Radius Full Page Display Mac Plus

[BadGoldEagle]

Hi

I'm more of an SE/30 & Portable kind of guy but I also own a Mac Plus. The poor thing is sitting on a shelf because I can't thing of anything to do with it at the moment... I have no external floppy drive, or Zip/Jaz drive but I do have a non working external SCSI hard drive. In other words I'm pretty limited with the Plus. But I'm going to get a 2GB Jaz sonner or later anyway.

I am trying to add color to my SE/30 with my Lapis card at the moment. Its logic board is off to Uni to get fresh caps. So the only Mac that "works" right now is the old Plus (well I'm saying old, but it's actually newer than my SE/30 logic board   ) 

I saw this on eBay: A Radius Full Page Display Card for the Mac Plus It would spice things up a little wouldn't it?

It's not actually that expensive, considering that I don't need shipping. I might give it a try. I need some advice first though.

1/ I read that there were two versions of this board, one easier than the other. I think one just sat on the 68000. Which one is it?

2/ How rare are Radius Full Page displays? I cannot find any for sale. Finding a working one might turn out to be expensive...

3/ Where to find the control panel for this thing? I had a look earlier this afternoon and I could only find one that required newer ROMS, version 4.4 to be exact but it seems this particular card for sale is using version 2.8 of the ROMS. So it won't work with that card. The CDEV in question is on the Mac Drivers' Museum. 

Thanks as ever for your help guys.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Check out the FPD Q&A [] ]'>   http://www.vintagemacworld.com/radiusmain.html

Off the top of my head, there are two distinct card/display combinations for the early FPDs dependent upon refresh rates by generation. You'll not likely find a Radius FPD of either type for a reasonable cost and shipping costs for them are anything but reasonable. It's entirely possible to get an FPD or TPD card up and running with a modern, multi-sync Pivot LCD, but not necessarily easy. Thankfully the Radius Card signals are analog, not TTL, IIRC.

The main thing to keep in mind is that many Pre-SE cards required either a Killy Klip for a reversible installation or soldering DIP sockets to the 68000's legs if it happened to be the Klip resistant (ceramic?) packaged CPU. Some might have clamped to the CPU in another fashion, but I don't recall seeing details of such a setup.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Hey Trash

Yeah I came across this some time ago. Sadly links for the 68 & 75 Hz Full Page Displays are broken...  :'(

It's about that ROM thing, the software is nowhere to be found. BUT since Radius still exists (sorta), I might try contacting them, maybe they placed some 1990 engineer in the freezer and could defrost him to find the appropriate software. 

I noticed the weird looking connector on that board. And when I found a couple of FPDs on the web, none had this connector, only DB9s. I wonder if Radius build a special Monitor for the Plus' FPD? Or maybe they sold some adapter? Dunno

About the upgrade itself, I was contemplating getting a new mobo for the Plus, to do a 4Mb upgrade and to permanently install the card. So I don't need the rare Killy Klip thing. I used the forum's embedded search engine and came across this:

https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/16012-newlife-computer-corp-cd308d-upgrade-card-for-mac-plus/

It's not actually about the Radius FDP but that card has a similar installation to the radius. 

You gave advice on how to install it without the Killy Klip.

The installation is not the problem, making it work is the big deal.

If I cannot get a Radius FDP cheaply and locally (I remember seeing one for sale in France two years ago, wasn't that expensive) would an Apple Portrait Display work?? I mean they are basically the same but have a different refresh rate (68 for the Radius and 75 for the Apple) and a different connector (DB9 or DB15)

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

IIRC, the first rev of the FPD used a BNC type connection. Trag's Klipless installation instructions in that thread are spot-on. I'll have to dig out my Radius FAXback pages, I'm sure I've got those dead linked Q&A sessions in hard copy.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

NEWS

The same ebay seller is now offering the Radius FDP along with the card: http://www.ebay.fr/itm/ECRAN-RADIUS-MONOCHROME-AVEC-CARTE-RADIUS-POUR-MACINTOSH-PLUS-CABLES-/151921475218?hash=item235f39be92:g:THgAAOSwhkRWdY63It's still quite expensive but considering that the Radius itself is worth a fortune... it might be a good buy after all...

I still have two problems tho:

1/ The ROMs I think are version 2.4 and the only drivers I could find are for version 4.4. That's weird: the ROMs were version 2.8 on the other card!?

I am going to contact this seller maybe he has some other cards in stock...

2/ Install the damn thing. If I understand correctly, the Killy clip is a rare animal and I have absolutely no chance of getting one for a fair price. Then again, this seller is an experienced Mac seller on eBay and has some interesting stuff, maybe he owns one?

I could use my dad's soldering iron but A it's 30-odd years old B it hasn't been used for 15 years and C I never soldiered anything yet in my entire life... How hard can it be to soldier legs from that 68000? I guess too much for me. 

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Hang on

Could this be an alternative to the killy clip? 



IMO the card sits on the 68000's legs just like a killy clip does. Could this be an integrated killy clip?

 

[techknight]

"killy clip" is just a company referring to a product that clamps onto a semiconductor. Kinda like the phrase: I am going to "windex" the windows. 

I am sure they had different brands and different varieties. The picture you posted is one of those varieties. 

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Okay got it. Thanks techknight !

The seller confirmed that it was an easy install. The BIG problem now is the ROMs and the CDEV.

Maybe I'm just dumb but what does this sentence mean exactly:

NOTE:  THIS SOFTWARE WILL ONLY OPERATE IN 

                        CONJUNCTION WITH THE VERSION 4.4 ROM UPGRADE 
                        FOR SYSTEM 7.0 COMPATIBILITY.  IT WILL NOT 
                        WORK WITH VERSION 4.1 ROMS OR OLDER.

Does it mean: 1/ You have to use this software with v4.4 Roms to run SSW 7 

              OR    2/ The software will only run with v4.4 Roms which were designed so it could work with SSW7 (but could run with older roms with System 6?)

I'm confused.