from later in the Plus' lifetime, and newer OSes for compatibility if needed.

Yeah I'll have to find out! I just assumes it has the base 1MB of RAM but it could have more! It looks like it was very well taken care of, and it has the plastic clip on the side for the interrupt button so I assume the user was a power user?

Good luck

Thank you!

 

[sstaylor]

You may already be aware but it has to be said: if the keyboard doesn't come with the original cable, don't just use a telephone cord because it will wreck your keyboard and/or computer.

 

[HoofedEar]

You may already be aware but it has to be said: if the keyboard doesn't come with the original cable, don't just use a telephone cord because it will wreck your keyboard and/or computer.

Ah yes I had heard about that! Something about the RJ45 connector having a different wiring than a normal phone jack. Thankfully the keyboard I ordered came with the original cable too

Also, I looked up the serial number: F7472PQM0001A
"Your Macintosh Plus was the 3118th manufactured during the 47th week of 1987 in Fremont, CA."
Neat! Which means it's a platinum model right?

Also I'm a bit concerned about potentially upgrading the unit to 4 MB due to heat. I'm not comfortable cutting a hole into this to accommodate a fan Maybe 2 MBs won't be so warm?

 

[Phipli]

Also I'm a bit concerned about potentially upgrading the unit to 4 MB due to heat. I'm not comfortable cutting a hole into this to accommodate a fan Maybe 2 MBs won't be so warm?

Don't worry about the heat from the RAM. If you really are, use over specified RAM and it will run cooler. The Plus likely requires 120ns RAM, so use 100ns RAM, or faster (80ns?). It will still run at 120ns (because that is just the speed the Plus runs it), but won't break a sweat doing it.

But....

These machines were run all day every day in offices. You're unlikely to be pushing it that hard.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Congratulations on the acquisition, welcome to the 68k club

 

[joshc]

Solid Tantalum cap kit from Console5

I am surprised they sell this for the Plus. I can see they are axial leaded tantalums - but they really shouldn't be required at all. I've only once seen the axials look very dried out on a Plus logicboard. As your Plus is working, I'd leave it alone for now.

It's not usually the logicboard that causes problems on a Plus. The most common point of failure is the analog board/power supply.

Also, the caps are not usually the first thing to go - mosfets/diodes/transistors/resistors tend to fail first, and it's actually the solder joints that cause the most problems. Reflowing the solder joints on the analog board will get most Pluses working again.

But as yours is working, I wouldn't bother doing anything until it shows signs of not working. There isn't much preventative maintenance to do on these - the best you can do is address the heat problem.

The cause of excess heat in a Plus is not the RAM - it's the analog board/power supply, in particular the flyback. As the Plus doesn't have a fan, there's nothing there except convection to draw the heat out of the case. Adding a fan to a Plus, if you are planning to use it for hours each day, is a worthwhile endeavour. The excess heat build-up inside a Plus is what causes the solder joints to crack. It's not going to happen straight away, especially if you don't use it much, but do expect problems if you are using the Plus for very long periods regularly.

4MB will get you much further than 2MB, so I'd definitely do the RAM upgrade if I were you.

 

[cheesestraws]

Thirding what everyone else has said above: if it's working at the moment, no need to poke it. The bigger, chunkier capacitors that they use don't tend to leak, and on the whole the Plus is a really pretty robust machine. If you want a machine that will require comparatively little maintenance, a Plus is a good choice. My Pluses were ex-school machines, so had a hard life, and still didn't really require much maintenance.

The other nice thing about these machines is that they're comparatively simple inside, the components are relatively large and easy to solder, and spare parts are comparatively readily available. So if it does break, it's a good machine to learn maintenance on (this is what I did).

 

[s_pupp]

My Plus saw daily use for nine years, and intermittent use for several years after. I fired it up for the first time in about ten years last week, half expecting it to pour out smoke. I had to replace a broken floppy eject gear, but it works just fine. Not bad for 37 year old capacitors.

 

[Snial]

This is a little unexpected - the Mac Plus rarely needs recapping, and I'm surprised that they sold a tantalum kit for the Plus - are you sure the kit wasn't for another machine? Do you have a link?

