Recreateing the Apple TechStep

[KGLlewellyn]

Thanks

Opening up the designs is something that will be considered in the future but is not something we can do right now

Could I politely ask why you are not able to do so at the moment? There's a tonne of dead Macs out there and while I've gotten somewhat able to probe these things via the diagnostic mode and serial, it'd be far more helpful in repairing these machines and ultimately preserving them with a TechStep recreation. I'd be sure happy to purchase one off you once budgets permit, but I'm thinking for the future, when you're not able to/willing to sell them anymore that these things will still be unobtanium and ultimately leave more boards to being sent to the trashcan. Open-sourcing would ensure that no matter what we'd have a fighting chance of building one if needed, availability of components permitting of course.

 

[max1zzz]

Could I politely ask why you are not able to do so at the moment? There's a tonne of dead Macs out there and while I've gotten somewhat able to probe these things via the diagnostic mode and serial, it'd be far more helpful in repairing these machines and ultimately preserving them with a TechStep recreation. I'd be sure happy to purchase one off you once budgets permit, but I'm thinking for the future, when you're not able to/willing to sell them anymore that these things will still be unobtanium and ultimately leave more boards to being sent to the trashcan. Open-sourcing would ensure that no matter what we'd have a fighting chance of building one if needed, availability of components permitting of course.

It's a matter of finances, Getting a reverse engineering project like this to the point this is at is very time consuming and often expensive so being able to sell them afterwards justifys that time / cost. Additionally projects like this help support other ones that will likely never make any money (e.g Reloaded boards).

There is also the consideration that for devices like this where the original is worth such a high amount that if we just uploaded the designs to GitHub etc it is very likely someone else will take those designs and start producing them commercially (regardless of if the designs where licensed for non commercial use only) making it further harder to recoup development costs.

However you can rest assured that it is more likely than not that the designs will be released some day, I too do not like designs like this to just disappear so once this project has ran i';s course the designs will likely be uploaded to GitHub

 

[KGLlewellyn]

It's a matter of finances, Getting a reverse engineering project like this to the point this is at is very time consuming and often expensive so being able to sell them afterwards justifys that time / cost. Additionally projects like this help support other ones that will likely never make any money (e.g Reloaded boards).

There is also the consideration that for devices like this where the original is worth such a high amount that if we just uploaded the designs to GitHub etc it is very likely someone else will take those designs and start producing them commercially (regardless of if the designs where licensed for non commercial use only) making it further harder to recoup development costs.

However you can rest assured that it is more likely than not that the designs will be released some day, I too do not like designs like this to just disappear so once this project has ran i';s course the designs will likely be uploaded to GitHub

I appreciate the honest reply and that you're keen to preserve it for the future too. Thank you for your efforts, I hope to catch one on a future run that you might do, that being said I think I just fixed the IIfx that I would've needed it for. I may be good, for now! xD

 

[atax1a]

I'm interested in the second run, definitely

 

[max1zzz]

I'm interested in the second run, definitely

Drop me a Pm and I'll get back to you when I have some more ready

 

[point5]

Might be late to the game, but I’d be interested in a kit when available.

 

[max1zzz]

Might be late to the game, but I’d be interested in a kit when available.

Unfortunately I am no longer selling these in kit form, Although I know lots of people like kits I found the ones of these I sold in kit form required allot of support during assembly and remote debugging afterwards which I just don't have the time to do. Going forward I am only going to be selling these pre assembled and tested