• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

SE/30 & Micron Xceed & clear plastic goodie

maceffects

Well-known member
Thank you @Bolle  Much appreciated!
Yes, @Bolle, thanks for the great work!  @snuci if you want I’m thinking about making a small batch for myself (in case I get as lucky as you).   I can send you a free PCB if I do. Would that be helpful?  Looks like the tube connector must be reused.  Though, I wonder if one can be sourced. 

 

snuci

Well-known member
Yes, @Bolle, thanks for the great work!  @snuci if you want I’m thinking about making a small batch for myself (in case I get as lucky as you).   I can send you a free PCB if I do. Would that be helpful?  Looks like the tube connector must be reused.  Though, I wonder if one can be sourced. 
@maceffects I was going to look into ordering a small batch for anyone else who might want one too but if you'd like to do it, I'll purchase one of yours.  Thank you.

 

maceffects

Well-known member
@maceffects I was going to look into ordering a small batch for anyone else who might want one too but if you'd like to do it, I'll purchase one of yours.  Thank you.
No worries, I’ll have some extras in case others want some.  My PCB contacts in China have a 1 week lead time plus shipping so it won’t be too long.  I’ll send you a PM when they arrive. 

 

snuci

Well-known member
No worries, I’ll have some extras in case others want some.  My PCB contacts in China have a 1 week lead time plus shipping so it won’t be too long.  I’ll send you a PM when they arrive.
I don't have a PCB contact in China so that works for me :)   Thank you!

 

apm

Well-known member
I just joined the club. I saw the following SE/30 on eBay UK. At first glance, like any other cap- or battery-damaged machine:

s-l1600-3.jpg

But what caught my attention was half of a black DB-15 port, centred in the panel. Radius video cards don't look like that. Could it possibly be...?

s-l1600-4.jpg

A 3.5 hour train journey out and back, and this is the result:

IMG_6479.JPG

Success!  :smiley: :cool:  

The rest of the internals are mostly a write-off. The logic board has been paid a visit by "Maxell's Silver Hammer":

IMG_6481.jpg

The hard drive ran for about 10 seconds and then entirely stopped responding. I'm not sure the PSU is producing sufficient +5V either. But the Micron card works fine in another SE/30:

IMG_6575.jpg

There was no greyscale adapter in this machine, but by happy coincidence I just got a PCB from @Bolle and hope to build it up soon!

 

EvilCapitalist

Well-known member
Congrats and welcome to the grayscale (capable) club!  You certainly dodged a bullet with the Maxell explosion as it looks like it didn't affect the card.  I've seen more than a handful of cases where the battery explosion also messed up whatever was PDS card was installed.

 

apm

Well-known member
And it works! Thanks @Bolle for the PCB. Making the cable harness took longer than populating the PCB.

One thing I've found is that the picture quality is quite sensitive to the Cutoff control on the analog board. In its default setting (pre-greyscale), most shades of grey were nearly black. Adjusting it improves the range of greys, but it's easy to end up with the scan lines visible.

IMG_6254.JPG

 

Bolle

Well-known member
Sweet. Good tip on checking the cutoff setting, going to have to do that on mine as I am not 100% pleased with the way darker gray-tones look on medium brightness settings.

 

Crutch

Well-known member
Don’t forget the pot on the grayscale adapter itself.  Mine looked horribly muddy at any brightness setting until I tweaked that.

 

apm

Well-known member
Don’t forget the pot on the grayscale adapter itself.  Mine looked horribly muddy at any brightness setting until I tweaked that.
Yep absolutely. I installed that pot on the reverse side of the PCB so I could adjust it more easily. It took some back and forth between Cutoff and the PCB pot (basically, video gain) to get a good picture.

Also, I discovered today that A/UX doesn't work with the greyscale harness. The screen goes black when it boots the kernel. Doesn't matter whether I started from 256 greys or B&W. However, with an external monitor attached such that the internal video goes back to the logic board, A/UX works. Anyone had any better luck?

 

just.in.time

Well-known member
From homemade in a kind of period correct style to new and shiny:

View attachment 30928

View attachment 30929
Hi @Bolle

Do you have a parts list that you used to populate the revised PCB? I think I have most parts, but I want to verify. Also, what did you put at the location “RV?” (Unpopulated in the final picture above)

EDITED TO ADD: Even better, if you have a parts list that links to the labels on the PCB that would be massively helpful as well. :)  

 
Last edited by a moderator:

Bolle

Well-known member
Do you have a parts list that you used to populate the revised PCB?
You can actually refer to this:

View attachment 30968

I kept the parts designations the same as on the original schematic. I don't have an exact parts list, because I just used what I had laying around (and what I took off a donor Apple CRT board)

Molex 26013144 should do it for the connector - I used some cheap Molex compatible clone that works just as well.

 

Juror22

Well-known member
Are people seeing something that I'm not?
View attachment 30968

When I click on the attachment link above, I get this... (I cut it down in size, because it was a 4.8MB jpeg, but I don't get a list for grayscale adapter items).
Screen Shot 2021-09-01 at 11.05.44 PM.png
 
Top