And I too have a Mac Plus, but I've been somewhat timid to turn it on in the past year, because of this. Maybe I'll give it a shot again . The last time I used it was to reproduce a version of Mandelbrot program that had been run on Ken Shiriff's Xerox Alto (converted from BCPL to Think C).

 

[Phipli]

And I too have a Mac Plus, but I've been somewhat timid to turn it on in the past year, because of this. Maybe I'll give it a shot again . The last time I used it was to reproduce a version of Mandelbrot program that had been run on Ken Shiriff's Xerox Alto (converted from BCPL to Think C).

They're one of the most robust Macs

And most of the things that do go wrong are easy enough to fix, flybacks aside.

 

[HoofedEar]

Dang I'm glad to hear that it's so robust and reliable! I purchased that fancy tantalum kit because of something I heard in a YouTube video (can't seem to find it right now!) where they described how the tantalum was better as a replacement since it has no liquid in them. But hey now I have a bunch of proper caps for it if anything goes wrong in the future x)

My keyboard and mouse should be arriving today so it will be the first proper boot! I'll have to just get my ZuluSCSI ready with the System 6.0.8 disk I have prepped for it! I created a custom Mini vMac version that is set to 1x speed and 1 MB of RAM to properly emulate the (anticipated, still haven't checked RAM) experience of my Mac Plus, so I have been testing different software out to find out what would work with the base amount of RAM

I'm sure I'll get around to upgrading it if it does turn out to have only 1 MB, are there any recommendations on where I should acquire the RAM upgrade if need be?

 

[HoofedEar]

It lives!

So I received my order for the keyboard, and they seemed to have accidentally sent me the Mac Plus keyboard instead of the smaller one I had ordered. It's in not as good of condition as the one I bought, but it works perfectly!

The tricky part was finding a proper boot .hda file for it. I found one online and was able to convert it to .img, load up Mini vMac, move software onto it, and convert it back to .hda. Huzzah!

 

[Phipli]

It lives!

So I received my order for the keyboard, and they seemed to have accidentally sent me the Mac Plus keyboard instead of the smaller one I had ordered. It's in not as good of condition as the one I bought, but it works perfectly!

The tricky part was finding a proper boot .hda file for it. I found one online and was able to convert it to .img, load up Mini vMac, move software onto it, and convert it back to .hda. Huzzah!

Excellent news. Hope you sort out ok over the keyboard, sorry you didn't get what you expected.

Need to grab yourself Crystal Quest, Kid Pix 1.2, Dark Castle... Cosmic Ozmo? MacPaint, Hypercard ...

Not sure. What sort of software are you into? Games? Art? Music? Writing? Development?

 

[HoofedEar]

Need to grab yourself Crystal Quest, Kid Pix 1.2, Dark Castle... Cosmic Ozmo? MacPaint, Hypercard ...

Not sure. What sort of software are you into? Games? Art? Music? Writing? Development?

So far I have Mac Paint 1.5, Rogue, Word 5.1a, MacWrite 1.0, Excel 1.0, MS BASIC 1.0, and Pascal 7.3e

I'm excited about learning Pascal with this machine! I don't see a way to really "export" a Pascal project as an executable but I'm sure I can find details about that.

Personally I'm pretty interesting in Development and Games! So I'll look into those recommendations!

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Good to see the machine up! Don't forget Pyro

 

[HoofedEar]

Good to see the machine up! Don't forget Pyro

Oh that looks cool! I’ve heard about After Dark but I think I’ll go with this one!

 

[Phipli]

Personally I'm pretty interesting in Development and Games!

Think C, Think Pascal, Chipmunk Basic, a copy of "Macintosh C Programming Primer" Vol 1 by Dave Mark.

Some HyperCard books. HyperCard is a fascinating sort of... paint your own software. Proper programming for the masses. I recommend having a play. Try getting to the level that you're making buttons with scripts at least.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

After Dark was later, Pyro is more period-correct for your Plus. Everyone forgot about this simple screen saver when flying toasters took off